by CJ Adler
Jay glances my way, his icy blue eyes rimmed with shimmering silver — his own personal Arctic ocean — as he tries to detect what kind of response I want him to give. I look at him with pleading eyes in the hopes that he can forgive and forget. I don't like conflict and Jay knows it.
Jay turns back to Troy with a small sigh. “It's fine. I know how blatantly stupid you can be.”
Troy nods enthusiastically as he starts to see where Jay is going with this.
“So, I'll put it behind me,” Jay concludes in hesitance.
Troy lets out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding as he pretends to wipe away beads of sweat off of his forehead. “Phew! Thank goodness galore!” He grins as he holds his fist out to Jay, “So, we all good then, BroJay?”
Jay reluctantly nods. “Yeah,” he confirms as his fist meets Troy's halfway, “we're good.”
“Schweet!” Troy smirks in victory. “I'll be off now, leave BroJay alone so that he can get some Aqueela action.” He winks at Jay, thinking that he's close enough to Jay to do that now. He begins to walk away but then, as if remembering something, stops and turns to face me. “So, your birthday is coming up…” He trails off with a mischievous grin, hinting at something.
“Don't remind me,” I groan. I hate my birthday. I only have terrible memories—the day my father walked out on me.
“You can't get out of it this time. We're celebrating it this year whether we have to force you to attend or not,” Troy replies back stubbornly.
The words came out of Troy's mouth but it's not something he'd say. I raise a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Bell told you to say that?”
“Psh no!” He scoffs.
I narrow my eyes at him.
He caves. “Maybe.”
“Typical of Bells,” I say aloud to myself. It's expected of her. She's been trying to organize something for my birthday for years. I was hoping she'd forget or at least give up by now but, hell, that girl is determined in everything she does.
“Come out, Bells!” I call over my shoulder. “I know you're here,” I coax her out of her hiding place as a knowing smile takes over my features.
There's a loud noise of complaint as Bell emerges from her hiding place behind all the cars, a sheepish grin on her face. “How'd you know?” I motion over to Troy. “He makes it so easy.”
“Thanks, Troy! Thanks a lot!” Bells whines.
“Let's go,” Jay suggests. He's had enough of the Bensten siblings for one day.
“Okay,” I agree for his sake. “Bye, friends!” I wave to them.
Jay begins pushing the shopping cart, with me still in it, back into the mall.
“Wrong way,” Bell informs Jay, aware that we were just about to leave the mall.
“You going shopping again?” Troy asks, puzzled.
“No,” Jay answers him. “Just returning some things that I bought, things that don't function nor operate well anymore; in other words, broken,” he jokes.
“Oooh, burn!” Troy laughs at my expense, having actually caught the joke.
“Still so cute!” Bells coos at us as usual. I don't think she'll ever get over us dating.
I reach up from the shopping cart and swat Jay's chest. “So mean!” I huff.
“I'm joking. Jeez.” He flashes me that breathtaking smile of his as he catches my hand in his before I even get chance to move it off of his chest. “I don't buy things I don't want with every fiber of my being.”
“Gross. And that's our cue to leave,” Troy pipes up before dragging his sister away seeing as she won't leave on her own.
“Those two are tiring,” Jay says as he pushes me back up the slope and toward his car.
“I know but I love them anyway,” I tell him, defending my friends. It's not like Grey's all sunshine and rainbows.
Jay smiles down at me warmly, sincerely. “I know, that's why I put up with them.”
***
“Aqueela! The door!” Jay calls from somewhere upstairs as the doorbell continues to ring, a common occurrence around here nowadays.
You'd think he would know by now that I'm not going to answer the door…ever.
“Busy with end-of-the-world things, boyfriend!” I call back loudly. “I have more pressing matters to attend to than the stupid doorbell.”
“But I'm working out! What are you doing that's so important?” he yells back before I hear him come jogging downstairs.
“Saving the world and being a hero!” I shout just as he walks past me to go answer the door.
