The Quarterback, Outcast and Me ✔

Chapter Five - The Problem with Teenage Hormones

At dinner that night, my mom informed me more about the move. It had come as quite the shock, but now that I'd had some time to really think it through I was slowly getting used to the idea. Slowly!

My mom was eyeing me as I stabbed into my baked potato, peeling the skin away and putting a scoop of sour cream and chives dressing on the top. Yum.

"So, the movers will be here Sunday at noon, so we need to have boxed everything we want to take with us." I could hear in her voice that she was trying to sound nonchalant, but we both knew that besides our clothes and some bits and pieces, there weren't anything we wanted to take with us. The furniture, kitchen supplies, they were all tainted with the essence of my dad. Besides, I doubted we had anything that could be of use in Patrick's big house. That guy had pretty much anything imaginable - even a gorgeous, yet completely despicable son.

Gorgeous? The little voice in my head tweeted. God I loved my little internal debates. So what if I thought that Jace was, well, gorgeous? It was obvious to anyone with a pair of eyeballs. Everyone knew it, including him, and he worked it in all the right ways. Stupid jerk.

"I'll be sure to be finished Saturday night, mom," I said, looking up at her with a reassuring smile. She smiled back and went back to eating, looking pleased that I wasn't making a big fuss about it. I mean, sure I could jump up and scream about it, but I was sixteen years old. I couldn't act like a little girl anymore. 

Besides, I could tell my mom was so happy and so in love with Patrick that I just couldn't bring myself to be anything but happy either. 

"Thanks for dinner mom, I'm going to take Zeus for his walk." At the word 'walk', the little fur-ball, who had been snoozing under the table, came scurrying out, wagging his little tail and already eager to get outside.

"Have fun honey. " My mom smiled. I went and placed my empty dish in the sink, rinsing it off before going out in the hall. I picked up my summer jacket and got my sneakers on. Zeus was jumping up and down, tongue sticking out as he waited by the front door. I grabbed his leash and, with some difficultly due to his eagerness, put it on him, making sure it was secure around his small body before I opened the door and let out the beast. 

 The evening was still warm against my exposed skin and since the sun was nowhere near it's descend, I decided to take Zeus for a longer walk than usual. We went over to the nearby park about half a mile away. There was this enclosed dog park where you could let your dog run loose, as long as you knew it wouldn't attack any of the other dogs there. Since Zeus was the size of a normal dog's turd, I wasn't afraid that he'd be anything but a pain the butt for the other dogs. I'd be more worried if someone went after him, but he'd no doubt make such a ruckus that I'd be able to swoop him up into my arms before anything happened. Also, he was a scaredy-cat; he was fine with picking a fight with bigger animals, but when it came down to it, he'd scurry off to hide with his tail behind his legs. It was like he forgot his actual size up until then.

We arrived at the spacious enclosure and I opened the gate into the park. Instantly I took off Zeus' leash and he immediately went around, sniffing the ground.

There were a couple of other people there with their dogs, though, since the park was a nice size, they were at other ends, too far away for Zeus to notice. The sun was very slowly starting to paint a pale pink outline on the evening sky.

The park was situated by a lot of trees, big ones, and small ones, all for the dogs to pee on, much to their joy.

I found a vacant bench and sat down, keeping Zeus in sight as he went off trying to catch a butterfly in flight. As he did I tried to collect my thoughts on the given situation I was currently in; Jace and I were about to live together. I needed to get a grip on all these errant thoughts that had slowly started seeping into my head as of late. Unwelcome and disturbing thoughts whenever my mind drifted towards my future stepbrother. Some had been downright inappropriate!