Chapter 14
I slowly climbed out of bed, stretching as I did so. The bright light that was peeking out from the window shade caused me to squint. I noticed that the bedroom door was wide open and Devon was nowhere in sight.
I wasn’t too concerned. Someone would be watching him. I could hear that there were people already awake and walking about.
I walked over to where my bag was, by the wall opposite of the mattress, and dug through it until I found my brush. My hair tended to be a knotted mess whenever I woke up. But somehow I managed to get the tangles out.
I threw the brush back in my bag and walked out of the room. As I got closer to the kitchen, the smell of food got stronger.
I looked and saw my mother standing in front of the stove top, tending to a frying pan. James was standing at the counter. He was making something, I wasn’t too sure of what it was.
“What are you doing?” I walked into the kitchen and leaned back against part of the counter.
“Protein shake,” James replied as he grabbed an egg from the carton next to him.
“Oh,” I smiled as I watched him. “You’re one of those people.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He cracked a smile as he added the egg to the mixture in the glass in front of him.
“You know, one of those I-go-to-the-gym-a-lot-and-eat-nothing-but-protein-shakes,-falcon-eggs,-and-rocks types of people,” I spoke the middle part of the sentence in the best manly voice I could come up with.
James burst out laughing. “Never have I eaten a falcon egg or a rock.”
“Close enough,” I giggled, referring to how all really athletic people only ate things that gave had ridiculous amounts of vitamins and other things that their bodies needed.
James added some of the powdery protein mix stuff to the glass. He began stirring all of the ingredients together. It turned a weird brown color.
“That looks really gross,” I eyed the glass skeptically.
“It’s not that bad. I promise,” James put the spoon, that he had used to stir it with, down and took a sip.
I continued to watch him doubtfully. There was no way that those things tasted good.
“Here, try it,” James held the glass out towards me. He must’ve noticed that I had my suspicions about the drink.
I took it from him carefully, glancing back to him to see what his expression was. Did he already know how I was going to react?
James‘s face was calm. There was a hint of a smile on his lips which made me question if I should’ve really drank it or not.
I cautiously brought the glass to my mouth and took a small sip. I made a face. It tasted really bland and powdery. Definitely not something I’d want to drink a whole glass of.
James let out a small laugh at my expression.
I gave the glass back to him. “There’s no flavor.”
James just shrugged and took another drink of it, unaffected by the plain taste.
Breakfast consisted of cheesy scrambled eggs and toast. We all sat around the living room again to eat it. Devon sat contently and ate his cheerios and juice, also trying the food that I had on my plate.
“I can’t believe we fly back home tomorrow…” Mom pushed the remains of her scrambled eggs into a pile on her plate.
“...tomorrow?” I looked up from my plate quickly and glanced at her. I had completely forgotten how long we had been in Nevada. We were supposed to stay here for a week. “Has it already been that long?”
“Yeah,” She nodded slowly. “Our flight leaves tomorrow at three.”
I quickly looked towards James.
Six days. We had been here for six days. It seemed hard to process for some reason, probably because James had forgiven me and accepted Devon only yesterday.
James met my gaze for a few seconds before he turned to Mom. “I don’t have to go to the gym today. I can just stay here with you guys and-”
“Nonsense!” She interrupted him. “You have your next tournament coming up soon and you need to be prepared for it.”
“But mom!” He sounded like a five year old and everyone started laughing, James included. “Okay, I’ll go,” He spoke again after the laughs died down “But I won’t stay too long today because I did practice with Kellan yesterday.”
“I suppose that’s all right,” Mom teased him and smiled.
…
“Do you have any sevens?” I eyed Alex suspiciously.
“No,” He smirked. “Go fish.”
“Are you sure?” I really needed another pair if I was going to make a comeback and win this game of Go Fish. “You look like you have a seven.”
“I don’t have any sevens,” He laughed and glanced down at his cards. “Go pick a card.”
Alex, Drew, and I were all sitting cross-legged in a triangle shape on the living room floor with a pile of playing cards in front of us. Mom didn’t want Drew to play any more videos games while he was here so, we had dug around the apartment and managed to find a deck of cards laying around.
