We got the boxes piled up inside in no time. Most of it in Lana's room, some in the living room.
Now I'm sitting at the table drinking my beer and watching Wade hovering over Lana, trying to steal whatever she's working on. All I hear is her slapping his hand away and him complaining about her not being nice enough to him.
After one rather loud slap, he shouts out, "Hey! That's the treatment I get after I so generously helped you out?"
"If you had helped me out of pure generosity, you wouldn't want anything in return. But that's not the point, I simply don't want to accidentally cut your fingers off, so have a beer or something and wait for it to be done."
He waves his bottle in front of her face. "I am having a beer, I wanted a snack with it, but if you are going to threaten me with a knife I'll just go and take my generosity elsewhere," he says it with a grin on his face and she smiles back at him. He looks at the boxes again as if contemplating something, then turns back to her and asks, "So, what's up with the books anyway? You wanted to start your own library or something?"
Lana laughs but it's somewhat bitter. "No, I have all of them because of this thing we did with my dad. I always loved to read and I don't remember when it actually started, but we went to the bookstore once a week and I got to choose one that he bought for me. He always read it too, so we could talk about it after... He was great," she finishes quietly.
"Was? What happened?" Wade asks after having a big swig of his beer. Lana starts to fidget in her spot but of course, he doesn't pick up on that.
"He's dead," she says keeping her eyes glued to the vegetable she's cutting. "I'd rather not talk about it."
Wade looks my way, raising eyebrows. I shrug, what do I know? It's not like we braid our hair and tell each other secrets in the evenings. He turns back to her.
"Well, at least one of us had a father that gave a shit." Lana looks at him. "You don't wanna know, believe me." He shrugs off the potential question before she even opened her mouth.
Who knows, maybe she wasn't about to ask anything anyway. Because her only reaction is a silent nod and continuing with her cooking. I enjoy the silence that follows for a minute or two until Wade looks from her to me and then sighs exaggeratedly.
"You know, you two are so much fun to be around! Neither of you seems to shut up!"
I snort. "Even if I wanted to say anything I wouldn't have a chance since you don't shut your mouth. Ever." I look to where Lana is. She's throwing everything into the pan, the oil is hissing and it starts to smell delicious almost instantly. I didn't even realize how hungry I am until now. My eyes shift to Wade as he starts talking, again.
"Someone has to fill the silence so we don't get bored to death." He leans closer to Lana. "You were fun enough the other night, want me to get you a drink? We could make a night of it!"
She laughs and shakes her head. "No thank you, as much as I would love to spend the night throwing up again, I have to get up early for work."
"How early?" he asks as he turns to go to sit with me.
"Very early." She glances at us over her shoulder. "4:30 am early."
Wade makes a face. "Well, that sucks for you."
But she shakes her head. "No, I wanted them to give me these hours. We have a schedule figured so I could do the school program and have time to study in the evenings. I don't mind waking up early."
He's watching her cook, seemingly in thought. "What was it that you study again?"
"I'm in a nursing program."
A broad smile breaks on Wade's face. "That's right! A nurse! Hey, do you own one of those cute uniforms? That would improve this night enormously!"
She just shakes her head again, not even bothering to answer that.
I light a smoke. "She said a nurse, not a stripper you creep. Leave her be."
Wade looks at me throwing hands in the air. "What did I say? I thought all college girls are up for a little of fun!"
That makes me laugh. "Sure, that's why you have to pick up the ones that barely walk by themselves."
Wade grins at me widely. "No, I do that because it's easier to charm the wasted ones to go with me. And the bonus is I can either leave them where I fucked them or just throw them out of my house without trouble and they usually don't even remember anything so they don't bother me afterward. You know how it is, baby brother, you start to act nice, they start to get clingy right away. Better to have that off the table so they won't get any ideas." He's explaining, looking very proud of himself. I doubt any of those college girls would be looking for him either way. But whatever, it's his business.
Lana turns to us at that point. "Do you really have to explain that with me still in the room? I'm not drinking anywhere near you, ever again!"
He directs his grin at her, wiggling eyebrows. "What is it, sweetheart? Having trouble to remember something?"
I see her face lose some of the color and her eyes go wide. She briefly looks down at her body as if looking at it would give her some answer. Looking back up she breaths out barely audible. "No, you wouldn't!"
Wade only continues to grin at her like a cat that ate the canary so I step in.
"No, of course, he didn't." Her eyes snap to me. "I was here the whole time, nothing happened."
She looks from me to Wade probably trying to figure what the truth is but hissing from behind her makes her turn back to stir whatever is in that pan.
"Tell her, you asshole!" I kick Wade under the table hard enough for him to stop grinning. He frowns at me.
"It was just a joke! She knows that!" He then looks to where Lana's standing. "You know that, right sweetheart?" When she stays silent, he gets up to go to her. I can see her tense up instantly and when Wade touches her shoulder, she jumps a little. "Oh, come on! Why would I even talk about it, if it was the truth?"
"I don't know, people do stupid things for stupid reasons. This wasn't funny. At all," she whispers.
That makes me frown as Wade gives me an annoyed look. There's more to it than just her not taking a joke well. Wade's only too ignorant to pick up on what she's not saying.
He throws his hands in the air. "Alright, I won't be joking about fucking you again, happy? Jeez." He sits down again.
I watch her to make our plates, she's working slowly and she looks lost. Wade follows my stare just for Lana to see us both looking at her when she turns with two plates in her hands. She halts for a second and then puts the plates before us and clears her throat.
