Tame

Chapter Thirteen

"Ada," AJ whispers, shaking me slightly.
"Five more minutes, Mom," I mumble. "I'll cook breakfast in a minute."
"No, baby," AJ says, pushing hair out of my face. "It's not your mom."
I snap my eyes open and quickly sit up. "Sorry," I say, scratching the back of my neck.
"There's no need to be sorry. Your mom made you cook breakfast?" AJ asks sympathetically.
Rolling my eyes at where I used to be, I nod. A lot of people will think I'm overreacting about making innocent little breakfast for the people in my house, but when you have both parents, a grandma and seven older brothers all in one home, you don't have a lot to look forward to waking up. I cooked breakfast, Mom will make lunch and my grandma Victoria would bring up the rear with dinner.
I snatch the covers away from me and swing my legs over the side of the bed. "What's up?" I questions rubbing sleep from my eyes.
I glance at the clock on the nightstand resting between our beds: 10:45. Have I really been asleep for a full eight hours? It seems like I just laid down 20 minutes ago.
"I was thinking maybe we can check out the mall here," AJ suggest but I can see she doesn't want to follow through with the plan once she witnesses the big yawn taking over my face. "Maybe I should let you get some more sleep."
I laugh a little. "Do I look tired?" I ask.
"Well you're looking at me with only one eye open, so..." I laugh again. "Well, I'm still going to go and I'll make sure to bring you back something to eat."
"Alright, thanks," I mumble before falling back into bed.

I don't know I've fallen back asleep until I hear someone knocking on the door, jerking me awake. Groaning as I sit up, I hop down from the bed and approach the door.
"Who is it?" I call out as I unlock the door, the chain lock being the only thing, still I place. I'm too short to look through the peephole so looking at my visitor through the crack between the door and its frame will have to do.
I almost cry when I see who it is. "What. Do. You. Want. Dean. Ambrose?"
Dean holds up a take-out box from Waffle House. I raise one of my eyebrows as I examine him. He's not giving off a cocky, arrogant vibe. He just looks like a normal person, a normal friend.
I close the door to undo the chain lock before opening it back up again. "Oh," Dean says as I step aside to let him in despite the alarms pounding in my head. "I thought you were just closing the door in my face and that be the end of it."
I sigh, shaking my head. "Nope."
He makes his way into the kitchen and sets the box on the counter.
"How did you know I hadn't eaten," I ask.
He shrugs. "By the way you looks earlier this morning, I thought you would skip breakfast to get more sleep." He nudges the food in my direction.
I pop the lid open and breath in the smell of pecan waffles. I take the syrup that's in a little container and pour it over the waffles before shoving it into the microwave.
"Smackdown's tonight," Dean tells me.
"Oh, dang, I forgot," I say as Dean grabs a chair from the dining table and placing it in the kitchen, sitting down. Three Smackdowns before every pay-per-view Smackdown's are taped the day after Raw to speed up recovery from injuries the superstars and divas obtained during both events.

I can't wait to go home and get rid of the bills that are filling up my post office mail box. I can just imagine the big, navy blue structure of the house that one belonged to my late grandma Tiana who left me the house in her will.
She was the only person who truly believed I could make someone of myself besides a housewife. She saw potential in me before I saw it in myself. I remember visiting her in Barbados for Thanksgiving and Christmas when I was younger. After everyone was full and talking in the living room, I remember her taking me into her bedroom and telling me more adventures of her travels overseas before she married my late grandpa Izaiah as she braided my hair. I always brought a notebook to write her stories down because they were so cool. Besides the house, that notebook filled with her stories, her words are the only things I have left of her.
After she died my parents threw away everything they could that "reeks of her negative existence"-my mother's words-and if I hadn't hid that notebook so well, that would be in the garbage as well in who knew what country.
"I was hoping if it would be okay that I stay with you."
Dean's sentence snaps me out of my reverie. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I was hoping if it would be okay that I stay with you," Dean repeats. "You don't live that far from me. Carson City, right?"
I frown in suspicion. "How do you know that?" I question.
Dean laughs. "I do have regular conversations with Punk," he says. "I remember we were talking about nice houses and Punk says yours is amazing."
I roll my eyes. "So that's why you want to stay?"
"No, I have some trouble back at home that I can't deal with right now," Dean admits and I can't help but wonder if it involves his love life. Is he trying to make me his road fix? I tell myself to calm down and not to jump to conclusions. I'm about to ask him why he can't crash at Seth or Roman's places, but he beats me to the punch.
"But I don't want to be so far from home, you know?" he says. "With Seth living in Iowa and Roman all the way in Florida, you're my only option." He looks up at me hopefully as I finally grab my waffle from the microwave. "Please?"
I roll my eyes. I know I'm going to regret this. "Fine," I answer. "But can we please act civil? It was my grandma's house and it deserves to have respectful people staying in it."
He nods, completely understanding. "No problem."
"I'm serious, Dean," I say sternly. "This house means the world to me and I refuse to let rude people step through the door."
He grabs my face and looks me dead in the eye. "I'll be a good boy, Ada. Promise."
I breathe a sigh of relief. "Okay."
"Honey, I'm home!" AJ calls out as she closes the front door. I feel myself tense and Dean nonchalant mood doesn't comfort me any. "You should see all the cute stuff I got us."
She walks in the kitchen and stops short at the sight of Dean. "What are you doing here?" she demands as she places a Carrabba's take-out box on the counter. "Did you break in? Did he threaten you, Ad?"
I shake my head. "He stopped by to give me food."
She examines Dean with narrowed eyes. "Mhm."
"Well, this has been fun," Dean says as he stand, putting the chair back. "I should get going. Catch you tonight, Ada." Then he's gone.
"What did he want?" Ada asks.
"Give me food," I repeat. "And he asked if he could stay with me for our days off."
AJ widens her eyes. "You told him no, right?" I bite my lip as I shake my head. "Ada!"
"I'm sorry," I say. "But there's stuff going on at his place that he can deal with and I only live a little less than seven and a half hours from him. If he steps out of line, I can just call a cab and have him sent home to deal with those problems."
AJ gives me a skeptical look. "It may not show most often than not, but I have a backbone, AJ."
Her face softens. "I know, Ad," she whispers, running a comforting hand down my arm.