by Jenny Wood
“Why are you doing this?” Jase blurted. He looked frantic and frustrated. “I’ve been going over it in my brain for the last two days and I can’t figure it out. Nobody does somethin’ for nothin’ and while I’m appreciative of all your help, yours too Cam, I can’t figure out why and it’s freakin’ me out.”
“I was a lot like you when I was younger; didn’t have a pot to piss in with my Ma. I had to steal to eat sometimes and like you, I got really good at learning how to stay out of the way.” Jody explains, eyes boring into Jase’s. “I don’t know where I’d be right now if it hadn’t been for Kayson and Kingsley; their Ma let me move in and they haven’t let me go since. She gave me pocket money and made sure I stayed in school. She kicked my ass when I got in trouble or skipped school and I needed that. These guys gave me a family when I needed one and I know those kids down at the center need a family too, that’s why I visit and help out every second that I can but I can’t take them all. I wish like hell that I could, but I can’t, but I can help you. You’re a good kid, we like having you around; not just me, we all do.” He explains. Seems like I’m always around for these heart to hearts and I can’t help the googly eyes, I’m currently having for Jody. I didn’t know he had this side to him, I bet a lot of people don’t. I think I could get in a lot of trouble if I didn’t stop it.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to throw it all back in your face, I just…” Jase starts… “I was five when I got sent to my first foster home. They were supposed to be my “forever family”, but you have a customary six-month waiting period to make sure, I dunno, to make sure they don’t want to give you back or something. Well, Mr. Gable, who insisted that I call him that, even though the other kids called him Papa, he didn’t like that I was so quiet. I didn’t like to play catch with the other kids or go fishing with the family. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, I just never had anyone teach me before.” My heart was splitting. This kid was always breaking my heart.
“Anyway, the day Mrs. Rosie came to bring me back to Ms. Jay’s; Mr. Gable sat me down and told me that it wasn’t working out because I didn’t belong with the other kids. I didn’t try to fit in and be part of their family so he was letting me go back. I remember crying a lot that first night because I felt like I wasn’t good enough to have a family. So, I tried really hard that next time. I was eight, met a family who was so ready to adopt an older kid, they were amazing. I did everything right, I was the perfect kid. Then, my dad... He wanted me to call him dad and I did. I was so happy to finally have a dad and he was so great, so, so great. He got offered a job in Dubai and took it but, they wouldn’t have room for me and it wouldn’t be a good place to raise a kid. So I got sent back to Ms. Jay’s again. I didn’t cry that time.
One more time, I was twelve, a single mom with an eleven-year-old son, wanted someone for her son to play with…..like I was a fucking puppy. The kid ordered me around, he was bigger than me, made me do his chores and his homework. He’d get pissed at his mom and take it out on me; he once locked me in a closet for like, five hours because his mom took me to get a haircut and he was jealous. He was terrible. The one time his mom saw me with scratches down my face, she scolded me for not giving him his way. Eventually, my social worker, Mrs. Rosie came and took me away because I had a fractured wrist for nine days without getting medical treatment. I finally told her of the hell I’d been living with since I got there. I went back to Ms. Jays and thankfully, thankfully, I never went anywhere else. I’ve been saving every penny, working hard to be able to support myself so nobody can give me away again. I want what your offering, Jody. I want it so bad I can’t think of much else, but I don’t have it in me to get it and lose it again.” He croaks the last words through a tight throat. I couldn’t help it, I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him to me.
“Fuck, kid,” Jody mumbles and gets on the floor with us, pulling Jase to him and in turn, taking me with him too. I was proud of myself for not crying this time but I really wanted to. I hated that Jase had been through so much.
“We having an orgy in here?” I look up and see Kayson standing behind the couch. Jase let out a surprised laugh and Jody shot Kayson a glare.
“What’s an orgy?” I hear in the sweetest little girl voice. Kayson’s eyes get huge as he turns around and faces the girl. Jody scoffs and Jase laughs louder.
“Bubby, what’s an orgy?” Kayson’s little sister asks. “Can I have one?” Kayson looked panicked.
“I said porridge.” He blurts. “I thought I smelled porridge.” He tries again, making us all laugh.
