A Penny For Your Truth

Chapter 9 - Kona Kafe (Jonah POV)

"So, what have you two been up to this afternoon?" My mom asks us that evening at dinner.

"Well," I started. "Dallas and I watched a few movies, then I beat Dallas in a game of pool--" I was cut off.

"That is not true. He won the practice game, while teaching me the rules. I won the next three actual games." She countered, at which my dad snickers.

I death glare him, "Anyways...like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," I'm almost positive I hear her quietly mutter the words 'sore loser' while my mom is trying not to laugh.

"We played with the dogs outside for a while." I finished.

"Don't forget the video games. I wouldn't want to ruin your reputation completely. He beat me at those." She smiles sweetly in my direction. "But next time we play it will be a different story."

We all laugh at that. I'm pretty confident that I can still beat her the next few times before she really gets the hang of it.

"Dinner was good. Which one of you two are doing dishes tonight?" Dad asks us as he clears the table.

"Flip a coin for it? I ask her.

"You're on." She shoots back without hesitation.

Dad pulls out a quarter and flips it towards me. "You and your little friends tried that coin with a head on both sides a while back and you're not using something like that to make her do all the chores." He sounds serious, but there's humor in his eyes. I shrug. That wouldn't help me now, Finn's still holding on to that coin.

"Heads or tails?" I turned to ask Dallas.

"Heads" she says.

I flipped the coin and where does it go? It flies through the air and rolls right under the stove. That's just great.

"Looks like you're both doing dishes." My mom tells us.

"I can wash them. It's fine." Dallas says.

"No, I'll help. It'll go much faster, and it's still less than I had to do before." I walk to the sink before she can say anything else. I'll feel bad if she does it all anyway. She follows behind with the dishes my dad stacked together and begins to rinse them off. The parents head upstairs after saying goodnight. I unload the dishwasher first, so she doesn't have to worry about figuring out where everything goes. She's supposed to meet CeCe tomorrow. I guess that's probably something I should see if she wants to do. It totally slipped my mind earlier today.

"So, are you up to do something tomorrow?" I ask her.

"Sure, what time?" She starts to load the dishwasher back up.

"Maybe around ten?"

"Sounds good." She replies.

After the kitchen was clean and the dishwasher was running, we said good night and I went into my room. Before I hop in the shower I send a quick text to make sure CeCe didn't forget about tomorrow. When I get back, she still hasn't replied. She better not be ignoring me. Knowing her, her phone's probably on silent. I send one more message just in case. After five minutes, I call her. The phone rings for a couple seconds. I hear the click that means she answered, followed by a book being slammed closed, and a groan of frustration.

"What? WHAT could possibly be the matter with you. Are you dying? Is the house on fire? Are you being kidnaped? I am almost finished with book three and I still have one last book that is 396 pages to read by tomorrow. I don't have time to talk. I am on a deadline here." She huffs.