Chapter dedication to @kitkatt for voting on every single chapter of this story!! Thank you so much, and one could say that I made this chapter extra-long for you! :D
**
|| Erin ||
I creep down the hallway, careful not to make any loud noises in case I should wake anyone up. Wait; they're all probably awake by now--the bedhead Alicia's out. I peek into her room and find her blanket semi-sprawled off her bed. I chuckle. She must've set her alarms.
I nervously check my outfit one last time as I near the top of the staircase. Black skinny jeans, maroon t-shirt that has white e's on it, and my favorite pair of red sandals. I'm not missing anything, am I...?
"Wait up, Erin!" I turn around to find Sara running to catch up with me, a familiar black device in her hands. She holds my tracker out. "You forgot this. You know... in case you get lost."
"Oh yeah, thanks! Thought I was missing something..." I admit sheepishly, taking it from her. She taps her right ear. "How about your ear and mouth pieces?"
"Aww... can I skip today?" I plead with my eyes. She hesitates a moment before sighing in defeat. "Yeah, I guess. Gotta let a girl have her fun!"
"Thank you, Sara!" I breath, giving her a quick hug before skipping down the stairs. 10:45 am. Good; Theo should be here any minute now. As if on cue, someone rings the doorbell twice and I hustle to open it to see Theo standing there, dark brown hair partly shadowing his eyes. He looks darkly mysterious in his trademark black leather jacket and dark gray t-shirt. I decide not to point out that it's really sunny out.
"Hey," he says shyly, managing a small smile. I grin in return and close the door behind me. "Hi! Shall we go?"
"Yeah," he agrees, walking down the porch steps with me and pointing down the road to where the houses are slowly becoming smaller and less showy. "Let's."
The walk to the Greeves' home is quiet an uneventful, but not the awkward type. We're just too busy looking anywhere but each other--the birds, the trees, the short uneven grass, even the sparkly stuff on the road.
So yeah... 'awkward' is an understatement.
"So..." I begin, finally glancing at him. "Do you have any siblings?"
"One," he answers, looking up from his shoes. "She's turning six in a month."
"Aww, you're lucky," I sigh thoughtfully. "I always wished I had a sister. Older, though."
"Really?" he asks curiously. "I wished I had an older brother."
I start to notice how from two-story houses, the homes are slowly becoming single-story and less bright. Weird... I always pictured Theo as loaded. Sorry, so sue me. "Here we are."
"Here?" I clarify, looking at the single-story house made out of simple white concrete and a peaked shingled roof. There's a single window just below the top of the roof, where I'm guessing one of their rooms are.
I must've sounded surprised and disappointed, because Theo looks back down at his shoes and replies, "Yeah. I know you were probably expecting--"
"No, no, it's really fine. I'm sorry if I must've sounded otherwise," I apologize immediately. Theo manages a small smile before turning the doorknob--
"Big brother!" a high voice squeals from inside. A small girl, probably about half my size, runs out and literally throws herself at Theo, clinging to his neck so tightly that I bet she's choking him.
"H-hi, J-Jessie," Theo sputters and manages to pry the girl's hands from his neck and beaming. I can't help but grin at this adorable brother-sister relationship. I wish I had a sister. Theo gestures to me. "Introduce yourself, kiddo."
"I'm Jessik!" the girl exclaims, giving me a heart-warming-melting smile. Then her eyes widen curiously, she tilts her head, and asks, "Are you Big Brother's girlfriend?"
What?! "Um, n-no," I reply, stunned. Theo looks as shocked as I am, if not completely embarrassed. I bet my ears are totally tomato red.
Jessie cracks up and points to my horror-stricken expression. "You hesitated! You're dating!"
"Jessik! What have you been watching when I'm at school?" Theo demands.
"I only watch Channel 48 and 57!" she points out lamely. Somewhat, Theo looks even more terrified. When I ask why, he exclaims, "That's Star Movie and ETC! That's where they have the most celebrity buzz and gossip!"
He ushers Jessie and I into the house and takes off his jacket, hanging it on a peg by the door. He glances at the clock and tells his sister, "This is Erin West, my friend."
"You mean your girlfriend!" Jessie exclaims. We don't even bother correcting her.
