Dream

Chapter Five

Max was once again asleep on the couch. Michelle just laughed. She told me that I should drop her off to get "alone time" with Erik but I was so afraid to go it alone. Erik walked in behind me, a look of fear on his face. He was obviously feeling awkward to watch my step-dad sleep.

"It's okay, Erik. He's harmless and he's not going to wake up unless Michelle dumps a bottle of water on his face again."

Michelle giggled. "The look on his face was priceless though." She mimicked the face that Max had made when he woke up the day before. I snorted with laughter and that made Erik smile. I blushed fiercely. He was going to think I had permanent rosy cheeks if I didn't stop blushing every five seconds.

Jude, who had been standing behind Michelle and watching everything play out, smirked at me. Then he proceeded to drop his backpack on the old, leather armchair next to him. He made for the kitchen and I followed him.

Erik followed close behind as if he was afraid to be left alone in my little house. When we had pulled into my driveway, I was slightly embarrassed at the size of my house. Erik, of course, didn't even take a second look at the house. I hoped that he wouldn't mind how messy and cluttered it was right now. Dishes were piled into the sink, beer bottles were sprawled out across the counter, junk mail was in a tower against the cabinets. I had always tried my hardest to clean it but with the amount of homework I normally had, on top of watching Jude, my mom working, and Max doing nothing it was hard to keep up.

Michelle instantly started for the dishes while Max went for the beer bottles. It was routine at this point to clean up a little after school. Especially when Michelle was over. I began looking for any checks or bills among the stack of mail and throwing out the rest. Erik stood leaning against the counter awkwardly.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked, trying to keep up with us running in circles around him, attempting to quell the chaos, but in the process only causing more.

I laughed at his question. "Nope. We've got this down to a science."

"You've got that right." Michelle chimed in. Jude simply continued his task, humming a song. He was placing all the beer bottles in one giant recycling bin. Once the bun was filled, he stood and exited the room to place it in the garage.

"I can tell," Erik said watching Michelle put the last dirty dish into the dishwasher, "You guys are very efficient."

I threw the last bit of junk mail into the trash and placed the important mail in the paper cabinet. There were still a few things lying around the kitchen here and there but it looked much better than it had five minutes ago. I sighed.

"Do you guys want to eat something?" I asked while opening the fridge. There was some leftover pasta from a couple nights before, some yogurt, and a bunch of fruit and vegetables.

"I always want to eat something." Michelle said while opening the snack cabinet and pulling out chips and crackers. Then she snuck behind me into the open fridge and grabbed chip dip and hummus. She opened both the bags and the containers and helped herself. Jude was right on board and grabbed a handful of chips. He turned around with his chips in hand and called out, "I'll be doing homework in my room" as he walked away.

I laughed and shook my head as I buried a cracker in hummus. Erik followed my lead and took a couple crackers.

"So do you want to get started on our presentation?" He asked while turning to me. Of course, my mouth was full so I waited until I swallowed my bite to respond.

"Sure. Let me go grab my laptop and we can start." I said. I walked out of the kitchen to grab it. I rushed into my room and found my laptop sitting closed on my dresser. Before I left my room, I checked myself in the mirror.