Frenemies

25

After a few more promises of coming right back to Grayson's room, I make my way downstairs to see if all the kids are asleep. I find Stacie sitting on the couch and I walk over to her. She glances at me and I say,"Your brother wants me to stay for the night." 

"Nathan?" 

"No", I say quickly and she scrunched her eyes at me, confused. "Gray." 

"Oh", she says and then puts her phone down. She crosses her legs over and turns to me with the biggest smile on her face ever. "Did you guys make up yet?" 

"We were never really—"

"I know you guys kissed", she says cutting me off and I raise my eyebrow in confusion. "You said it, on our porch the other month?"

"Right", I cringe but Stacie only waves off my embarrassment. 

"I was so not on board with ignoring you, I hated it. Trust me, if you haven't given him an ear full, he has had enough, I gave him the biggest one when you left our porch."

"You didn't have to—"

"He was so stupid for letting you stay out there in the cold."

"Yeah", I say playing with the ring on my finger. 

"So did you forgive him yet?" 

I look over at the hopeful look on her face and maybe I should trust it; he is her brother. "I, um, I really want to, trust me." 

"Then why haven't you?", she asks seeming more curious now. 

"Because what I feel for your brother. Well uh it's big", I admit with a nervous laugh,"I'm afraid that he isn't genuine with his apology and I don't want to like him again." 

"Okay, firstly, understandable", she says, sounding so mature for her age. Stacie has grown so much and I have a feeling it had to do with how Grayson left her in charge for four days. "But I know Grayson and he has seemed genuinely sorry. He mopped around for the whole time." 

"Was it because he missed us? Or because he truly missed me?", I ask my cheeks heating up at the fact that I'm being so openly honest with his sister. Little sister.

"That is so smart. And um I guess you'll find out. Okay, I have an idea. Pitch the idea to be friends with him and if he says yes then he wants you. But if he says no then he wants what you guys had." She avoids eye contact with me and I know that she feels weird talking about this also.

"Okay, actually that's smart."

"Thank you, Julie", she says now looking at me, I can tell the compliment was appreciated. 

"Do you have a change of clothes?", I say glancing down at my mom jeans and a baby tee. The outfit was cute but I cannot stay in it for the whole night. 

"Yeah, I'll grab you a pair of shorts but I'm afraid my shirts will have the same baby tee effect on you", she says and I shrug. 

"Fine. I'll steal one of Grayson's shirts. A present for all my troubles." 

"Speaking of, thank you for taking care of us." 

"No, more on Gray's part. I enjoy taking care of you guys, but caring for a sick Grayson? He was super sick so he just laid in bed all day, being disobedient." 

"Yeah he rarely gets sick so when he does, it hits him so hard." She laughs and I join her. 

••••

After changing into the shorts I borrowed from Stacie, I had walked back into Grayson's room to grab a shirt. I changed into it in the bathroom and when I start walking past his bed and out of the room, Grayson reaches out a hand to touch me.