“Well, they look very nice. I like the color,” Kent replies. “So, what are you hungry for?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “What’s good here?”
Laughing, Kent retorts, “Well, I am the manager, so I have to say everything, but our burgers are killer.”
“So is their Caesar salad, sooo good!” Cassandra states.
“Honey, are you ever going to get anything else? Every time you come in here, you get the same thing,” Kent inquires.
She just sticks her tongue out at him. “Whatever Kent, I eat what I like.”
He rolls his eyes and looks at me. “Get a burger, they are great.”
“As good as your pancakes?” I ask.
“Better,” he chuckles.
Suddenly, a girl comes walking over. She is a blonde with way too much make-up on. “Hey Cassandra,” she kind of snaps lightly.
“Hello,” Cassandra replies. “We would like to order some lunch.”
“Sure,” she says back. “What would you like to drink?”
Cassandra answers, “Iced tea for me. What about you Isabelle?”
I awkwardly reply, “The same for me.”
“I will get those right away,” Courtney curtly snips.
When she walks away, Kent just looks at Cassandra. “I really wish you two would knock it off. It makes it awkward.”
Not happy, Cassandra says, “She has a thing for you Kent. Why can’t you notice it?”
“Even if she did, I don’t care. First off, I love you and no one is going to change tha t, and two, she is my employee. Plus, I don’t find her attractive. I would rather date Josh.”
“Well, Josh is cute,” I quip.
Both Kent and Cassandra laugh. “Don’t let Josh hear you say that,” Kent retorts. “He has as big of an ego as Jeremy.”
“Yeah, but you guys are so attractive. I am surprised your ego isn’t as big theirs.”
With a snort, Cassandra replies, “His is, he just hides it better.”
That makes me laugh. “So, how did you ask Cassandra out the first time?”
Kent just bursts into hysterics. “Okay, Jeremy, Joshua and I do this thing….”
“Don’t ruin it for her. Anyway, he came up to me and said, ‘I was wondering if you had an extra heart because mine seems to have been stolen.’”
My gaze turns to Kent. “Really?”
He just laughs. “Yup, but hey, it worked!”
“It was so lame, it made me laugh. I already had a thing for him, so he probably could have said anything and I would have been like…OKAY,” Cassandra declares.
“Well, I would have come up with something even cheesier if that was true,” Kent retorts.
Cassandra rolls her eyes. “Oh geez.”
While getting up to go sit by Cassandra, Kent says, “Are you cold, because you can use me for a blanket.”
“Oh my gosh Kent!” Cassandra exclaims, shoving him away.
The three of us burst out laughing. We quiet down when Courtney comes back. She sets our drinks down on the table. “What can I get you to eat?”
“I am going to have the Caesar salad,” Cassandra replies pleasantly.
Courtney nods and then looks at me. “I will just have a cheeseburger,” I say, handing her the menu.
“No, no, no,” Kent says. “You can’t just have a cheeseburger; you need to get something special.”
“Then you order for me.”
Kent smiles and asks, “Do you like onions?” I nod. He turns to Courtney. “She will have the patty melt.”
“Okay,” Courtney says. “I will put the order in.” She turns and leaves.
“Well,” Kent sighs. “I need to go do actual work. You ladies have a good lunch. I will sneak back over here in a bit if I can.”
“Love you,” Cassandra says, with a big grin.
He winks, “Love you too baby.” Turning to me, he says, “See ya later Izzy.”
“Bye,” I reply, giving a slight wave.
When he is gone, Cassandra smiles. “He is great.”
“He really is,” I agree. “All three of the guys seem like good people.”
“They are,” she responds. “Now, tell me more about your high school life.” With a groan, I tell her.
We eat lunch and it is SO good. Cassandra demands I try some of her salad and I definitely see why she orders it. Before we leave, Kent comes back to say good bye. He says, we don’t have to pay for anything and Cassandra counters that she knows.
I don’t remember where Rick’s is, but Cassandra does. We pull up and one of the garage doors is open. I don’t see Jeremy though. “You go in there,” I whisper.
