It was Wednesday, the beginning of Thanksgiving holidays and I was splayed out on the couch, watching a re-run of my second favourite show, The Flash, an Arrow spin-off. I heard the shuffling of feet and then Jace dumped his annoying ass down next to my toes.
"What are we watching?"
"I'm watching The Flash."
"Men in underwear? Really, Chloe?"
"That's Superman, you goon."
"You're such a geek."
"I know and I'm proud of it," I said, trying to ignore Jace's presence by focusing on the über cute Barry Allen. Why couldn't hot science guys like that go to my school? Why were the hot guys always doomed to be jocks and assholes? Except Caleb, of course, he was the exception to the stereotypic rule. He was pretty much the exception to every rule in the high school male species handbook. He was cute, sweet and into science. If you left out the fact that he had spent most of this semester bailing on me whenever we had made plans and was incredibly unwilling to share his life, then he was perfect. Minor kinks of course.
"I think football's on," Jace muttered after about five minutes. He reached for the remote on the coffee table, but I was quick and grabbed it before he could. Clutching it close to my chest.
"Hey!" He complained.
"Hey yourself, I was here first."
"You got to learn how to share, Chloe," Jace said, practically climbing on top of me as he was grasping for the remote that I was holding out behind me. "Besides, I lived here first."
"I'm currently and unwillingly sharing this couch, isn't that enough?" I groaned loudly as he elbowed me in my lower abdomen. "Go and watch football on your own TV!"
"Don't tell me what to do."
"God, you're such a pain."
"Only girls with crushes on me call me God."
"Yeah well, I guess I didn't get the memo."
Jace stopped struggling to get the remote.
"So now that you know, will you still call me that?" He was lying sprawled out on top of me, which neither of us had really noticed until now. His arms rested on either side of my face, supporting his weight. I felt one of his legs between mine, resting against my thighs. Both of us were breathing hard.
It was really difficult to focus when Jace Jones' face was less than a foot away, as I had experienced before. His blue eyes lured me in, like a siren's song to a lost seaman. All my senses were on red alert, my heart pounding like a maniac, even more so when I felt something hard pressing against my thigh. Suddenly Caleb's face appeared at the forefront of my mind and I shoved Jace hard to get him to move.
"Get off me you tool," I said, untangling myself from his arms and legs and whatever else was in my way. I stood up, panting.
"You need a better insult vocab, you know," Jace said, looking all too comfortable stretched out on the couch.
"Screw you. How's that?"
"Better."
I avoided any further confrontation and left the cocky boy to watch his sports. As I left the living room he called out: "You know, you didn't answer my question."
"You're an ass, Jace," I yelled back.
"It's an improvement, but I know you can do better!"
I escaped outside.
It was so quiet and peaceful. I wrapped my jacket around me. It had gotten chilly in the month of November. To think, in only one month from now, this spacious estate would be filled with friends and family for the wedding.
The reception was taking place in the newly renovated function room, as well as a large tent that would be set up in the backyard. The location of the wedding ceremony was still under talks; mom wanted it in the outside tent, but Patrick told her to think about the weather and how cold it would become.
I had a feeling mom would get her way.
I was so happy for my mom, but truth be told, I couldn't wait for all this wedding stuff to be over. She wanted us all to come to the cake tasting with her next week and hey, I'm not saying I don't love cake as much as the next person because I do, probably more than I should, but a girl can only handle so much wedding crap when it's not her own wedding. Not that I wanted to get married, well I did, but not now or anywhere soon.
Zeus came running towards me from the terrace, tongue hanging out and teeth bared in a canine grin. I crouched down and he barreled towards me and just at the right time, before crashing into me, he leaped and I caught him in my arms.
"Hey you furry thing," I cooed, nuzzling him close to me as he tried to wash my face with his tongue. He was having the time of his life here, having so much space to run around in. I could really tell that he loved it.
Despite never having owned a dog, from what he had told me, Jace handled my tiny precious baby with enormous care and I would find them playing outside several times during the week. Zeus didn't care that the human he played with was an arrogant and self-centered jerk, not as long as he had someone throw a stick for him to chase after.
"Honey!" I turned around at the sound of my mother's voice, letting down Zeus as he started to struggle against my grip. He sped across the yard towards my mom.
"Are you coming in to help me with the food preparations?"
"Be right there, mom," I called back. With one last glance at the pine forest shielding the lake from view, I trotted across the neatly trimmed grass, back towards the house.
"Good." my mother said as I entered the kitchen. There were stuff everywhere. Boxes of food, containers and wrappings were scattered around on every available surface of the large kitchen.
"Grab an apron in the cupboard and get started on the vegetables."
"Aye aye captain," I saluted and went to work. I knew my mother wanted a perfect Thanksgiving this year, as one big happy family. Also, it was the first time my grandparents were coming to visit the Jones'. Which posed another problem - my grandfather hated rich people, especially those who flaunted their money in other people's faces, with their fancy cars, fancy houses and fancy everything.
Patrick had met my grandfather a couple of times before, but always on neutral grounds, like in restaurants or even at our old house. This time, it would be a whole different scenario. He would be up close and personal with Patrick's wealth.
