Sunshine || Jai Brooks

chapter ten; good mornings

"Oh," she quickly grabbed her phone in excitement, hearing it buzz. Jai was sitting at her desk, searching through her laptop for cool music while she was lying on her bed. He turned around with a raise of his eyebrow. She noticed. "I got a text. I'm famous."

"It's nine PM, sunshine. It's my twin brother."

"Oh," she said the word in a different way and sat up, checking what Luke had send her. It wasn't anything that surprised her, it also wasn't anything that she had expected for him to say. And she knew exactly why that was.

'Kristina and Daniel are together. Like dating. Wow.'

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she replied to Jai, which wasn't smart. Her voice was high pitched and it sounded like there was definitely not nothing. Because there wasn't. There was not nothing. Kristina and Daniel had made up and everything was absolutely perfect.

She decided to text back. 'wait, since when? for how long?'

"Hey, you can call me an asshole, I don't mind. But please, tell me what's going on."

Aileen jumped up from the bed and made her way to him, showing him. There was a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth and the grin became wider when Jai glanced up from the screen and chuckled. "Isn't it great? Oh my God. I wasn't allowed to ask Luke anything, or you for that matter. Kristina seemed to upset about it and was blaming herself. And now they're together."

"Doesn't that make you feel a little uneasy?"

"What? Why would I feel uneasy?" she was questioning about it while she understood as no other. Luke and her hadn't defined the relationship like Kristina and Daniel hadn't before. And now they were dating. And Luke and her still weren't. "Don't put pressure on me."

"I'm not putting pressure on you," he was about to wrap an arm around her middle and pull her closer. She could see it and feel it, seeing how he would reach out and then quickly ran a hand through his hair. Too quickly. "I want you to take care of yourself and tell him about what's on your mind."

"I know."

"And not when you barely can't take it anymore. As soon as possible."

Aileen nodded slowly, putting her phone beside her laptop and chose a song. "I'm gonna get Cody. I'm sure he would like to hang out with us," she took a step towards the door, about to walk away until he grabbed her wrist. She turned around, sending him a questioned look. "Hmm?"

"I'm being serious."

"Don't tell me I'm hurting your brother, because I know I am-..."

"It's not him. It's you I'm worried about."

"I can take care of myself," she walked away from him, down the stairs to search for Cody. He was lying in his special cardboard box and started to purr as she lifted him up. She held him against her chest, walking back up the stairs to the room. It was a kind of funny how he had ran away from Jai when he tried to pet him a few hours ago. She wondered how Cody would react now.

"Oh, hey-... What's his name again?"

"He can feel the love, Jai. Way to go," she rolled her eyes, teasing him while getting closer. Jai first let him sniff his hand, before he began to stroke his head. Jai was lucky – Cody seemed to sleepy to jump out her arms and run downstairs. Which he could, whenever he wanted by the way.

"But you said you missed me."

They had gotten back to the subject in less than a minute, and Aileen did the unexpected. She touched his cheek and smiled sweetly. "Just because I said I missed you, doesn't mean I'm not stubborn and I can't take of myself."