Fighting For Family: Summer and Jordan

Chapter Seven

Summer

There was so much we needed to talk about. There was so much we needed to figure out and I didn’t even know where to start. After Jordan and I shared a moment to ourselves after I put Ellie down for a nap, we all sat in the living room trying to figure out the next step and how we were going to break it to Jordan that he needs to find a new job.

“So, I think we need to call the parents…” Raegan sighed out and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. I know we have been avoiding calling the parentals with everything going on because we know there would be that many more questions and who knows how they will react. “I need someone to watch the kids while we go get this done.”

“How about Jo and Archer?” Finn asked. They both snapped their heads to us and kind of glared at him.

“No offense, but we do have a life of our own you know.” Jo stood up and placed her hands on her hips, “We have plans. You can’t always expect us to babysit on a whim whenever you guys want. That’s not how this works.”

“This matters more than your plans, cancel them.” Finn demanded, standing up and glaring down at her.

“No. You can’t tell me what to do.” She snapped back.

“Whatever plans you have cannot be more important than what we are going through right now. We are all supposed to be in this together and that includes the both of you.” He pointed over at the two of them.

“Woah, Finn, calm down.” I stood up, trying to stop him.

“I’m not the one that stuck my d**k inside a girl that my two friends did in the same night. You know we are more than willing to help when we can but you can’t just expect us to drop everything! We are only seventeen. We are about to be seniors and we have s**t that needs to get done!” Archer stood up and pushed past me and went chest to chest with Finn. It seemed like there was too much overbearing testosterone in the same room.

“Finn, calm down.” Jordan stood up and walked over to him and placed his hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down, “We can’t expect them to always be there for babysitting. This isn’t their problem, it’s ours and we need to figure it out. Let them be teenagers for a bit more before we suck them into this life.”

“Woah…” Dylan said in a surprised tone. I looked over and his mouth was open and eyes wide, “Did you just make sense and not go all sarcastic joking on the situation? This is something different.”

“I can be serious when we need to be, jeeze.” He rolled his eyes and looked back over at Jo and Archer, “I’m sorry guys. Take my keys and go have fun doing whatever you planned on doing.” Archer gave the biggest smile and took the keys and went downstairs with Jo to do god knows what, only to run back upstairs a few moments later, screaming see ya as they darted out the front door.

“I texted mom and dad, they will be here in like five minutes.” Ray sighed out and sat in the chair, “I’m terrified.”

“You? YOU? You don’t have to face the wrath of Eli when he comes barreling through the door. We do. Finn and I because if Finn has a child that is his and he didn’t know, you know your mom is going to freak and with me, I already had to fight tooth and nail to get on your dad’s good side and this is going to put me back right at square one.” Dylan started to pace back and forth, “I don’t want him to punch me again because I know this time, it’s going to be a million times harder.”

“Calm down, will you? I don’t think they would do anything until we find out who the father is.” I rolled my eyes, “Now, until then, can we talk about the other s**t going on?”

“What other stuff?” Jordan asked looking between us all in surprise. Dylan went over and sat next to Jordan in the living room and took in a deep breath, “Dude, you’re kind of freaking me out.”

“So, something happened at the teacher meeting you skipped to bone your girl.”

“What a wonderful way with words you have.” I rolled my eyes, making him snicker. Throughout the past six months, everyone has been opening up more with each other and becoming more comfortable. It’s been great, knowing that we can be ourselves and not get judged, because even though, for example, Raegan looks sweet and innocent on the outside, she has one of the worst mouths on the planet, worse than Jordan and I, same with Dylan.

“Anyways before I was rudely interrupted, you really should have been at that meeting dude. We lost funding from the state apparently and the super is making cuts to a s**t ton of teachers, arts, music and sports.”

“What kind of cuts?”

“Well, he wanted to cut music and art by like a third and cut out sports one hundred percent and pause all construction plans and we won’t even be able to get new busses.”

“Woah woah woah, they can’t just cut sports all together. Winning titles brings in money. We brought in a crap ton from winning state last year! They can’t do that!”

“I know. That’s why Dylan here, being the whole brains behind this wonderful operation, decided to donate the needed money to the school system to keep everything open, get the busses, complete the construction and save jobs.” Ray cut in.

“How much man?”

“32.”

“Thousand? That’s not bad at all.” I looked over at Ray and Dylan and chuckled. That must have been the same look on their face they gave me when I said the same thing.

