We often did our homework as a family (odd I know) in the dining room or family room. Most of the time I would try to complete mine quickly, so I could help Drake in the kitchen with dinner. Drake generally waited until after dinner to do his. On the rare occasions that he felt overloaded with it, he would order take out. Will had given him a bank card for that purpose.
Drake loved cooking and didn’t mind being the person to do all the grocery shopping and meal preps. He almost treated it like a business. The menu for the week was posted by the fridge on the bulletin board. Another separate sheet had the list of groceries for the next shopping trip. Everyone would write in a request for meals or groceries on a separate piece of paper. He tried to make everyone happy, but on occasion he would flat out refuse. Like when Jemmy would write ‘chicken fingers with spaghetti’ every week. He didn’t mind indulging her on occasion, but he wouldn’t often give in to the five-year-old trapped in her body. Seriously, what 18-year-old girl thought chicken fingers and spaghetti were a tasty food combination?
My stomach clenched when I saw Tamara sitting on Jaxson’s lap while she did her homework and he read from his American Literature book. Tamara was Zach Young’s daughter, and she was a beautiful mix of black and white. She had inherited her father’s blue eyes and slightly upturned nose, and I hated her. Even if she wasn’t Jaxson’s girlfriend, she was a pretentious, vindictive, and generally hateful girl.
Gavin had found a spot next to Jemmy. He was already diving into his work, while she doodled in a notebook. She never was a serious student.
“Hey, everyone,” Noah called as he put an arm around my waist. “This is Blake, she’s a friend, Blake that’s my brother Jaxson and his girlfriend Tamara, and that’s my sister Jemmy.”
Everyone said ‘hi’ with various levels of emotion. Everyone looked at me, and I was promptly dismissed as non-threatening in Tamara’s eyes. I’m sure I looked like a hot mess in my shorts, Gavin’s oversized sweatshirt, and my hair wild from my run. I wished I had thought of that before coming here, at least taken a shower first.
“Dinner won’t be done for some time. Do you have a change of clothes? You can hop in my shower if you would like,” Noah stated.
I smiled gratefully at him. “That would be great.”
“If you don’t have a change of clothes I’m sure I can find you something to wear,” Jemmy said with a bright smile.
Tamara snorted as she wrote something in a notebook. “Like the Oompa Loompa could fit in your Gigantean clothing.”
Jemmy was tall and leggy with light brown hair and pink highlights. She was a subpar student, but she had fashion sense for days.
Jaxson gave her a long-suffering sigh. “Really, Tam? Is that really necessary?” He was looking at me in contemplation.
Tamara started laughing. “I was only joking.”
Jemmy rolled her eyes. “Way to hide the ugliness with a joke.”
“Sensitive much?” Tamara bit out. “Learn to take a joke.”
“I have my clothes from earlier,” I cut in and then smiled at Jemmy. “Thanks for the offer, though; that was really sweet of you.”
“Normally, not a synonym used for Jemmy,” Noah joked as he winked at her.
Jemmy stuck her tongue out at him as the back door opened and Drake came in. “Hi, I’m Drake,” he stuck his hand out to me and I took it with a smile.
“Hi, Blake,” I suddenly blushed. “Thanks for helping out today.”
“Where’s Rose?” Noah asked.
Drake shook his head with a frown. “She wasn’t feeling good, so she decided to head home.”
I looked over at Gavin and it looked like he was done being mad at me as he gave me a pointed look.
“Oh, okay,” Noah said. “Well come on, Blake, I’ll show you where you can take a shower.”
“Is Stacey coming over?” Tamara asked intentionally wanting to instigate. Her and Stacey had never gotten along, but they had teamed up once before against me. Bonding over a common enemy, once again, me.
I never understood how someone so beautiful and spoiled could be so miserable. At least now I knew she always had this character flaw. When I had met her previously, I had thought it was just me. After all, I had taken Jaxson away from her.
“Nope,” Noah replied. He never seemed to allow her to get under his skin. “And not that it’s any of your business, but I broke up with her.”
I gave him a startled look because this is the first time I had heard about it. He seemed to avoid my eyes as I followed him out of the room and up the steps to his room. I had never been in there before. It was as large and spacious as mine had been. His room looked almost sterile in all whites.
“Taking your med-school-feel seriously, aren’t you?” I teased as I dropped my bag next to the bathroom door.
“Nah,” he laughed. “Pops always told me to decorate it how I would like. I’m just not that imaginative, and I didn’t trust Jemmy to touch my sanctuary.”
“Not imaginative, huh,” I said suggestively.
We had spent the last few weeks flirting shamelessly. When he was free he would generally text me on the phone that Collin gave me, things like ‘How’s your make-up work coming along?’ or ‘Are you ready to schedule your next quiz or exam?’ If Collin was nearby, I would text back that I was still working on xyz, or ‘I should have a better update for you later’, something along those lines. Generally, after Collin or I retired to bed, I would pull out Gavin’s phone and text him back.
Lately, he’s been texting me almost every night. It led me to assume that he didn’t spend as many late nights with Stacey as he once had. I hadn’t realized they may have broken up. I liked those late-night conversations that sometimes went on to the early morning hours. I got to learn more about him than I ever had. The stupid trivial things like his favorite color (green), his favorite food (Philly cheesesteaks), his favorite movie (Patch Adams), his favorite season (summer); little things like that. I also got to finally find out why he was adopted by Will. His past wasn’t nearly as dramatic as most of ours. His parents had sent him to another boarding school by the age of five, never really wanting to have children. They both were doctors that crossed oceans to third world countries, helping other children rather than being with their own child. His previous boarding school had threatened to close by the time he was 9. They placed him in the newly opened Knightstown Academy and barely bothered to spend any time with him. He spent a lot of time with the Bell boys, and when his parents died after contracting a disease overseas, he had accepted the invitation to live with the Bells permanently.
“I’m more than imaginative, where it counts,” he murmured as he took a step towards me.
I don’t know what was coming over me as I raised an eyebrow and slowly removed my sweatshirt. “Actions speak louder than words,” I dared him.