As soon as I step into Williams' Manor, I know something is different. I smell the one thing that only one person I know makes perfectly.
"GRANDMA!" I run into the kitchen like a mad woman and see my Grandma happily whisking away.
"My sweet, Ara," Grandma walks over and hugs me tightly.
"Grandma!" I hear Thomas behind me and I let go of her so everyone can get a turn. I walk over to the already done cookies and inhale the heavenly sent. Grandma's secret recipe that nobody will ever know. Her cookies literally are the best thing I've ever tasted.
"Who are these beautiful young people?" Grandma asks, "you must be Lucy. Your darling sister, Emily, told me so much about you."
Grandma hugs Lucy tightly and Lucy closes her eyes and returns the hug.
"It's an honor to meet you, Lucy," Grandma smiles at her. Lucy has slight tears in her eyes as she thanks Grandma and steps back.
"Now, I assume the two boys I don't know are William and Colton, yes? Grandma asks.
Will laughs, "hi, yes I'm Will and that's Cole and we're very happy to have you here."
Grandma hugs Will tightly, "I want to thank you for everything you have done for my children, you may have saved them."
Grandma hugs Cole too and he looks surprised but returns the hug quickly, "you are very welcome."
Cole's eyes lock onto mine and I feel my temperature rising. I whirl around and face the cookies.
"Can I have one Grandma?" I beg with my no fail puppy dog eyes. Grandma sighs.
"Alright, each of you may have one now, the rest will be for after dinner," Grandma steps back as we all rush to the gooey goodness.
I moan in delight as I take the first bite. I watch my friends take their first bites of Grandma's cookies. You never forget your first bite.
"I smell cookies," Grandpa announces as he steps into the kitchen and kisses Grandma on the cheek.
"You always appear after the work is done," Grandma teases him.
"It's a gift, my dear," Grandpa smiles as he takes a hefty bite of one of her cookies, "there, that's the good stuff."
"I'm sure you lot have homework, shoo, I have more to bake and your lovely Chef has welcomed me kindly into the kitchen," Grandma smiles at him.
"The more the merrier, I always say," Chef smiles.
I grab my backpack and make my way to my room. Lucy and Will have disappeared to their room, as have everyone else.
I finish my homework quickly and stare up at the ceiling. An idea hits me for Jason's birthday present.
I make my way to Cole's studio to see if he's in there. Much to my satisfaction, he is.
Cole looks up when I enter and then he returns to what he's doing.
I quietly walk over to see him painting scenery.
"Can I commission you to make something?" I ask, cautiously.
Cole looks nervous but recovers quickly as always. He sucks in his breath and says, "it's gonna cost ya. When do you want it by?"
"Friday?" I ask. Cole deliberates and nods his head.
"I might be able to make it work. What do you want, exactly?" Cole asks.
I describe my idea to him and he says he has a clear vision of what he's going to paint. Glancing around his other paintings, I know whatever he imagines will be better than anything I could.
"So, how much?" I ask him as I sit in my regular stool.
"No, Ara, I was joking I don't want any money from you," Cole says as he removes the canvas he was working on in favor of a blank one. It's crazy to think that each and every single one of his masterpieces began as a blank canvas. As nothing. And he made them something.
"I want to repay you in some way," I press.
"Fine, I'll think of something. For now you can just keep me company," Cole says and smiles at me.
It's just like before when he was painting me but now I can move and dance around to the music while he's painting. I love this feeling. When it's just him and me. In our own world. We're both in our elements. We're both free.
When it's time for Jason's birthday celebration, we gather everyone outside. The staff had set up earlier. Twinkling lights glow, hanging from the trees in the backyard. A large white tent covers a majestic rug and dozens of beautiful throw pillows. There's a microphone set up on a mini stage because Grandpa wants to convince Jason to perform something tonight. We told Jason to bring any friends from college and he said a few might stop by.
Jason comes home around 6, bringing five friends. There's the familiar faces, Todd and Elliot, then two girls he introduces as Kaitlin and Claire, and the the other guy is Logan.
"Hey Ara," Todd not so subtly winks at me. Jason shoves him automatically and one of the girls, Kaitlin, shoots me a glare. Great.
"Jason," Grandma makes her way forward and Jason happily hugs Grandma.
"I didn't know you were coming! Weren't you in Japan?" Jason asks.
"I couldn't miss my grand baby's twentieth birthday, could I? I took the week off, I needed to see my kids with my own two eyes, after everything that's happened," Grandma glances at me sadly before shaking her head and continuing, "but tonight we celebrate the gift to the world that is you, Jason."
Grandpa gives Jason a set of keys and tells him it is past time he has a 'bachelors' car. We go to the garage, where Will told him to keep it, and I have no idea what it's called but it's a very nice car. A very, very nice car.
"That's a Lamborghini," Todd whispers, breaking the silence.
"That's not just any Lamborghini, it's the Reventon," Eliot adds.
"Cost a lot of money," Cole whispers so that only I can hear.
"How much money?" I ask Cole.
"How much do you think it is, keeping in mind that it's ridiculously expensive," Cole says.
"A hundred thousand?" I ask. Cole laughs and shakes his head.
"Much higher," he says.
"I'm sorry, I'm not very good at 'The Price is Right', um, a million dollars?" I ask.
Cole slowly lifts his hand and I see four fingers pointed up.
"Four million dollars? For a car?" I ask, in shock.
