the loner

Chapter 11 - Pancakes

"And who might you be?" I heard a voice ask behind me. I turned quickly, surprised and stared at the woman in front of me.
She had to be in her early forties and had platinum blonde hair, terribly pale skin with freckles scattered around her face, and the deepest blue eyes that could only compare to what I assumed to be her daughter.
"Morning Mom, this is Jae," Calix explained calmly, nodding his head towards me. His mom instantly relaxed.
     "Oh! Jae it's so nice to meet you! I've heard great things about you," she commented, winking at me then glancing at Calix knowingly, I blushed.
"Thank you! It's so nice to meet you too!" I smiled at her and shot Calix a quick glance.
     "Well I'm on my way out to organize the funeral but I hope I'll be seeing more of you soon!" She called then whisked out the doorway. I turned to Calix and raised my eyebrows.
     "Ummmm... yeah I've got nothing. Sorry." His face warmed and he rubbed the back of his neck with a soft smile on his face.
    I laughed, "It's really fine, I just wasn't expecting such... energy." We both laughed then went back to making pancakes. We made crazy shapes and tried our best to flip them correctly. Calix was just about to flip a pancake when Luna crept silently into the kitchen, the music covering the sound of her footsteps. She pressed her finger to her lips, signaling me to stay quiet. I pressed back a smile and turned back to Calix. Just as he had flipped the pancake Luna popped up and yelled in his ear. He jumped and missed catching the pancake. It hit the floor with an audible slap. Me and Luna started hysterically laughing. I put a hand on my knee and clutched my stomach, it hurt I was laughing so much. Luna found it just as funny, if not more. Calix just stood there glaring.
     "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just," I paused to laugh a little more. "It's pretty funny."
      He shook his head then turned and grabbed something. He turned around quickly and threw a handful of flour at me. I gasped, then glared. Now he was dying laughing. I grabbed a handful and threw it right back. We went back in forth until we were covered in flour. We had completely forgotten about Luna. I looked around and found her standing a little to the side just taking pictures of us.
     "You two are just so cute!" She gushed then started looking through the pictures she took. Me and Calix just blushed and looked away, not meeting each others gaze. "Well I have an old friend to meet so I'll see y'all later." She turned and walked out, she popped back in a second later. "Jae, you should get Calix to get in the hot tub. Ya know give it a lil test run. Feel free to borrow one of my bathing suits, we look about the same size." She winked. Calix rolled his eyes. "Gotta run!" And then she was gone.
     Calix turned down the music a little and we sat down and ate our pancakes. They were fluffy and delicious with real maple syrup, not the fake pure sugar stuff. I moaned with bliss.
     "Soooo delicious." I moaned. He laughed and just shoveled more food into his mouth. We finished up and washed our plates. "I hope you know I'm making you go in the hot tub with me." I explained to him. Leaning against the counter.
    "I figured as much, you know where Luna's room is right?" He asked and I nodded. "Well I guess I'll go get changed and meet you back here in a few minutes?"
"Sounds good." I turned and walked out, I went into Luna's room, except, it wasn't really her room it was just a room if that makes any sense. It was just somewhere she stayed while visiting, it didn't feel like it was hers. I went to her dresser anyway and looked for her bathing suits. I found a black two piece and decided that was good enough. It actually fit pretty well. I grabbed a towel from her bathroom and wrapped it around myself and walked back downstairs into the kitchen. Calix was already there waiting. He looked up when I walked and gave me a soft smile. I mirrored it. I followed him out the back door and to the hot tub. I dropped my towel quickly and stepped into the water. It was extremely hot.
"Jeez that's hot! I feel like I'm getting boiled." I laughed and turned to Calix. He had taken his t-shirt off and he was not bad lookin' if ya catch my drift. I realized then that he must have to work out a lot to get that toned. With great effort I lifted my gaze to his face and widened my eyes in surprise, he was staring at me, hard. I blushed and looked down. He shook his head as if to clear it and stepped in to the water.
"I haven't been in here in quite a while. I forgot how hot it got." He smirked and got in the water. He settled on the opposite side of me. I gathered my hair up and put it in a bun to get it off my neck. I leaned back and looked up at the sky.
"Soooooo," I breathed out. He laughed.
"Yesss?"
"You should stay at my house tonight. I know you haven't gotten out of the house all week, so you should come over, switch it up a bit. Ya know?" I was still looking up, not wanting to meet his gaze. I heard the water splash a little then felt him lightly touch my knee. I looked down at him. He grabbed my chin and brought me in for a slow kiss. We pulled back smiling.
