“Steven. Steven. Get up. We’re here,” Jasper’s voice awoke me from my dreamless sleep. I opened my eyes and stretched.
“What time is it?” I asked looking around. I had expected it to be dark or at least sunset by the time we would get here.
“6:17pm eastern time zone,” he answered opening his door and getting out.
Oh, yeah. Different time zones. I opened the passenger door, and got out, closing it carefully. The long car ride was uneventful; Jasper and I just basically talked about cars, food, and had a heated debate on whether or not girls should be able to use menstruation as an excuse to be crabby for a whole week. He was actually a cool person, and he didn’t grill me with questions about Lena and me.
I looked up at the house in front of me; it was pretty big, with a front lawn that looked like it should be on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. “Your sister is loaded,” I turned and said to Jasper.
“She married into it,” he said with a shrug before walking up the pathway to the house. I followed him and when we finally reached the door, he knocked twice then rang the doorbell.
I heard footsteps come up to the door and soon enough it swung open. But instead of Lena being there or even a woman, it was a guy. He smiled broadly. “Jasper! I didn’t know you were coming to visit,” the guy said pulling Jasper into a tight hug.
Jasper laughed, “It wasn’t really planned. Martha didn’t even know we were coming.”
“A surprise then,” he looked between the two of us, “Oh, sorry, I’m being rude. Come on in.” He stepped aside and Jasper and I walked into the giant entrance. I looked around at the extravagantly designed space in awe. I mean the outside didn’t even show the extent of how rich Lena’s aunt must be.
The guy closed the door behind us and turned around. “Oh, yes. Steven this is Alec, Alec this is Steven,” Jasper introduced the two of us to each other.
“It’s nice to meet you Steven,” Alec reached out his hand; I took it and shook it firmly. It was only then I realized he had an accent, but I couldn’t tell what it was. His looks definitely didn’t help at all, he had dark hair and dark eyes with not really tan skin but not really pale skin. He definitely looked like he wasn’t related to Jasper. So, so far, I was clueless.
“So are you a friend of Lena’s?” I asked him.
“Yes, we’ve known each other for a while. I’m a foreign exchange student from Russia; I stayed with Martha, Lena’s Aunt, for year in my junior year of high school. I loved it here, so my parents would let me fly over every summer to stay over here, and be with everyone. Since I graduated, I decided to go to college in the states. Martha offered to let me stay here and I got a full scholarship to Georgia Tech,” he explained.
“We were all here when he got his acceptance letter,” Jasper said smiling proudly, like Alec was his own son, “He’s a year older than you and Lena.”
“That’s cool,” I said nodding slightly.
“So how do you know Lena?” Alec asked.
“I’m her boyfriend,” I said simply.
“Oh,” Alec looked confused, “She said you guys had broken up.”
“We have, well temporarily. I came here with Jasper so I could explain everything.”
“And you’re sure she wants to see you?”
“Yes, there’s no reason she wouldn’t,” I replied looking at Alec. Who does this guy think he is?
“I can name a few,” he mumbled.
“Okay, you two,” Jasper said breaking in, “Steven and I are going to drop off our stuff in the guest house. Are Lena and Martha here?”
“They’re out shopping for dog food, and other stuff,” Alec said.
“Oh yeah…I forgot about the dog,” Jasper said shaking his head.
“I got it for her,” I jumped in, realizing I sound like a clingy idiot, like somehow getting her a dog was going to make this guy back off.
“Yeah, I know,” Alec replied matter-of-factly.
“Come on, Steven. Let’s get our stuff from the car.”
Jasper started walking towards the door and I followed. As the door closed behind us I turned to Jasper and exclaimed, “What is his fucking problem?”
“He and Lena were together for a couple of years in high school. She broke it off, because the whole long distance thing wasn’t working. She’s moved on, he hasn’t and he probably sees it as a chance to be with her now that she’s moved to Georgia and he’s here too,” Jasper explained.
Great. This is going to be interesting.
We got our bags out of the car and walked around to the fence. Jasper opened it and my jaw dropped as I saw the guest house. It was like the size of my house back home, but maybe just a bit smaller. Next to it was a swimming pool equipped with a diving board, and a hot tub. I shook my head; this was too good to be true. We walked to the front porch of the guest house, where Jasper lifted up a potted plant and grabbed a key from underneath it. He unlocked and opened up the door, stepping inside.
Jasper dropped his bag and sighed, “There’s a room down here and two upstairs. Take your pick!”
“This is insane,” I said bewildered, looking around the house.
“It sure is. It’s a shame this placed doesn’t really get any good use, besides during the summer. Martha could probably rent it out and make some good money off of it, even though I don’t think she really needs it.”
“Why doesn’t she rent it out?”
“She says she built the guest house for family, so only family is allowed to stay in here. I personally think she’s just superstitious and doesn’t want any devil worshipers moving into her backyard,” Jasper answered shaking his head.
“Devil worshipers?”
“She watches WAY too much TV,” Jasper smiled, “She’s crazy, but in a good way.”
“Okay, well I’m going to go find a room. I am so tired right now, it’s not even funny.”
He shook his head, “I will never understand teenagers and how they can sleep so much.”
“It’s both a blessing and a curse,” I replied before heading up the steps to the second level of the guest house. Pictures lined the walls on either side. I could pick out Lena easily, in a few of the pictures, just from her eyes. Her hair was so dark, I realized then how much I missed her dark hair. It was just something about Lena that was Lena. Dark hair and bright green eyes. One picture that was my favorite was on the wall just next to one of the bedroom doors. Lena looked like she was about 5. She sitting in her dad’s lap and looking up at him, a huge gap toothed smile on her face, as he kissed her forehead. I guess being a daddy’s girl starts at a young age.
