Slightly Less Badass

~Chapter Twenty Four~

Suddenly someone grabs ahold of my hand. I feel two cold rings on the persons finger as they squeeze my hand. Based on the rings and how small the hand was I can only assume it's Rina.
"I feel like you're leading us to get murdered," she says.
"It does kinda feel like that."
"We're not killing you," David reassures us.
"Or are we.." Eliza mutters.
"Shush. No one invited you," Jacob says.
"All of you shush," I say.
"You're giving us headaches," Rina says for me. Okay I'll admit it- it does sometimes creep me out how we seem to be able to read each other's minds. But I'd never admit that to the others.

We keep walking for what feels like eternity. I start to worry that they actually are taking us away to killing us. Soon, though, we stop. I hear a door open then we take a few more steps. There's a loud popping sound when I take my next step which causes Rina and I to scream.
"What the hell was that?!" she demands. I take another careful step and there's another pop.
"You'll see," says Jacob. He seemed suspiciously excited. The hands that were on my shoulder let go and start untying my blindfold. Rina squeezes my hand again before letting go. Just as she does the blindfold slips off. I open my eyes excitedly.... only to see that we were in an empty room. With bubble wrap covering the floor.. There was a hallway to the right of us that led to another room. Branching off of the hallway, right before you reached the other room, was a flight of stairs leading to the top floor. Right next to those stairs were more stairs leading to the basement.
"Ummm...." Rina trails off.
"Yay?" I confusedly say.
"Don't act too excited," Jay says. He was obviously disappointed. I tried to make my smile more genuine but I just couldn't. I really didn't understand what there was to be excited about bubble wrap.
"What aren't I understanding?" asks Rina. "Is this a prank or something?"
"Well I started to with the bubble wrap but I got bored so it's an unfinished prank. But that's not why we're here. Eliza, go get the other surprise," Jacob says. Eliza immediately perks up at that.
"Okie dokie," she happily says. Then she practically skips from the room.
"Jay what's going-"
He doesn't even let me finish my sentence. "Shh just wait."
We wait for several long seconds for Eliza to return. When she does come back into the room, she's got Rina's new puppy in her arms. I look over at Rina but she still looked confused.
"Happy birthday!" I yell. Then I notice the small dog tottering behind Eliza. Now I was confused again, too. There aren't supposed to be two puppies. David had only agreed to one. He was going to kill us. But when I glance over at him, he was just smiling.
"What's happening?" Rina and I ask simultaneously. There's that creepy kind connection again.
"Surprise," the four of them shout in response. Eliza (reluctantly) hands Rina her dog -a small brown corgi, her favorite. Then she bends down and scoops up the fluffy little pomsky and plops it into my arms.
"Awwww," we say as we cuddle the cute dogs.
"I still don't understand but there's puppies involved so it's alright," says Rina.
"Well that dog is your birthday present from all of us. But I don't know what the rest of this is," I tell her.
"Well that dog is my gift to you for our anniversary as well as an early birthday present. But where are we?"
We both turn around to face our group of friends. They were all smiling creepily at us. Jay walks closer and pets the dog in my arms.
"This is 10202 Leacky Avenue," he says. That meant absolutely nothing to me but Rina suddenly looked very excited. Her eyes go wide and she smiles the biggest grin ever. She glances between Jay and David.
"You didn't!" she screeches so loudly I wince. Jay nods. She shoves her dog into Jacob's arms then hugs me as tightly as she can considering I was still holding the puppy.
"Ohmhgod Mira!" she yells loudly in my ear. I attempt to push her away. If she yelled anymore then she was going to break my eardrums.
"I'm still not understanding. Rina, I can't have a dog. The apartment doesn't allow it." I felt dumb for not getting what everyone else clearly did.
"I know but Jay was looking for-"
"I think we should let Jay tell her this," Jacob interjects. He gently pulls Rina off of me.
"Jay?"
