Where to Begin

Chapter 9

"Who? You have to tell us now!" Max asked eagerly.

"Jigsaw," Wes grinned as he took a sip from his coffee.

"Yeah but you know – '' Chase started.

"And Celine," Wes quickly added and all the boys 'oohed.'

"How do you know?" Chase quickly asked. "How do you know it was me and not someone else?"

"Because you walked right past my door and I know your voice, you're my brother remember?" He said sarcastically. I looked around and caught a glimpse of Connell, leaning against the stove, staring into his tea.

"Ok, well, first, before your tiny boy minds start brewing shit, I went to apologize for the way I had acted last night,"

"Jigsaw? Apologizing? Never!" Sawyer howled and Dale joined in with his laughter. That made me laugh too but I had finished my cereal and decided to head upstairs to get changed and Aubrey followed me. I also wanted to get away from Connell because now he knew I lied to him last night.

"Well, after Mermaid..." Aubrey put her hand on my arm, stopping us half way up the stairs to listen. "Made me feel like a piece of trash, I felt so guilty I couldn't sleep so I went to apologize,"

"And then ended up screwing," I heard Dale snort. The other boys' loud laughter boomed throughout the kitchen.

"No, guys, it's not like that!"

"Then how come I heard you guys kissing outside my door?"

"Excuse my language, Junior and Snow Globe, but f you Zero, we did nothing. You're talking shit. And besides, she didn't let me do anything, anyway."

Aubrey laughed as we continued to make our way upstairs. Connell then came around the corner and saw us standing on the stairs. He glanced at me, slightly glaringly, before going into the lounge.

"What now?" I sighed.

"Did you actually kiss him?"

"No! Gees, what do you think I am? No!"

She gave me a cheeky smile.

"Besides, I haven't even had my first kiss yet so you think I would kiss a guy I barely know? Uh, no thanks," I said opening my closet to unpack my clothes. "I want my first kiss to be with my boyfriend."

"I don't know, hey? Kids these days are ruthless and Chase is good looking, you can't deny that!"

"I'm not denying that, I'm just trying to make it clear that we didn't do anything last night. He woke me up at two to say sorry and he asked me to walk him up to his room,"

"Ha, classic Jigsaw!" She giggled. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and my face was as red as the tomatoes in the fruit bowl downstairs.

"Where's Lillian?" I asked trying to make the redness go away.

"I don't know, I think she said she has a part-time job or something?"

"I thought you said they have lots of money?"

"Yeah but maybe she didn't have anything to keep her busy and needed some extra cash."

Aubrey was sitting on my bed with a steaming cup of coffee.

"Eleven boys don't keep her busy?" I laughed.

Aubrey smiled and shrugged.

"Specs looked mad as hell, though," she said before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Yeah, but he has no reason to be mad at me, it's not like we're dating or anything, like, I just met these people,"

"Maybe he likes you and was disappointed when he heard that Chase made a move. Like he didn't get there first or something?" She lifted her eyebrows.

"Connell does not like me like that and Chase did not make a move – ''

She looked at me with a side grin.

"You cannot tell me he didn't say anything inappropriate last night!"

"Okay he asked for a goodnight kiss but I just walked away,"

"Ooh, playing hard to get, I like it," she laughed before taking another sip of her coffee.

"Look, I don't like any of them, ok? I don't know them that well and yeah, they may be good looking but I'm also not interested in stuff like that right now," I said shrugging.

"What are you interested in?"

I sighed. "Unpacking my clothes, at the minute."

"Ah! Zero, you killed me again!" I heard a voice shout from downstairs.

"What is that?" I looked at Aubrey, lying on my bed with her eyes half closed. She shrugged.

"Probably the boys. I'm going to get ready for the day and head home to grab some clothes and stuff, I'll be back later." Aubrey sighed, getting up and moving towards the doorway, leaning on the door handle.

"Okay cool." I said. She gave me a quick smile before leaving. I started dividing my clothes into different categories.

"STOP!" I heard Wesley shout from downstairs.

I had to go see what was happening.

"What the hell are you –''

No one was in the lounge.

"Where are you?" I muttered under my breath. I walked down the corridor opposite the kitchen and there were two doors before the last door at the end of the corridor, which, I guessed, was Lillian's room. I slowly opened the first door, looking for the boys but I just opened the door into an empty cinema.

"What are you doing?"

I slammed the door to the cinema as someone spoke behind me.

"Max!" I jumped and then sighed. "Does everyone in the house have to scare me?" I let out a relieved laugh.

"No, what are you doing in the movie room? We aren't allowed to watch TV remember?"

"Oh, yeah, I remember, I was just looking for Wesley?"

"Zero?" He looked at me suspiciously.

"Yeah, I heard him shouting from upstairs,"

"Oh, he's probably playing a videogame in here," he opened a door a bit more down the hall on the left.

"I thought we weren't allowed computers and stuff?" I gave a cheeky smile at Max.

"We don't listen to that rule if she's not here,"

Inside sat Wesley and Calvin, each with headsets and their eyes glued to two separate TV screens. I didn't recognize the game they were playing.

"Ugh!" Wesley threw his controller on the couch next to him.

"What happened?" I asked sitting on the couch in the far corner looking at Wesley.

"A Bush Camper just killed me."

"I don't know what that means," I said quietly looking at Max who shrugged.

"Just re-spawn," Calvin muttered not taking his eyes off the screen in front of him, moving his fingers over the controller madly.

"Come on Celine, you don't want to sit in here watching them play some stupid game," Max gently took hold of my arm and started pulling me from the couch. "You'll get bored out of your mind."

"Wait!" Calvin said jumping up from the couch he was on. He quickly threw his headset off and onto his seat. "Do you want to go do something? Since we're on house arrest and stuff?" He was staring at me but then quickly turned his gaze to Max.

"Yeah, we can, but what is the question?" Max said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What do you guys usually do around here?"

Max and Calvin looked at each other and grinned. Max grabbed my arm while Calvin ran ahead of us.