“You’re an i***t. Million dude, million. If it were thousand, I wouldn’t be stressing so much.” Dylan responded and the instant stress washed over his face. I still couldn’t believe he did this, it was very noble but still, now that I know how much they had, this pretty much wipes them out.

“Woah, why would you do that? I mean, that’s awesome, but still.”

“For Archer and Jo who are relying on scholarships for college. For the seniors on the team this year who are looking to play at school. For the music program to be able to develop the children and better their skills. For the art students to help with their creativity. This is affecting everyone, and I mean everyone.”

“Okay, so that’s not terrible..”

“He’s not done.” I sighed and knelt in front of him and took his hands into mine, “Because of the amount of the donation, Raegan and Dylan are not able to go back to work for the school system according to the super because of the influence they could have with the money. It’s a conflict of interest or something.”

“Dude, I’m sorry.” He said look at both of them, “If I could help, I totally would but I didn’t come from a family with money unfortunately. The only reason I was able to go to school in New York with you to begin with was because of the full ride I got.”

“Jordan, let us finish…please…” I sighed and he nodded his head, “That also means, because you and Dylan are so close, brothers practically, you won’t be able to go back to work either…”

His face flushed. His eyes went wide and you can see the sweat starting to form. His hands became cold and clammy, almost like he was sick and his body started to shake. He was pissed, upset. His breathing became more rigid, harsher as he tried so hard to calm himself down. “Can he do that?”

“I guess so.” Ray’s face fell, “And what’s worse, is if we don’t do this donation, we would lose our jobs anyways because last ones in, first ones out and all those cuts would happen.”

“At least you guys are good, right?” Finn asked, his eyes going wide listening to the whole situation. “I can’t believe that happened. Dude, you are more than welcome to come work with me at the family business. I have a couple of case manager positions open that we haven’t been able to fill.”

“I guess…I mean…I did minor in business but it was something I was hoping to never use.” He groaned and fell back.

“And to answer you’re question Finn, no, we are not good. This wipes out our accounts and we refuse to touch the twin’s money. So…” Dylan started to say before he was cut off by Finn.

“Done. Dylan, you got a job too. It’s done and I know our dad’s will be happy with this. They have wanted this to happen forever.” Finn said with no hesitation. Even though the situation was beyond messed up, at least he was there for them.

“Yeah, they might be happy but that doesn’t mean I will be. I hate business and everything that comes with it.” He ran his fingers through his hair and gripped it.

“We have made some significant changes, so it’s less business and more personal and I think you’ll like it. But what about you Ray? Are you going to stay home with the twins?”

“She’s going to work with me.” I responded, “I need a partner anyways and can you imagine the events we will plan with both our visions?”

“It will be pretty amazing.” She smiled at me. I know she was sad about all this, but at least it was something until we can figure out how to get her to where she wants to be and I know I will do everything I can to help her.

“But there’s something else…” Dylan said, breaking a small moment of silence we had.

“What else could possibly happen? Are we really aliens or some s**t and have to go to our home planet? Are we getting drafted and going to war? Am I dying and somehow didn’t know? I don’t know what else I can take! I just might have a daughter that I didn’t even know about with a girl I barely remember and lost my job all in a matter of twenty four hours.” Jordan started to freak out. I walked right over to him and pulled him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back, squeezed with everything he had and just let it all out.

I have only seen him cry a handful of times. Once when Ray was in the hospital and when he proposed and now. I know he tried hard to hide his tears because of his past with his family so having him let it all out now just means he was pushed over to the edge.

“Calm down baby. Everything will be okay.” I said in a hushed tone, rubbing his back trying to calm him down.

“I don’t know how much more I can take…” He cried out.

“What else is going on?” I asked, leaning my head on his chest.

“So much more than you all know.” He pulled away and wiped the tears away, “So, tell me, what else is going on?”

“So, Jo told us about the super went to one of their games last year and told them to enjoy it while it lasts. She also overheard people talking about how in the last school district he worked at three years ago, something similar happened and he wanted to concentrate on academics and put all the money towards that. I know it sounds weird, but I think it’s all connected somehow.” Ray said, “I tried looking him up and I couldn’t find anything about his past, so we are going to have to keep doing some digging and figuring everything out.”

“So, what happens if you find out he has a pattern of doing this?” I asked her.

“Then it is definitely something to be concerned about and we could possible save the school district without us having to pay the thirty-two million and get our jobs back.”

“Well, if he’s still working for the district, I don’t want my job back.” Dylan said, crossing his arms.