“Why would I go in there?” She replies, “He is your roommate.”
Looking at her, I plead, “Please?”
“No,” Cassandra laughs. “Go, remember he wants to give you a kiss.”
Now, I glare at her. “Traitor.” She just smirks. “Fine,” I growl. “I am going.” I get out of the car and kind of stand there for a minute. Finally, I take a deep breath and walk into the building.
There are some guys working on a car, right in front of me. One of them looks up. “Can we help you?”
Shifting my feet awkwardly, I say, “I am looking for Jeremy.”
That same guy stands up and shouts, “JEREMY!”
“WHAT!?” I hear in reply.
“There is someone of the female persuasion here to see you,” the guy states.
A few seconds later, Jeremy comes around the corner. He instantly smiles. “Hey toots.”
“Hi,” I mumble, walking over to him. “I came to get the key.”
“Sure,” Jeremy says, reaching into his pocket. He pulls out a key ring and states, “Here it is.”
I stick my hand out, “Thanks.”
He suddenly holds them back. “Nuh uh, there is a price.”
“What?” I ask bewildered.
“I told you I wanted a kiss. Either you kiss me or I keep the keys.”
My eyes narrow. “I am not kissing you,” I hiss quietly.
“Then you have to wait for me on the steps, because you are not getting into the apartment without the key,” he states, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Why do you do this to me?” I whine.
Jeremy steps forward. “Because I love seeing you blush. Plus, yet again, I have not filled my kissing quota.”
“You do not have a kissing quota!”
Smirking, he replies, “Yes, I do and I have not filled it.”
“You are terrible! There are other people here,” I moan.
“Yeah, I know, a bunch of guys. Does that make it more awkward?” Jeremy laughs.
I frown. “This is not funny!”
“Just kiss me,” he replies, stepping closer. “What’s so wrong with that?”
“I hate you,” I grumble.
The keys just jingle in the air, as he holds them there. “Come on Isabelle. Just one kiss.”
I sigh and go up on my toes. Our lips meet. He instantly wraps his arms around me and pulls me against him. It makes my chest tighten. When we pull away, there is sudden whistling from behind us. I glare at Jeremy and stomp on his foot. He drops the keys, as he yells. I bend over and pick them up. “Thanks for the keys and the kiss.”
He looks at me with a mischievous look in his eyes. “Oh, it’s on.”
“Bring it,” I state, staring him down.
“You are going to get revenge so bad..bad…bad…bad,” Jeremy snarls playfully.
My smile disappears and I say, “Be nice!”
“Nope,” he replies. “You will think I have been nice up until now.”
“Jeremy,” I chastise nervously.
With a grin, he mocks, “Isabelle.” Winking at me, Jeremy says, “Go home. I will see you in two hours. The movers are coming with your stuff.”
“What are you doing to do to me?” I ask, slightly unnerved.
“I don’t know yet, but it will be SPECTACULAR!”
Sighing, I moa
n, “Great.”
Jeremy steps forward and kisses me on the forehead. “I promise it won’t be today. Go home. I have stuff I need to finish.”
“Okay, bye,” I say, turning around. As I walk away, I feel a crack of something on my butt. I turn around and Jeremy has a towel in his hand. “You said it wouldn’t be today!”
“That!? That was not revenge. It is going to be HUGE. HUGE!”
Mumbling, I say, “Great.”
“Go home babe. I will be there soon,” he smirks. I watch him turn and walk away. My head tilts as I think to myself that he looks really good in his uniform. The sudden realization of that makes me blush. I quickly dart out of the building.
Cassandra of course asks what happened, and all I reply is, “Nothing.” We drive back to the apartment listening to music. My mind races, as I dread the thought of what he is going to do for revenge. When we get back to the apartment, I turn the heat up because it is a little cool. Cassandra and I make tea and we sit to talk.
An hour and a half later, I hear the door open. We turn to see Jeremy walk in. He is carrying flowers. Of course, the first batch is stargazer lilies, but the other ones are roses, purples ones. I look at him quizzically.