"Ok." He said simply. He moved to go back to his spot on the other side of the hot tub but I grabbed his arm.
"You're not going anywhere," I grinned, he smiled back and sat next to me. I curled into his side. "Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked.
    "About what?"
    "Your dad."
    "Oh, I don't know. It's just, even though I didn't like him, I feel guilty, ya know? We never got to make up, he died mad at me. It just... sucks." He confessed and I nodded.
    "Where's Luna gonna be staying now, since your dad's gone?" I asked solemnly.
    "Here, I guess, I don't really know I haven't thought about it." I nodded.
"How is she still so cheerful through all of this? I don't get it."
He sighed, "Luna grieves differently, she'll hold it together as long as she can but eventually something or someone will just remind her of something from our dad and break her down out of no where and then she'll really be grieving."
    "I'm sorry, I'm supposed to be making you feel better not making it worse." I looked down. Calix lifted my chin to make me look at him.
     "Trust me, this is the best I've felt all week." He smiled softly. I smirked an idea popping into my head. There was still a chill in the April air from winter but I still wanted to do it. I stood up and Calix shot me a questioning look.
     I shook my head, "Stay there." I ordered and got out of the hot tub. I was already shivering. I scurried around to the deep end of the actual pool and walked to the edge. I stood straight up and made eye contact with Calix. He was still really confused. I saluted him with a grim expression and stepped off into the pool. Keeping the pencil-straight figure till I reached the bottom and shot back off to the top. I grabbed the side of the pool to keep myself up.
    I gulped air in, "ohmygod it's cold in here!" I shrieked. I heard Calix laughing then saw him appear at the edge of the pool. He was still laughing.
    "Why in hell did you do that?" He asked, offering his hand to me.
    "Cause I wanted to make you laugh, it worked, in case you didn't already know." He pulled me up and wrapped his arms around me. I draped my arms around his neck. And started shivering, hard. I smiled through my chattering teeth and Calix shook his head and picked me up bridal style. I squeaked in surprise. "What are you doing?!?" I squealed in weirdly high pitched voice.
    "Warming you up." He said simply and walked back into the hot tub and sat down, still holding me close.
    "Are you going to let me go?" I asked looking up at him.
    "Nope." He said happily. I smiled and rested my head against his shoulder. Enjoying the warmth he was giving off.
    I sighed, "I missed this." I turned a little to look at him. He was looking at me intensely, like I was the only thing that mattered. He didn't respond to me. He just leaned down and gave me a long kiss full of passion, and... adoration? He hadn't kissed me like this before and I wondered what had changed. I pulled back reluctantly to catch my breath, "Ready to go in?" I asked.
     "Mmhmm." He smiled softly and gave me one more quick kiss then let me go. I got out and grabbed my towel, wrapping it around me once again. I scurried quickly inside, running from the chill. Calix was right behind me, and closed the door behind me. I kept walking, right up the stairs, to the end of the hall, and into his room. I flopped onto the bed, and wrapped myself in one of his blankets, still soaking wet. Calix walked into the room, saw me wrapped up with just my face sticking out of the blankets, and groaned.
     "You're gonna make my bed wet." He groaned out and walked over to me. Grabbing the front of the blanket and pulling it towards him which just pulled me towards him and didn't help at all in the case of getting me out of the blanket. I grinned up at him. He shook his head, pecked me on the cheek and let go of me quickly. I hit the pillows with a fwoomp.
    "Oof. Fiinneeee I'll get up. But only because I am an incredibly charitable human being." I sat up and unraveled myself from the blankets. I stood up and shivered from the cool air. Calix was in his closet getting himself some clothes. I grabbed my clothes from where I'd set them on the end of the bed and went to his bathroom to change. When I got out, I had decided on keeping on his t-shirt and my jeans, Calix looked up at me and smiled.
     "So, what's the plan Stan?" He asked. I wrinkled my nose at his comment. "Ok not Stan then." I laughed.
     "Well I need to go home and shower, get the chlorine out of my hair. But you can come over then?" I proposed.
      He nodded, "Sounds good." He got up and walked me out. He opened the front door for me but there was already someone on the other side. "Lana?"

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Authors Note
Ya sorry, another cliffhanger. this chapter was getting really long so... cliffhanger. Sorry. Anyway, thank you all for reading! I love you all! Have a fabulous day!
- olive