Chapter 37 - The Knight's Version of Family Game Night
Kim's POV
"Uh, a... A car?! No, no, a bus! Train! TRAIN! Is it train!?" I screech jumping up and down, while Scott- Asher's dad- stood in the middle of the room acting out his object from the card he drew.
"Yes!" He shouts pointing to me.
"Whoa!" I yell, high fiving him. We're rocking this game, Scott and I are, like, the dream team for charades. I've only missed one guess and he already knew I wasn't going to get it. It was hole puncher! How stupid is that? We've been going on with this for the last forty-five minutes while eating pizza and other finger foods. Over the years I've fitted in with Ash's family that they were practically my second family, or better yet, my actual family. Ever since the start I've gotten close to them, it was easy to.
I watched Bay grab the score board, marking down a point for us, "Ok, our turn!" She sang jumping up and down.
"It's my turn, Bay." Shay shouts, stopping her sister's hand from picking up a card. Bay pouts flopping back on the couch next to Asher and I. Shay giggles happily staring at the card in her hand.
"Ready?" She asks everyone.
"Ready!" We all respond back.
She begins, putting her hands together like she was praying then parted them, searching for something in her hands.
"Book!" Bay yells, eyeing the sand timer we had started. Shay nods, holding up one finger, "One word." Another nod. She pretended to grab hold of something firm, then started biting the air.
"Oh!-" I started then got my mouth clamped shut. Damn it, always happens to me.
"Don't give it away." Asher warns, chuckling as he takes his hand off my mouth. I nod, giggling slightly as I lean back on the couch, watching Shay act it out.
"Bit. Air? A book? Um..." Kelly- Asher's mom- rattled off. Oh my God this is killing me! She started darting from one side of the room to another, then pounced on a pillow biting it, "Animal Kingdom?" I looked at the time, there was barely any time left. I was staring at Kelly's face when it looked like it clicked in her head.
"Times up!" "Twilight!" The parents shouted at the exact same time.
"YES!" Shay shouts, jumping up and down on the couch, "Point! Point!"
"No, no. Timer went out-" Scott argued, looking at his wife seriously. He always took any game seriously.
"I said Twilight-" Kelly disagreed, waging a finger at him.
"Right after the timer went out!" Scott pointed out.
"Right when the timer went off. I just made it!" Both Kelly and Scott argued for some time, and we all watched. I laugh at them, they both are super competitive when they were on opposite teams. It made me laugh when they fought over things like this. We watch in amazement as they went back and forth about this little situation, I thought it was time they stopped so I butted in.
"Come on Scott just let her have the point. We're going to beat them anyways." I chuckle, patting his arm.
He grumbles quietly, replacing it with a chuckle, "Fine have the point."
"Thank you." Kelly smirks, grabbing Bay to kiss her check, "Awesome job, babe!" She compliments, high-fiving her.
"Your turn, Ash." I said sportively, clapping his back.
He takes a deep breath, slipping his arm off from around me, and gets up from off the couch. He grabs the card, chuckling at it, and shaking his head unbelieved, "This is stupid and so easy. Well, I don't know, you might not get it."
"Oh just try me!" I vindicated, sitting on the edge of the couch, prepared and ready to watch.
He chuckles, pointing to Bay to start the timer. He holds up two fingers, "Two words." Scott and I both shout, we gained a nod. He moves his hands in motion telling us it was a movie, "Film." He nodded again. He uses his fingers drawing in the air a simple looking home with a roof and a square, "Home!" We shout again. He nods smiling, sitting on the couch kicking back his feet. What? Hmm, uh. Home. Movie... OH! "HOME ALONE!" We roared standing up from our seats.
"Yes!" Asher nodded high-fiving his father.
"He drew in the air. You can't do that!" Kelly instigated, pointing to Asher.
"It says nothing about drawing in the air in the rules!" Scott defends.
"Yes it does-" Kelly argues.
"Show me this rule book and where it says it. Show me." Scott insists.
They searched through the games boxes looking through for the mini booklet. All the games were scattered around and mixed together. I pulled out my phone Googling: "Rules for Charades."
"Really?" Asher chuckles watching over my shoulder. I nod my head, searching through my phone intently.
"All right I'm settling this right now, Wiki is my friend and it says: 'the actor is allowed to make any gestures other than blatantly spelling out the word. In more stringent sets of rules, indicating anything about the form of the phrase is prohibited, even the number of words, so that only the meaning may be acted out.'
"See! Nothing about drawing. Don't start making up rules to your connivance, Kelly." Scott chuckles calmly.
"Let me see that phone." Kelly insists scrolling through the whole Wiki page to make sure I was tell the truth, "Let's leave this out in case Scott tries to cheat again." She says, shaking her head and leaving the phone on the table.
"Can we play another game?" Shay complains, looking through the other pile of games around the coffee table.
"No! It's my turn!" Bay says worriedly, thinking we'd change the game as she looks pleadingly to her mother.
"Yes, it's Bay's turn. Lets play one more round." Kelly nods to Shay. She sighs, slumping back on the couch with a long tired yawn.