It's Saturday. Who the hell dares bother us on a Saturday?
Jay, as if only now realizing what I just said and what he just saw me doing, does a complete 180 and heads back to me. “Your excuse for not answering the damn door is 'cause you're playing Skyrim?”
I pause the game, not lifting my eyes off of the computer screen, as I think my answer through. I then proceed on by waving my finger accusingly in his face. “Tut-tut, not just playing Skyrim but also slaying dragons.”
“So, basically playing Skyrim then?” he asks in a matter-of-fact way.
“Yup,” I nod, popping the p. “Pretty much,” I drawl. “That is, if you must be so unspecific, JJ.”
“You said you were busy with pressing matters and more important things?” he queries with a frown, prodding me on, clearly looking forward to hearing my answer.
I shake my head at him. “You must be blind! Can't you see just how busy I am right now? I'm under a lot of pressure. Lives are at stake; they're all depending on me to save them. The world as we know it rests on my shoulders alone. How dare you undermine my significance like that? Do you think I just sit around all day—”
Jay cuts me off right there. “Yes,” he answers bluntly. “It's exactly what you're doing right now: literally sitting around.”
I cross my arms and turn in my seat to glower at him. “You're wrong! I'm out saving the world here, saving mankind from going extinct and whatnot. Every day, I'm out risking my life and doing petty tasks in between for all these losers, but saving the world nonetheless. I'm a damn hero, a legend in the making!” I exclaim, defending myself against his ruthless attacks.
“First of all, I can see the computer screen and you are literally slaughtering all those innocent people, so don't even try playing the 'hero' card. You are playing as the bad guy. Second, you mean saving the Skyrim world, a non-existent world?” He crosses his arms over his chest too and cocks his head to the side in question.
I follow his movement with my eyes, my gaze settling on his perfectly sculpted chest and abs just visible through his tank top, the shirt he always wears when training. I would know since I love peeking every now and again.
He sends me a knowing grin and snaps his fingers in front of my face to get by attention back.
I quickly come out of it and glare at him. “It's still a world nonetheless!” I defend myself before turning my back on him yet again.
“You're just lucky you play a relevant role in my world or I'd have kicked you out by now,” he jokes. At least, I hope he's joking.
I reach behind me and take his nearest hand into mine for effect. “You'd really kick me out?” I pout as I look up at him, purposely batting my eyelashes.
Still towering over me, he shakes his head. “Nah,” he breathes, leaning down to sweep my hair to one side. “Probably not,” he says in my ear before placing a kiss on my collarbone. He notices my lack of speech and pulls back with a smoldering look of pride at having the upper hand for once. “However, if you annoyed me enough then I'd probably feel inclined to think differently and kick you out anyway.”
“Still such a jerk.” I shove him away from me playfully.
He grins to himself as he finally decides to head to the front door. I look out from the TV room window to see that it's still Oog, hence why I sent Jay to open the door in the first place.
“What is that?” Jay asks, glancing down at the cup in Oog's hands.
Oog extends his arm out, offering the cup to Jay.
“Sugar.”
Jay begins to shake his head, “Nah. We're good. We don't need—”
“Take. It. Oog insist,” Oog says in his weird, little caveman accent as he forces the cup into Jay's hands.
“Alright, fine,” Jay agrees easily, knowing that he can't win this battle, as he reaches out to take the cup.
Even I can't win this battle. Gland's been teaching his best bud some neighborly manners , resulting in Oog showing up randomly on Jay's doorstep to practice and enforce his manners. He's not even our neighbor seeing as he lives on Jay's property but whatever.
Oog turns the cup over and pours all the sugar onto Jay's outstretched hand. “There go!” He chirps with a smile as if what he just did was polite.
Jay merely glares at him as he dusts all the sugar off. He's about to shut the door closed when Oog stops him. “What you say back Oog to?”
Jay arches an eyebrow, cautious. “Uhm…thank you?” He tries, only for Oog to nod happily.