I turned the knob on the door and walked into the room. It was simple, compared to the rest of the house, with light blue walls, and a blue and brown bed spread. It wasn’t feminine, but it wasn’t masculine. It sort of, in a way, reminded me of a hotel room. It wasn’t as family oriented as the rest of the house, but whatever, I was only going to be here for one night. I closed the door behind me, setting my bag down on the floor next to the bed. I jumped onto the bed, stretching out on the cool bed spread, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
…
I jumped awake as I heard a door slam shut. I looked around wondering where I was until I remembered; I was in Atlanta, in Lena’s Aunt’s guest house. I sat up and yawned, I looked over at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand. 7:46pm.
“Dad? Dad I know you’re here! I saw the car in the front of the house!”
I rushed out of the bed, when I realized whose voice that was. Lena’s. I ran to the steps and went down them as fast as I could. I ran to where I thought her voice was coming from, when I ran right into her. Lena let out a small scream as we toppled to the hardwood floor.
She landed on top of me and I slammed down on my back. “Shit, Lena! Did you have to break my back?” I exclaimed.
“Steven?” she asked.
“Surprise!” I smiled up at her.
She got off of me immediately, standing up and brushing herself off. I stood up and stood in front of her.
“How did you get here?”
“Your dad drove me here. He wanted to give me a chance to explain everything,” I replied with ease.
“Wait, my dad drove you 8 hours here? In our Challenger? He never takes it out unless it’s a special occasion,” she sounded surprised. Why wouldn’t he drive it around? If I owned that car, I would be taking it anywhere and everywhere just to show off.
“Yeah, he’s pretty cool. Why didn’t you ever mention you fixed up cars?”
“I don’t know, it just never came up in conversation,” she blew off my question quickly, “I can’t believe you came all this way, Steven. I mean you didn’t have to, you weren’t supposed to. It was hard enough just leaving to have to see you again so quickly. I need to get over you Steven and seeing you isn’t really helping my case, at all. Did you not understand why I had to leave?”
“No, Lena I understood,” I said taking her hands into mine, “I was so upset, I went after Dawn, I mean I walked around my neighborhood at like 6 in the morning, going door to door until I found her. I confronted her Lena and she told me, she told that there was no baby. She was lying she was trying to trick me into a relationship. It wasn’t true. Do you get what I’m saying? We can be together, Lena. I love you.” I pulled her towards me and pressed my lips against hers.
She pushed me back, “Steven, please. I love you too, but…”
“But what?”
“But I just-I don’t know. This whole situation had got me thinking and…I just don’t know. It’s just been so stressful, and I don’t want to be so stressed out, I mean I have finals, the ACTs, the SATs, college applications, and all of this other stuff I have to deal with right now.”
“What-What do you mean?” I asked confused. What was she saying?
“I don’t know if I’m ready for a relationship right now. Everything that’s happened these past few days have got me thinking, and Steven I love you. I love you so much, and I don’t know if it’s the best right now,” Lena said, I could see tears beginning to form in her eyes as she spoke.
“I don’t understand, things were going so well, and I came all the way here, and,” the words couldn’t form, what she was saying wasn’t making any sense.
“I’m not saying it’s over, I’m just saying we need a break, just until everything’s calm again. I just need some time, Steven.”
“But we haven’t even been together long enough to need a break Lena. How did this even come to your mind?”
“Well, when I got in Alec and I were talking and-“
“Wait Alec? Are you seriously taking advice from your ex-boyfriend? He’s probably just telling you to break up with me so he can have a chance with you. Your dad even said he wasn’t over you!”
“Alec is just my friend okay? Nothing more. He was the first person to tell me everything was going to be okay when I got here. He’s been helping me get settled, figure out my school plans since I’ve made a school change in the middle of the semester.”
“Lena can’t you see?”
“He’s just being nice okay?!” she exclaimed.
“You could see through my tricks, but you can’t see through his.”
“What tricks?”
“He’s trying to sleep with you!” I yelled.
“Yeah and so were you! The only difference is he has the decency to not be with other girls while he’s trying to.”
“Are you seriously hung up on me sleeping with Dawn? I thought we were over that? We weren’t even together while that happened!”
“You slept with Dawn to hurt me, it was out of spite! I know Alec would never do that.”
“Oh so what you like him now? Cause last I remembered you were in love with me.”
“I don’t like him like that; I’m just defending him, because right now you are being totally irrational, and a fucking hypocrite!”
“Hey guys?”
We both turned and yelled, “What?” at the voice that had just broken into our argument.
“I was just going to tell you that dinner’s ready,” Jasper said looking between us in confusion, before walking out of the front door.
I turned to Lena, “We’ll continue this later.”
“If there is a later,” she muttered before shoving me out of the way and out the door.
What the hell just happened?
So I know A LOOOT of you are going to be pissed at me for awhile...Pleeeeeease don't start making plans to meet up and come to my house with torches and pitch forks begging my family to set me out on the porch so you can brutally beat the crap out of me!! D:
Patience is a virtue my friends...patience is a virtue ;)
So vent your feelings about the chapter belowww :))
Comment, Vote, Fan <33333
P.S I am totally obsessed with the song to the right ;) Listen to it when you get a chance :))