"Get up from the floor, will you?" I say, pushing her away from me. "Jaden, you've got to tell me what happened between you and Jeremy, I'm dying here . . I need to know!"
"Alright, if you must know . . we took a walk . . the he proposed and now we're engaged to be married" The look on her face is priceless.
"FOR REAL??"
"No!! . . . Jaylah, learn how to keep your nose out of my business and I will try to keep my foot out of your ass . . deal??"
"Jaden . . I'm begging you . . tell me what happened between the two of you . . I'll give you anything! . . I'll be your slave!! . . I just need to know!"
"What you need is a life, sis . . ."
I grab my sandwich and take a seat on the couch in the living room. Jaylah is sitting right next to me, nagging the crap out of me. Why is she so obsessed? . . this woman needs a life!
"What do you want, Jaden? . . anything!!"
"You're asking me what I want? . . ok, let me tell you what I want! . . I want you to leave me alone . . . good night!"
"I give you my car!" She whimpers.
"Your car? . . what do I want with your old car? . . I have a porsche!"
"Oh, please, Jaden! . . tell me where you guys went . . tell me what you talked about . . tell me what happened . . please just tell me!"
Jeremy comes walking down . . I thought he was asleep already . . I look at Jaylah . . she's smiling from ear to ear . . of course she is. Jeremy takes a seat next to me on the couch. Jaylah's looking at us like we're some kind of extraterrestrial creatures, waiting for us to move or say something.
I take a bite from my turkey sandwich.
"Ok . . I will leave you guys alone now" Jaylah says, slowly walking towards the staircase. Why do I have the feeling that she doesn't really wanna leave? . . she's standing there by the staircase, looking at us.
"GO TO BED, JAYLAH!" I yell.
"I'm on my way there! no reason for you to yell at me!" She says, slowly taking the first step upstairs. I roll my eyes. Jeremy looks at me, holding back his laughter. "You were right, she really can be annoying"
I look over to the staircase again . . it's an eight second walk upstairs, she's not even halfway up there yet. She's got to be kidding me. I put my sandwich down and walk over to the staircase. "I'm leaving, I'm leaving!!!" She says, running upstairs. I walk back to the couch and take a seat.
"I thought you were asleep already"
"I couldn't sleep . . I'm not even tired" Jeremy says, taking a bite from my sandwich.
"JAYLAH!!!!!!!" I yell . . she quickly hides behind a huge plant upstairs. A few seconds later dad comes walking down, asking me what all the yelling is about.
"Sorry, dad . . . but Jaylah is being a pain in the ass!"
"Would you please keep it down?! . . we have little people sleeping upstairs! including your son!"
"Sure, dad . . . sorry! . . . good night!"
"Night!" Dad mumbles, walking back upstairs. Jaylah is still up there, hiding behind the plant. God, why is she so annoying? "Is she still up there?" Jeremy asks. "Yup!" I finish my sandwich and walk upstairs . . she's sitting behind a huge fake plant. "Would you please just go to bed?!" I whisper angrily.
"I'm not even looking at you two! . . for your information, I'm sitting here, reading a book!"
"There's no book anywhere near you!!"
"It's invisible . . ."
"GO TO BED!!!"
"FINE!"
She gets up and walks down the hallway. I'm walking right behind her, making sure she goes back into her room. . . and she actually does . . hallelujah . . I walk back downstairs . . Jeremy turned on the TV . . I sit back down next to him.
"Oh . . there's an old movie on . . wanna watch it?" Jeremy asks.
"Sure"
__________________________
~ Jaylah's point of view ~
I came back out of the room to check on Jaden and Jeremy. I just can't stop obsessing over these two . . . In a way I find them so darn cute together! . . I just know that they're into each other . . I can feel it . . I can smell it in the air . . Jaden's right, though . . I really do need a life . . I can't believe I'm spying on my brother.
OH SHOOT! . . I accidentally broke a glass figurine in the hallway. . I hope Jaden didn't hear it. I slowly crawl my way back to the staircase. . . next thing I know, someone's standing right in front of me. I slowly raise my head . . . it's Jeremy.
"Do you know why they say curiosity killed the cat?" He says, smiling down at me. "Umm . . I was looking for my contacts . . they fell down here somewhere . . gosh, those damn contacts!" I say, smiling nervously, pretending to look for them.
"Let's be real here . . you're not really looking for your contacts, are you, Jaylah?"
I quickly get up. "PLEASEEE TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS DID! . . PLEASEEE!" I say, tightly holding on to Jeremy's shirt. He starts laughing. "You will have to ask your brother . . I'm not saying a word!"
"OH, PLEASEEEE, Jeremy . . I'm begging you! . . Jaden won't tell me a thing!"
"Look . . I'll tell you where we went and you will do me a favor . . deal?""
"Ok, deal! . . what do you want me to do?" I ask impatiently.
"Ok . . listen . . tomorrow night I wanna be alone with Jaden . . alone in this house . . I want you to take the whole family somewhere . . . until 9 or 10pm . . can you do that?"
"Yea . . I guess . . I'll try. . now tell me! . . what did you guys do???"
"We went to a restaurant and had a couple of beers . ."
"That's all?!"
"Yup!"
"Did you guys kiss?"
"Jaylah, I'm not at liberty to tell you anything"
"Yes you are . . yes you are!!"
"I really don't feel comfortable talking to you about this . . please understand . . I don't want to tell you anything Jaden doesn't want me to tell you . . . but ummm . . . are you still doing me that favor?"