I huffed in annoyance. I was losing. There were only two pairs of cards on the ground in front of me. Drew had six pairs and Alex had five. I reached out to the pile of cards in front of me and grabbed one. It was an eight. I didn’t have one of those either! Go Fish was just not my game.
“Hey Maddie,” Drew had a sly smile on his face. “Do you have a seven?”
I glared at him. He just held his hand out and waited for me to place the card in his hand. I unwillingly gave it to him and he placed his newly paired sevens in front of him, adding to his collection.
“I hate this game,” I stared at the cards in my hand and mumbled to no one in particular. It didn’t help that this was the ninth game of Go Fish we were playing. “You guys really don’t know any other card games?”
“I know of other games, I just don’t know exactly how to play them,” Alex spoke up from his spot as he rearranged the cards in his hand.
Drew nodded, indicating that he didn’t know the rules to other games either.
“Maddie, do you have a king?” Alex looked at me, trying to fight off a smile.
I scowled at him for a good five seconds before I handed him the card. He just laughed and placed the pair on the carpet in front of him,
The game lasted for a few more minutes before Drew ran out of cards. I looked down at the three pairs in front of me. Somehow I had managed to get a five of hearts from Drew. I still lost though. In the end, Alex had seven pairs and Drew had nine.
I threw the cards that I had left in my hand towards the pile on the floor. This game was getting really boring. I uncrossed my legs and fell backwards onto the carpet.
“Someone please look up a different game,” I wined, staring up at the white ceiling. “I don’t want to play this anymore.”
“Why don’t you kids go outside?” Mom spoke up from the kitchen. From the sound of it, she was still washing dishes. “It’s nice and sunny out. Go enjoy the Nevada weather while we’re still here.”
I just continued to lay on the floor. Was there even anything to do outside? I didn’t think that I had done anything in the great outdoors since we moved into James’s apartment.
“Or we could play War,” I heard Drew say from somewhere near me.
“No,” I groaned. War was probably my least favorite card game. I just didn’t have the patience for it. “That game takes forever!”
Suddenly, the sound of tiny footsteps was heard. I turned my head to the side and saw Devon running toward our group. When he saw the pile of messily stacked cards on the carpet, he bent over to pick try and pick them up.
I sat back up to watch him. He managed to grab one and held it close to him, looking mesmerized by the new object.
“That’s a card, Dev” I told him and he looked intently at it. “Do you want to learn how to play?”
I reached for the pile and randomly grabbed a few cards off of the top. I fanned them out in my hand and looked down at them. I pulled out the nine of hearts and handed it to him.
“Here we can trade,” He looked at me for a few seconds before grabbing the card from my outstretched hand. I smiled at him and held out another card. Devon took it and looked back at me curiously.
“Here go.” He took one of the cards he was holding and gave it back to me, copying the motions he had just seen me do.
“Oh thank you,” I said softly, smiling at him.
We traded a few more cards before Devon dropped all of his, causing them to scatter all over the floor, and grabbed all ones I was holding. He threw them on the floor also, laughing as the fell to the ground.
Alex gathered a few off the floor and held them out. “Here, Devon.”
Devon took the cards from him and threw them, squealing in excitement.
The game didn’t last too much longer. Devon got bored and started to look for some other interesting thing to keep him occupied. Alex tried to play patty cake with him to see if he remembered how. It turned out that Drew couldn’t have been that good of a teacher due to the fact that Devon was unwilling to play.
We did our best to entertain ourselves for the next couple hours. We had attempted to learn new card games from the internet but, the rules were confusing and we couldn’t grasp the concept. Giving up and watching TV seemed like the only option.
Not too long after, James came back home. We ate an early dinner and talked about everyday things, telling stories and laughing at each other. As it grew later, we all sat down in the living room to watch the Spiderman marathon that was on TV.
As we watched, our conversations ceased to continue.
Sometime during the end of the second movie, Drew had made himself comfortable on the couch that he had claimed to sleep on during our time here. He moved and rearranged himself again every once and a while but, he was pretty much dosing off with the blanket on top of him.
Not long after, I put Devon to bed. He had been getting sleepy and I didn’t want him to be kept awake if it wasn’t necessary.
