He's My Brother's Best Friend and My Enemy, This Can't Be Good!

Charlie got suspended for a week and a half. Apparently they paged her from the office during third period a little while after I left. Miranda said that she pranced up there thinking she was going home early, she had no idea.

Parker and I never went back to school that day. He took me to get food and then we headed home. Cassadee wasn’t too happy to see the two of us both ditching school but Parker convinced her that it was necessary and that he had got it covered. Needless to stay she let us stay home.

Things at Mass High had really calmed down since Charlie’s suspension. It appeared that everyone was taking her absence well, even her minion of cheerleaders. No one felt like they had to walk around on tip toes. Parker and I were surly enjoying the peace. For the first time in the history of us we didn’t have anything to fear.

That’s not to say that everything was calm in our lives. That was never going to happen while at Mass High. Since the end of spring break Coach had started holding weekly practices. He wanted to keep them all in shape for next season, including the senior boys. The practices were mainly just conditioning and throwing drills. The boys didn’t mind too much since they were basically just playing flag football like they would be doing anyway. They did however mind the conditioning days. Normally I wasn’t present during those practices but since I was now, technically, captain, Coach wanted me there. As if that wasn’t bad enough the boys had suckered me into training with them. It was a nightmare. I was never a runner and nothing had changed. Let’s just say that I got sick at least weekly now from running around the track. Since I was conditioning with them I also go to run drills with them, now that was fun. It reminded me of how the boys, Mir and I use to play at home during the summer.

Things were also crazy at home. We were two weeks away from Cassadee and Trevor’s wedding. Trevor seemed rather calm about the whole thing. All the groomsmen had their tuxes and so did he. All that was left for him was to make sure all his family made it down here. Since they lived a couple hours away they were renting rooms at the hotel twenty minutes away from the venue. Cassadee on the other hand was a mess. She had one final dress fitting this week and then all the major details were done which only made her more anxious. Cass had been dreaming about this day since the day she met Trevor, she needed everything to be perfect.

I had been watching Lexis for her a lot lately. Not that I minded, Lexis was a piece of cake when I had her. Plus, babysitting her meant sitting around watching Disney movies and occasionally having a tea party. I wasn’t complaining. Lexis didn’t mind too much either, she just wanted someone to play with her.

I figured it was good practice for Lexis to be away from Cass since she wasn’t going on the honeymoon with them. I figured Cass was just gonna leave her with us and we’d take her to the day care she went to sometimes when we had class. Cass hadn’t mentioned anything to me so I decided to confront her one day while Lex was napping.

“So are we watching Lex when you guys are gone?” I asked. Cassadee was running around the house trying to pick up some of Lexis’s toys since one of her friends was coming over to help her finish the center pieces. I would have helped her but unfortunately I do not hold the craft gene her and my mom do.

“Mom’s gonna stay back and watch her while we’re gone,” Cass answered.

“Are you kidding?” Don’t get me wrong I loved my parents but lately they were annoying me. They never seemed to be around unless it was something they could brag about. We hadn’t seen them since the boys birthday and I was still a bit bitter about how they didn’t show up for my birthday. Not to mention Mom had only seen Lexis a hand full of times, which usually pissed Cass off.

“She really wanted to do it. At least it leaves you guys off the hook.”

“Cass this is Mom we’re talking about. She barely raised us! You think she’s honestly going to watch Lex? She’s better off watching her self!” I yelled.

“I’m not too worried about it Jos. Mom will only have her by herself when you guys are at school. When you come home I’m sure Lex will be attached to your hip,” she said.

Just then the doorbell rang indicating that Cass’s girlfriend was here to help her. I watched them spill out the contents of three trash bags full of flowers before excusing myself from the room. Once in the safety of my own room I let out an exaggerated sigh.

My mother was going to be here for two weeks. Cass may have thought that mom wants to spend time with Lexis but I knew better than that. Mom just wanted to spy on all of us. She didn’t even watch us when we were toddlers, there was no way she was going to spend time with Lexis. She just wanted to make sure nothing funny was going around here. Not to mention she probably wanted to know what happened in California. Fuck! It was then I realized that my mother didn’t know anything about what had been going on with Parker and me. We were so screwed.

I stayed locked in my room for quite some time. Just thinking about having my mom in the house while I am dating Parker was enough to make my stomach churn. As pleased as she might have been about Jayden dating Miranda the same was not going to be for me. Sure my parents essentially wanted me to end up with a Daniels but only because it would be easy for them. As we got older they pressed the issue only because they knew there was no way it was going to happen. I was “mommy’s little angel” there was no way she was going to be okay with this.

