About That Night

II. game on, sweetheart

Storm

“About time for you to get down here.” Mom greeted me as I finally walked into the kitchen, topless. “You couldn’t put on a shirt?” Her eyes widened in disbelief at me. I was only wearing sweatpants.

It was the weekend and that meant I would just be staying home. Well, I stayed home most every day and that routine would only change when classes would start soon which would be in a week.

Well, that’s exciting.

Or not at all.

I just yawned, opened the fridge, and grabbed my iced coffee. I preferred drinking cold in the morning. In fact, I always loved cold. Cold shower. Cold coffee. Coldwater. Anything cold.

“It’s hot.” I simply told Mom as I hopped on the island and started drinking my coffee from the tumbler. “Where’s Starr?” I just wondered because she was always the one to get downstairs.

“In the garden. Come on. Help me with these.” She said, putting food on the wooden food trays. She looked so devoted to what she was doing and I just could not help rolling my eyes without her seeing me do that, of course. She was doing all this just because of them.

Although I was slightly annoyed that I did not get to enjoy my iced coffee more, I did not bother to say a word and just obliged Mom. I hopped off the island and walked over to the countertop where she was really hands-on preparing everything. I got the tray filled with plates of pancakes and my mouth just watered seeing the pile of my delicious favorite with whipped cream and different kinds of berries on top. Damn, I sounded like Dad. My stomach even grumbled at the sight.

“Not yet, Jackson Storm. Be patient.” Mom warned, waving her index finger at me as her eyes widened a little bit. Scary. “We will be eating all this soon.”

She is my everything.

“I know.” I sighed in defeat and brought the pancakes with me and out of the kitchen through the backdoor. My eyes were on them as I held the tray with both hands. All I could do was just stare at them and wait ‘til Mom would allow me. Yup, it was crazy how pancakes were still my favorite food.

It’s just that it never gets old.

I remembered those times when I just wanted pancakes every day for breakfast. Sometimes, Mom and Dad would have a cook-off and served me their best pancakes and I had to judge who made them better. I was just a lad then, though. I could not really tell that Mom was the best cook or Dad because they were both the best in this world. I was so lucky to have them both as my parents. I was that guy who was never ashamed to be treated like a baby boy by my parents. In fact, I loved it when they do that to me and Starr because we felt like we were the luckiest children in this world. We felt genuinely loved by them.

Speaking of them, I missed Dad. He was on a business trip to London. He and his college buddies who I considered my uncles, Ethan, Luke, and Harry, were putting up a car manufacturing company. They all loved cars, especially Dad because he was an F1 racecar driver.

And I did too. I loved it so much that I couldn’t wait to be like my Dad. I just had to finish my last year in senior high school and I would be traveling to Europe soon.

As I was walking along the pathways of the garden and towards the side of the pool, I did not realize someone had blocked my way until she opened her mouth and asked, “May I help you?”

My eyes landed on the lady who made a huge mess in my room which by the way was not fixed yet. I stared at her face blankly. She was not meeting my own stare at her. Scared? Why did she meet me halfway, though? Did she feel bad? How brave of her to walk right in front of me, though?

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I muttered, walking past her and brushing my shoulder against her in the process. I could be wrong but I thought I heard her take a deep breath before following behind me as I walked towards my sister and Aunt Caroline who was patiently waiting at the white round table.

I wasn’t being immature. I just had no interest in starting or having a conversation with her. Not at all. It was just going to be a waste of time and I prefer spending my time on more valuable things. If only it would be okay for Mom for me to not be having breakfast with them, I would’ve stayed in my room and still sound asleep. I loved my Mom so much and I swore to do anything for her.

“Hi, Storm. Wow. You’ve grown so much. Look at you.” That was the warm greetings of Caroline Smith Thompson as she smiled widely at me.

Smiling, I walked into her open arms and hugged her. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Awe, dear. I missed you. We missed you.” She said, patting my back.

Pursing my lips, we broke the hug apart and sat on our chair.

“I missed you too.” I made sure to direct that statement only to her. s**t, I was not even sure if I missed her. Her daughter sat beside me, unfortunately, but I had no choice because the table was only five-seater and Mom had arrived, taking the seat right beside Aunt Caroline. The two were best friends, along with Aunt Allison. She was a blonde Aussie, short and very talkative. Her daughter’s mouth was the exact opposite of hers.

Wait. Let’s not talk about this girl sitting beside you. Just knowing that she’s physically close to me right reminds me of what she has done in my room. Just the thought of it stresses me out. She never changed.

Right. Not talking about her.

“I’m sorry about not telling you about their arrival, son. I wanted to surprise you.” Mom spoke.

“No worries, Mom.” I smiled at her, dismissing the topic. I did not want to talk about it.

“Are you surprised?” Starr asked all of a sudden.

I looked at her and then said, “Very.”

She was frowning at me and I knew she knew I sounded more like being sarcastic with my answer. She knew me a lot. She was my best friend and I was sure she was going to ask me so many questions after this whole breakfast with Aunt Caroline and the other visitor. Right, her daughter. What was her name again? Never mind.

“Alright. So, tell me how have you been doing? How was life in Australia?” Mom asked as we started having breakfast.

Her question was basically thrown at the two, but the mother would want to answer Mom.

“It was great. Great to see kangaroos and koalas again but I missed the States and so did Olivia here. Right, baby?” She smiled widely at her daughter who was just sitting quietly, almost not moving beside me.

What’s with her?

I thought.