"Anyways, Erin and I are going to work on our project. It's really important, so could you busy yourself with your toys while we get to work? I promise we'll cook your favorite for lunch."
"But you promised me that we were gonna play today!" Jessik whines, pouting stubbornly.
"Yeah, but Rin and I are really busy right now."
"So then we play after you're done! You can't be busy then!" Jessik argues adorably. I can't help but sigh at her cuteness.
"Fine," Theo relents, giving up. He grabs my hand and leads me to the staircase. "Come on, Rin, let's work on this in my room."
Even as we're climbing up the steps higher and higher, I can still hear Jessik chanting 'Girlfriend! Girlfriend!' ten feet below.
"So," I begin, desperate to drown out Jessik's voice, "Where are your parents?" Even as the last word leaves my mouth, I feel like slapping myself for saying something so darn dumb. I mean...
"My mom and dad separated when Jessie was four." He pushes open the door to his room, where I see the same window I saw from outside. "We lived with our dad, and our mom moved away. But then my dad... um... you know."
"Yeah," I agree foolishly. It's all I can do not to clamp a hand over my mouth. Theo does a double take. "Wait, what? What do you mean, 'yeah'?"
"I meant that I know how you feel without a dad," I say quickly. That actually came out more logical than I thought. Well, then again, I am probably the most logical thinker of the Jackets, second maybe to Nikki. Theo just nods and continues.
"And our mom already remarried and wouldn't want to take us back. So now Jessie and I are living by ourselves, using the money our dad managed to leave us," he answers, unable to meet my gaze. "I'm finding ways to earn money, though. Sooner or later our savings are gonna run out, so I'm finding... ways."
I wonder what he means by 'finding ways'? Nothing sleazy, I hope. "Okay, so now let's begin."
Theo's (and Jessik's too, from the looks of it) room is spacious despite its small size, or maybe that's just because the furnishing is minimal. In fact, aside from two beds against the walls perpendicular to each other, there's nothing else except for a desk, trunk and bookshelf. Surprisingly clean too, for a room that houses a six-year-old girl and fifteen-year-old boy.
"Yeah," he agrees dismally, taking out a Les Miserables pocketbook and leafing through it. "So maybe we should concentrate more on the main theme, given the fact that we're supposed to write an essay about what the movie's about."
"Agreed," I say, taking the seat opposite him by the desk. "We should start at the part where Javert mistreated Valjean and whatnot, and include the section where the priest took him in but he turned on him."
"Right," he agrees after a while. "Also..."
For the next hour or so, our world is completely rotating around books, laptop issues, story plots, and irritating hiatuses.
**
"Big brother! Big brother's girlfriend!" a familiar, high-pitched voice exclaims from behind the locked door. "I'm hungry!"
"Your little sister is just. Adorable," I sigh, taking a break from typing. Theo pretends to look horrified. "Don't tell me you're in love with my sister!?"
"Are you kidding me?" I exclaim, rolling my eyes and glancing at the digital clock on my screen.
"You never said no," he teases, raising his eyebrows. I ignore this and tilt my head towards the door. "Nevertheless, it is lunchtime. And we're pretty much done with this thing anyways. I can finish it up at home."
"Are you sure?"
"It's just the conclusive sentence. Don't sweat it," I reassure him, pushing back my chair and standing up. Theo nods in understandment and calls out to his sister. "Be right out, Jessie. Hold your horses!"
We hear resentful humphs and retreating footsteps. I shut down my laptop and slip it into its case, which I sling over my arm. "Okay, let's get cooking."
"I think you should know this..." Theo begins awkwardly as we're walking down the stairs. "I don't cook."
"Then how'd you manage to survive for two whole years?" I counter.
"Take-outs and pizza delivery exist for a reason, you know," he points out.
"Well, let's make a change and have an actual homecooked meal for once," I say.
"Please." He leads me to the kitchen and watches as I take out a package of ground meat, tomato sauce and uncooked pasta. Finally, he speaks up. "What're we making?"
" 'We'?" I clarify, raising an eyebrow. He shrugs, and I reply, "Classic spaghetti and meatballs. If that's okay with you."