A little while later there was a knock on the door followed by it opening. I didn’t need to even look at the door to know that Parker was standing there. My mattress suddenly got firmer indicating that Parker was sitting on the other side of my bed. I could feel him fidgeting to mimic my posture of lying on my stomach. Once he was situated he loosely through his arm over me before I turned to face him.

“Oh no what now?” he groaned. I playfully shoved his shoulder before letting out another sigh. “Do I even want to know?”

“Mom’s gonna watch Lexis when Cass and Trev are gone,” I muttered.

The weight of the mattress shifted again as Parker lifted himself off, leading me to sink into it like before. He didn’t say anything just reached out his hand to grab mine, pulling me up off my bed. I was now standing up to far away to collapse back into my bed.

“Parker,” I whined.

He ignored my whines and pulled me through my bedroom door, passed his, down the stairs and out the door. Thankfully he stopped to grab our shoes before walking completely out the door.

“Parker I’m in pajamas!” I complained as he dragged me to his car.

This new information didn’t seem to bother him as he hoisted me into his truck before shutting the door and walking over to the driver’s side. Parker started the car and just like that pulled out of the drive way and onto the street.

“Parker I am not getting out of this car in my pajamas,” I stated, crossing my arms to prove how serious I was.

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I am not,” I said more sternly.

Within a couple minutes we had pulled into the parking lot of one of our local restaurants. Local as in everyone from Mass High was probably inside. He was insane if he thought I was going in there in my frog pajamas.

“Come on,” he said as he shut the car off and unlocked the car doors. I looked at him bug eyed, he had seriously lost his mind this time. He got out of the car without giving me a second glance. I stayed put in my seat, there was no way this was happening. When he noticed I wasn’t behind him he walked back to the car and opened the door to my seat. “Don’t make me carry you,” he smirked.

“Parker don’t you dare,” I said trying to keep my composure.

Of course my words only egged him on more. He reached across me to unbuckle the seat belt before placing one arm around the backs of my legs and the other on my back. It wasn’t much of a fight to lift me out of the car and he put me on the floor instantly before locking the door and grabbing my hand. Getting me out of the car was one step but there was still no way I was going into the restaurant. I planted my feet firmly on the ground, trying to keep my weight under me so he couldn’t pull me along.

“Jos really? No one is even in there! Come on,” he pleaded.

“You’re not in your frog pajamas!” I protested.

“I’m in my pajamas too!” he said, which technically was true but his pajama pants had a plaid pattern on them not frogs with crowns and tiaras. “Plus, I think you look cute in them.” Leave it to Parker to make me blush wearing frog pajamas. After that comment there was no way I wasn’t going to follow him into the restaurant.

Parker and I got seated in a booth towards the back of the restaurant, they were obviously not amused with our attire. I really had no idea why we were at a restaurant at seven at night in our pajamas. Parker placed an order for a sample plater of appetizers as well as a sundae, so I wasn’t going to complain.

While we waited for our food to arrive we let silence fall between us. I had been really tired lately from all the practices Coach was having me participate in not to mention going home from them to watch a rather hyper toddler. I could feel my eye lids getting heavy as I placed my hands crossed on the table so my head could lie comfortably. I had my eyes closed for all of about two-seconds before a sugar packet hit my face. I looked up to see Parker pouting at me.

“Am I that boring that I made you fall asleep?” he mocked.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at his comment. I picked my head up off the table and flicked the sugar packet he had thrown at me back at him. It went right across the table and landed in his lap. He smiled at me before picking it up and tossing pack at me. That’s all it took for the two of us to pass a sugar packet pack and forth across the table as if we were playing with a ball, I swear we were five.

“Feeling better?” he asked still tossing the sugar packet back and forth.

I didn’t have time to respond as our waiter came with our food. He set the food in the center of the table, with the sundae closest to me. As soon as he left I grabbed it and pushed it toward me, wasting no time in eating the creamy ice cream sundae. “Now I do,” I said smiling. Parker chuckled and continued eating.

“So your mom is watching Lex?” Parker asked.

I groaned setting the spoon inside the giant bowl so I could respond to Parker. “Yeah, she wants to bond with her apparently. Bullshit if you ask me. She just wants to be nosey and hear about our trip to California,” I sighed.

Parker had stopped eating and was now looking at me with concern in his eyes. I was really starting to hate people looking at me like that. “You love when your mom comes down here,” Parker stated.

I scoffed, “Yeah when they actually spent time with us. Now they come down to give us some trip so they don’t have to see us. I mean she wasn’t even here for my birthday but they sure did make it for Jayden’s. God that sounds bad. I’m not jealous I just, they don’t know how to parent. She doesn’t know the first thing about Lex.”