There was a sudden slam of the front door, making all of us jump where we stood or sat. Our eyes went wide as we listened to the commotion that was echoing throughout the house.

“Calm down!” I heard Austin yell, “We don’t know what’s going on, there is no reason to freak out!”

“Oh, I am beyond freaking out! I’m about to explode! DYLAN AUSTIN NICHOLSON WHERE THE f**k ARE YOU!” Eli screamed as he got closer.

“Eli, stop it!” I heard Bella yell at him.

“No! He needs to be taught a lesson to no stick his d**k in everything that fuckin’ moves!”

As they came to view in front of us, Hannah ran in front of Eli and stopped him “You touch my son and I swear, I will beat the s**t out of you so hard, you will be teleported back to before you met Bella and I will make sure your existence is beyond miserable, you got it! Now, let’s talk to the kids and figure out what the hell happened.” I looked over at Eli and his face was beyond red, almost purple, he was so angry. His eyes never left Dylan’s while Dylan just stood there, staring back at him. The tension in the room was evident. You could cut it with the dullest of knives.

“Dylan, care to explain everything?” Bella said calmly, walking back and forth between the three boys, “Like, how the hell this happened in the first place?”

“Well, funny story…” Dylan started to say, his hand rubbing the back of his head nervously, “So, like two and a halfish years ago, Jordan and I came to Silverlake on a small vacation…”

“Woah, you were in the next town over and you didn’t think to tell your mother or I you were in the area to see us? What the hell kind of s**t is that?” Austin started to raise his voice.

“Austin, calm down. It’s in the past, we can talk about that later with him.” Hannah glared at Dylan, “Continue.”

“Anyways, Jordan and I were in the club, drunk and well, I met this girl and we had s*x in the bathroom.”

“Classy. Way to go. I’m surprised you didn’t get an infection from the grossness.” Eli mumbled.

“Not like you haven’t done worse. Shut up. Besides, your son is also involved in this too!” Austin snapped at him.

“Well, Dylan went back to my place and didn’t tell me and as I was looking for him, I noticed the girl he was with and tried to ask her where he was and well…yeah…that happened…” Jordan mumbled.

“Finn? What do you have to say for yourself?” Bella c****d her eyebrow at him,

“Um…so I found out he was in the area and kind of stalked him and got into the club with a fake ID and she came up to me and well, one thing led to another and I ended up getting the best b*****b I have ever received and…” just then, Eli walked over to him and smacked him across the back of the head. Finn’s eyes went wide, not believing that Eli just did that.

“You’re an i***t. All three of you. Have you ever heard of protection? The fuck.” He groaned. Just then, a couple of cries could be heard coming from upstairs. My ears perked and without thinking, I went right up the stairs with Ray on my tail to the baby’s room.

Ray went over to the twins to check on them, but only Eliana was awake, so she grabbed her while I grabbed Ellie. “Hey pretty lady, it’s okay.” I held her close to me, rubbing her back trying to calm her down, “Did the big ole mean Eli wake you up with his unnecessary yelling? I’ll put him in time out when we get back from the doctors, how does that sound?” I heard Ray chuckle from behind me.

“Don’t worry little ones, papa Eli scares me too sometimes. But don’t worry, he really is just a big ole softy to us girls.” She winked over at me. While we were changing their diapers, there was a knock on the bedroom door. We looked over and there was Bella and Hannah, standing at the door, just looking at the scene in front of them. Their eyes soften from their earlier somewhat harshness as the looked at Ellie.

“Is this her?” Bella came over to Ellie first. Ellie looked at Bella and hid her face in my shoulder, gripping my shirt like she was about to fall, “Hey, it’s okay pretty. We’re here to help. I’m Bella and this one over here is Grandma Hannah.”

“I am way to young to be called grandma.” Hannah rolled her eyes at us, “She is beyond precious. May I hold her?” I nodded my head and handed her over to Hannah, who was bouncing her on her shoulder.

“She’s a little shy.” I smiled, “But I think she likes me.” Ellie looked over at me and held her hands out, wanting me to grab her. I picked her back from Hannah and brought her to my shoulder, where she hugged me and laid her head down.

“She seems to like you a lot.” Bella smiled, “Children are a great judge of character.”

“Yes, they are, speaking of judge of character, Raegan, do you care to explain to me why the manager of the bank contact me and Austin about a transfer of thirty two million from your guy’s joint account?” and Ray’s face went pale. This was about to get even more interesting.