Unspoken

Chapter Five

Chapter Five


"Do I look okay?" Kiera asked, emerging from her bedroom out into the living room where Tony was crouched on the floor, racing against himself.

"Huh ... Mm-hmm."

"If you want me to believe you, it'd be smart for you to turn around and actually look at me."

He paused the game, and jokingly turned around, groaning as if it was agonizingly painful to do so.

"So, do I look okay?"

His eyes nearly popped out of the sockets. "You are not going out of the house looking like that."

"Yes, I am."

"No, you really aren't."

"I'm almost twenty-one years old Tony, I don't need your permission to leave the house."

"I'm your guardian, and your brother, yes you do."

"Are we going to get into one of those fights that always annoy everyone?" she questioned, hand poised on her hip.

"If that's what it takes to get you to march right back into your room and change, then yes, we are getting into one of those fights."

"I'm not changing no matter what you say," Kiera rolled her eyes.

"You're not wearing anything that should be changed, so instead, go into your room and actually put some clothes on."

She stomped her foot, and whined, "Tony! They're called jeans and a t-shirt, or are you living under a rock these days?"

"If that's what they consider a t-shirt these days, I really don't want to see what a tank top or halter top are anymore."

"You're such a jerk!" she yelled.

"A jerk that you love," Tony grinned, knowing that would throw her off.

"Ugh!" she screeched, "Sometimes I just want to throw you off a bridge and hope that you never come back."

"The same goes for me too, except sometimes I want to throw you off a bridge."

"Women." "Men." They muttered at the same time.

"Tony," she whined, "Kasey's going to be here soon, so please just answer my question: Do I look okay?"

"You look awesome."

"Now you're just saying that because I asked you too."

"No, I'm not. You look really good," he smiled, "And if Kahne doesn't tell you that, I'll personally knock some sense into him."

"Just promise you won't hurt him too much," she begged.

"What's your constitution of too much?"

"Tony!"

"Fine, I won't hurt him too much, unless of course he hurts you, then I'll kick his ass." He smirked.

"Now, finish getting ready before Kasey gets here."

"I have so much more to do, and he'll be here any second."

"Don't worry, I'll keep him entertained."

"Tony," she warned.

He held his hands up in surrender, "I won't hurt him."

"Good."

"Go get ready."

"I am."

As she had anticipated, approximately ten minutes later, the doorbell rang, and Tony stood up to answer it. But not before having to pass Kiera's room in order to get to the door. She stuck her head out of the door. "Be nice Tony."

"Always Kia."

"Yeah right."

"When have I not been nice?" he questioned, continuing to walk to the door.

"There are plenty of times I can remember," she called as he opened the door, and she ducked back into her room.

Kasey stood on the threshold nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot, with his hands buried deeply in the pockets of his jeans.

"Hey Kasey."

He smiled nervously, "Hi Tony."

"Kiera's not quite ready yet, but you can have a seat in here while you wait for her to get done."

"Okay."

"You might want to get comfortable, she could be a while."

Kasey chuckled, and took a seat on the couch, when down the wall swearing could be heard, and then Kiera's voice. "I heard that!"

"Just get back in there and finish getting ready Kia," Tony playfully replied, before turning his attention back to Kasey. "You wanna play?"

Kasey looked where he was pointing, and saw the PlayStation 2 sitting there, NASCAR Thunder 2004 already on the screen.

"Sure."

When Kiera emerged from her room fifteen minutes later, Kasey was doing a victory dance in the middle of the living room, and Tony had his head buried in his hands in shame.

"What's going on out here?" she grinned.

Kasey danced his way over to her, and took her hands, causing her to become part of his victory dance too. "I just killed him at NASCAR Thunder 2004."

"Tony!" she protested, "I can't believe you let him beat you."

Tony looked up. "I didn't 'let' him do anything. He's really good at that game, Kia."

"Undefeated champ," Kasey piped up, "I've never come about a loss. Anyone who's ever played me has met untimely demise, because I am the champion."

"Let's deflate your ego a little Kase," she smiled, "I'm ready by the way."

He looked her up and down. "You look wonderful."

"Thanks," she replied, doing a little spin as if she were a model on the runway, and then laughing.

"So, ready to go?"

"Yes, I want to know what we're doing today and tonight."

"That you will find out shortly."

She walked over to Tony and kissed his cheek, "Have fun wallowing in the self-pity of losing to Kasey, bro. I'll be home whenever."

"Bye Kia."

They walked out of the door, and Kasey pointed to his Dodge Durango. "That's mine."

"Ooh!" she exclaimed, "I love it!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

He walked a little quicker so he could reach the passenger side door before she could.

"What a gentleman," she grinned.

"I try."

When he made sure she was strapped in, he walked back around the front, and jumped in the passenger's side. "So, are you ready?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed, "I've been ready."

"Good."

"So, where are we going?" she asked, knowing he wouldn't give her an answer.

"I'm not telling you."

"Come on!"

"No."

"Please?"

"Sorry Kiera, but I can't. It's a surprise."

"Sometimes I hate surprises."

"I thought you said you loved surprises."

"Well, maybe I lied."

"You didn't lie," he grinned, "You're just trying to trick me into telling you."

"Did it work?"

"No."