“It’s only two weeks. Lexis will be fine with her for a couple hours. You know she’ll be with you every second you’re home.”

“I know that I just worry. Mom hasn’t watched a three year old in years and Lex gets into everything if you don’t watch her,” I continued.

“You sound like a little mom yourself,” Parker smiled.

I swear his smile was contagious. I could feel my lips curve up into a pleasant grin as the heat ran to my cheeks. I couldn’t help worrying about Lexis. Cassadee and Trevor were great parents to her, especially for their age. Since they were so young I often tried to help out with her. Lexis was more than just a niece to me, I was basically a second mom to her.

“It’s going to be hell 2.0 with her here,” I sighed before continuing, “she doesn’t know about us and I don’t think her response is going to be good.”

“Your mom loves me. They’ve been trying to get us together since before you were even born,” he said.

“Yeah but that’s cause they wanted to be family. They have Jayden and Mir for that. They only joked about us dating. I’m there little girl, they don’t want me dating at all,” I sneered.

“They’re just trying to protect you,” Parker said.

“Yeah cause they don’t want another grandchild. They were so pissed when Cass got pregnant, good thing Cass is a better parent than they ever will be. They’re only proud of her now that she’s getting married. They’re so hypocritical. They should know me well enough to know I’m not gonna make the same mistakes Cass is.”

“No, you’re going to make your own mistakes,” Parker said trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah like dating you,” I joked. Parker gasped hitting his hand over his chest as if I’d offended him. “You’re such a dork,” I chuckled. If there wasn’t a table between the two of us I would have kissed him.

“I’m not a dork! I’m the captain of a four time state championship football team remember,” Parker joked back.

“Were the captain, babe. There’s a new captain in town,” I winked at him.

The waiter brought our bill shortly after clearing our table. Since Parker and I had been going out for dinner more often I had started trying to help in pay for the bill. He wasn’t too pleased with my acts. I couldn’t sit there and let him pay for everything though. I could tell he was satisfied when he realized I didn’t have my phone or wallet with me considering I was in my pajamas.

“You planned this didn’t you?” I said shaking my head. Why else would Parker have his wallet in the pockets of his pajamas bottoms. He simply winked at me before leaving the table to pay. He returned shortly throwing five dollars down on the table before taking my hand and ushering my out of the restaurant. “You’re such a little shit,” I said as I climbed into his truck.

“There’s been a lot of not so nice name calling happening tonight,” he pouted. Leaning over the center console to kiss my cheek. I moved my face sensing his closeness so that his kiss landed on my lips. Not expecting the kiss lead both of us to a failed attempt seeing as both of us were laughing. After successfully kissing me Parker pulled out of the parking spot and headed home.

“You know my mom isn’t going to let us be alone in our rooms when she finds out,” I said reaching for his hand that was laying on the center divider. My fingers curled with his immediately, the familiarness calming my nerves.

“Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to sneak around,” he winked. “We haven’t spent that much time in our rooms since everyone found out. We’ll just hang out in the living room.”

Parker always had a solution to our problems. I think its why he was such a good football player. He was right though, we hadn’t been spending that much time in our rooms. We were only in them when someone else was in the living room. If we had made it through the school finding out than telling my mother wouldn’t be that bad. I just didn’t want it to take away from Cass’s wedding. My parents were flying in the day before so as long as I could keep Parker in control for a day I’d tell her later. This was going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

When we got back into the house I followed Parker inside the house. Cassadee and Trevor were sitting watching a movie. I could see the two of them glance over at us before they chuckled. I then remembered that I was in my pajamas. I shot them a glare before heading up following Parker into his room.

“What are you doing?” he asked as I made myself comfortable in his bed.

“Lying down,” I stated nonchalantly. There was something about his room that made me feel warm, like I didn’t have to be afraid of anything.

Parker threw his wallet on his nightstand before making his way to the bed. Pushing me over slightly he crawled in beside me. He grabbed the remote turning the television on to an evening talk show before settling in his bed. The minute he stopped fidgeting I curled myself up next to him, head resting on his chest. My eyes instantly began to flutter shut as the sound of his heart beat lulled me to sleep.

“Are you sleeping in her tonight?” he whispered.

“Mmm, thinking about it,” I murmured. Parker currently had one of his hands in the mess that was my hair. I hadn’t combed it since we had returned so as his fingers ran through it they came in contact with knots. It wasn’t the most pleasant feeling but for some reason it made me that much more tired.

“Goodnight Jos,” he said kissing my forward ever so gently.

“G’night,” I mumbled one final time before drifting into a soundless sleep.