"You shouldn't be doing that. Let me handle it." Summer collected the knife and chopping board from me and shifted them to her side to cut the potatoes. I stared blankly at her. She had been doing this ever since she learned of my pregnancy yesterday and would not even let me get my water from the fridge. She practically did the basic things I could manage to do myself.
"I am only pregnant. Not terminally ill, Summer." I complained with a roll of my eyes.
She only giggled and continued to handle the meal prep.
I swear in my life, I had never seen Summer this happy. Heck, I have never even seen Summer happy before.
"Nevertheless, you are pregnant, Ari. And the whole idea of your pregnancy is so insane." She paused and gives me a corny grin. "Please let it be a boy. And let him look Korean too. I hope he looks like Jimin or Taehyung...."
She looked up dreamily and looked back at me again. "Even if the baby turns out to be a girl, please let her be a replica of Rose from Black pink. Or Jennie..."
"Dude...I am not God..."
"Or, since you have a resemblance to Bae Suzy, she could be a replica of her..."
"Hey, hey, hey!" An excited female voice joined us in the kitchen and we both turned our heads to look at Jojo striding into the room, a lunchbox in her grips. She slowed down and the smile on her face fell as she locked gaze with Summer.
"Hey, Jojo. What's up?" I was glad to find an escape from Summer's sudden weirdness.
"I'm okay." She gave me a brief hug and eyed Summer again.
Here we go with the possessiveness again.
I quickly jumped in to save the day.
"Uhm...Jojo, meet Summer. Summer is Connor's little sister. Summer, meet Jojo, my sister."
Phew. That was pretty much easier than I expected.
The girls only eyed themselves and attempted a small wave.
Jojo turned her attention back to me, her smile returning to her face. She dropped the lunch box on the kitchen table.
"I made some soup for you. I really don't know what you have been eating while you're here or who had been cooking for you because you look really skinny."
I almost laughed. Skinny? She just saw me three days ago and now she thought I was skinny?
I had a feeling she was indirectly directing her words to the chef of the kitchen. Summer.
"You shouldn't take just any type of soups made by amateurs, Kenzie. I can make you a really good one." Summer said to me and my eyes darted between the both of them.
Was this some sort of indirect war I knew nothing of? Wait, did they even know each other?
I opened my mouth to ask the question but another exciting voice joined us, walking in her ankle-length boot into the kitchen.
"Hello, girls." Suzy's eyes widened with joy at our sight. " Woah. Is this like some get-together or what? What a houseful we've got!"
Of course. What a freaking houseful! Did these girls plan this together?
"Hey, pretty." She stopped by Summer first and kissed her by the cheeks. She played with the ends of her hair. "What pretty hairs you've got."
Summer's face burned in blush and I could instantly tell she was going to like Suzy.
Suzy walked to Jojo and me and grabbed the both of us in a tight bear hug.
"How's it going, girls?"
"We're good," I replied, almost choking on her excessive perfume.
"Hi, Suzy." Jojo smiled and doesn't seem to care about the scent.
Suzy pulled away again and I looked closely at her, eyeing and appreciating her glowy skin.
I guess Zed was taking really good care of her after all.
Once again, I was glad it had to be Suzy and not Tory. I hope they had broken up already.
"What are you girls doing? This place smells nice." She sniffed her nose in the air and Summer jumped in to answer excitedly.
"I'm making rice pudding and oatmeal."
Suzy wowed and her eyes stared at Summer impressively.
"You are an excellent cook, Summer. The aroma is impeccable."
She sure knew how to make people feel good about themselves.
"What do you guys plan to do for fun after having lunch?"
Summer and I shrugged at once.
"Nothing much," I said. "I have to pick some groceries from the store and visit the..."
"That is so boring, Kenz. When are you ever going to learn to be more...fun?" She cut in and I gave her a death glare. She ignored me and looked at everyone, her eyes lit in a mischievous smile.
"What about an exclusive girls-only club night?"
The club was buzzing with loud music, disco lights and people dancing and grinding against each other. Suzy danced and led us through the throng until we finally settled at the bar.
Summer and Jojo seemed happy even though they were pretending not to take notice of each other.
"How old are you guys?" Suzy pointed to the girls.
"Sixteen."
"Seventeen."
"Ohhh." Suzy nodded her head as if she was just realizing that. I rolled my eyes at her pretence. "So, you girls are underage."
"This isn't my first time, Suzy." Summer pulled out an ID from the pocket of her jeans jacket. It was a fake ID. "I've done it before."
