Not much happens in this chapter, but it's got some necessary background stuff...so yeah, it's pretty blah. Next chapter will be much more exciting! Promise! Don't forget to vote and comment!
Chapter 5- Boom
~Josh~
I'd never heard the tone of utter despair in Jake's voice before. It terrified me.
"What's gone Jake? What's wrong?!" My voice rose to a near-scream at the end. I felt like I was on fire; adrenaline pumped through my veins, making my heart race and my palms sweat.
"The..." He sank to his knees in the doorway, his eyes facing the room, but unseeing. "The..."
I held my breath, knowing there was nothing I could do but wait for him to reveal the news when he was able. Behind me the bacon started to smoke, forgotten in the pan as we all watched and waited for Jake to spit it out.
"The kitchen," he finally said, bowing his head in defeat.
"The...kitchen?" Laney asked, confusion overriding any sense of concern in her voice.
"All that food...gone. Just gone." Jake was shaking his head now, eyes closed and shoulders slumped.
No one made a further move to speak, so I walked over and knelt next to him on the floor. "Jake, you have to tell us what's going on. You're freaking us all out." My heart was still racing and I really was still worried, but I was beginning to have a suspicion...
He opened his eyes when I put my hand on his shoulder, gaze still unfocused as if he was only seeing what was going on inside his own head.
"It burned down. The whole kitchen. Poof! Gone in a flash of flambé gone wrong."
Understanding dawned and I reached up to shake him by the shoulders, forcing him to focus and look me in the eyes. "Hey! You need to focus! Was anyone hurt? Is the rest of the house o.k.?"
A single tear formed and fell down his cheek. "Just the kitchen. Oh GOD—" he shoved me away and surged to his feet. "The Girl Scout cookies! The pudding pops! The mother fucking Oreos! What am I going to do?! How am I going to survive? I'll starve! I won't make it past Tuesday!"
Just what I thought. Jake was being a drama queen again. Brad was the only one still showing any signs of concern, and I wasn't one hundred percent sure I wasn't misreading his expression as annoyance at the racket Jake was making. I sighed, decided it was better to just ignore him at this point and go help Sunny and Trip salvage the burning food.
When Jake stopped his theatrics long enough to realize no one was paying attention to him anymore, he stomped over to the kitchen in a huff.
"Hey! Do none of you have a heart? Does no one have an ounce of sympathy for me after my house literally just burned down? What is wrong with you people?" He looked genuinely indignant.
"You just said it was just your kitchen and no one was hurt," Trip stated, dishing the extra-crunchy bacon onto paper plates.
"Did you miss the part where I said all the food is gone? It's kind of a big deal!" Jake threw his hands in the air. "I'm homeless for the foreseeable future and I can't get even an ounce of sympathy from my supposed friends. You guys suck."
"Wait a minute. What do you mean you're homeless? Was the rest of the house on fire too?" I asked with renewed concern. Way to bury the lead, Jake.
"No, but we can't live there while they do the renovations. There's a hole in the house where the kitchen used to be and smoke damage on the ground floor."
I should have known from the moment he threw open the door that nothing was seriously wrong. Jake was an attention whore, but if something truly tragic happened I had a feeling he would withdraw into himself rather than shout it from the rooftops for all to hear.
Catelynn and Bria came out of their bedroom then and Jake managed to relay the news without the superfluous drama.
"Where are you going to go until it's fixed?" Bria asked.
"My parents are staying in a hotel, Anna's staying with one of her little friends, and I..." he turned to me and placed his hands under his chin in a praying gesture, "am staying with Josh?"
My eyebrows shot up. He wanted to stay with me? For an unspecified amount of time? He hadn't spent so much as a night at my house since we were fourteen. After I came out to my parents in seventh grade they were totally cool about it, but I could tell the thought of me having guys stay over freaked them out, so I'd just stopped inviting anyone. I spent a year making excuses to Jake why he couldn't come over until he finally quit asking. And now he was asking to basically move in with me?
