Jodee

Chapter 30 - Drama

"Jodee, we need to talk now!" Jess told me, grabbing my arm and pulling me into the bathroom.

"W-what?" I stuttered.

I hastily pulled my back pack over my shoulder to keep my books from falling out of the bag before I was face to face with my best friend.

School today was going pretty normally after a super fun night with both of my brothers last night. The teachers were fine and so far I didn't have too much homework so that was a plus.

Last night, Ace, Caleb, and I watched our movie and had a ton of fun. Caleb made popcorn and even pulled out some sort of secret stash of movie candy he's been keeping so of course we ate all of it. Not Ace though, Ace doesn't really eat candy — he's weird. But I did get to cuddle with him last night which of course made my day because my brother is the best cuddler. 

Caleb is good at hugs and cuddle's as well. They are both kind designed to be seeing as I'm so small and they're so big that it fits well. But he's just never going to be as good as my brother. It's a big blow to his ego, but it's the truth. 

"We need to talk." Jess repeated to me. 

"Okay?" I said.

If I really had to think about it — I would still have no clue why Jess wanted to talk to me so urgently.

Two days ago we had our sleepover that was super fun and right now it's lunch so I don't know why she's pulling me into a bathroom like we're about to skip class. Not that I would ever skip class with Jess, Ace would be pissed if I did. So I immediately ruled out her being mad at me. Plus, wherever Jess is mad she's the type of person to just ignore you, not face it head on.

The only other option I'm thinking could be possible right now would be that Jess wanted to talk to me about something personal. But then again, I don't think that's true because Jess would tell our friend group. She doesn't really value secrets the way other families do.

My family situation is — obviously — extremely complicated. And my family values secrets and discretion, so not many of my friends know about it. They know that I live with my brother and his best friend and that my mom left when I was younger. But I don't think any of them know anything about the situation with my father or me living with him in Massachusetts.

Then again, I don't know much either to tell them. Ace is pretty protective over me so he keeps a lot of stuff about our parents away from me. The only thing I have to go off of is my small memories from those first seven years of my life. In the past, I think I've tried about two times to get Ace to talk to me about small things, but he always shuts me down and I've stopped trying by now — I don't want to make him angry.

I was pretty sure Caleb knew all of it though. Of course, Caleb and Ace talk about everything — probably even more than what my brother and I talk about. Caleb tries to tell me a lot that Ace trusts me, it's just that he's trying to protect me and keep me a kid as long as possible. And I do get that, I trust my brother's choices.

Jess snapped two fingers in front of my face, bringing me back into the real world: "Are you even listening, Jodee?"

"Yes — Sorry, continue." I shook my head before fixing Jess with a focused look so she knew I was paying attention to what she had to say. 

"As I was saying ... Aubrey is pissed at us!" She waved her hands around to explain the severity of the situation to me.

"What? Why?" I answered back immediately.

Shoot!

I hated when people were mad at me or raised their voice to me. I absolutely hated it. So I hated this situation, a lot. To top it all off, I had absolutely no clue why one of my best friends would be mad at me ... and Jess right now. As far as I was aware she wasn't mad at us yesterday at school and I haven't seen her this morning. So how could she just miraculously get mad now?