Rekindled- Jake Kiszka

Chapter 18

We all decided to stay at Danny and Sammy's house since we were so exhausted after the party. Jake and I took the downstairs couch while Josh and Alex took the one upstairs, Sam and Danny in their own rooms. I wake up around 8:30, the house was silent other than Jake's breathing beside me. It was a cramped couch for two people, but we didn't mind being so close. I look up at him for a moment, admiring his soft features and how peaceful he was when he slept. Jake had a look about him that defined peace to me, he always seemed to calm me down with just the look in his eyes. I lean up and kiss his cheek softly, untangling myself from him successfully without waking him, and heading into the kitchen. I'm not shocked to be the first one up, but I couldn't sleep any longer.
I grab a trash bag and start picking up all of the garbage from last night, empty bottles and cans, pizza boxes, paper plates, all of the normal stuff left after a party. Once everything is pretty much back in its place, I take the trash out and wipe down the countertops. It was nice enough of the boys to let us use their house, even though they promised they didn't mind, I figure it shouldn't be their job to clean up as well.
After rummaging through the cabinets for a little while, I get everything out and start to mix some pancake batter in a big bowl, getting a pan ready on the stove.
While cooking, I zone out, not paying attention to anything but the food since the house was so quiet.
"Smells good in here," I hear a sleepy voice say, turning around to see Danny tying his hair back into a bun
I shoot him a little smile and flip the pancakes that I have in the pan. "And it looks nice too, did you clean all of that up?" He asks, raising an eyebrow as I nod. "Well yeah, you guys let us throw a party in your house, I wasn't gonna leave it a mess." I shrug, popping the pancakes onto a plate.
"Well thank you, let me make some coffee to go with those." He says sweetly, walking to the coffee maker and starting it up.
Before I know it, Josh is walking in with a lazy arm around Alex, Jake joining them both at the island as everyone makes small talk.
Once all of the food is done, I turn around with a huge plate of pancakes, taking them to the table which causes everyone to move there, finding seats and looking at the plate.
"Alright, on the right there's a bunch of plain ones, middle is banana for Jake, and left is blueberry for Josh and Sammy." I say with a nod, knowing the others liked plain pancakes. The syrup and butter were all set out along with plates and everyone had their coffee, thanking me before starting to eat.
"I'm gonna go get Sam's lazy ass out of bed." I say, wiping my hands off and making my way upstairs. I turn the nob to his door and look in to make sure he wasn't sleeping naked. You never know with Sam.
Once I see that he's dressed, I sneak in and close the door behind me, running over and jumping into the bed right beside him, close enough to land partly on him. I earn an annoyed groan from him which makes me smile.
"Good mooooorning Sammy boy!" I say in a cheery voice as he tries to push me off.
"Mary Jane, get OFF!" he groans, making me fake gasp.
"Oh no! You called me my full name, what ever will I do?!" I exclaim, clutching my chest as he finally pushes me off so I'm laying beside him. When he looks over at me I could tell he wasn't actually mad, but he sure was trying to look like it.
"I made pancakes, you better go get some blueberry ones before Josh eats them all."
He sighs and gets up, lifting me off the bed and over his shoulder as I squirm and hit his back, trying to get him to let me down as he carries me down the steps.
"Let me down you shit!" I yell, happy that my dress was long enough to cover my ass.
"Apologize for waking me up like that!" He says back, making his coffee with me over his shoulder as though it was an everyday thing. Everyone looks at us just like that, like nothing was out of place. We're the two youngest, its just how we are.
"I made you pancakes!" I say, kicking at his legs.
"If you kick me dick so help me god Mary Jane I-" he was cut off by Danny.
"Sam, let her down, MJ apologize, please can we eat in peace?"
We both groan and roll our eyes, Sam finally letting me down before I take his coffee and go sit in my seat beside Jake, ignoring his protest behind me.
I lean my head on Jake's shoulder while everyone goes back to eating, taking a sip of coffee and feeling him place his hand softly on my knee.
"What's the plan for today?" Sam asks, sitting down and grabbing the last 3 blueberry pancakes.
"Me and Alex have plans, we're gonna go on a hike and spend this beautiful day among the trees" Josh says, gesturing out the window to the bright blue sky. It really was a beautiful day.
"I have to work in a few hours, so count me out for the day." I say with a small sigh, Jake's thumb starting to rub my leg softly. "Why can't you just quit your job and hang out with us all the time? Sounds way more fun." Sam says, his mouth stuffed with pancakes.
"Sadly, that's not possible, and you know it." I watch the twins exchange a look and sit up quickly, looking from Jake to Josh and back. "What the hell are you two telling each other right now?" The way they could communicate with no words has always amazed me.
They exchange another look and Jake sighs a little, "we were gonna talk about it later," he says, looking between his brothers and Danny as Alex and I share a confused look, "we were kinda thinking about asking you if you'd want to work with us. We need a photographer and we know how good you are, plus we need a social media person if you'd be interested." Jake sounded unsure, like he knew that the question held a certain amount of stress in it.
"I couldn't do that," I say after a second, shaking my head and looking at everyone, "I mean, I adore you all, you know that, but working with people you love never ends well."
It was Alex's turn to chime in now, "Are you joking J? You love photography, plus you'd be around them all the time, not taking this offer is plain stupid."
I know she meant it in a lighthearted way, but the way she was so fast to call my decision stupid definitely hurt.
"I mean, I think that might be a little extreme, its up to her," Danny offers.
"No, I know that it's up to her. Mary Jane you hate working at the diner. I know you think that place would fall apart without you, but trust me we could handle it. If you keep turning down obviously good offers, you're going to do nothing more than continue to make your life harder. Think and do something good for yourself for once. It's so frustrating watching you turn things down that would make your life better." She says, looking at me the entire time. The things she said were the knife into my chest, but the way she said it was what turned the knife and pushed it further. She was talking as if I had been burdening her for years by not doing what she thought was best for me.