"Well-"
"We're going to be neighbors again!" Rina yells. Everyone glares at her and tells her to shut up. But it didn't matter what she had just said because I still wasn't understanding. Whatever it was Jay was looking nervous so it was probably something good.
"Well Rina just sorta spoiled it but this...is our.. I-I sorta bought this-"
It suddenly clicks and realize what he was trying to stutter out. I cut him off before he can finish. I didn't want to hear how he finished that sentence. He wouldn't dare do what I thought he was about to say he did.
"Jay Erickson. Tell me you did not buy this house," I hiss out. He looks so sad and disappointed that I almost feel guilty. Almost. I set my dog down on the ground so nothing happens to it. "We can not afford a house as well as a wedding so if you tell me you bought this house then I may slap you."
"No you don't understand! You have to let him finish!" Rina jumps in. I glare at her but take a deep breath to calm myself and let Jay talk. But of course it's not Jay who talks. Rina never was able to keep her big mouth shut.
"You're wedding is barely gonna cost anything. Jay talked to me it and it'll work out perfectly. He-"
Her blabbering is cut off by David. He puts his hand over her mouth and frowns disapprovingly at her. When she glares at him he quickly takes his hand off of her mouth. David snaked his arms around her waist and lifts her up. Adjusting her in his arms, he soon is carrying her bridal style. Jacob then sets down the corgi onto Rina's stomach.
"Let's go take the dogs out to play before you blurt out any more secrets," David says. Rina continues glaring at him. He rolls his eyes and gives her a quick kiss. Eliza takes her chance to escape and follows after them. She picks up my puppy and carries it out of the room. Jay and I glance over at Jacob, who had started whistling an off- key tune.
"I'm just.... I'm just gonna.." he says awkwardly once he notices we were staring at him. He nods once then disappears with the rest of them. I turn back to Jay with a glare.
"As Rina said, it's not as much money as you think." He was attempting to sound soothing but I wasn't in the mods to be soothed. If he tells me he just spent all of our money on a stupid house when we have a wedding to pay for and I was perfectly content in our apartment then I'm throwing this engagement ring at his face.
"Rina and Della called some people for me. I got into contact with your great uncle Mike and he was more than happy to help," he says. I relax slightly at this. If Uncle Mike was involved then I knew things weren't too bad. He was someone who had connections with literally everyone. If you wanted anything that's expensive or hard to get, you go to him first to see if he can find it cheap for you. Plus Aunt Di, Mike's wife, was the nicest and happiest person I've ever met. She went above and beyond to make sure people around her were happy. I knew that if anyone could help Jay, it was them.
"I knew I wanted a house closer to our friends and your uncle couldn't have found anything better. Apparently the family that lived here moved out years ago but the oldest son started living here with his grandfather. Recently, though, the grandfather moved to a nursing home and the son moved closer to his family. Then-"
"No offense but I really don't care. Is there a point to this story?" I interrupted.
"I'm getting there. Be quiet and listen. So the son was desperate to sell the house. Coincidentally he knew Mike and asked him for help. So then Mike told me about the great price on it and I bought it the next day." He finishes his story with a wide grin.
"And what if I didn't like the house?" I can't help but ask. Truthfully I did; I've been in here before when I brought the grandfather some cookies when I heard he fell down some stairs. But I couldn't refrain from teasing Jay. Seriously, though, who the hell surprises someone with a house? I don't think I'll ever stop teasing him for this.
"Well... I don't know then," he replies. Despite the fact that he was still smiling, I could see the panic in his eyes.
"What about our wedding?" I question. I knew from planning Rina's that weddings weren't cheap. Jay shrugs.
"I'll leave that to Rina. She said she had some brilliant ideas on how to save money."
I raise my eyebrows at this. I don't trust Rina at all with saving money. Her idea of a great deal was spending $50 on jeans just to get $5 off of a shirt.
