Lights. (An AJR fanfic)

Chapter 4

I pick a dark burgundy dress that goes down to just above my knees, and the sleeves go to just below my elbows. It's pretty, but not too showy, and it's really comfortable and flattering. It looks brand new, and I'm suddenly scared that I'll ruin it. That would be embarrassing, it's such a pretty dress. It probably cost a lot, too.

I go to walk out of the room, straightening my dress, and I walk right into Jack, who has apparently been waiting for me.

"Sorry," I huff out the same time he says, "Oops,"

He lightly grabs my elbows to steady me, taking care with the one that got slammed by a door, and when he smiles like the cheeky guy I'm finding him to be, there's that damn twinkle in his eye again. Can he do that on purpose? Does he?

"Um," I clear my throat, looking down. Jack still has me in his arms, and I find that I can't break away as much as I feel like I should.

"Who's Adam? I mean, he looks like your brother," I say stupidly, looking up at him curiously. Embarrassed by my poor wording, I look down again. I let my arms fall from his chest down to my sides, and he takes that as a cue to let go of me as well. I feel like I've disappointed him somehow, disappointed myself.

"Yeah. He's my brother. Why?" He asks almost warily.

"I don't know. He doesn't seem to like me." I squint my eyes, trying to see farther ahead of me, or pretending, since there's nothing to actually see. I just want to seem busy so it doesn't seem like I'm insulting anyone. I'm not trying to, anyway.

"Huh." is all Jack says. We walk silently until we get to where Kari is, still sitting in the stylist chair. Her hair is done and a young lady is doing her make-up, chatting up a storm. Kari looks like a princess, smiling with her hair up and she's now wearing a beautiful blue dress that I don't know where it came from. Adams still there too, he's standing in the back, looking up from his phone when me and Jack walk in. Jack goes over to Adam and I walk over to Kari, looking at her artfully done makeup.

"And then, the poor thing jumps in the pool again. We didn't know what she wanted, until one day, one of the kids went swimming and he found a squeaky toy in the vent!" The stylist laughs, pausing her movements for a second. She gets back to Kari's makeup almost immediately, and Kari's trying not to laugh at whatever story was just told.

"I had a dog once," Kari starts, " His name was Blue. He was a dalmatian, a stupid one too. If you threw a ball or frisbee at him, he would lose it, even if it landed in front of him," and they laugh again. I feel left out, not knowing what they're talking about exactly. Also, I've never had a dog, so I wouldn't know how dumb they should be. I remember Blue, and I knew even when I was five that that dog wasn't as smart as he was supposed to be.

I lean on the door frame, watching everything thats going on.

"Hey!" Someone shouts behind me. I jump, and everyone looks up at me. No, they look behind me.

I turn around to see yet another boy who looks like Jack. Another brother? How many of them are there? I remember seeing this one though, last night he was behind Gus, Carls cousin, grinning at me like the Cheshire Cat. Is everyone related here?

He peers at me through his stylish glasses, so I go to move out of the way of the door.

"Hey," he says, pointing a long, thin finger at me, "I never got to officially meet you. I'm Ryan, the third brother." And he grins the Cheshire grin again while holding out his hand. I shake his hand lightly, not knowing what else to do. I hate awkward situations where I'm the only real awkward one.

"I'm Kay," I say shortly.

"Kay. Is that short for something?" he asks cheekily, just like Jack probably would. I force a smile up at him and shake my head. Kari's gonna kill me for this later.