Cole nods his head, "my grandpa's an auto mechanic, I know my way around a car but this one, whew, I wouldn't know where to start."
Is it sad to say that from that entire sentence, all I got was that he knows how to work a car. Which I find incredibly hot. Conceal don't feel, this is Jason's birthday, activate plan stop raging teenage hormones.
"I cannot possibly accept this type of car, Grandpa," Jason says, staring at the car incredulously.
"Why not?" Grandpa pouts, causing me to stifle a laugh at the ridiculous expression.
"For starters, how am I supposed to drive all of us around. I think like two people can fit in it," Jason stares at it in shock.
"Jase, we can talk about this later and we will, I promise you, but I have plans for this car and for you. Let's go back and enjoy your party, huh?" Grandpa says.
"Ok, thank you Grandpa, for everything," Jason hugs him.
"Jason, take care of yourself for a while, I've got everyone else for now. Enjoy your birthday, you deserve it." Grandpa says.
We head back inside and then outside to the set up.
Chef brings out Jason's favorite food, Chinese food, and we feast on it and then cake. Grandma's cake is also amazing, as always.
Grandpa finally convinces Jason to play something for us and when Jason steps on the stage I get excited. I haven't heard Jason play, honest to god play, in too long. And he is a god of music.
All of his instruments are outside so he grabs the cello to start. He plays a piece so beautiful I start to cry. You can feel the emotions in every single note. I want to glance around and gage other people reactions but my eyes are transfixed on Jason.
When he's done with the cello, we applaud and cheer and he moves on to play the new guitar Ryder got him.
"What do you wanna hear?" Jason asks into the mic.
"Riff it bro," Ryder calls out and Jason laughs, smiles and nods.
Jason's musical genius shines through when he just plays. We call it 'Riff it bro' and it's where Jason just lets go and plays and sings whatever comes to him. It's purely amazing.
I force myself to pry my eyes away from my brother and watch everyone is on the edge of their seats. Grandpa looks like he's died and gone to heaven early, Grandma looks incredibly proud, my brothers look so happy, my friends look amazed, Jason's friends look astounded. Todd and Elliot both have their mouths hanging open and the girls, Claire in particular, is hanging on to every single thing Jase does.
I look back and forth between her and Jase and notice he's looking at her too. I smile and hope this will work out for him. He deserves the world and more and I hope she can give it to him.
My eyes finally make their way to Cole and I find him watching me. We stare at each other for a minute and everything else fades away. The twinkling lights makes his face glow.
He reaches over and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, "you are so beautiful."
I'm so gone. Every nerve in my body is exploding. I blush and look up and watch Jason. When he finishes, we jump to our feet and applaud and cheer.
Grandpa makes his way over to probably talk Jase into a record deal again. I have a mission of my own. I make my way over to Claire.
"Hey, Claire, can I talk to you?" I ask. She looks at me nervously and smiles.
"Yeah, of course," she says. I lead her in a walk around the garden, Marcus faithfully trailing behind me.
"Is he supposed to follow us?" she asks.
I laugh, "yeah, he's my bodyguard."
"Oh, right, I heard about what almost happened, well everyone has, and I'm so sorry. Jase's told me so much about you, Ara, and none of you deserve what's happening," Claire says. I look into her eyes and see that she's being honest. She actually cares.
"Thank you, Claire, that means a lot," I say. She smiles and looks to the ground nervously.
"So, you and Jason, huh?" I tease her and she starts coughing. We stop waking and she regains her breath.
"What?" she asks with wide eyes.
"You guys can't tear your eyes off of each other, " I note.
"He's, um, he's great, an amazing performer, better than anyone else I've ever seen," she says. She gets a faraway look in her eyes as she talks about him.
"Claire," I stop walking and face her, "I'm quick to judge people, it's just how life's hardened me, I guess, and I only feel good things towards you. If you like my brother, and I'm fairly certain you do, will you make a move? For all the things Jason is, he can certainly be incredibly dense when it comes to himself.
"If you're worried about getting hurt by Jason, don't. He would never hurt you. He is literally the most selfless person in existence, he is not physically capable of hurting you. Just be good to him, please? He deserves to be happy. He practically raised me and my brothers, and he's only a few years older than me. He really deserves to be happy, and I think you could make him happy," I watch her face as she soaks in every word and I know that I made the right decision with her. She, like Jason, is a good person. They'll be good together.
"Thank you, Ara," she hugs me, "for your blessing, I guess. You are the most important girl in the world to Jason, I was so nervous about meeting you. I didn't know if you'd hate me and then if you did then Jason would hate me and I couldn't handle-" she cuts herself off, "thank you."
We continue walking around the garden for a while, talking about everything and I genuinely grow attached to Claire. We exchange numbers and plan to hang out sometime soon. We make our way back to the party where Grandpa is sulking. I push Claire in Jason's direction and sit by Grandpa.
"I take it Jason refused again?" I say.
"Yes," Grandpa bitterly replies, "he says he wants to wait until he's done with school and all of your futures are set and taken care of."
My heart melts, "and you still want to sign all of us?"
"Nothing would make me happier, Ara," Grandpa sighs, "but I will wait until you're done with school."
"You'll survive," I lean against his arm.
"Barely," he spits, "stupid education."
Unedited but I wanted to do Jason's birthday (party's coming soon) and introduce Grandma!! I love you all and thank you so so so so much for reading. I'll update when I can! This story has got a long way to go.