Together

143. Lovely Home

They don't know
They never will
What we have
And how we feel
They can't take this love away
Clouds will come
Come with rain
And we'll grow old
Old and grey
But we're not bound by time and space
-Henrik

The entire Uber ride to 1315 Lighthouse Way is silent. As soon as Kie agreed to go along with JJ's dumbass idea to stalk his mom, he was pulling his phone out to initiate a ride. He didn't leave any room to even think about a plan beforehand and soon the ride share was driving up and there was no way they were going to talk about it in front of the driver or the other three people in the van already. His dumb ass clicked the cheapest option and selected a group ride so that was about as awkward as it gets.

Kie can feel him buzzing with energy. Like his entire body is on fire. He's bouncing his leg and chewing his lips. She half wants to joke that he obviously forgot to take his medication today with the way he's leaning forward to see what's coming up ahead. She doesn't though, holding off just so he can have a moment to think freely about this.

As soon as they make the turn to head down Clair's street, JJ taps on the driver's shoulder and tells him it's fine to just pull over on the side. Kie breathes a breath of relief. At least he was thinking through this a little bit. Just rolling up hot on this woman's place doesn't seem like the smartest of plans. It annoys the driver but he accepts the cash tip without a word and lets them out.

Once the ride has pulled away, Kie steps in his path before he can take a step farther.

"Hold on," she says, hands raised to his chest. She can see his eye twitch, like staying motionless was a physical effort right now.

"We don't got much time, Kie," he tells her.

This was true. About the only thing they did talk about was how this couldn't be an all day all night thing. Shoupe and Nicki were waiting for them back at the motel and they had plans to go to dinner. Not to mention the first round of his competition is tomorrow and he needs to get a good night's sleep if he wants to do well.

That only adds to Kie's hesitation though. "I know," she says, stressing the word so he gets that she's not trying to hold him back. "I just, you need to go into this with a clear head, okay?"

"I'm not gonna go scorched earth on her," he replies.

"You said you weren't going to see her at all, Jay, and here we are," Kie reminds. He sighs, avoiding her eye as she's calling him out. "It's okay that you want to see her, alright? But let's just think about this a little, please."

"I don't want to see her, or talk to her, or whatever. I promise, that's not what this is."

"Okay, okay, I get it," she says in an attempt to ease him. "That's even more of a reason to think this through though, right? We need a plan, Jayj."

He gnaws at his lips and she can feel the tense energy rolling off of him. He nods once, forcing himself to agree to her plan, and she exhales relief. "Okay, what are we doing?"

JJ is insistent that he's not going to talk with Clair. He stubbornly maintains that he just wants to see what she looks like so he doesn't have to keep looking over his shoulder while they're at SDSU. Kie doesn't do anything to break that bubble, but she isn't exactly in it.

It's pretty obvious right away that this plan is half baked. The neighborhood isn't kooky per se, but it wasn't anywhere near what either of them were expecting when they turned down the street.

The homes were well maintained, like this place definitely has an HOA, but it's not like they are driving sports cars or wearing Prada. Kind of reminded Kie of a little more upscale Shoupe's neighborhood. More middle ground than Kook or Pogue.