"It is!" he exclaims a bit too enthusiastically. Just then, Jessie comes into the kitchen and peers curiously at the ingredients carefully laid out on the kitchen counter. "What is?"
"Spaghetti and meatballs," I repeat for her sake. Jessik looks confused. "You can order that?"
"No, Rin here is gonna cook for us!" Theo answers, smiling.
"Oh!" Jessie exclaims, her mocha eyes glinting with excitement. "Like a real mommy! And you can pretend to be the daddy, Big Brother!"
"Right..." Theo says awkwardly. "Why don't you play in the living room for a while?"
"No, I wanna watch Mommy make lunch!" Jessie argues. Despite the fact that technically, she's saying that Theo and I are married, her cuteness level has just reached an all-time high.
The two siblings watch with wide eyes as I form the meat into balls, boil the spaghetti and mix it together with the sauce. When the meatballs are off from the frying pan, Jessik practically faints. "I wanna taste it! I wanna taste it!"
"Wait," I say, swirling the spaghetti onto a large plate and placing six huge meatballs on top of it. I show them the plastic containers in my hands. "And if you ever want more, there are leftovers in the fridge. Just microwave them."
"Okay, enough of that," Theo cuts in, rubbing his hands together like some evil genius, "Let's eat!"
"You, mister," I say, giving him a disapproving look, "Are going to help me set the table."
We're so busy finding matching placemats that we only barely hear Jessik whispering wistfully in a corer, "So this is what having parents feels like."
My face must've gotten tomato red at least five times within a span of one hour and thirty minutes.
"Let's start!" Jessie exclaims, grabbing her utensils and shoveling a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth. She moans. "Dis is so dood!"
"Really?" I ask, trying a portion. Surprisingly, it turned out much better than I expected. I never actually cooked before, save Home Ec class three years ago, so this is a pleasant shock. Theo mumbles his agreement through a mouthful of spaghetti. "Totally beats Chinese takeout."
"Or Yellow Cab pizza," Jessie adds. "Well, depends on what flavour the pizza is. If you're talking about the nasty kind with anchovies and garlic, then definitely."
I laugh heartily at the little girl's statement. So this is what having is sibling feels like.
**
"Done!" Jessie exclaims, drying her washed plate and adding it to the short stack by the sink. She claps her hands together and gives Theo puppy dog eyes which I thought only Alicia could pull off. "Now can we play?"
"Actually, I'm feeling kinda beat--" Theo tries to reason, but I cut him off with a wag of my finger. "Nah, nah, nah, mister. You promised this kid that you'd play with him."
"Yeah, listen to Mommy!" Jessie adds, which adds another shade to my tomato-colored face.
Theo shoots me a look which obviously reads, 'Now you're turning on me too?!' before sighing in defeat. "Okay, all right. What do you wanna play, kiddo?"
"Tag! Tag!" Jessie exclaims, jumping up and down. No sooner have I nodded agreement does she reach up and tap me on the crook of my elbow before dashing away and screaming, "Tag, you're it!" as she goes.
At first, Theo and I just stare blankly at one another, but then realization slams on him and he nearly falls off his chair, running out of the kitchen.
Before I take off my shoes to prevent tripping accidents, I have to laugh. This family is amazing.
**
"Hehehe! Gotcha!" I exclaim, catching up with Theo as he runs up the staircase. Soon, he reaches a dead end where the hallway stops and turns to face me, arms raised in mock surrender. "Fine! Fine, you win! I'm sorry, just arrest me! Don't hurt the kids, please!"
I crack up and double over, straightening myself only to find him gone, and his laughter quickly disappearing behind me. "I cannot believe it!" I exclaim, chasing him again. "You play so dirty!"
His laughter is suddenly cut short, and he presses a palm over his right ear. I rush to his side. "What happened? Are you all right?"
"Y-yeah, um--" he shoots to his feet and brushes past me. "Give me a sec, okay? I need to... um..." Before finishing his sentence, he slams the door between us, leaving me utterly stunned.
What was that?
**
Oh yeah, I just wanna admit that I sorta died of Jessie cuteness writing this. When the words reached 2000, I was thinking, whoa, it's this long?
Well, hope you enjoyed this!!