“Porridge? Jody, are you having porridge?” She asks skeptically.
“No, Squirt, I ordered taco’s, but it does smell like porridge in here, doesn’t it?” He asks, face serious now that he’s talking to her.
“I don’t know, what does porridge smell like?” She shrugs.
“Cinnamon,” I tell her when no one else answered. “Smells like cinnamon, like that wax candle pot, burning on the counter in the dining room.” I smile. She seemed to believe me, but Jase was still chuckling.
“Jase! Kayson told me we were getting a new brother and that it was you! You’re going to be my brother like Jody’s my brother. The kind that we pick because we love them. Are you very excited?” She asks, coming to sit with us on the floor. Jase doesn’t say anything for a full minute while I see him working it out in his head. He only nods to her, but I see the smile he can’t hide.
“Great! We have sleepovers most weekends and you have to have a day to feed Oreo, we take turns because he’s everyone’s responsibility. Jody, Bubby, we have to get him a day.” She says logically. The emotional tension from a few minutes ago is gone and we’re all left smitten with this little girl.
“Cameron, you were supposed to do my lip gloss for the wedding and I didn’t see you until after. Can you paint my nails?” She asked me. Of course, I’d been around so she knew me quite well. She loved that I was a boy who wore makeup and I always had the prettiest, shiniest gloss, she said.
“Well, I need to help your new brother fill out his college applications, but maybe in a little bit, if you’re still here, I’ll paint them a pretty pink.” I smile as she lights up with excitement.
“Yes, okay!” She claps and runs to her room.
“I’m going to pick out my color, I’ll be back!” She yells the whole way.
“What are you guys doing here, no kids night?” Jody asks, assuming that they’d be at Conner’s kids’ night.
“Not tonight, it’s projector movie night and they’re playing something Kady’s already seen. She wanted to come here and watch The Avengers…again.” Kayson rolled his eyes good-naturedly. Seems to be a trend amongst these brothers.
“We can take these to the dining room table so you can watch it.” Jase offered, starting to get up; but instead, Kayson sat down with us and took his own stack to fill out.
“We can all help.” Kayson volunteered. “We’ll fill out the mundane stuff and Cameron can help you with the essays. We’ll get them all finished in no time. So, that’s what we done. We each took a small stack and done our best. Jase and I worked on his essays and Jody proof-read every one we finished. When we finished, we had the stacks in order of possibility and Jase’s “want” to go to each place. We’d all already eaten and it was getting later and later, Kady had been endlessly patient, watching Thor in her room and I’d finally been able to paint her fingernails before I left.
“You do such a great job! How come you don’t ever paint yours?” She asked me as we were letting hers dry.
“I used to, but people thought it was weird, so I stopped,” I tell her honestly. Men, who wear fingernail polish? Not so popular.
“Well that’s rude, why should they care?” She huffs, making me smile. Why indeed.
“Who knows, kid. People are weird.” I offer.
“Well, I think it would be pretty; just like your lipstick and eye makeup.” She smiles. I can’t help but smile back. Was it poss
ible not to be completely charmed by her?
“I like it too.” Jody says, flopping himself on the couch across from us. I hadn’t heard him come in. I looked over to see if he was being sincere and the wink I got told me, he might be. I know the guys never said one way or another, but I figured it was just something people tolerated. It wasn’t talked about one way or another, so I figured people just done their best to ignore it. It made me feel good, though, I liked it. I can’t explain why; I just always have. I didn’t overdo it. I didn’t drag my face up, but I liked to accentuate certain parts of my face; like my eyes and my lips.
“Who’s ready for some Hulk?” Kayson says, bringing a giant bowl of popcorn and candy into the room and shoving Jody’s legs off the couch. I couldn’t help but laugh as Jody reached out and kicked him in the hip, causing Kayson to spill some of the contents of the bowl. He scoffed in feigned outrage and threw a handful at Jody. I used the time to stand up and stretch so I could excuse myself for the night, it was going on nine o’clock and I had work tomorrow. I tell the guys as much and Jase thanks me for my help, he’s spending the night since Jody called and ok’ed it with Ms. Jay.