He walks forward and thrusts the roses at me. “These are for you my dear.”
“What is this for?” I ask, smelling them.
“Oh, I love buying flowers, so you will probably be getting them a lot,” Jeremy quips. He bends over and kisses me on the head. “You have to tell me which flowers are your favorite.”
I answer, “Tulips.”
“Pretty,” he states. “Can you put the flowers in vases? They are above the sink. I am going to take a shower.”
“Yeah.” I watch him walk down the hallway and out of sight. My eyes drift back to Cassandra and she cocks her eyebrow. “What?” I hiss.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” she replies.
Cassandra stays for a while. When the movers get there, she helps me decide where everything goes. Jeremy leans against the wall and laughs at us. I stick my tongue out at him. He gives me that wonderful smile of his and it makes me blush for some reason.
I spend the evening organizing my room, finally. Jeremy lies on my bed the whole time, talking to me. He makes more back handed comments about my underwear when I put it away. I glare at him and he grins.
Later we are on the couch watching a horribly realistic movie about a demon haunting. Jeremy demanded I watch in complete darkness. I am reminding myself to kill him later. During the second half of the movie, I spend most of the time burying my face into Jeremy. “You have to watch!” He exclaims.
“I am,” I mumble into his chest.
“The TV is not in my shirt,” he laughs. “WATCH the movie.”
Begrudgingly, I do. Jeremy holds my hand and I squeeze it as hard as I can. When the movie is over, I kind of just sit there. He looks at me and smiles. “So, what did you think?”
“I am sleeping in your bed tonight,” I state, just staring at him.
“But why?” He draws out.
Rolling my eyes, I say, “Because I won’t be able to sleep by myself! Thank you very much!”
“Sissy.”
My hand smacks him on the arm. “Fine, I will sleep by myself.”
Jeremy just laughs harder. “I give you a half an hour before you are in my room.”
“Well, you are the one who made me watch that ridiculous movie!”
“It’s not real,” he dramatically retorts.
Scowling, I snap, “Yeah, well I believe in hauntings and all that jazz. So, it IS scary to me.”
“Okay, it’s midnight. Let’s get ready for bed. You can sleep in my room. I GUESS,” he sarcastically groans.
I push him away. “Whatever. I am going to put my pajamas on.” Going into my room, I make sure to turn the overhead light on. It’s really bright. No shadows in the room. I put on a pair of warm pajamas. It’s cooler tonight. Plus, they are really comfortable.
Walking out of my room, I find Jeremy brushing his teeth. He is in pajama pants, with no shirt on. Spitting out the toothpaste, Jeremy looks at me. “Cute pajamas.”
“You don’t have a shirt on,” I say, just staring at him.
He looks at himself. “What an astute observation. I am planning on putting one on. Unless,” he grins, “you prefer me without one.”
“You are awful!” I snap. I walk in and shove him away from the sink. “Let me brush my teeth.”
Suddenly, I am up in Jeremy’s arm. “Uh oh, uh oh, you are touching my bare skin again, uh oh. Does that make you all hot and bothered Isabelle?”
Laughing hysterically, I say, “Put me down you jerk.”
Ever so gently, he puts me back down on the ground. “You are so timid around me still. It’s me. You have seen me more naked than most girls. We live together. I promise you will never see me naked. Well, unless you wanted to.”
“Oh my gosh!” I yell. “Get over yourself!”
“What if I want you all over myself?” He quips back.
With all my strength I shove him back and out of the bathroom. “Get out!”
He laughs and turns to go into his room. I dramatically roll my eyes, even though he can’t see me. After I brush my teeth, I turn off the bathroom light. Now, there is only a soft glow from Jeremy’s lamp. I practically run across the hall and jump into his bed. He opens his arms. “Did the movie frighten you that much?”
Crawling underneath the covers next to him, I snap, “Yes. I told you I believe in ghosts.”
“Well, none will get to you,” he assures, turning off the light. I scoot over so I am as close as I possibly can be to him. I face out though. “You usually sleep facing me, why the change?”
