bad timing

three

"What if he does?" I ask nervously as Jake pulls into his driveway with me in the passenger seat. "He won't. He's in Grand Rapids until tomorrow." He says, looking over at me while putting his car in park. "Besides, you guys need to talk at some point. It's been like, what, two months?" He asks, getting out of the car. "Three." I grumble, getting out as well and following him towards the house. "You guys used to be inseparable. Your entire lives. You shouldn't let one bad fight change that. If you're willing to forgive him, of course." Jake shrugs. I nod.

"I just.. I don't know. I want him to stop being so stupid. He plays with girls hearts like they're toys. And he says such stupid things." I mumble. Jake sighs, opening the door and letting me follow him inside before shutting it behind me. "I get it." He says, slipping off his shoes. Their house looked exactly the same as it had when I was young. Navy blue walls, pictures of the kids scattered around the walls and on the shelves, and the smell of a home cooked meal pushing its way through the bottom floor. As my eyes drifted across the walls, one specific photograph caught my attention.

I couldn't remember when it was taken, probably because I looked to be about 3 or 4. The picture showed me in what looked like it used to be a baby pink dress, but was completely covered in mud. Next to me stood Sam, with a proud grin on his face, mud all along his arms and clothes as well. "We never did get the dirt out of those clothes." A familiar voice says from beside me, and a smile makes its way across my face.

"I don't know how you put up with us." I turn to her, seeing that same motherly grin she usually sported when she saw me. "After the twins, you guys were a piece of cake." She laughed, pointing to a picture of the twins on their little Jeep. They both had maniacal expressions on their faces while Jake drove, and Josh sat on the hood of the car. "They haven't changed a bit." I mumble, then give her a smile. "I haven't seen you in so long. How have you been?" I had missed her so much over the past few months, but given my situation with Sam and my parents, I just didn't feel like it was right to come by their house.

"Oh, I'm great! Even better now that you're here." She gives me a wide smile. "Hey, mom, I'm here too." Jake says sarcastically, and Karen just waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. I see you every week." She says dismissively. I laughed, "Yeah, you're old news, Jacob." I say, and Karen nods with a laugh. "Oh, Jake, I'm just kidding. You know that." She gives Jake his turn for a hug, then turns back to me.

"Guess what I'm making for dinner?" She asks quizzically, and I squint my eyes, pretending I had no idea. "Could it be... your world famous lasagna?" I raise an eyebrow, and she nods excitedly. "Your favorite!" "My favorite." I agree, still grinning. I seriously did love her. She had always been like a second mother to me. I spent more time with her than I did with my own mother. Their house began to feel more like a home than my own house had when I was a teenager.

"Josh and Danny should be here any minute. Go sit down, make yourself comfortable. Let me know if you need anything! I'll be in the kitchen!" Karen says happily. "Do you want help cooking?" I ask, making it sound like a genuine question, but I was really hoping she would say yes. "Oh, you know I would never turn down an offer for you to cook with me." I grin happily, following her to the kitchen.

"Wanna work on the noodles while I work on the sauce?" She says, handing me the stuff to make the noodles by hand. I'd always loved that she did that. "Of course." I say, starting to make the dough in the bowl she had set out. "So, dear. My boys haven't been updating me. What's new with you? How are classes? Any new boys?" She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, making me laugh.

"Classes are good. I'm almost done with my junior year, so it'll be nice to have that over and done with. I fell behind at the start of the year, but with the Jake and Josh's help, I got all caught up." I explain, and she nods. "No time for boys right now." I chuckle.‬ "Oh, I remember those days." She says in agreement, stirring the ingredients together. "How about you? How have things been here?" I ask, curiously.

Before she could answer, the front door opens. "Oh, that should be Josh and Daniel!" She smiles. I turn to face the door excitedly, but my heart drops when I see Sam standing there instead. I couldn't read the expression on his face, but I really didn't want to talk to him right now. He walks past me to his mom as she greets him. Suddenly, I felt like I didn't belong in the one place I felt most at home. "You're home early!" Karen notes, and Sam nods nonchalantly, "Yeah, my friends didn't realize they had something to do for their finals tonight, so I drove back. I didn't know we were having guests." He mumbles, glancing at me.

Karen furrows her eyebrows, glancing between Sam and me. I sunk into my seat, wishing I could suddenly become invisible. "Okay. One of you tell me what happened." She says, wiping her hands off on a towel and placing them on her hips. One thing about Karen, was that she always knew when something was up. And I mean always. Like, if I'd driven over a curb on the way here, she would somehow know. "Oh, sorry. I guess I zoned out." I say, giving Sam a fake smile as I stood up. He clenched his jaw as he hugged me, trying to make it look real.

"I haven't seen you in forever. I guess I just got caught up in my homework, and stuff." I shrug. He nods, "Yeah, we should definitely make more of an effort to keep in touch." He says, smiling at me. The smile might have looked real from the angle his mother had, but the look in his eyes said otherwise. "Mmhm." I nod, pulling away from him and sitting back down.

"Right." Karen nods skeptically, "I guess I'll let you two off the hook. For now. But, Samuel, if you hurt her in any way..." She says, giving Sam a look that I couldn't read, but it seemed to make him nervous. "I'm literally your son, she's-" He stopped himself when she intensified her expression. "I didn't do anything." He mumbles, like a toddler blowing a fit, turning and walking to the living room.

"Alex," Karen says as she works on the sauce. My heart raced in my chest. I couldn't tell her what Sam had said to me. "Yes?" I ask innocently, kneading the dough. "Did something happen between the two of you?" I close my eyes momentarily. "No, I just haven't seen him in a while. It's been a few months. It's probably weird cause we haven't gone that long without seeing eachother since... well, our entire lives." I shrug. Realizing that, it did hurt me. I felt like I should be the one apologizing, but I knew deep down that I shouldn't. "Alright." She nods.

After Josh and Danny arrived, and we finished dinner, we all sat in the living room, watching an episode of 'Monk'. I looked over for just a second, catching Sam's eye before he immediately looked away. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I needed to talk to him. I pulled out my phone, pulling up his contact. I wasn't sure why I was texting him when we were just feet away from each other, but I couldn't bring myself to get up and pull him away from everybody.

'can we talk?' I send, and see him immediately look at his phone. He sighs, shutting his eyes momentarily before responding.

'if we have to.'

'okay, fine. we don't have to.' I respond, getting very pissed off at his attitude.

Moments later, he stands up, and I hear him walk up the stairs. I roll my eyes. He was such a child. I sat there, trying to ignore my annoyance when I felt my phone buzz.

'just come to my room'