“Thanks for all your help, I know Jase appreciates it,” Jody tells me at the door. He reaches up with one hand and brushes the hair from my eye, fingering just a single lock before moving it again. He drops his hand and smiles, winking as he takes a step back. It all seemed like it happened in slow motion and yet, I can’t make myself move an inch, let alone say something, intelligible.
“Cameron,” Jody says huskily, jolting me from my momentary reverie. What was I doing?
“Yeah, no problem. Anytime.” I quietly mumbled, unable to take my eyes off of him. Man, in another life, I’d give anything in the world for that man to be looking at me like he was right now looking at me. In another life, I’d welcome it. I’d beg for it, actually. “I’ll see you soon,” I tell him as I finally break away from his gaze and retreat to my car. I notice from my rear-view that he stands there until I can no longer see him. In another life, right?
Chapter 6: Jody
“Good morning, sunshine.” Kayson chirped as he came in the kitchen while Kady and I were eating, eggs and bacon.
“Morning, Bubby. I fed Oreo, even though it’s Kingsley’s turn. Jody says that he’ll have to do it all next week since he’s slacking off on his honeymoon.” Kady tells him, making us both laugh.
“I’m sure he’d love to do it, Squirt. I bet he’s missing you both something fierce while he’s away.” Kayson winked at her, making her grin. This little girl loved the attention from her brothers and I was lucky enough to fall under that category as well.
“You’ve got about twenty minutes to get ready before Mama gets off work, she’ll be picking you up and taking you to school, remember?” Kayson tells her, pouring a cup of coffee to wake himself up. Kady’s mom has taken on more hours, working nights now that she has help with Kady.
“I need to find a sweater to match my nails.” She exclaims, jumping up and running to her bedroom that Kayson insisted we have for her when we bought the place. I’ve never seen a more dedicated set of brothers than him and Kingsley. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think they both were her daddy’s. The Kennedy’s were all about family; other than their dad, their family was their whole lives.
“Good morning.” Conner sings as he sways happily into the kitchen to join us, stealing Kayson’s cup of coffee and a kiss. Conner had moved in after the attack at his apartment that resulted in it catching fire and him narrowly escaping with his life. He also brought his giant, elephant cat named Pickles. Pickles fortunately now had a kitty door and she came and went as she pleased; seeming to only come home to eat and then continued her exploring.
“You smell good,” Kayson growled into his neck, wrapping his arms around him from behind.
“Behave, you. I’ve got to leave in seven minutes.” Conner said, bumping Kayson away with his hip. Kayson wasn’t having it, though, he reached out and snatched him back and pulled him tighter into his chest.
“You’ll never guess who Jody here was making goo-goo eyes at last night.” Kayson taunted. I rolled my eyes and flipped him off behind my cup of coffee.
“Cameron?” Conner guessed with a smirk.
“How’d you know?” Kayson pouted, not liking that someone was privy to something before he was. Now it was Conner’s turn to roll his eyes.
“Seriously? They make goo-goo eyes at each other every time they’re together. How have you not noticed this before now?” Conner quipped.
“They do?” Kayson asked, mystified.
“Yes.”
“No,” Conner and I said at the exact same time. Again, Conner rolled his eyes and continued to explain.
“Jody, honey. You are so oblivious. He watches you like you’re his dream come true and darlin’ you do the same thing.” He shook his head as he handed Kayson back his coffee. “Now, I’ve got to go, you going to be free around lunch?” He asked Kayson and Kayson agreed. I paid heavy attention to my eggs as I tried to ignore the slurping sounds of them sucking on each other’s faces for the next couple minutes. Finally, I had to clear my throat to interrupt the near on porn that was surely about to break out.
“Mama’s here!” Kady yelled from the living room. Kayson went to help her get her backpack ready and her shoes on. She ran through the house, hugging Conner, Kayson, me and Jase at the last minute, since he’d woken up to all the commotion.
“Bye, new Bubby. See you at the weekend!” She waved and was out the door, telling her Mama about Jase and how he was going to be the new brother. Jase watched her in awe as Kady’s mom, Merissa turned back to shake his hand and welcome him to the family. In a funny, roundabout way; even though Merissa had an affair with the elder Mr. Kennedy, she was still a part of our family because Kady was. It was awkward at first, but she was coming around, more and more.
