Jodee

Chapter 35 - Revelations

ACE POV

Once my sister got out of the car I looked at Caleb one last time, turning off the engine and jerking my head in the direction of the house to convey to him that we were going to go talk in my office.

I'm not planning on this talk being a "harsh one," even though most of my more serious conversations that I have with my family and employees are held in my office. For Cal and I my office is just the place we talk because we're always on the third floor. Plus, for some reason we don't really go into each other's rooms so it would feel weird for me (and Caleb) to have a conversation in one of our rooms.

Caleb also has his own office on the third floor, but seeing as I am "the boss" we always talk and sometimes just hang out in my office. Plus, I was the one who wanted to have this chat with him so it would make sense that we would be in my office.

With my sister, if I want to talk to her I'll just go to her room or if I'm super serious, I'll ask her to come to mine, but we've had very few of those chats. I don't let Jodee up on the third floor so normally she's only allowed up if it's a special circumstance which are also very few. Come to think of it, Caleb, Jodee, and I hang out in my sister's room, the kitchen, or the living room. That was it, and we had a pretty big house.

I exited the car in silence, knowing that my best friend was following after me and headed up to where my office was.

Once we got into the room, I walked to my desk and leaned back, so I was half sitting and half standing, my arms crossed over my chest. I raised an eyebrow and nodded my head to one of the two chairs, conveying the message that Caleb was going to sit down in one of them.

"What?" My friend laughed. "Am I in the principal's office or some shit like that?" He joked.

I shrugged, waiting a couple seconds to see what Caleb would do. "Sit." I ordered him seriously when he still hadn't followed my instructions after a moment.

Caleb rolled his eyes, strolling over and taking a seat dramatically, sprawled out. "C'mon, Ace. I don't got all night." Caleb leaned back even further, closing his eyes and resting his hands behind his head to convey a very relaxed posture.

I kicked his foot lightly so he would pay attention to what I was saying. "You can't be like that to, Jodee." I laid out what I wanted to come up here to speak to him about.

My best friend's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion at first before he leaned forward, finally taking this conversation as seriously and I'm taking it. I'm always serious when the situation concerns my little sister.

"Like what?"

I rolled my eyes, then flicked out of my eyebrows up, shooting my friend an unamused expression — seriously. Caleb loved to play dumb — "a dumb blonde" — but I knew he knew what I was talking about. And he also knew what he was doing was wrong. 

"C'mon. You know the detention thing is bad right now, it'll hurt our— your case for custody with Tobias."

"Not a big deal. No need to yell." I gritted out.

Caleb had never been that kid that everyone was always like "oh, he's stubborn," that was always me. But when my best friend gets caught on something he really believes in, he can be super stubborn. I just think Jodee's comment to Caleb about him not really being her brother really hit him hard so he's just spiraling and changing due to that.

My best friend scoffed. "Just because you aren't willing to tell your little sister she fucked up, doesn't mean I'm not. One of us has to." He reasoned.