A/N: Nearing the end; Nearing the end. Longer than the last chapter so that's good(: If it comes out forced-- sorry! I definitely will edit everything once I'm done with it all. Also, any mistakes-- again, sorry, I wrote this while I had a real bad headache...
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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
~William Shakespeare
I lounged around my room, lazily, completely unsure what to do. It was summer; my parents were at work, and I was, of course, left home with my brother who was probably off playing some sort of video game or another. My laptop sat open, untouched, in front of me with only Facebook pulled up and a constant feed of what was happening on it. Grimacing, I fully realized what a complete loser I was, sitting around and wasting my summer away on my laptop that stayed on for practically the entire day.
Truthfully, I missed school. The past three weeks of summer vacation, ever since the fair incident, had been completely boring. Yes, three weeks. And Dustin still hasn’t made his move on whatever girl he was suppose to make his move on. Briefly, I wondered if perhaps he had gotten cold feet and decided not to.
Then again, he had seemed pretty eager for it to happen.
Awkwardly, I got off of my bed for the second time that day and walked over to the window that carried the bright afternoon sunlight into my room. My eyes wandered until it hit that one specific house and then wondered whether anyone there was home. In truth, I haven’t talked to Chez, Ethan, or Blake during the past three weeks besides short conversations over Facebook. And those hardly count.
Feeling a sudden boost of determination, I grabbed my phone and quickly dialed Chez’s number. For a long time, only the ringing tone of the call trying to get through filled the silence in the air. I got up and started pacing around impatiently until finally hearing a distinct click in the background.
“Hello?” Chez’s voice came out muffled from the phone.
I broke into a slight smile before replying, “Hey Chez? It’s Kylie.”
“Oh Kylie!” she said with her tone completely changing. “How are you? Long time no talk!”
“I know right? I’ve been good. And you?”
“Enjoying summer as usual.”
“Yea,” I drifted off. “Um, do you want to do something today? Because I’ve literally been doing nothing this entire summer besides wasting my time away on a laptop and-- well that’s it. It’s pretty pathetic and--”
“Whoa there,” she said laughing from the other end. “I’d love to especially since I’ve been doing the same thing.”
“Really?” I said skeptically. “What about Aiden?”
She cleared her throat embarrassingly. “Okay, maybe not the exact same.”
“What have you guys been doing?” I asked suggestively with a teasing voice.
“Lots,” she said with the same tone, and I could almost imagine a smirk coming from her.
I gave a short burst of laughter, trying to ignore the pictures that were popping up in my head. “I believe that surprisingly. Anyways, do you want to do anything today?”
“Actually I can’t,” she said apologetically. “Our entire family has a meeting with another family about something to do with the company or whatever that Mom owns.”
“Arranged marriages, I see,” I said teasingly, trying to hide the disappointment from my voice.
“Ah yes, how did you guess?” she said with sarcasm layered in her voice.
“I guessed.” I shrugged my shoulders despite the fact that she couldn’t see me. “You know how old fashioned our parents get. Arranging marriages here and there. How’s Aiden dealing with it?”
“Oh him?” she said nonchalantly. “I’ve heard that he’s disappeared or something. I think something along the lines of depression…”
“Chez!”
“What?” she asked alarmed.
“You are horrible,” I laughed.
“I’m only telling you the truth,” she joined in. “Anyways, I was going to say that maybe we can hang out some other time in the future. Like…tomorrow?”
“That’s really far in the future,” I said sarcastically. “But yea, that works. We can go see a movie or--”
“Wait, isn’t tomorrow the fourth of July?”
I blinked several times before turning towards my calendar. Staring blankly at it for several long moments, my brain tried to process the fact that summer vacation was already a third gone.
“Kylie?” Chez’s voice came out worriedly.
“Uh yea, you’re right,” I said hastily. “Do you have plans or something on that day?”
“No, surprisingly. You should bring your family over or something and we can set off fireworks together,” she invited.