"So," I slowly said, as I began chopping up carrots. "When are Gramps and Gran flying in?" I eyed my mother, looking for any signs of unease or anxiety on facing tomorrow and the problems it would no doubt bring.
"They should be at the airport around nine am," she said calmly, her back turned to me.
"Are you picking them up?"
"Patrick is, actually." My knife nearly missed the carrot and the slicing came out completely uneven.
Oh boy, that car ride could not end well.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, I can pick them up if you want? I wouldn't mind," I offered sincerely. My mother put down the spoon she had in her hand and turned to me, her face apologetic.
"Patrick offered to get them. He said it would be nice to have some alone time with my parents." The way her voice carried out her words, it was clear she was not at all happy about it. She knew perfectly well that grandpa, her father, would make that thirty-minute journey from the airport a living hell for Patrick.
"Right, because last time they spent two minutes together and look how that turned out."
Last time, a family outing to a swag new restaurant down town had resulted in grandpa Harry turning on his heels the minute he laid eyes on the menu prices. He was far too old school to be comfortable with Patrick spending so much money on those tiny portions of food. He was practically outraged. It took my grandmother ten minutes to calm him down enough to suggest an alternative - Olive Garden - Grandpa was down with that.
"Oh Chloe, your grandpa is not that bad, he's just not used to this kind of lifestyle. Neither were you, I remind you." She wagged a finger at me, and my eyebrows rose automatically.
"Neither was nor am I still," I replied, blowing an errand strand of red hair away from my eyes.
"But you don't seem to have a problem with it like grandpa."
"Aha! So you admit he has a problem with Patrick."
"Not with Patrick per say, just with his money."
"Who has got a problem with my dad's money?" Jace sauntered into the kitchen and grabbing a sparkly green apple he seated himself on a bar stool by the island, opposite me and my chopping board full of veggies. Great.
"Chloe and I were just talking about my parents," my mom said, smiling politely at her future stepson. "It's nothing you need to worry about, dear." Ew. I doubt I'd ever get used to my mom calling him words of affection.
"Ah, that's right, the famous Harry Martin is joining us tomorrow. Should I go and hide the silverware?" A dry laugh erupted from my throat, but as Jace looked enquiringly at me I covered it up with a cough.
"You alright there, sis?" Jace took a large bite of his apple, making me avert my eyes to the chopping board.
"Just peachy, bro," I replied.
"Alright you two, enough chit chat; I need all this food prepared so that I don't have to worry about it tonight. So chop chop." My mother clapped her hands and before I knew it, I turned to Jace and rolled my eyes, causing a smile to appear on his face. Damn it. I went back to chopping carrots.
"Jace, if you want to help, you can go and fill up the refrigerator in the wine cellar with sodas and beer."
"Sure thing, Karen." Jace jumped off his stool and left the room. Finally.
"You two doing alright?" I felt my mom's eyes trained on my back.
"Yeah, nothing has really changed, so we're just A-Okay." I tried not to let sarcasm take over, but didn't do a very good job.
"I don't understand why you two aren't better friends; Jace is a great guy and you have a lot more in common than you might think." A Jace lecture from my mom? No thanks.
"I thought you said no more chit chat... Chop chop," I muttered, keeping my emotions under lock and key.
"Fine, but don't think I haven't noticed the subtle changes around here."
I turned around, knife in hand.
"What changes, mom? I hated him then and I still do. Nothing has changed." She did not look convinced. Was I even convinced?
"Okay okay, maybe hate is too strong a word. We just aren't compatible. How's that?"
"You have changed, Chloe. Since we moved in you are acting different. Both good and bad."
"That's not because of Jace."
"Then who is it?"
Oh crap. I walked right into that one. I guess I could lie and make something up, or I could fess up and tell my mom about Caleb. Perhaps she could help, in her own weird mom way.
"There's this guy," I started, but was interrupted by my mother's outburst.
"I knew it!"
"Right okay, can I continue?" I asked, putting down the knife on the table. My mother nodded, keeping her mouth closed.
"His name is Caleb, he's in a few of my classes and for the past couple of weeks, I guess we've sorta been going out, if you can even call it that." My mother's face lit up like a sunbeam and was about to envelope me in one of her bone-breaking hugs, but I put up a hand to stop her, indicating there was more to be told.
So I did. I told her the whole story, from the moment we had first talked, to him ditching me at the football game and the party afterwards, making it up to me, then ditching me again at the Halloween dance, making it up to me again. Right up to when I had finally plucked up the courage to kiss him in the dog park.
I stopped talking and silence wrapped around us for a moment.
"Oh honey, it sounds to me like you have found yourself a boy with a lot of personal problems on his hands. But that doesn't mean you can just quit on him, not if you really care about him, which it sounds to me like you do."
"So what do you think I should do? I can't keep letting him bail on me. It kind of sucks and also, it hurts."
I let my mother pull me into a hug this time, suddenly needing the closeness and comfort that she provided.
"I can't tell you what to do, sweetheart. You have to come up with an answer to that yourself. But what I can say is that I think you should invite him to the wedding."
"I've thought about that as well. But what if he says yes and then stands me up again?"
"If he cares about you as well, this is the best way to prove it. Give him an ultimatum - come to the wedding or stay away for good."