I surrender and give Jeremy a smile. "Sure!"
"Thank you! . . thank you, Jaylah!"
"What are you planning on doing with Jaden when the rest of us are gone?" I ask, hoping he'd tell me but knowing he probably won't.
"I'm planning on getting a kiss, if you really must know" Jeremy says, shyly looking down.
I'm about to melt into a puddle of valentine marshmallow liquid. . why is it that the cutest guys are always gay or taken?? . . I'm so sick of this! . . I want a guy like Jeremy! . . Jaden is a lucky son of a bitch!
"Does Jaden have a favorite flower?" Jeremy asks.
UGHH! . . I'm about to shoot myself . . can this guy be any cuter?!
"Yea . . he likes roses . . cherry brandy are his favorite" I say, feeling envious to no end . . I wanna find a guy like Jeremy! . . I want a guy to buy me roses . . gosh, I hate men!
"Thank you . . I really hope I can win him over . . I know he's still getting over his wife but I wanna be there for him . . let him know that I care about him" Jeremy says, nervously scratching the back of his head.
"Why don't you just shoot me?!" I yell out in frustration.
"Huh?! . . . Jaylah, are you ok?"
"Never mind . . I'm going to bed"
" . . . Good night"
"Night, Jeremy. . ."
__________________________
NEXT DAY
__________________________
"Dad? . . are you up?"
He rubs his eyes. "I am now, thank you"
"Dad . . . I have a great idea what we all could do tonight!"
He gets up from the bed and walks into the bathroom . . I follow him . . he takes off his shirt. "Dad, I was thinking . . we could all go to the circus . . there's a circus in the city . . why don't we all go there tonight?"
"A circus? . . not sure if your mother likes the idea . . go ask her" I run downstairs to look for mom . . she's in the kitchen preparing breakfast for everybody with Carli.
"Mom!! . . how about we all go to the circus tonight? . . there's one in the city. . I read it in the newspaper!"
"I don't know, honey . . I'm not thrilled about the idea, to be honest . . did you know that those animals live in terrible conditions? . . I don't really wanna pay to support it"
"Ok . . umm . . maybe we could all go out to a restaurant in the city tonight? . . what do you say?"
"I'm not feeling too well today, hun . . I think we're all just gonna stay home and relax"
"NO, we can't!!!" I yell.
"Why not?"
"Mom . . I really wanna go out tonight! . . with the whole family!"
"Jaylah, I don't know if I want to . . I've had this terrible headache ever since I woke up this morning"
"Take a pill! . . that's what pills are for . . right??"
"I'll think about it . . ."
"We really need to be out of the house tonight!"
"Why, Jaylah?!"
"Because . . . hello?? we're in Switzerland!! don't you wanna explore the city? don't you wanna take in the beauty of the nature here? . . and I bet the food in the restaurants is the bomb!"
"We still have a few more days here . . I'm sure will get to see more than enough before we fly back home, Jaylah"
"Mom . . this is really important! . . I really want the whole family to go out tonight!"
"Why don't you go out by yourself? . . take Jaden . . or Leah . . but please take care of her . . she's at a very awkward age right now"
"NO! . . I wanna take the whole family, mom!"
"I'll check with your father . . go ask him what he has planned for today"
"I already asked him . . . he told me to come to you!"
"Can you help me set the table?" Mom asks, handing me a bunch of plates. I walk over to the table and put them down . . looks like it's gonna be harder than I thought, getting the whole family out of the house tonight . . I have to think of something . . I have to get everybody out of the house . . every single one of them.
__________________________
~ Jaden's point of view ~
I'm taking a nice run along the lake. I got up pretty early today. . when I woke up this morning I felt the need to do something . . I haven't been jogging in a while . . and it feels good. I've been jogging now for 40 minutes straight.
I stop to drink some water.
The sun is burning down today . . thank god I didn't forget to put sunblock on this morning. A smile appears on my face thinking about Jeremy noticing my sunburn on my shoulders.
And the way she shooed away that guy at the bar.
I can't believe I'm thinking about him right now . . out of nowhere he just pops into my head. I don't wanna fall for him though . . I'm still married . . I have a kid, I have a wife at home . . . a wife that could care less about me, but still . . . I have a wife.
I feel like a totally different person ever since we came here to Switzerland. . I'm looking at my life from a different perspective now . . . life is so beautiful and way too short to be spend it at war with yourself.
After another 20 minutes of running I decide to go back home. I run upstairs and take a much needed shower. . I put on some fresh clothes and go downstairs to grab a bite to eat. . . I see that everybody had breakfast already. . . except Jaylah . . she's still eating. I walk over to her and grab a waffle from her plate.
"Hey! . . I wasn't done eating!" She says, raising an eyebrow.
Jeremy looks at me.
I look at him.
I take a seat outside on the patio . . I can see through the glass doors that Jeremy just got up from the table . . he's coming out here. . he walks up to me and takes a seat.
"Good morning, handsome" Jeremy greets me, smiling shyly.
"Good morning" I say, trying not to smile too hard . . the whole family is in there and they can see us. I take a closer look at the glass doors. . oh, look who decided to show up . . there's the stalker again, standing by the door, looking at us.
"My sister is crazy, isn't she?"
"Not as crazy as I am about you" Jeremy says, pushing his chair closer to mine. "Jeremy, don't . . they can see us in there" I say, looking inside, making sure no one is looking . . Jeremy gives me a quick kiss on the cheek and walks back inside.
Jaylah is talking to him now . . I wonder what they're talking about.
To be continued . . .