“What you give Oog back?” Oog asks rudely.
Jay immediately frowns. “How 'bout you living on my property, rent free, you ungrateful little—”
Gland, who's been hiding all along, jumps out and shakes his head at Oog disapprovingly. “You don't expect stuff in return for being civil, Oog.”
“Oog give gift; Oog want gift back,” Oog growls in response, displeased.
I can see that Gland has his hands full at trying to tame and culture the creature that is Oog. Just last week, Gland tried to shave Oog's beard off, except,
Oog bit him. Apparently, his beard stays.
“Now you leave, Oog,” Gland instructs him.
Oog begrudgingly leaves after first having his last say, “Next time, Jay don't make Oog wait long so long at door and Jay tell Eela Oog say hi.”
Jay slams the door shut before returning to me. His dark hair is slightly damp from his excessive training. It's resting messily against his forehead just above his electric blue eyes. He offers me a killer smile that has my heart doing flips in my chest.
“So, who was it?” I ask innocently as I return to my computer game.
“Like you don't know,” he says before changing the subject. “When did we get a computer?” he asks, having finally noticed. He's so oblivious to his surroundings sometimes.
I sink down in my seat, refusing to face him. “We always had one?” I try to convince him.
He scoffs at my words. “Uh-huh. Yeah right.”
I turn around, about to give him the truth, but he stops me and places his finger against my lips. “Shh. I don't even care right now. Don't talk and ruin my mood.”
I frown from beneath his fingertip and move his finger off of my lips.
“Insulting.”
He still tries his luck with me. “So, does my beautiful girlfriend want to go for a run with her boyfriend?”
Wow! He really is in an upbeat mood if he thinks that's happening.
I tap my chin in mock thought. “That depends, does her boyfriend want to bury her body afterward?”
Jay sighs, exasperated. “Not even after she dragged her boyfriend shopping for four damn hours?”
“She'll pass but she appreciates you extending the invite her way. In future, she would appreciate it all the more if, in fact, you didn't,” I answer him as I keep on gaming—totally multitasking here.
He gives up the act. “Aqueela, you're rockin' a gorgeous figure and you're absolutely hot as hell and everything but you gotta train daily to keep healthy.”
I freeze in my seat, affected by his actual compliment. There's a first for everything, I suppose.
Ha! He almost had me.
“Well-played, JJ. Well. Played,” I chime as I do the dramatic 'slow clap' to let him know that I'm onto him.
“You're so lazy. I don't know how you keep in perfect shape without doing anything,” he says in response.
I'm flattered by his words. If I milk this a little longer, I might possibly get more unintentional compliments out of him. “Thank you! Thank you!” I put my hands together and bow to the right and then to the left.
“I'm serious,” he replies, in turn.
“My secret is laughing. It works them abdominal muscles. Maybe you can take something from this and learn to laugh more. Also, how dare you call me lazy?!” I hiss the last bit at him, feigning irritation.
“You've been stuck indoors gaming all day. You need fresh air. I bet if I opened the curtains right now, you'd turn to ash,” he teases, making me sound like a bloodthirsty vampire.
“Pshaw!” I huff. “I do active things all the time. I'll have you know that I fight dragons every day, do endless tasks for people, travel miles up snowy mountains by foot, only to be mugged—”
“We've been over this before, Skyrim doesn't count. Gaming, in general, doesn't count,” he reminds me.
My smile drops at hearing his disgraceful words. “When did you get to decide the rules? I can just as well say that reality doesn't count.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose and glances up at the ceiling in frustration before his gaze locks onto me. “Do you hear yourself right now?” he asks me, annoyed that he's not getting anywhere with me.
“I hear that I'm a friggin genius and that my logic is flawless,” I reply back, messing with him.
To my surprise, a low attractive chuckle spills from his lips. “You're just lucky that I'm dating you or you'd be ten feet under by now,” he tells me before muttering almost inaudibly to himself, “any other person, ten feet under, I swear.”
