The Jones Boys

Chapter 13 - Toothbrush Mix Up

'Aila,' His voice sounds from outside my door and he knocks quietly.  'Can I please come in.'  His voice is so small and regretful, pained, almost.

'Sure.' I reply.   It's been a few days since the incident.  Joey has been avioding me as much as possible.  Leaving rooms when I enter.  Stop talking when I pay attention.

Joey walks into my bedroom and when I look up at him, my jaw almost drops.  He's looked rubbish ever since but now, now he looks even worse, if that's possible.  He is shaking and wringing his hands.  His green eyes are red and surrounded with dark circles and are rapidly darting around my room.  He keeps going to bite his nails but then realises that he has already bitten them to the point where they are bleeding, so bites the skin around them instead.

Joey stands awkwardly in the doorway until he meets my eyes for a second and sees my look.  He looks from my bed to my desk chair to the floor in front of him.

'Come and sit, Joey.' I say and he does.  But on the very edge of my bed.  His knee starts to bob up and down.  I put my hand on it.  'What is it?' I ask quietly.

'I, er... I...' He stutters and takes a deep breath, eyeing my hand.  'I wanted to apologise,'  He whispers, his voice husky even through the quietness of it.  'For the other night.  I... I don't know what came over me.  I, er, it's, it's been happening a lot recently.  Mum and dad have taken me to the doctors and then the hospital.  They... haven't made a final diagnosis, but they said it's not bipolar.  They said it's most probably an overactive thyroid.  I... I wanted to say I'm sorry, though.  I know that a diagnosis isn't an excuse but I didn't realise what was happening, that I was screaming at you until it was too late and you were gone.  I'm sorry, Aila, I really am sorry.'  He continues to stare at the floor in front of his feet, my hand still steadying his knee.

'It's fine.' I say, not really meaning it.

'It's not.'  He finally turns to me.  'I can't believe I let myself get that bad.  I've never been that bad before.'

'Just try not to do it again.' I say with a chuckle.

Joey offers me a sad laugh followed by a smile.  I return the favour and bring him into a hug.

When I finally pull away I look into Joey's eyes and finally see the extent of how red they are.

'How long have you been crying?'  I ask.

'Ever since.'

'Oh, baby.' I pull him back into my arms and hold his head, not knowing what else to do.

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It's a Sunday and coming up to the October half term.  Everything with Joey has blown over, the doctors finally diagnosed him with an overactive thyroid, which basically means he can get really angry all the time but they put him on medication for it and he has been so much better and back to normal since.  Kate and Peter took him to the doctors the day after he apologised to me and that's when everyone found out.

Jack and I have been going on dates loads but we aren't actually girlfriend and boyfriend yet, although I think I might ask him soon.  I'm not sure

I'm missing Liza more than ever.  I think everyone has realised though,  I keep looking up at doors when they open and when I see that it's not her I remember I'm not even in the same country as her.  Pathetic, I know.  I keep talking about her as well, and looking at pictures, I've left loads of them all over the house and the boys and guardians round them up after dinner and bring them back to my room.  I FaceTime her every day though.  She seems to be doing alright, missing me too.  She has a boyfriend - the guy she was talking to before I left finally asked her on and date and then the be his girlfriend.

'What are you doing?' The voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I look over to see Newt standing in the doorway of the bathroom.  

'What do you mean?' I ask through brushing my teeth.

'That's Jack's toothbrush.' He says grinning from ear to ear and resting his arm on the frame.

I gag and spit the toothpaste into the sink and then realise that it probably cleansed his spit off the brush anyway and, even if it didn't, his saliva will already be all over my mouth so I carry on brushing my teeth with Jack's toothbrush.

Newt stops laughing.  'You're not repulsed?' He raises his eyebrows.

I shake my head and manage to say: 'His spit is already all in my mouth, too late to get it out.'

'Ah, too bad, I wonder what he thinks of the situation.  Best way to find out is asking him, I suppose.' He shrugs his shoulders and turns around.  

'Oh, no you don't.' I say through toothpaste and start to run after Newt.  

He starts to run all through the house, evidently not knowing where Jack is.  I follow him all the way until we get into Sam's room, where Sam is nowhere to be seen, but Jack and Jordan are.

'Jac- ooph.' I tackle Newt to the ground and hold and hand over his mouth, sitting on top of him.  He is struggling and trying to talk through my hand but he licks it.  And I don't mean any lick, I mean a proper slobbery one.

'Gross.' I moan through the toothbrush but wipe my hand all over his face and cover his mouth again before taking the brush out of my mouth with my other hand and leaning down to his ear.  'It'll be funnier if we wait to see his reaction when the toothbrush is in his mouth.' I whisper.  I  move my head up to see his face and he is grinning.

'It's sexy when you do that.' He murmurs.

'I have an almost-boyfriend, mate.' I scrunch my face up at the thought of Newt and I.

'Newt? You were saying something?' Jack interrupts and I could not be happier.  I look down at Newt and give him the 'are-you-gonna-say-it-or-not?' look.

'N-nothing.' He looks up at his brother from the floor and I get off him and smile at the twins.

'Bye, boys.' I say and strut out of the room.

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hey guys,

thanks for reading this far, it means so much to me

i'm  thinking of doing a schedule thing so i post once a week but i can't be sure because i'm doing my gcse's this year and i have my maths tomorrow so am i bit occupied by that 

but i hope you liked this chapter,

thank you again for reading 

m xxx