"Sure why not. Even if you get the point you won't win." Scott banters with his wife. She rolls her eyes mockingly at him.
"Scott we play to have fun, not to win." Kelly reminds him. Scott rolls his eye at her, we all knew Scott played to win, no matter what. That's where Asher got his competitive side from, always playing to win.
As Bay picks up a card studding it a bit I leaned into Asher's ear whispering, "You are so much like your dad."
"Am not." He frowns shaking his head.
"Yeah you are." I said determinedly not changing my mind about it.
He rolls his eyes shaking his head at me, still not buying it up. Bay nods her head, ready, as we flipped the timer over. She held up one finger," One word." She nods, motioning her hands for movie, "Movie." She nods, pointing to her palm indicating 'and', putting her hands together like she was praying then opening them up, "Book." Another nod.
She grabs the sides of her pants twirling around, pretending to dance, "Ballerina!" Shay shouts out. She shook her head continuing. She took off one sock running, then dropping it as she took off and pretended to scrub the floors, Asher could tell I was about to explode since I was bouncing on the couch once again. So before I could ruin it he clamped his hand over my mouth chuckling. "CINDERELLA!" the two girl shouted at the same time.
"Yes! Point!" Bay shrieks jumping up and down.
"That was a good one, babe." Kelly encouraged high-fiving Bay.
"All right. The final score is Team Kick-Butt (us) has eight points. Team You're Going Down (the girls) has six points. That was the best game we've played." Scott announces satisfied. It truly was, the girls had a lead for one or two rounds, after I had missed hole puncher! They had missed a couple too like girl's night out and Africa.
"Good game night guys." Kelly said kindly, "And as always, it was nice of you to join us Kimberly."
"Always nice to play games with you guys. You're practically like family to me." I smile helping to clean the games up.
"Mom can we have cookies and milk?" Bay asked from the kitchen.
"Bay its midnight, you're not having cookies and milk." Asher says to her from the kitchen.
"Why? Please!" They whine pouting their bottom lip to Asher as I walk into the kitchen.
"Come on girls, it's way past your bedtime. You can have cookies and milk tomorrow." Kelly says, clapping her hands and ushering them to the stair case. "Good night you two. I'll see you in the morning." Kelly says to us before she follows the girls up leaving us alone in the kitchen.
I sigh, sitting next to Asher on top of the counter top, swinging our legs so they hit each other's. Just thinking about the time now made me exhausted. Asher's arms snaked around my waist, as I let out a deep yawn, "Tired babe?"
"Babe?" I mumble scrunching up my nose. I never really liked the nick name babe. It just seemed so... Middle school now. Asher calling me babe, though, felt different. As if when he said it now we were, like, a real couple instead of being best friends.
"What?" He questions back.
"Uh... nothing." I sigh, feeling too tired to talk, "Are we going to go back to my house?"
"Ugh, why?" He grumbles, sleepily.
"I don't know, I thought you would want to." I shrug hearing footsteps coming closer.
"Hey kids. Don't sleep on the counters." Scott chuckles, opening the fridge taking out one of the kids juice box.
"We're not. Still want me to take you home?" He asks, running the tips of his fingers down my spine, sending shivers down with it.
"You don't have to drive all the way home. Just stay for the night, Kim." Scott suggests. Asher turns, looking at me carefully, as if trying not to jump to the offer too quickly, "Oh just say yes. I know you two kids too well, you'll end up sleeping in the same bed together anyways. Just take the offer and go, you two silly love birds." He chuckles, sucking on the juice box until he was sucking air.
Scott had always joked about Asher and I's relationship and how inseparable we are. It was no surprise that he again poked fun and made a comment about us. I just felt a bit squirmy though, because of the awkward, official, but unofficial place are relationship is in.
"Please, don't give me that look. I was a teen once. It's about damn time that you two finally came together. I was hoping it didn't take this long though." He chuckles lightly shaking his head. He threw away the juice box turning to the fridge for another, giving me enough time to look at Asher, worriedly.
"What if all your jokes about us dad came true one day?" Asher questions subtly.
"Well then I'd say it's about damn time." Scott laughs, turning back to us as he pierces the straw into the juice box.
"Would I still get to sleep in the bed?" I tease, slightly embarrassed for speaking out loud.
Both boys snickered humorously at me, breaking the lovely silence that we created, "Of course you can, Kimberly. Hopefully I'm right -like I always am- and you won't do something stupid."
We nod our heads seriously, hearing footsteps coming into the kitchen. Kelly put her hands on her hips looking at Scott, "Why are you drinking the girls' juice box?"
"Tastes good after a victory of charades." He gloats, sucking it all down again until there was nothing left, "Kimberly is staying for the night." Scott nods to our direction, "Say, what do you think if the two of them were more than friends some day?"
I couldn't help but feel awkward with being put on the spot, and my cheeks turning red. Yet, Kelly turned to us, a smirk on her face, "Well, I think I'd be pretty damn happy for the both of them." She nods her head to the both of us and smiles, waving her hand for me to follow, "Come on Kimberly, I'll grab you a towel so you can shower."