Suzy wowed Summer and looked at me and Jojo in a manner that said...
Woah. Can you look at that? How impressive!
"Does Connor know about this?" I did not like the idea of Summer consuming alcohol as a minor. I did, and now, I was close to being an addict.
Summer lifted her upper lip and sneered.
"Give me a break, Kenz. I'm not a child." She signalled to the bad guy. "Can I have a shot, please?"
Suzy turned her attention to Jojo. "What about you, little one?"
Jojo shrugged. "Nah. I'll have a glass of orange juice instead." As I sighed in relief, she gave me a look.
"I'm not doing this because you're here, Kenz. I don't fancy alcohol."
Summer snorted. "Lame."
Jojo threw her a glare and I prayed silently that they didn't have the war they had been preparing for.
But my prayers go in vain as Jojo replied.
"Well, I think what's lame is lying and going behind your parents' back to do things they don't like."
"Oh, so now you're the perfect one."
"Guys, stop it already!" I threw my hands in the air in a bid to stop their argument.
"You know, I've always known you're quite the jealous one," Summer added and Jojo's face hardens.
Honestly, do these girls know themselves from anywhere?
"Oh. You think I'm jealous because I am not moved by anything your family own?"
"Wait...wait...wait." I cut in again, my head heavy with confusion. "Hold on a minute. There is something you both are not telling us. What is going on here?"
The girls only kept silent and glared at each other like two tigresses about to devour themselves.
"I said...What the fuck is happening between you too?"
"Summer tried to bully me in school to stay away from her brother. She even tried to offer me money to do so." Jojo blurted out and I stared at Summer with a slacked jaw.
The fuck?
"That's not exactly what happened. I was trying to protect her from my mom but she wouldn't understand." Summer did not hesitate to jump in and defend herself.
I sighed in disbelief and slapped my hand across my face. I could not believe these girls had been playing aristocrats behind our backs.
"You know what?" Suzy thankfully jumped in before I could say another word. "Let's just have fun and do what we came here for, okay? Let bygones be bygones."
She ordered drinks for the three of us and orange juice for Jojo and the smell of alcohol was enough to lessen the stress the girls were already putting me through. I thankfully accepted the drinks and as we consumed the drinks, Suzy entertained us with conversations about college and boys and I was surprised how the girls were laughing at her jokes now.
Not only was Suzy good at making others feel good about themselves, but also great at handling the situation in a room.
In a few moments, we were up and dancing with everyone else on the dance floor, moving our bodies and twisting our waists along with the music. My head felt airy and lightweight and I felt as if all my stress was swept away in a swoosh. Suzy was rocking the stage, dancing with strangers carelessly and I shook my head and laughed at her at the same time, my eyes caught the familiar frame of a tall lean black haired lady sitting at the bar all alone herself.
I crane my eyes further. Wasn't that Jessica?
The thought of ignoring her occurred to me but I found myself worried that she was alone and I excused myself from the girls and walked in her direction.
When I approached her, she sensed my presence and looked in my direction. She had a surprise in her half-drunk eyes.
"Hey." I stood close to her. She rolled her eyes at me and drank from her glass.
"What do you want, boyfriend thief?"
"What are you doing here alone yourself?" I ignored the absurd she called me and asked her instead.
"None of your business." She did not spare me a glance again.
"I..."
But she wouldn't let me talk again as she slammed her glass on the counter table and glared at me, her eyes piercing and spiteful.
"Stay away from me, you witch." Her tone was low and dangerous and without being told twice, I walked away, feeling bad about her.
I only wanted to be nice.
When I reached the dance floor again, I stopped cold to my feet as I witnessed a teenage girl drag a man who was trying to touch her illicitly.
Jojo.
The man pushed her roughly and she staggered. Suzy and Summer tried to push the man away but he took advantage of their drunken state to fling them away without much effort. Without another waste of time, I rushed to them and shoved the man off Jojo with my hands. He gave me a cold dangerous look. The scars on his face told me he was not the kind of man to mess with.
"Stay away from my sister!" I warned him as I pushed Jojo behind me and stood in front of her protectively.
"You don't know who you're messing with, honey." He made to advance towards me and I shut my eyes in expectant of whatever punch he was going to send my way.
But it never came.
Instead, I heard the crowd go wild as someone fell to the ground with a thud and groaned in pain. Still shaky with fear, I peeled open my eyes and there was a tall large frame of a familiar man striding our attacker and sending him blows on the face mercilessly.
Connor.