I broke into a large grin. “Great! I’ll ask my parents about that. You should invited Aiden and Dustin too.”
“Yea and also--”
Suddenly, the line was cut off by a muffled yell, and I stood stock still for several moments, wishing to see what was happening. Unfortunately, all I could do was imagine what was going on which truthfully, it sounded as if someone was fighting for the phone. Several long minutes passed before the noise level died down with a yell that probably came from Mr. White.
“Kylie!” shouted a voice that most definitely did not sound like Chez. “It’s Blake. How are you, kid?”
“Hey Blake,” I said pretending to act completely bored by keeping my voice monotone. “Can I talk to Chez now?”
“Chez is too busy making out with Aid--ow!” he winced in pain as soon as I heard a distinct slapping noise and a stern voice reprimanding him. “I take that back. She’s giving Aiden a lap--ow!”
I laughed openly before slapping a hand over my own mouth to cover up the noise. “Oh jeez,” I chortled, “you go Chez.”
“Hey,” he said hurtfully, “don’t edge this kid on. You know immature they get.”
“You’re one to talk,” I said dryly.
“Me immature? Never,” he said with complete innocence.
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“The thing is--”
“What do you want Blake?” I cut him off.
“Fine, don’t let me finish. I won’t tell you what I want then.”
“Okay,” I said cheerfully, “bye!” Without a moment of hesitation, I hung up on him and I threw my phone onto my bed, smiling largely at the conversation and feeling slightly better that I had something to look forward to besides the internet. I felt nearly confident that he would call back, if not right away. Then again, I mused to myself, his ego might prevent that.
Shrugging, I picked up my phone and stood up suddenly, feeling a sudden wave of dizziness after a day of doing nothing as so much as just lying there. When it finally ebbed away, I forced myself down the stairs to go check on my brother. To no surprise, I saw him sitting there in front of the TV with a game that definitely did not look like PG.
“Jason,” I scolded, going around and sitting next to him, “this is a horrible game. So violent.” Inwardly, I winced as I saw his character chop off the head of another enemy soldier as blood squirted all over the screen.
“Hey,” he grunted without taking his eyes off of the screen.
“What game is this?” I stretched my hands out in front of him to grab the console box. With an angry cry, he slapped away my hands roughly before large, bright red words spelling ‘You Lose’ popped up on the screen.
“Kylie!” He stared at me accusingly. “Thanks a lot! You made me lose. What’s wrong with you?”
I stared blankly at him. “Nothing?”
With a loud and obnoxious sigh, he restarted it up again. “Go away,” he demanded dramatically, using his free hand to shoo me in the opposite direction.
I pressed my lips together tightly, ready to reprimand him again when the doorbell gave a loud ring. Ignoring his look of satisfaction, I got up and walked to the door. My eyes widened as I noticed who was standing there calmly at the door with his hands in his pockets staring sheepishly at me.
“What are you doing here, Blake?” I asked sternly once I got the lock open.
“Everything,” he said waggling his eyebrows.
“That’s real specific,” I snapped back sarcastically, trying to hide the fact that my cheeks were heating to an unbelievable level.
“I’m pretty well known for that. Now do you want to know or not, kid?”
“If you say kid one more time, I swear I’ll tell the world your some world renown stalker or something.”
“Kid.”
I pressed my lips tightly together. “What do you want, kid?”
“Hey, that’s my word!”
“What did you say, kid?” I teased.
“Kylie,” he protested.
“Now you know how annoying it is when you say kid!” I said in triumph.
“Sure thing, kid,” he drawled out.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, ignoring his attempt.
“You’re not busy right?”
“Actually, I am,” I said tersely.
“With?” He raised a slight eyebrow skeptically at me.
“With,” I drifted off, racking my brain to come up with something quick. “Helping my brother.” There was a sudden loud yell coming from the living room and I winced slightly at the wrong timing. “Play video games…” I finished lamely.
“Oh in that case, I can help too,” he said spontaneously taking off his shoes and pushing me aside.