It didn’t seem like we’d be able to get through the last movie. About half way through, Alex grabbed his pajamas, toothbrush, and a few other things and headed to the bathroom. He had been dosing off during the movie as well. I guess he had finally given up on watching it.
Looking back over at the other couch, it seemed had Drew had fallen asleep. It sure hadn’t taken him long.
“Well,” Mom got up off of the couch. “I’m going off to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow with the flight and all. Goodnight!” She headed down the hallway before turning back to face us. “Oh, and don’t stay up too late.”
I couldn’t help but think that she was specifically talking to me when she said that. I fought off a yawn as I stared back at the TV. I was determined to stay up as long as possible. We were leaving tomorrow and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to James yet. It still felt like we had only just gotten here.
I felt my eyes getting heavy and I quickly snapped them open, as wide as possible. I changed my sitting position, by sitting straight up, in an attempt to keep my brain thinking so there was less of a chance I would dose off.
“You can go to sleep,” I could feel James watching me as I gazed at the TV. “Mom’s right. Tomorrow’s gonna be a busy day and you guys do have to get to the airport early and everything.”
“No I can’t,” I shook my head and looked over at him. “I need to keep myself awake.”
James pulled his eyebrows together in confusion, trying to find the source of my stubbornness. “No one’s making you stay up. Devon’s already sleeping in the other room.”
I quickly brought my eyes to the floor, slightly embarrassed by my motives. James would think it was silly if I told him that he was the reason I was still awake. Who knows when I would see him next? It had taken three years for this visit and those three years had been rough. I didn’t think I could handle another three years without him. I felt like we would grow even further apart. There would be more secrets that would form between us if it took that long.
“Maddie, is… something bothering you?” He asked.
I glanced back at my brother to find concern in his eyes. He shouldn’t be worried about me, my thoughts were stupid. I was probably just keeping him awake as well.
“No, I’m fine,” I bit my lip and laughed at myself. “It’s stupid. Don’t worry about it.”
“Hey, you can tell me anything.” James reached over and placed a hand on my knee. “No more secrets from now on.”
I gave him a questioning look before sighing and giving in. “This will probably sound dumb. But I just… I don’t want to leave tomorrow. I don’t want to go home and leave you here.” I met his eyes, suddenly feeling depressed.
“Well, it’s gonna be even harder to see you guys go,” He gave a sad smile. “I’m alone out here. Once you guys are gone, this apartment will be empty and…I’ll have to do my own dishes again.”
I scooted towards him and leaned my head against his shoulder. I instantly felt his arm wrap around my back, holding me close to him.
“Then come with us,” I stared out at the changing colors on the TV screen. “Come home and… move back into your room.” I laughed a little. His room had been overtaken by baby stuff. “I’m sure Devon wouldn’t mind sharing it with you.”
James left out a chuckle. I felt his body vibrate because of it. “As much as I hate to refuse that offer, you know I can’t go back. I’m 22 years old. I have to live on my own.”
“I know… I was just saying,” I sat still, enjoying his company. I had just gotten used to having him around again and we were going to leave.
“You can call me and we can start having conversations more often again,” His voice grew softer. “I had wondered why you hardly called anymore. Now I know why.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I looked up at him. I had missed our phone calls too. “I just hated lying to you about everything. I knew it would hurt you eventually and… I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
We sat like that for a little while longer. Then the sound of the bathroom door opening was heard and Alex stepped out.
James dropped his arm and I lifted my head up to look at my brother.
“I know you’re tired, Mad. I can tell you’re fighting it.” James smiled down at me. “Just go to bed, I’ll be here tomorrow morning. I’m not going to the gym until after you guys leave.”
I nodded slowly and forced myself off the couch. It probably was a good idea to at least try and sleep, no matter how badly I wanted nothing else but to stay up and sit with James. He was most likely pretty tired too. I shouldn’t want to keep him awake.
“Goodnight then,” I looked back at him, holding his gaze for a bit, before walking to the hallway.
“Night,” James replied.
AN: Happy New Year everyone! If you got the A Very Potter Sequel / Starkid reference in this chapter then we are now pretty much best friends. Also, Uppercut is FAR from over but what are your thoughts on a possible Uppercut prequel?