"Plus I told David and Della to control her," he adds. Now him I can trust. I sigh loudly and lean against Jay. Sometimes he can be an idiot. I look around the empty room we are standing in and can't help but start feeling giddy.
"Is this really ours?" I whisper.
"Yup. And guess what? Here you can paint every wall purple and buy forty cats and dogs. And we can be as loud as we want here. We don't have to worry about grouchy old ladies yelling at us for shouting at Spongebob episodes or have to make sure our running isn't too noisy when having Nerf fights."
There a peaceful silence that follows while I contemplate his words. A small smile tugs at my lips.
"Can I really buy forty pets?" I eventually ask. I know I should still be questioning how we're going to have enough money for this but right now I was too happy to care.
"No. I regret saying that. But look on the bright side, at least you now have a... what type of dog was that again?"
"A pomsky. A mixture of a husky and Pomeranian. They're adorable and fluffy and extremely expensive. I wonder how Rina afforded one."
"I didn't. Those things are fucking expensive," Rina's voice replies. She steps out from behind a wall with a smirk. Of course she was eavesdropping. It honestly doesn't surprise me. My only question was where the heck David went. He was supposed to be watching her.
"But Aunt Di was just thrilled to hear you were so grown up and were getting your first house. Of course she was already asking what to get you for a house warming gift. I told her I was looking to get you a puppy. She was so pleased with that idea that she wanted to chip in. Coincidentally, Uncle Mike knows someone who knows someone who is a dog breeder. Aunt Di, your parents, and I then went in together to buy you a pomsky. Your uncle is magic. He he connections for everything. Now come on, let's go look around."
She runs up the stairs before I can even blink. Jay holds out his hand and gestures to the stairs.
"Shall we?" he asks. I shake my head. First I wanted to go get my fluffy new dog. I walk past the stairs to the room that the others had disappeared into, which I realized was the kitchen. Looking through the window I saw that they were outside. David and Eliza were throwing large tennis balls and the dogs were attempting to chase after it. Jacob stood to the side looking grumpy as always. I shrug and decide to let my dog continue playing. Then I walk back over to the stairs where Jay was waiting for me. I take his hand and follow him up the stairs.
"You can paint one room purple," Jay says once we reach the top of the steps.
"Fine. But I'm telling you know, our house is not going to be filled with dull colors. That's the only things I hate about my parents house. Every room is painted a boring beige color. It's dumb."
"Whatever just don't go too crazy."
"Hmm how about Tessa?" I ask.
"What?"
"Wait Rina is it a girl or boy dog?" I ask. When she doesn't reply I look down the hallway we were now standing in. There was four rooms that she could be hiding in.
"Marco!" I yell.
"Polo!"
Her voice seemed to coming from the room closest to where we were standing. I walk into the room and look around. She was standing in the middle of the room staring intently at the walls. I'm not sure if I want to know what she's thinking about.
"Is my dog a girl or a boy?" I ask her. She breaks her staring contest with the wall and looks at us.
"Boy," she replied.
"Yours is a girl. I shall name my dog.. hmm.. Jem," I decide.
"Then I shall name mine Tessa."
"I have an odd feeling this is something book related but I don't care enough to ask," Jay tells us. I'm about to make a witty reply but Rina squeals loudly. She then grabs my arm and drags me into the bathroom.
"Look how impressive this is," she exclaims with awe. It was rather impressive. It was certainly one of the biggest bathrooms I've ever been in. Not only did it have a large shower but it also have one of those bathtubs that look sorta like a hot tub. A wide mirror was hanging above the sink. Then just past the toilet was another door. Rina decides to examine it.
"It's a ginormous closet!" she yells to us. Her voice echoes slightly. I look at Jay with a smile. He was staring at me expectedly, clearly waiting to see what I thought of this awesome house.
"Alright. Fine. I suppose I'm not upset anymore. You are forgiven I guess," I say with a small shrug.