“Blake!” I grabbed quickly onto his hand, pulling him backwards. “Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.” He smirked at me, quickly shrugging me off before walking towards the direction of my brother.
Grumbling under my breath, I followed him quickly, wondering how I got in such a situation. When I got there, my brother was arguing with Blake on which character was the best to use when battling on flaming hot lava. First off, when will you ever battle on lava in real life?
“Kylie,” my brother said with a stern look on his face, “get your friend out of here. He isn‘t helping at all! In fact, he‘s worse than you!”
“I’m just suggesting he uses--”
“Don’t suggest!” he snapped back.
I rubbed my temples trying to rid myself of an edging headache. “Jason, be nice. Blake, don’t even bother.”
“Yea, Jason, be nice,” Blake mimicked.
“Kylie, go take your boyfriend somewhere else,” he groaned, staring pleadingly at me.
“What?” I stared at him in complete horror, wondering what had brought that suggestion to his head. My cheeks flushed even redder as I saw Blake’s stunned expression mirror my own.
Unfortunately, he was the quickest to recover as well. “Whoa there. I thought we were way past the boyfriend girlfriend relationship. Jason, didn’t Kylie tell you that we are getting--”
I slapped a hand over his mouth quickly before turning to glare at Jason with the meanest look I could muster up. He gave me an innocent look and smiled sweetly at me. “I was just kidding, Kylie.”
“Jason,” I said threateningly. Before I could get another word out, a slobbery feeling touched my hand and I quickly pulled away in alarm, staring at the wet spot in my palm that was most definitely dry before. I stared blankly at it for several long moments before connection what actually happened and letting out a whole long string of “Ews” and “Blake, I’m so going to kill you”.
Running to the bathroom, I quickly rinsed off my hands the best I could with soap watching warily as Blake appeared behind me with a guilty look on his face. “Thanks a lot,” I muttered under my breath as I finished washing it for the third time, “I’m probably going to get some sort of dangerous disease or something. Blakeitus.”
“Blakeitus? Real creative,” he chuckled. “Besides, you deserved that.”
With a loud huff, I turned towards him, with my arms across my chest. “Really?”
“Really,” he said with finality. There was a long pause where both of us stared each other down in a silent battle. “So what have you been telling your brother about me?” he finally broke the silence.
“What?”
“You know, the whole I’m your boy--”
“Ah!” I said loudly while interrupting him. “He just made that up.”
“Really?”
“Really,” I said honestly.
“Cause he sure didn’t sound--”
“Trust me. I have no idea where he came up with that.”
“Okay,” he said with disbelief.
“Oh my gosh, are you serious? You believe him over me?”
“Is it that obvious?” He asked teasingly.
“Just slightly, just slightly,” I said, letting out a sigh of relief. It was true though. I had no idea where Jason had even came up with the slight implication of the idea that me and Blake were going out. Because it simply was not true. Besides, as far as I was concern, I never even said his name in this household-- except…
I screwed my eyes tightly shut as I remembered the one instance I probably did mention his name. But that wasn’t really important. It was just telling my parents what happened during Disneyland-- minus the whole break up ordeal. I shuddered slightly at the thought before trying to come up with other instances in which I had mentioned Blake’s name.
Besides, I don’t like him.
“Are you dead?” Blake said bluntly, jolting me out of my thoughts.
“Yes, I’m dead,” I said dryly, peeling open my eyes again. “Very dead.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said sagely, pretending to stroke a fake beard. “You know, looking all pale and weak. I would say you almost grew shorter but then I realized that wasn’t possible.”
“Again with the short jokes,” I said with a disbelieving tone.
“What, kid?”
“You have to stop with that.”
“With what, kid?” he asked with a mocking tone.
“Okay, Blake, what do you want to do?” I asked purely out of exasperation.
“Actually, I was going to ask you whether you can go anywhere,” he said going back normal.