“Then I can see what is coming at me,” I giggle.
Jeremy rolls over and pulls me against him. “I will keep you safe from the things that go bump in the night.”
“You better,” I whisper. We lay there for a while, when I ask, “Are you asleep?”
There is laughter from behind me. “If I were, you would have just woken me up.”
“True,” I reply. “Do you believe in ghosts?”
“I don’t know if there are ghosts, but I think there are things we can’t see.”
I roll over and look at him. “Do you think you have ever seen one?”
“No, but I lived in house that had a whole lot of stuff happen in it. I didn’t live there for very long, thankfully. I was little and it scared the bejeebers out of me,” Jeremy states.
“What kind of stuff happened?” I ask.
“Let’s see,” he starts. “You would hear people calling out when no one was home. One night, I heard this guy whispering stuff to me in the bathroom. Trust me, there was no one around. Then one night, some guys and I were using the Ouija board. It was me and two other boys. One of them kept going off on how fake it was and blah, blah, blah. Well, he got up to go to the bathroom and so this other kid and I decided to do it while he was gone. Well, my back was to the closet and this other kid was against the wall. We were saying random stuff, but we suddenly asked, ‘Show us a sign if you are here.’ The candle we had sitting by us shot up in the air.”
Grimacing, I am like, “That is scary!”
“Oh no, the scary part was seeing the other boy’s face. He was looking behind me and was white, like no color white. When I turned to look at what he was seeing, the closet door slammed shut. We got up and ran out of there as fast as we could. When I asked what happened. He said, the candle shot up and then the closet door started to open slowly.”
“You aren’t serious right?” I inquire.
Jeremy looks down at me. “Oh no, I am dead serious.”
“Promise?”
He nods. “I promise. So later, we went back up to the room. We needed to see what was in the closet. So, we walked over to it and I grabbed the door knob.” Jeremy pauses for a second and my heart is just pounding at this point. “We slowly opened it and the suddenly…” Jere
my yells and grabs me.
I just scream bloody murder. He grabs ahold of me and pulls me on top of him. “I hate you!” I shout, smacking him.
He laughs so hard he tears up. “Oh my gosh, that was awesome.”
“You promised it was true!” I snap, sitting up on top of him.
Putting his hands behind his head, he says, “What I promised happened, happened. That last part didn’t happen. We tried to not go back in there if we didn’t have to.”
With my arms crossed, I ask, “How in the world am I supposed to sleep?”
“In my arms,” Jeremy chides back.
“Yeah, I am more afraid of you now than I am of a ghost!”
Using his fingers, Jeremy says, “Cross my heart, no more scaring you.”
My eyes narrow. “Promise?”
“Yes, I promise. Come on, just lie back down.”
I flop down on the bed next to him. He turns on his side and looks at me. I sigh and say, “Why do I put up with you?”
Giving me a devilish smirk, Jeremy replies, “Because you love me, don’t deny it.”
I groan and roll over away from him. He once again grabs me and pulls me against him. “Good night Jeremy,” I sigh.
“Night Izzy.”
Chapter 17
Saturday and Sunday fly by. We just hang out at the apartment. I try to teach Jeremy how to cook and that ends being a mess. Could be because we get into a food fight. By the time that it is done, we have to clean the floor, the cupboards, the counters and part of the fridge. We end up ordering out for food, because dinner is all over the wall.
Honestly, at least to me, it’s like Jeremy and I have known each other our entire lives. I get so used to being around him. We laugh, we joke, I still cry from time to time, though that is getting less frequent. Finally, I am sitting on the couch with him. It’s late and we are watching the news. Jeremy turns to me, “Are you ready for tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” I sigh.
“Are you positive you want to go back?” He asks.
Shrugging, I reply, “I have to go back sooner or later. I don’t want to fall behind in school too bad. I do plan to graduate with honors if I can pull it off.”
“Okay, well, I will take you to school in the morning then. We should probably get ready for bed.”
The Art of Life Page 29