She rolled her eyes, "Well, I had to try."

"Yeah, you did. It was a nice try though."

"What would get you to tell me where we were going?" she questioned.

"Nothing."

"Liar," she said, "There must be something that is your weakness."

"Maybe there is, maybe there isn't."

"Tell me."

"No."

"Come on," Kiera pleaded, "You know you want to tell me."

"Actually, I don't."

"Oh yes, you do."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"I'm psychic."

"Psychic my ass," Kasey joked, "If you're psychic, I'm the richest man in the world."

"Hello, Bill Gates."

That got him. He laughed hysterically. In fact, he laughed so hard, he almost got them in an accident. "Kasey, watch out!"

He looked up just in time to swerve and miss the car he had been heading towards.

"Oops."

"My brother would have been mad if you would have gotten me killed."

"Wouldn't want big brother to get mad, now would we?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, we wouldn't. He's scary when he's mad. Well, not scary to me, but scary to other people."

"That's good to know."

"I figured you'd appreciate knowing that."

"I do, thanks."

"So, are we there yet?" she laughed.

"No, but we are almost."

"Good," she nodded, "Because if you would have said we had a long way to go, I'd have to start being annoying like those little kids in that one commercial where they keep asking their parents 'Are we there yet'? And you wouldn't want that. Because when I say annoying, I mean really annoying."

"I'm sure you're not that bad."

"Oh, but I am."

"Stop being such a drama queen."

She smacked his arm, "You did not just call me a drama queen."

"But I did, drama queen."

She was aiming to hit him again, when the truck stopped, and he shut the ignition off. "We're here," he told her.

Looking around, she noticed it was a beautiful apartment building. "Where is 'here' exactly?"

He laughed. "Kale and I own an apartment here." He saw the look on her face, and felt like laughing again. "And before you get ideas, I did not bring you here to indeed take advantage of you, and have my way with you. It's just Kale's gone for the night, something about a 'hot date' and not to expect him home until tomorrow morning. I just figured we could hang out here."

"Cool," she nodded, opening the door and stepping out, "Let's go then raceboy, show me your apartment."

^*^*^

"What do you want to eat?"

"Anything," she moaned.

They had been contentedly playing a fierce and competitive game of Scrabble when a sound that could have been mistaken for an earthquake, vibrated from her stomach, and had scared the crap out of them. She had then admitted that while it might have looked like the McDonald's food they had had earlier in the day might have filled her up, it actually hadn't, and she was starving.

"How about pizza?"

"You're going to cook pizza?" she questioned.

"I was thinking more along the lines of ordering pizza," he laughed, "But I could make it – that is if you want to end up in the hospital tomorrow for food poisoning."

She laughed with him, "That's okay, I've had food poisoning before, it's not fun. So pizza sounds good."

"Good," he replied, "I'll go make the call."

"Okay."

He came back a few minutes later, and sat down next to her on the couch, "It should be here in like twenty minutes, okay? Can you wait that long?"

"I think I can hold myself over until then."

"Good, because I wouldn't want you dying from hunger on me, now would I?"

"No," she shook her head, "You wouldn't. Because you would be dead too." A thought struck her mind, and she laughed, "Then we'd be dead together."

"Woo-hoo!" he cheered, "That'd be fun."

"Actually, I think I'd rather stay alive."

"Me too."

"So, what do you want to do while we're waiting?"

"I don't know," Kasey shrugged, "We could play another game."

"Like what?"

"Well, we have ... battleship."

"I love battleship!" she exclaimed.

"Battleship it is, then."

Not even fifteen minutes later, she had sunk all five of his ships, and he hadn't even sunk any of hers.

"I am the battleship queen!" She did her own version of his victory dance from earlier in the day.

"I'll have to agree with you on that one."

"Good."

At some point in the middle of her victory dance, he had stood up and in front of her, and blocked her way from dancing anymore. And then she had caught his gaze. And they just stared. Before long, they felt their heads getting closer and closer, and just as their lips touched, the doorbell rang.

He groaned, but went to answer it anyway, muttering, "Damn doorbell, remind me to rip its box out of the wall later."

She giggled, and collapsed down on the couch, famished, and wishing that that doorbell had not rang right at that precise moment.

"Pizza's here!" he called out, carrying it into the living room and placing it down on the table in front of her. "For the little lady."

"'Little lady'?" she asked around bites of pizza, "Where the hell did you come up with that?"

He shrugged and the two of them lapsed into silence, devouring the large pizza between the two of them. They really had both been hungry, in more way than one.

^*^*^

"What do you want to do now?" Kiera asked, after the entire pizza had been eaten.

"Follow me." He extended his hand to her, and she grabbed it.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

In less than a minute, they stood outside a door at the end of the hallway, and he opened the door ... to his bedroom.

"Kasey– " She didn't know what he had in mind, but they certainly hadn't been dating – if that's even what you would call what they were doing – long enough to do what she thought he was thinking of.

He flicked his eyes towards the PlayStation 2 hooked up to the TV in his bedroom, and smirked.

"I've already beat one Stewart today, how about we make it: Kasey – 2, The Stewart siblings – 0?"

"You're on," Kiera challenged, "And just so you know, I basically beat my brother every time I play him."

"Bring it on."

"Oh, I so will."

^*^*^