Corner Store Girl: Janoskians: Luke and Jai Brooks Fanfiction

Chapter 17: "If only he were here." (Part 1)

I slightly opened my eyes to the feeling of my arm being stroked and turned to find Luke beside me still shirtless from the night before and me in my underwear. "Hello, beautiful."

"Hey there, handsome." I managed to say before a lengthy yawn. He smiled. I had my back against the couch and he was on his side looking down at me silently. "What's wrong?" I pouted.

"I have to leave today." He sighed putting a piece of my hair behind my ear that wasn't even out of place. "I have to leave."

"It's going to be fine. You'll be back before you know it." I lied. I really didn't want him to go. "Plus, you can fix everything with Jai and find out what's wrong with him." I did hope he would find out. I still missed the way Jai and I used to talk to each other. I missed him.

"Yeah, I know, but I just hate him for picking the first day you're free from work to make this trip. He's a douche."

I pecked his cheek. "It'll be fine."

"How can you be so sure? You're not psychic." He laughed.

"Oh but I am; it's quite a gift." I falsely gloated.

"Shut up." He said and leaned down to kiss me. We continued to do this until we were interrupted.

"Be ready in 15." Said Jai from the doorway with a disgusted tone.

"He has the gift for perfect timing." I joked.

"Damn straight, but now I feel left out. What's my gift?"

"The world may never know."

Luke smirked and got off from on me and after my decline of the offer of showering with him again he climbed up the steps with fake sobs. I picked up my clothes that were thrown on the floor last night and put them on quickly just in case Jai wanted to pay another visit and grabbed my phone from the Scrabble board still set up in the middle of the room.

From my screen I could see it was 8 in the morning, Damien called me twice, texted me saying it was urgent, a call from my dad, and Zach texted me about having dinner together. I was still ignoring Damien, everlastingly holding out false hope that he would stop bothering me soon. He hasn't reached out physically to me since the argument I had with him the night he claimed we had a "special bond". He's just been watching me form his window when I come home from work and call me. This was the first time he texted me though, I wondered what the special occasion was. Then my father called.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hi, honey."

"How's everything down there?"

"Great. We've finished the paperwork and documents. After the whole legal argument, everything's cleared up. We have custody over all of her belongings." Apparently Marine did have family and once she passed, they had come to their lawyers to claim everything she had. When they found out that my parents got what they wanted, they tried to legally steal it all. But, there was no record of contact between Marine and any of her family members; meanwhile my parents made the effort to fly to Texas at least once a year for the past seven so that helped them win the case.

"That's great. They must have been crazy to think they would have won that."

"Those bastards didn't care for anything, but Marine's wealth. To hell with them. They didn't even have the decency to fly over for the freaking funeral. Your mother and I were the only ones who showed up."

"Wow. What shit-poopy people." I've always tried to keep my language PG-13 with my dad.

"We'll be there in a week at most. Sweetheart I'm so sorry for leaving you for so long." He's apologized for giving me the best summer ever every call we've had. "What have you been doing? How's the job?"

"Oh, it's great. Today's my first day off. It'll be nice to take a break."

"Finally, you've been working like a hound dog." He always loved to make Beatles' references. "What do you plan to do?" I walked into the kitchen and filled up a glass with juice.

"Not much. I'll probably read and watch some T. V.." I was telling the truth. Without Luke there wasn't much to do. "I have dinner plans with Zach tonight, though." I took a sip of the orange flavor and felt refreshed.

"Is that right?" He huffed. My dad wasn't exactly convinced of Zach's 'transformation' and didn't support our renewed friendship. I drank another sip.

"Dad, please."

"'Whatever'." He said with a fake teenage girl voice. "Carol called your mother and asked for her to check on the group of boys who are staying there, but seeing how we're here, we would like for you to check on them."

I instantly spit out the juice in my mouth. "Alex, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll do that right now, so I'll go. Love you, bye." I quickly hung up the phone.

I sat down at the breakfast bar to finish my juice before Jai came down stairs in an artsy tank and jeans with timberlands. We immediately made eye contact, and I thought he would look or walk away, but instead he sat next to me.

"Hi." I said with a dry throat despite my drinking the orange beverage.

"Hey." He awkwardly greeted. I badly missed how we used to be able to talk about any and everything.

There was a short pause and Luke came down, too, but spoke on his way down. "Babe, I have five minutes to go. A lot can happen in five min-." He finally reached the bottom of the staircase and saw us sitting together and scratched the back of his neck. "Hey, bro. Wh-What's happening?"

I cleared my throat. "Should I make you some breakfast to go?" I got up and made my way to the fridge.

"No, I think it's best we leave now." Jai shot up from his seat and went towards the front door and stated he was going to set up the GPS. Luke and I walked out hand in hand and about three feet away from the car while Jai was in the driver's seat with the engine running.

"I guess this is goodbye." Luke said now facing me.

"Don't be so dramatic. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Of course." He smiled. "Come here." He opened his arms wide and I happily entered them before he kissed me. His grip on me tightened as he kissed me deeper and less gently. Jai finally honked, yet again perfecting his timing skills. We separated and hugged just once more. "I should leave before I won't let myself. Bye, love."

"Goodbye my curly-haired Australian." I waved through the window of the minivan to the twins as they drove away and decided to get a book to read from home.

I couldn't decide which of my favorites to read again so I decided to take most of them. I brought them back to my aunt's and set up shop on the roof and laid out The Fault in Our Stars, The Kite Runner, Alice in Zombieland, and Cinder. In the end I decided to go with The Fault in Our Stars. When I finished the book with tears in my eyes, I went downstairs to make a sandwich and sat down to watch That Awkward Moment. I started laughing at something Miles Teller said when I heard a creek come from behind me. I turned around but found no one there so ignored it. I finished the movie and saw the time; I should start getting ready.

Once out the shower, I put on my underwear and robe, still unaware of what to wear. I walked into the closet I now had the clothes from my house hung in. I scraped the hangers against the rod exposing each piece of clothing and dreading the next as much as the last. I was just about to cancel last minute due to lack of an outfit when I stumbled upon a cute black dress I had forgotten I bought about a year ago for a Christmas family party, but my mother thought I was too young for it. I guess tonight was the night I came of age. I laid the dress out on my bed and picked out silver flats and a matching necklace to go with it. I started to play some music by Panic! At The Disco and could almost swear I heard a click through the melody of The Ballad of Mona Lisa, but before I could check out what it was I got a text from Zach saying he would get here in twenty minutes. I put on some lotion and was just about to start putting on my clothes when I another creak. I opened the door to my room and peered out a small opening of the door. "Hello?" Silence followed. "Zach? This isn't funny. I'll be ready in five." I turned around, but before I could shut the door something hit me on the back of my head and I couldn't see anything.