Jessica's Fate

Chapter 4

I finished my homework and set everything in a pile for tomorrow. I looked down at what I was wearing and figured the shorts were fine. I swapped the Bon Jovi t-shirt that I'd snuck out of Mom's closet years ago for one that had a floral pattern. Not necessarily what I would consider forward thinking as far as my wardrobe went but maybe it was enough to lull Mom and Kota into thinking I was still 12.

Ha.

I washed my face and went with just a light swipe of mascara and some tinted lip gloss. I brushed out my hair and pulled it back into a simple ponytail, fastening it with a pink scrunchie. I went downstairs barefoot and moved into a routine with Sang that allowed us to set the table in record time before the garage door went up, signaling that Mom was home. I heard her greet Kota in the garage, so he'd arrived at the same time. Owen gave me a sympathetic look as he checked on the lasagna and garlic bread in the oven.

"Not too much longer." I muttered, unsure if I was telling him the time left on dinner or pumping myself up for the dinner conversation. Was it too much to hope that I could sit on it until dessert?

His lips quirked up in a slight smile and Sang squeezed my shoulder as she went past me to grab the ice tea out of the fridge to go with dinner. The back door opened and they came in.

"Jess." Mom smiled and came over to kiss my cheek before greeting Owen and Sang. "I'll just go change quick and be back for dinner." She said before heading into her room.

"Hey sis." Kota smiled at me, pushing his glasses up when he came over to hug me, having greeted Sang while Mom was talking.

"Hey." I said, returning his hug. "How's it going?" I asked politely.

"Really good." He said, launching into some explanation of the latest physics theory he had been working on today. I smiled slightly and nodded at appropriate times because Kota didn't require verbal listening noises.

Thankfully, I was saved from what I was sure was the most boring conversation in the universe when Mom came back, showered and changed for an evening at home. She'd of course, learned some quick shower method that obviously went along with training for mothers. I don't know that I've ever observed her take more than 5 minutes in the shower. Then again, when I was growing up, there was usually at least 3 more people around on top of Kota and I. Sometimes 4 if Victor had come over. I smiled at her and she gave me a quick smile in return as I went to help Sang and Owen bring the food to the table. "Thanks sweetie." Mom said as I slid into my seat again.

"No, thank you for making dinner before work and thank you, to Sang for putting it all in the oven." I smiled.

"Oh, you're welcome." She said softly, giving both of us a smile. "I like to help out."

Oh, we knew that. I loved her even more for it because she always gave me a quick hand with my chores whenever she was here. Even if that meant she was here for a while before I got home from school. Come to think of it, today... she'd probably been over at the diner taking care of the books for Uncle and Luke and had just come over here to wait for someone to come pick her up to take her home.

Sang and I were a lot more alike than I remembered. She didn't drive either.

My mom drove the dinner conversation around small talk and Kota didn't disappoint with telling her about his day as he asked a few questions about how it was going for her at work lately. I paid attention while she talked because I did have my suspicions about a lot of her scheduling when we were growing up. Like, she'd end up on night shifts and just as suddenly would be back on day shift.

Not that it happened as often after Kota moved out. See... suspicion. I just didn't open my mouth because you know what? I was okay being home alone. I also knew that Uncle was just over at Nathan's old house. The entire gang lived at the Taylor compound and Uncle had moved into the Griffin house. His excuse was that he wanted to walk to the diner for work.