Finding My Family **ON HOLD**

Ch 2: Lean on Me

"Sang, you ready to work out a bit?"

"Ahhh, do we have to??" I ask with a pout. I don't like working out now that I've been lazy staying at home.

"Yeah, I've got you all caught up on your homework; turn in everything when you get back." He gets up and heads over to his bag on the floor, "Now it's time to exercise. Maybe we can turn you into something more than a munchkin."

"Hey!! I'm not that small." I go to chop him on the arm but he's too fast and a knock at my door startles me into falling off my bed. I quickly get up while shouting at the door, "Come in!" I figure it's just my mom.

Lily pokes her head into the room, "Hi Jay, just wondering if you're staying for dinner?"

Jay turns around while he puts his books away in his backpack and gives her a small smile I've only seen him give Lily, "No Mrs. Anderson, thank you. We were just going to get a workout in and then I'll head home."

"Non-sense! You two will be hungry after. So stay and eat I'm making my famous chicken marsala." Lily closes the door after basically ordering Jay to stay and eat dinner.

"Is it really famous?" Jay asks me curiously. He used to always be so quiet, but after our talk in the park and the time we've been hanging out together he's always talkative...at least when we're alone together.

"Nope, not famous considering she's only served it for my family, but it is my favorite." I laugh a little and he joins in while we make our way down to our home gym. Jay has been coming over with my homework everyday during the time I've been off school. I haven't seen any of my friends and if they didn't call me or message me I'd think they were avoiding me. When Jay came over the first day with my homework he gave me an interesting story about how Kota was just a minute late in asking my teacher to bring it to me. Kota confronted Jay outside the classroom and insisted he should be the one to take me my homework, but Jay just silently walked away. I laughed at the story, but then felt a little bad, because I would love for Kota to visit.

I think the guys are scared. We haven't really spoken about the whole situation since I told them about it and they all agreed. To be honest I don't really know what to say to them. My parents told me they don't want to interfere, but in the same breath they said they wanted me to invite each one to a dinner so they could officially "meet the parents" and scare their pants off. When I told the boys this they all visibly paled, well except Silas. He said he couldn't wait and that parents love him.

"Sang?" Jay snaps me out of my thoughts by waving a hand in front of my face. "Where did you go just now?" He asks, handing me a set of small hand weights so I can warm up a bit before I move on to the kettle bell.

"Just thinking." I say without elaborating. Over these past two weeks Jay and I have become close friends. I'm not all that familiar with how friends work, but I think what I have with Jay is what other girls have with their 'girlfriends'. We talk to each other about anything and everything. We are each other's sounding boards about school, family, friends, life and all things goofy. Jay has even talked to me about some of his girlfriends or who he thinks he might ask to winter formal. Despite all that I still haven't been able to talk to him about the guys. Well, that's not true. I've asked him about my friends and what they are up to and I've told him funny stories about all our adventures together in the short time we've known each other, but I've never told him anything or asked for advice on relationship stuff because mainly Jay is a guy. A guy who admitted to having a crush on me. Wouldn't it be awkward?? It would be awkward, right?

But then again, he did figure out that I liked all of them and he didn't judge. No comment, no negativity; he just accepted it. Yet, I still can't muster up the courage to talk to him about it.