“I don’t know,” I hesitated, “I have to take care of my brother.”
“From what I see, you aren’t doing much,” he said doubtfully.
“Well…”
“Come on. One thing.”
“Wait, what about Chez and Ethan? Aren’t you suppose to go with them to that one family meeting?”
“Oh that.” He waved his hands nonchalantly. “It’s really only for close family members and Chez said you were feeling lonely so here I am.”
“Chez said what?” I sputtered.
“She-- yea never mind.”
“Where are you planning to go?” I said warily.
“It’s a surprise!” he said smiling broadly.
“A surprise,” I echoed. “Somehow that gives me the chills.”
“Trust me.” He looked into my eyes deeply with complete honesty. I bit my lips nervously debating on whether to leave my brother home alone or not. If I did and my parents got back before I did, I would be in huge trouble. Then again, most likely they wouldn’t and it wasn’t like we were going anywhere far-- right? Besides, Blake was right, I haven’t been doing anything to actually ‘take care of my brother’.
“I’ll go once you tell me where,” I finally conceded.
“But that completely defeats the purpose of a surprise.”
“Exactly,” I leaned back slightly on the counter, not letting my gaze waver from his.
“If you don’t come, I’ll pick you up and drag you there,” he said threateningly.
“Yea right,” I scoffed. He took a sudden step forward, making me jerk back and hit my hip roughly on the countertop. Wincing in pain, I stared warily at him. “Okay, maybe not yea right.”
“So you’ll come?” he asked hopefully.
“Let me ask my brother,” I grumbled, pushing past him to go to my brother. “Hey Jason, do you mind if I go somewhere?” Silently, I pushed the thoughts of robbers breaking in, murderers trying to kill him when I’m not around, and crazy images of crazy people doing crazy things. Unfortunately, he seemed to be eager to take a big risk just to get us out of the house so he could play his games in peace because his eyes lit up as he turned to look at us.
“Sure thing!” he said excitedly, actually taking his hands off the video game controller to lead me towards the door. I dragged my feet in defeat at his sudden eagerness and tried to avoid the gleaming look of satisfaction that danced in Blake’s eyes. “Bye! Have fun! Stay safe!” he shouted before shutting the door with a loud bang, locking it, and dashing back to the living room.
“Great brother you have there,” Blake chuckled lightly. “I like him a lot.”
“Yea, I’m sure you guys will get along great,” I muttered. “So where are we going?” I stared up at him expectantly.
“I told you; it’s a surprise,” he said lightly, pointing towards his truck. Biting back a retort, I sullenly got in, trying to fight back on the slight feeling of excitement I was getting from being out of the house with Blake. Or more like anyone in general, I rethought before turning my attention to Blake who had just pulled himself into the driver’s seat. “Alright,” he said with a quizzical look on his face, “if only I can figure out how to work this thing.”
I laughed dryly. “You’re funny.”
He suddenly pulled back out of the driveway before shooting me a wink, “Oops.”
I bit back a smile at his attempt to scare me while keeping a completely unfazed look on my face. “Nice try.”
“Man, you’re catching on quicker than I imagined,” he grumbled.
“So now will you tell me where we are going?” I asked hopefully.
“Nope,” he smiled with that familiar smirk on his face. “You’ll just have to wait.”
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You'll just have to wait... until I find the time to upload. Probably not this week-- agh, sorry. I have this Forensics competition this weekend which basically is going to be taking up this entire week but we'll see.
Vote?! Comment?! Please?! :D I'll lovelovelove you forever!! Also, the Watty Awards are nearly ending (like a month left) so it'd be amazing if you guys could go back and vote for any chapters you might have missed... I know that's asking a lot but it really means a lot to me(: THANKS FOR READING!!
You all make my day!! Every single one of you!! ( I get super cheesy when it's nighttime and I'm feeling uncomfortably tired-- check my Oratory... I have a whole bunch of cheesy lines in there to the point it's almost hilarious...)
~Laura(XxIcyxX)