What is love?

Chapter 12

I was jolted awake by a sharp kick to my side. Groaning, I rubbed my eyes and turned to see Tasha sprawled out on my bed, her arm flung over her face as she let out a series of low moans. Sunlight streamed through the curtains, casting a warm glow across the room.

Gabrielle was asleep beside Tasha, her black curly hair covering more than half of her face, and she was snoring softly. Renae and Reyesha were both sprawled out on an inflatable bed at the side of the bed. As Renae started to wake up, she stretched out her hand and accidentally punched her sister in the head.

"Ouch..." Reyesha groaned, and I chuckled.

Just then, I heard a loud noise coming from down the hall. I glanced at the clock; it was 10 a.m. and Jason was playing music.

"What in the world?" Gabrielle groaned as she awoke from her sleep.

"Tessa... Make it stop," Tasha moaned, sounding like she was in pain.

"Sorry, guys!" I hurriedly got up and stormed to my brother's room, fuming.

"Jason!" I banged on the door. "Jason, you mother—!" He swung open the door, and I saw a figure on his bed. "What's wrong with you?" I demanded.

"What?" He tried to block me from seeing inside the room. "I have company," he whispered.

"I too have company... Hungover company, so can you keep it down?" My conversation with Monica last night came rushing to my memory, and I scowled at him. "Keep it down, or I'm calling Mom," was all I said as I turned and walked away from his room.

"I'm sorry ladies..." I apologised but it was too late as they were all fully awake. Tasha and Renae were missing though. "I'm gonna go make breakfast," I suggested.

"I'm gonna come with you," Gabrielle offered.

"Lemme know when I should come down," Reyesha said, pulling her phone out and rolling over on the inflatable bed.

As I walked past the bathroom door, I stuck my head inside to see Tasha's head in the bowl and Renae holding her hair back.

"Hey, Tasha, I have a bottle of water and aspirin with your name on it. You too, Renae."

Renae nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, Tess."

I continued down to the kitchen with Gabrielle trailing behind me. "So, last night," Gabrielle began, a note of excitement in her voice, "that guy we saw..."

"I know," I said, shaking my head as I started gathering ingredients for breakfast. "It was really suspicious. I couldn't stop thinking about it."

"I feel like we're close to figuring this out," Gabrielle said, grabbing a bowl and starting to whisk some eggs. "That person definitely had something to do with the rumour site."

Reyesha came down just as we were finishing up cooking. "Smells good. You guys see anything weird last night?" she asked, sitting at the table.

"Actually, yes," I replied, glancing at Gabrielle. "We saw someone sneaking around the back of the house, looking really shady when we were leaving."

"They were definitely videoing Andrew and Tessa," Gabrielle added. Reyesha's brow shot up.

"So, the seed got planted. We're making progress," she acknowledged.

"Yup. Hopefully, we're discreet enough for them not to catch on," Gabrielle said, flipping the last pancake.

Reyesha's eyes widened in remembrance. "We found some pretty interesting stuff too. But first, let's get Tasha in here and fed."

Just then, my phone buzzed. It was a message from Andrew.

Andrew: Hey, Tessa. Can we talk about this? link