"I'm going to eat in my room." She doesn't wait for a reply. She takes her plate and is gone before I manage to say anything.
I look to Wade who looks genuinely confused. I shake my head, he's hopeless.
"You can't just joke with a girl about raping her and then expect her to have a dinner with you. She doesn't know you well enough to know you say stupid shit all the damn time, you moron!" I snort before digging into my food.
"I wasn't joking about raping her!" His expression transforms to offended one.
"Yeah, you were. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that fucking someone barely conscious who's telling you 'no' is a rape. So telling her you did it is joking just about that."
I watch him mull it over in his head when finally he seems to realize what he said. He looks startled for a second, but it's gone so quickly, I wouldn't even notice it if I wasn't watching so closely.
"Whatever! She doesn't even remember saying 'no' to me. Who are you to lecture me about bad behavior anyway?"
I shrug and go back to eating. He's right. About the lecturing part at least. It's just, that lost look on her face. It bugs me for some reason. Now that I think about it, there is something off about the way she's jumping from absolutely calm to being freaked out in a matter of seconds every time something disturbs her. She seems to be convinced the worse possible scenario will happen in every situation in which she feels uncomfortable. But at the same time, she always seems to struggle with it. It's like she's not sure how to respond to things happening around her. I wonder if she's this way only with us because let's face it, we are a pair of assholes, or if she struggles in general.
"Fuck!" Wade pushes his almost empty plate away and stands up, interrupting my train of thought.
I look up to see him storming off to Lana's room.
I'm on my feet instantly and try to get to him before he gets there, but the stupid table is in the way. "Wade!" But he's already bursting into her room.
"I am no fucking rapist! I didn't touch you save for helping you inside and get comfortable," he shouts as soon as the door is open.
I catch up by the end of that sentence to see Lana standing behind her bed, a startled expression on her face. I want to drag Wade away and settle this later but before I have a chance to say or do anything she's talking.
"Wha- I- I know!"
"You sure about that?"
She's just staring and there it is again that helpless, lost look.
I grab Wade's arm. "Come on, leave her alone."
But he shrugs me off. "No, I want to know what the problem she has with me is!" He moves around the bed to Lana who's eyeing him but otherwise doesn't move.
For a moment I consider to fight him on it but to be honest, I'm kinda curious myself what's up with all the mood swings. I watch him drag the chair near the bed, he then grabs Lana's arms he pushes her down, sitting on said chair in front of her. I wander inside the room and lean on the desk.
He motions for her to speak. "Go on, tell me."
She seems to be really thinking it over before she speaks. She glances my way, clearing her throat she starts, "I know you didn't do anything to me, it's- it's just, I'm just- I know I'm here for what? Two weeks? Less? But I started to feel comfortable so quickly it felt like we've known each other much longer than that. And today, after seeing Anthony I realized that I don't really know much about you- I have no idea what to really expect. I was thinking about it on our way here and decided to let it go. But then listening to your vivid explanation..." She turns her head to me. "I don't get it. What am I doing here? Why are you even helping me? It just seems to be too good for it to be that easy, and it starts to get quite clear that you don't go around helping damsels in distress ..." She trails off.
I sigh heavily. "Okay then, you wanna hear the truth?" I ask and I can see Wade's alarmed, questioning look while Lana looks at me and gives me a nod.
"Alright... " Where do I start? Oh well... "The thing is, I hate people. I can't stand to have them around for the most of the time."
Wade opens his mouth to step in but I shake my head to stop him.
"But I don't hate being around you. When you came here the first day, I saw you in your car, I was watching you sitting there, looking like you wanted to leave, but you stayed in the end. Then when you saw me, you looked like you wanted to leave once again, but you stayed. You didn't seem to be all that comfortable around me but you took the deal. You just looked like you really didn't have many other options. Which turned out to be right, more or less." I take a deep breath and continue. "The truth is, I came to liking to have you around. The whole truth is, I felt bad for you. I was actually thinking about letting you stay just for the cooking and cleaning. To help you focus on school, to make it easier for you to make it through that nursing program of yours."
She turns scarlet red and drops her eyes again. I hear her whispering. "Oh God, this is so embarrassing."
I look to Wade who's been oddly quiet and see him staring at me, a strange look in his eyes. I'm about to ask him what he's looking at me like that for when I realize, that I actually meant what I said. I really wouldn't mind having her here, just for the cooking to help her out. I wouldn't mind her being here for nothing at all in return. I just feel okay with her around here. Where is all of this coming from? I don't know, and frankly, I don't care!
"Well I for one-" Wade joins the conversation again, "-didn't know all that. I was being nice because I love your cooking." He tries to move closer to her. He seems to find this amusing, guess his good mood is back.
I shove him away in the general direction of the door. "Fuck off Wade."
Putting his hands up he backs off and without another word, he leaves the room.
Lana starts after him so I grab her by her arm to get her attention. She looks back at me, her face still bright red.
"I didn't say it for you to feel shitty about being here, or because I want you to be grateful. I just told you how it is. Now, you have this zen aura about you, I like it, so I honestly like having you here, okay?"
She nods and gives me a small "okay," while staring into my eyes.
I release her arm. "And if you'll ever get tight on money." She drops her eyes again. "Just say so, if it was up to me, you could stop paying the rent from now on, alright?"
She shakes her head to that. "No, I'd prefer to pay you."
I hope you enjoy the story. If you do, feel welcome to push that little star to let me know, or better yet, leave me a comment ;)