I nod, following command, and walking up the stairs quietly until we stand in the hall way, in front of the linen closet. Kelly grabs a fluffy white towel for me, holding it between my hands, "So is that what you two have decided?" She asks me.
"Yeah, I, uh, I guess so." I nod, digging my fingers into the towel.
"You seem wary though. Why?" She wonders, letting go of the towel.
"Remember that boy that was over on Thanksgiving?" I ask her. She nods her head, so I continue, "We're together, right now too. And I'm happy, I was happy with him the whole time and it really gave me the chance to move on from Asher and convince myself we would never be anything but friends. I feel horrible, because he's away on holiday, and when he comes back I have to break up with him, tell him about all this, and it'll seem like I'm jumping from one guy to another. I never once asked or hinted to Asher to break up with a girl because I wanted him or had feelings for him, and I would never ask him to; but that's what he did to me and now I just keep thinking about it and where we stand, and I'd hate if a guy did that to me." I said it all to Kelly because in that moment it all became clear to me.
Talking about where Ash and I were in this "relationship" and why we aren't officially together made me suddenly think about Spencer and his feelings. If I could put myself in Spencer shoes, and have to face a break up right when I came home, and watch him move on with another girl, I think I'd be even more heart broken. I'd be devastated.
"But I love Asher, and I always have. All I can think though is, what if this is my only opportunity? What if this is the only time I can have my chance with Asher before he moves on to another girl?" Before I could continue on, Kelly stopped me.
"If you're not ready, tell him that. If he truly does feel the same way about you, Kim, then he would wait for you too and respect your decision. You waited this long for him, he should be able to wait as long as it takes you." Kelly tells me, and she's right. "It was wrong for him to come out of nowhere, and especially when you are in a happy committed relationship."
"Yeah, yeah I know, but I don't think he knows that. Guys don't get that kind of stuff." I tell her, hugging the towel to my chest.
"Guys don't understand a lot of stuff, we've got to teach them. Heaven's sake, Scott still hasn't figured it out that he should bring me flowers on my birthday or any special day. Don't know how many times I've told him, hinted to him, or had the girls hint to him!" She laughs, squeezing my shoulder, "But hopefully one day it'll all make sense to them. Hopefully not twenty years, but eventually."
We laugh quietly, careful not to wake up the girls. I head to the shower and it wasn't until I was in the shower washing up when I realized I didn't bring my clothes in the bathroom with me. Damn. I took a nice long hot shower, washing my hair and scrubbing my body.
I wrapped a towel around me and walked out to his room and in his closet. I knew I put a set of clothes somewhere in here. As I scavenged around I only found a pair of black spandex shorts that I forgot I even had. I couldn't find a shirt so I just grab on of Asher's baseball tees that he rarely wore. I slipped on the shirt, which hit about mid-thigh so it covered the shorts I was wearing, so it looked like I had none!
I looked in the small mirror he had in his closet, and pulled my hair into a pony tail. Deciding I'd just stay in the room and pretend that I passed out, instead of going downstairs looking like I'm just wearing a shirt. That is, until Asher comes out of nowhere and scares the shit out of me.
"Asher Michael, you... that's not funny!" I whisper shouted, slapping him playfully on the chest. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest.
"I got you go didn't I?" He laughs satisfied as he wrapped an arm around my waist and squeezes me into an uncomfortable hug.
I roll my eyes at him, drying my hair with the towel I dropped on the ground, "Where has all my clothes gone?" I ask skeptically wondering if the long stares up and down my body had anything to do with it.
"Mm, I don't know. Maybe my mom found it and put it in the wash." He shrugged, taking off his shirt and walking in the bathroom.
"Did she now?" I banter. Why would Kelly go through Asher's closet and look for my clothes to wash? She would be looking for dirty clothes in the basket, not in the draws.
"Yeah. I believe so." I heard him chuckling to himself as he hopped in the shower. It bugged me staying in his room, it was never as neat as mine. So every time when he wasn't looking or here I would rampage his room, cleaning as much as I could.
I heard the shower stop, so I jumped on his bed turning on the TV, "What you watching, Kimmy bear?"
"Kimmy bear?" I question, turning my nose up at the nickname.
"Yeah I don't like the sound of that one either." He agrees softly to himself, going into his closet.
"There's nothing good on to watch." I mumble, flipping through all my usual channels and then the movie ones.
"Want to put in a movie?" He offers curling up beside me, resting his head on my stomach, and laying sideways on his bed.
"Whatever you want, I'm going to end up passing out anyways." I yawned, feeling warm with him this close to me. He flipped on the sports channel, which made me drift off without even knowing it.
Later I felt him move me so that I was laying down under the covers, still next to him. The room became dark, and the noise from the TV ended. He kissed the side of my temple, nuzzling his face in the crook of my neck and whispered, "Good night, Kimmy."
"Night, Ashy." I mumbled falling back asleep by his side.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comment. Vote. FAN! Love you all! Thanks!- <3Ky&Kels:)