“Nice to meet you, new Bubby. I’m Merissa. Kady’s mom.” Merissa smiled and Jase was just as charmed by her as he was by Kady.
“Nice to meet you, too.” He smiled in greeting before Kady pulled Merissa to the car to get going. It was art day today and she was ready to get to school.
“I made bacon and eggs if you’re hungry,” I tell Jase. He follows us all to the kitchen but doesn’t sit. He looks uncomfortable and maybe a bit shy.
“Pull up a chair, bud. There’s milk, juice, coffee and water. Have all you want of whatever you want. You gotta learn to be quick or else, Kayse or King will steal it from ya.” I tell him, just as Kayson comes up behind him and snatches his piece of toast that he’d literally just picked up.
“Wha-“ Jase says, turning to see Kayson with a mouthful of bread.
“He told ya.” Kayson winked, walking out of the room, still chomping. Jase laughed and grabbed another piece.
“How’d ya sleep?” I asked because it was his first night ever staying the night. We’d all stayed up later than we should’ve watching The Avengers, luckily, Kady fell asleep in the first ten minutes or else Merissa would have had our asses for keeping her up late. Still, the rest of us were up late.
“It’s so quiet,” Jase commented. “I’m so used to some of the kids up and down, needing the bathroom or coughing or crying; then Ms. Jay and Carol and Len being up at night, watching TV or making coffee or something. Here, I could hear myself breathing and crickets outside. It was eerie.” He chuckled. “Once I finally dropped off, though, I slept straight through.”
“That’s good,” I say, honestly. I wanted him to feel comfortable here. “So, about last night, when you mentioned staying at the center.” I wanted to talk about that.
“Yeah, Ms. Jay says it’s okay. Nobody should be in to check like I said, I already got signed off on. I’m an adult now, according to the state of Georgia.” He says.
“Well, I was thinking that today after school, we could go get your things from the center and if you’d want to; you could just start staying here.” I offer. “It’s to
tally up to you, I know you feel like you don’t have options, kid; but you do and we’ll all help. If you don’t feel comfortable here or have another place in mind, that’s okay too.”
“I’d like to stay,” Jase says softly. “Not because I don’t have anywhere else to stay, but because I really like it here with you guys.”
“Good.” I smile.
“I never thought I’d have a house full of brothers.” He chuckles. “Last night was awesome, I had so much fun with everyone.” He says sincerely.
“I’m glad. This is your home now, bud. Stay up late, eat junk food, watch whatever you want on TV, record your favorite shows, go wild.” I laugh at his wide eyes. “We will have some rules, but they’re the same rules for everyone. Respect each other’s space and the house, privacy and all that. That means no ragers on weeknights and no drugs in the house.”
“I don’t do drugs. Never.” He was quick to defend.
“I didn’t think so; I was just saying as a general rule. King and Kayse both smoked pot in high school. I get that everyone experiments, but we have Kady here a lot and we don’t want it in the house.” I explain.
“No, yeah, no I get it. I won’t do drugs, in the house or otherwise.” He promises.
“Good, it makes ya slow and with college around the corner, you’re gonna need to be sharp.” I slap his shoulder on my way to the sink.
“If you need anything special from the store, just write it on the list here on the fridge; one of us make a weekly run, sometimes more if it’s needed. They take the list, so we know whatever is up there is still needed.” I tell him, pointing at the peel-off paper on the door of the fridge.
“I’d like to contribute some if I can.” He says. I understand wanting to contribute, it’s a mature thing to do. I just don’t want him to feel like he “has to.”
“Well, we all pick up after ourselves, even Kady; that’s one way to contribute. We all take a day to feed Oreo and set out treats for Pickles; she’s Conner’s cat, you haven’t met her yet, but you will. She’s the size of a small car. She comes in through the kitty door in the back but she often stays out at night too. I think she’s got a boyfriend a couple blocks over, so…. “ I trail off. Pickles is one you have to see, to believe.