I stared at him. At his hopeful, pleading eyes. None of the old excuses were coming to mind. I couldn't think of a single thing to say. Did I want him to stay with me? Yes. Did I want to wake up in the same bed as him every morning, tangled together like we were thirty minutes ago? Hell yes. But also no, because it was bound to end in disaster. There was no way he wouldn't discover my secret eventually.
"Pleeaaasssseee Josh?"
His whining snapped me out of my thoughts and I drew in a breath. "I'll have to ask my parents..."
He grabbed my phone off the kitchen counter and shoved it in my face before I could blink. "Great! They love me, they'll say yes."
He was right. My parents did love Jake. Mostly, I think, because they knew I did, but also because he was a total kiss-ass. Parents, teachers, coaches—pretty much all adults loved him. My only hope, or dread—I wasn't entirely sure which—was that they'd say no because of the whole "no members of the opposite sex allowed in your bedrooms" rule. Except, reversed for me, obviously.
I grabbed a piece of bacon and went on to the porch to make the call. Mom picked up on the third ring, and I could hear music and water gurgling in the background. She must be laying out by the pool.
"Hey baby, how's your trip?"
"It's fine. Um, I have a question."
"O.k. Shoot."
"O.k., so Jake's kitchen sort of burned down and he needs a place to stay for a while until it all gets fixed and he asked if he could stay with me but I figured you'd say no since we're not allowed to have people in our rooms that we might, um, you know, and so I'll just go tell him you said no because we're having family problems or something o.k. bye," I spit out in one breath.
"Wait, did you say his kitchen burned down?"
"Um, yeah. Apparently there was a flambé incident. He didn't really explain."
Mom gasped. "That poor child! Of course he can stay with us. I'll call Beverly right now and work out the details."
"But...what about the rules? I thought we couldn't have people in our rooms that we might...you know." I could feel myself blushing. I hadn't felt this awkward talking to my mom since the time she made me watch Rent with her and then gave me a lecture afterwards about AIDS.
She sighed. "Well, I don't like to have a double standard, but it's not like you can get him pregnant Josh. That's pretty much the point of that rule. And I hate to say this to you because I know how you feel about him, but the fact of the matter is that he's straight and nothing is going to happen between you anyway. I think this might actually be a good chance for you to see that and move on. You should be out dating boys who can like you back. It hurts me to see you wasting your youth pining after a boy who won't ever reciprocate your feelings."
I felt my heart drop to my stomach. Was that really what she thought about me? That I was some pathetic loser in love with someone I never had a chance with?
She continued as if she hadn't just ripped my heart right out of my chest. "Go tell him we'd be happy to have him. What time do you plan on coming home today?"
I tossed the untouched piece of bacon to the ground and rubbed my temples, a dull throb joining the knot in my stomach and the ache in my chest. "We'll probably leave in an hour, be back around two." I didn't know what else to say to her. Telling her how much her words hurt would only make her feel bad too.
"Your dad's at work and I'm picking Clay up from camp today at noon, so we may not be home when you get there. Give Jake the spare key under the mat and make sure you tell him the alarm code and show him where the towels and washcloths are. Why don't I cook chicken and dumplings tonight? Is that still his favorite?"
"Sure, I guess."
"I might need you to run to the store for me later. I'll text you a list."
"Might" was Mom-code for "definitely will." "O.k., bye."
"Love you."
I just grunted and hung up. She could interpret that however she wanted. I wasn't really in the mood to placate the woman after her harsh little "reality check."
I stayed on the porch for a few more minutes, just staring at the river and trying to convince myself Mom was wrong, that there was a possibility, however slim, that Jake could return my feelings. Then him moaning "mmmm, Laney" would pop into my head and crush my hope all over again.
When I walked back inside I felt déjà vu from yesterday. Everyone in the kitchen was staring at Jake in a combination of fascination and horror as he stood there in his boxers drinking the pickle juice straight from the jar. Poor Hunter looked sorry he had returned from the bathroom and was on the verge of going right back to it.
I cleared my throat. "So...I guess we're going to be roommates for a while."
Jake grinned, a dribble of pickle juice falling down his chin. "Excellent!"
That was one word for it...just not the one I'd use.