Is she feeling uncomfortable?

She lifted her head up and looked at her mother to mine and my sister then finally to me. “Yeah. I did.” She quietly said without taking her eyes off me.

I stared blankly at her, matching her stare. Looking away would mean I was the one who was feeling uneasy so I never took my eyes off her and waited for her to do it first instead. However, she was taking so long. No, she was taking her time studying me. I just knew she was. There was something in the way she looked at me. Her eyes held something, but I could not decipher it. What was she was trying to say? Would she tell me soon? Would I talk to her?

There were so many questions running in my head, but I chose to close myself in and challenged her. But in the process, I stupidly ended up taking my time in studying every feature of her face. She changed so much physically. She wasn’t a baby anymore. She wasn’t the same kid I grew up with anymore. She was now a lady, a beautiful lady turning to a beautiful woman soon. Her light brown wavy hair was now longer. It reached the middle of her back already. Her face was glowing. I could see she had learned to put on some lip balm. It made me stare at her lips a little bit longer than I should and I could feel myself frowning. They just looked so soft, pink, and wet, but I was not falling for it and I looked into her eyes again.

Wait. Is she blushing?

Her cheeks were red and I could not tell if it was a blush as in makeup on or if she was just naturally blushing because of me. Or maybe seeing my face reminds her of what she had seen upstairs when the towel fell off me? Just the thought of it made the corner of my mouth lift up into a very slight smirk and that caused her to finally look away. I blinked and look ahead only to see the other girls staring at us with confused expressions.

“What?” I asked them, picking up four pancakes, two slices of bacon, and a sunny side up egg and put them on my plate.

“Are you okay?” Mom asked.

“I’m hungry. Come on. We should eat now.” I told them, but I was already eating my pancakes.

Starr suddenly cleared her throat and I turned my head to look at her. She shook her head and gave me a sarcastic smile. Did I do something wrong?

“That’s great. Classes will be in a week and your mother mentioned to me that you will be finishing the last year of your senior high school here, Lulu.” Mom said and that caught my attention.

I was enjoying my sweet moment with my favorite pancake but I stopped chewing when Mom just suddenly brought it out. It caught me off guard and it took me quite some time to process it in my head. They were all looking at me and I decided to dismiss it like I haven’t heard any of it at all. I continued chewing on the pancake and went on with my breakfast.

I did not want her to talk about it, but she did anyway. “Yes. I just got myself enrolled before we came here. Hopefully, I would be meeting good friends.”

Was I listening? Well, maybe. She was literally so close to me and it was impossible not to digest whatever they were talking about. I was not in the mood to say anything about it, but I had my appetite. Breakfast was my favorite meal of the day. I could not help it, especially when pancakes were already served in front of me.

“Oh, dear. Why would you worry about having new friends? Of course, Storm will accompany you in school. Right, son? I mean you two basically grew up together.”

Someone choked on her food and coughed terribly. Mom scooted over to Starr and rubbed her back. “Starr, how many times do I need to remind you to chew your food slowly?” Mom waited for her to calm down and I was about to pour my sister a glass of water when the girl beside me beat me to the glass pitcher and my hand ended up over hers. She turned her head to look at me and I stupidly turned my head to look at her too. I saw her swallow. A nervous one. Looking away, I withdrew my hand and let her do it.

Damn it. Why is my heart beating so fast? This is so annoying.

“Here.” I heard her say and from the corner of my eye, I could see her handing my sister a glass of water. Starr had thankfully calmed down as she held the glass and drank the water.

Her hand felt so damn electrifying. Damn. It sounded so cliché and cheesy, but it was true. I felt it. The sparks. The sparks made me stiffen for a moment and I thought I did not want to pull away and just put my hand over hers a little longer. But it would not only scare her but also our families so I had to pull away.

“I was chewing my food slowly, Mom. But, did they really grow up together?” Starr just had to ask it while she rubbed her throat.

“Oh, I thought your Aunt Caroline mentioned it to you while you two were talking here.”

“Right, I forgot to tell you.” Caroline smiled sheepishly at my sister. “Yes, they grew up together. They met each other in the park and that’s basically how I met your Mom and Allison.”

“Woah. This is interesting. How were they like?” Starr pushed.

“What do you mean how we were like?” The girl beside me muttered and let out an awkward laugh. Well yes, it was awkward because I knew she did not want to talk about it too.

“They were inseparable until we had to leave for Australia where we originally lived. They are best friends.” Caroline explained and I was tempted to correct her use of words.

I was hoping the topic was closed because it was starting to make me feel uneasy and I could feel that the girl sitting beside me wanted to avoid talking about it too. I wanted to correct Aunt Caroline with her use of words because ‘best friends’ only existed in the past but I just held myself back. Doing that would ruin the whole breakfast and I did not want my Mom to feel upset with me.

“Your brother always wanted to be at the park and play with Lulu. He pushed the kid who made Lulu cry. It was actually the first time they met. Since then, they became so close.” Mom just had to dig more about history.

Helpless, I leaned back on my chair and just listened to them. I did not want them to see that I had a problem with it. Acting cool… that was what I was doing. Cool but silently annoyed.

“But why… why aren’t you two talking right now?” It was the question that I did not want them to ask us, but Starr’s curiosity was so deep and if I could only walk away, I’d already done that.

“There is nothing to talk about, I guess.”

Nope, it wasn’t my reply but hers. That surprised me. There was nothing to talk about, huh? Did that mean she was cool? With everything?

Game on, sweetheart.