Rip - Becoming Whole

Are We Good?

They walked up to the house together. Rip's heart sank and his belly gave out to him as the ants woke up inside of him, when he saw Jacob get up out of his seat on the porch to go inside the house. He glanced up at his uncle hoping he had not seen it but without looking at him, the man placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He tried to remember if he had said anything particularly nasty to him earlier that warranted Jacob to despise him so much that he would get up and leave.

His uncle had not been lying when he said that Chrissy was sitting between Samuel and Sebastian getting the third degree, or at least it looked like that this might have been their initial intention. Had it been anyone else they would have probably wanted to be rescued, the way Samuel and Sebastian were sitting on either side of her and leaning in, which would have made it awkward for her to get up and leave. He had known that she would like Samuel and Sebastian however, they were right up her street. When he saw her there, deep in conversation with them and making them laugh he felt proud that she was his girlfriend. Of all the guys in the world she could have had, she had chosen him, and he couldn't understand why.

They said hello to each other a bit awkwardly, but this was no different to any other time or to when he said hello to Sebastian and Samuel who both would have liked to give him a hug but did not because they knew he wouldn't have liked it. He always needed a bit of time to warm up at first. Samuel told him that Sebastian had been spending his uncle's money on him again and bought him lots of clothes and some other things he might like. They had given the bags to Robert who had brought them up to his room. He thanked them and was glad, as some of his clothes had started to get small again. He was becoming somewhat of a beanstalk as his uncle liked to point out. He had yet to go into a clothes shop and chose his own clothes. He was not complaining though. Despite Sebastian's unusual style and appearance, he was good at picking out clothes that suited him and that he liked. He was grateful to him, for taking the time as Rip himself would not have known what to do. He tried to imagine himself going clothes shopping in the company of Robert or even worse his uncle. He couldn't even imagine those two shopping for clothes for themselves and was wondering if they would prefer Sebastian would do it for them too.

Jacob came back out, carrying a plate with food on it. "Sit and eat. We're trying to get going within the hour," he said in the direction of Rip and pulling out a chair. Rip looked up at his uncle beside him. "I've eaten son," he told him as if he could read his mind. Bashful Rip sat down and thanked Jacob, who put the plate in front of him. "Are we good?" Jacob asked leaning over him and putting his hand on his shoulder which made him stiffen a little. He had really scared him earlier. Out of the mouth of his uncle this would have been as close as it ever get to an apology, so he looked up at Jacob trying to figure out what he meant by it but realised he couldn't read the man anymore. Jacob still looked cross and angry, even though he sounded kind. "Yes, sir," he quietly said with a bowed head. Jacob gave him a light tap at the back of his head. "Are we good?" he asked again this time in a somewhat sterner manner. Rip nodded, "Yeah," but he was actually not sure.

He knew that things would be different now. There are things you can't just simply unhear once they have left a person's mouth and maybe it was for the better. Jacob had put him back in his place and not a moment too soon. He almost was grateful to the man to restore proper order. You get hurt badly when you let yourself think you mean more to someone than you actually do. He had plenty of experience with this. It did not change the fact that he needed Jacob 'to be good' with him, however. They needed to get along. The thought of the man remaining cross with him while he was living on the ranch was killing him. The ants would build a nest in his belly again and would surely stay if he ever had to live like that again.

They left him to eat in peace, which he was glad about. He always found it difficult to eat when he was nervous or upset and had to take it slowly. Jacob went to the stables where he was getting the horses ready with Robert who had already started on the job. He took Chrissy along with him. Samuel and Sebastian got changed, they both were still in shorts and T-shirts. And the old man was going to negotiate with Bernard about the picnic he wanted him to prepare.