I smile at the fact that I'm his exception but quickly hide it by turning back around in my seat to play my game. “You're just lucky that I'm too busy playing Skyrim to lift a hand and hit you,” I refer to his sentence. “Too much effort,” I explain. “You're so far away.”
“I'm like an inch away from you,” Jay points out.
“Exactly!” I exclaim. “Much too far away,” I say before defending myself, “and for your information, I click away at this mouse all day. I bet I'm fitter than you.”
He takes me up on the challenge with a smirk, his soft blue eyes striking yet gently willing my full cooperation. “Prove it and come running with me.”
“Nuh-uh. Nope. No way.” I shake my head, holding my ground on this one. Exercise and I don't get along well.
“I need a jogging partner and who better than my supportive and inspiring girlfriend?” he asks with that smile of his that puts me in a daze and makes me wonder how such a beautiful specimen can even exist.
“Flattery will get you nowhere, mister,” I wave my finger at him accusingly.
“I'll let you watch me train instead of kicking you out of my room,” he tempts me, laying down his final offer on the table.
Upon hearing his words, I'm out of my chair and away from the computer in a heartbeat. I leave the game running as I sprint to the front door.
“No shame.” Jay shakes his head at me.
***
“What are you doing?” Jay asks with furrowed eyebrows, at a complete loss.
“Stretching, nuh-duh,” I tell him as I jump up and down before doing my own weird stretches. “Gosh, Jay, keep up. I don't want to pull my string of ham.”
“Hamstring,” he corrects before laughing at me. “I've seen warming-up exercises but whatever it is you're doing, it's definitely not stretching.”
I stop my stretches to glare at him. “Whatever. If I faint, you're carrying me home.”
“I think I'd rather leave you on the side of the road instead,” he jokes.
“Maybe someone nice will pick you up and take you in.”
I scowl at him.
He raises his hands up in surrender. “Jeez. Joking. Obviously, I will carry you back, you stupid,” he tells me truthfully as he begins his daily jog 'round the block, beckoning me to join him.
I have half a mind to just get in the car and drive beside him, cheering him on from there. Nonetheless, I reluctantly start running after him.
Ten minute
s later…
“No more, Jay!” I puff, coming to a stop. I crouch down and place my hands on my knees, breathing in and out deeply as if to catch my breath. “My lungs are on fire!”
Jay, way ahead of me, stops briefly to see if I'm okay. His amused blue eyes scan over me, taking in my appearance. “Aqueela, you're looking a little pale. Are you feeling okay?” he asks gently, concern laced in his blue eyes.
I shake my head at him as black spots begin to cloud vision, my balance wavering under my weight.
Jay's beside me in a flash as he quickly reaches out to me. “What's the matter?”
“I think I'm dying,” I tell him in one hoarse breath as my vision blurs completely. “It hurts to breathe.”
Suddenly, I feel myself falling and wait for the impact of my face hitting the pavement. However, instead, I'm met with Jay's arms as he lifts me up, bridal style. I cling to him, winding my arms around his neck in order to keep awake.
I throw my head back in his arms dramatically. “Go on without me,” I tell him as I try to regain my breathing, my chest still hurting.
“You're fine,” he reassures me as he begins to jog back to his house with me in his arms.
I can feel his chest muscles clenching in his shirt and it's not because he's working out, it's because he's anxious.
I feel like I'm going to throw up.
So much for being fitter than Jay…
“If I'm fine then why is everything turning fuzzy?” I murmur softly before my eyes close on their own accord.
***
Splash!
I wake up in fright only to find my face wet.
“What was that for?!” I splutter, jumping up to my feet as my gaze hones in on Jay who just so happens to be holding a water bottle.
He doesn't reply and merely wraps his arms around my neck in relief. I go staggering back under his weight. He quickly pulls me back in for a tender embrace. I freeze from beneath him, stunned by his actions, before smiling. I slowly hug him back.