Looking Beyond

Chapter 12: The Interrogation

     Brea shut her eyes and enjoyed herself as the breeze blew her, now much shorter, hair around as Jacob sped to his parent's house. "I forgot how much I loved my hair this length!"

     Jacob smiled as he came to a stoplight. "It looks good. I don't think I did a bad job."

     "You didn't." She drummed her fingers lightly on the armrest.

     Jacob took her hand and loosely laced her fingers with his own. "You know, I'm not sure..."

     "Light's green."

     "Thanks." Jacob started driving again, his hand now holding Brea's, his thumb sliding absentmindedly against her own.

     "What were you saying?"

     Jacob blushed. "I was saying that I'm not sure what all of this means. What we want it to mean."

     "To be honest, when you kissed my neck last night, I decided that I didn't care if what we had lasted for just that night." Jacob watched her cheeks redden from the corner of his eye. "What happened earlier and now is kind of a bonus in my book."

     "Maybe we could try – I mean, if you'd like to we could..."

     "Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" Brea blurted out.

     "If you'd like, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to..."

     "Announce it. I get it. Why don't we keep it laid back and see how it goes, that way we'll know if we're really into each other, or if we were..."

     "Yeah. Thank you for understanding."

     "Not a problem. But you do see the irony in us being together, don't you?"

     "How would we be ironic?" He turned to look at her, before looking back at the road.

     "We told each other how badly we had been hurt, and how we regretted the stuff we did after, in an attempt to numb the pain. We both said that we looked to our faith to help us, and yet we ended up sleeping together hours later."

     Jacob thought about it, turning onto a side street. "If you put it that way, then yes, we are an ironic pairing." He gave her hand a squeeze. "But I don't regret last night...or earlier. When I used to do stuff I regretted, I was pretty drunk. I was only buzzed last night."

     "I was a little buzzed too. And I don't regret it."

     Jacob slowed his car and parked on the side of the road. "We're here. You don't mind me introducing you as my housemate, do you?"

     "Not at all. It'll take some getting used to being someone's girlfriend again."

     "Look who finally showed up!" A dark haired man approached the car.

     Jacob and Brea let go of each others' hands. "Bryan! Sorry man I over slept."

     Bryan eyed him suspiciously. "Overslept, huh?"

     "I did. I forgot to set my alarm."

     Bryan shrugged his shoulders. "If you say so. Now, who do we have here?" He opened the door for Brea. "I'm Bryan, Jacob's much better looking, younger brother."

     "I'm Brea. Nice to meet you." She allowed Bryan to help her out of Jacob's car.

     "So are you and my brother..." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

     "She's my housemate Bryan. Give it a rest."

     Bryan raised his hands defensively. "Whoa. I was just asking. Would you rather Danielle ask her?"

     Jacob walked over to Brea and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to his side. "I will apologize now for them."

     "Why?" Brea questioned.

     Bryan watched the two carefully. "Because Jacob doesn't bring girls to meet the family."

     "He wanted me to come with him, so I'd get out of the house." Her smiled dropped slightly. "I had a pretty rough birthday yesterday, and he wanted to make sure today was better. Thanks for letting him bring me."

     "Are you done questioning her?" Jacob started to walk forward, his arm still on Brea's shoulder.

     "JAKE!" A short woman with dark hair raced out and hugged Jacob, nearly tackling him to the ground. "Your HAIR!"

     "Hey Danielle! Yeah, I decided to go for a new look. How's it going?"

     "You're late." She noticed Brea. "Hello, I don't think we've met. I'm Jacob's sister Danielle."

     "I'm Brea. I'm Jacob's -"

     She looked at her brother and smiled brightly. "You finally started dating again? Wait until mom hears about this!"

     "No! She's my housemate!"

     "Yeah Danielle. He invited her because he wanted to cheer her up." Bryan gave his sister a dramatically exaggerated wink.

     "Sure you did Jacob." Jacob's and Brea's faces both began to grow warm. "She's going to see through this lie, you know that don't you?"

     Jacob sighed. He couldn't keep anything from his siblings. He looked at Brea, who shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever you want to do Jacob. It's your call."

     "Listen, this is all still pretty new for us. We're trying to take things slow, so don't make a big deal of it. None of our housemates know."

     "And they won't know, for a while, either. They are pretty nosy." Brea added.

     "Well, you better get inside and tell Mom something. She's looking out the window." Bryan noted.

     Jacob took Brea's hand and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I am so sorry about this."

     "It's okay. I'll just follow your lead." She whispered back.

     "Brea? Can we talk to you for a moment?" Danielle asked before she and Jacob reached the door.

     Brea looked to Jacob and he nodded. "I'll talk to my mom first, then introduce you." He kissed her cheek. "Thanks for being a good sport."

     "See you in a minute." She went over to Jacob's siblings. "What's up?"

     Bryan waited until Jacob was into the house before speaking. "What are your intentions with our brother?"

     "Excuse me?" Brea blinked.

     "You heard him. We want to know what you intend to do with our brother." Danielle studied Brea's movements. "You're the only girl he's ever brought here since Janie left him. In fact, the only girl he's ever brought over until now was Janie."

     "It may not seem like it now, but he believes that relationships should be taken seriously." Bryan crossed his arms in front of himself.

     "Why wouldn't it seem like it? I get that about him."

     "Then you'll understand why we'll be upset with you if you hurt our brother." Danielle added. "Janie leaving him the way she did nearly killed him."

     "Listen, I'm not Janie. I don't plan on hurting Jacob. I know what it's like to be hurt like by someone you thought loved you and I refuse to put anyone through something like that."

     "So long as we're all on the same page, we'll get along fine." Bryan smiled.

     "We'll be keeping tabs on you, just so you know." Danielle grinned.

     "I appreciate your concern. But like he said, it's all really new, and we're still trying to figure out this dating thing again."

     "It's nothing personal. Jacob's always looked out for us, it's our turn to look out for him." Bryan held his arm out and held the door for the two women.