Luck & Intuition

THE RAIN CONTINUED to fall into the early morning of the next day. The rain hit against the window at the far end of the room. Autumn stirred to the noise but her mind was still in dreamland. The rain was really soothing then annoying to her, she felt at peace and at ease. With tight arms wrapped around her body she didn’t want to move from the place she was in. Everything seemed to be in a faraway place and won’t hurt her because she was in his arms.

No matter what she had thought about Joe before, all those thoughts had been erased. Perhaps she had been too judgemental before towards him or maybe she was just too afraid to actually see the side of him that not many others get the opportunity to see. This moment she would cherish in his arms, anything could happen that would make this moment slip from her fingers.

The tips of Autumn’s toe pressed to Joe’s calf as she stretched her legs. Her upper body shifted closer to Joe’s as she hid her face in his chest. Automatically, Joe’s arms tightened around Autumn’s waist. She could tell he was awake, reluctantly that is.

“It’s raining still.” Autumn murmured softly and pressed her hand to Joe’s bare chest. His skin was warm and soft to the touch. She felt how his breathing increased compared to how when he was sleeping.

“I like it.” Joe’s voice was muffled as her face was lost his Autumn’s brown messy locks. He breathed in her scent and exhaled with exuberance.

Autumn propped her head up and peaked over Joe’s arm to see out the window. “Me too, it washes worries away. It feels like you have a clean slate and can start over again, you know? Like, you made the wrong choice and you want to make it right.”

Joe laughed softly and opened his eyes. “What are you on about, A?”

“Well,” Autumn escaped from Joe’s embrace and sat herself up properly, crossing her legs. “I mean... like...” Autumn fidgeted with her hands, then occupied herself by tying her hair up into a messy bun.

“You and me?” Joe’s eyes glanced up at Autumn’s. She nodded and shied her face away from his. Joe reached out his hand and placed his thumb on her face while his fingers cupped under her chin. His lips freely set into a smile.

“Stop it.” Autumn pushed his hand away and took the pillow from behind her, hiding her face.

“I’m sorry, what did I do wrong exactly?” Joe rolled onto his back, closing his eyes. He rested his hands behind his head still with a set smile upon his face. Autumn mumbled into the pillow, mainly on purpose so Joe couldn’t understand what she was saying. “What was that? I couldn’t understand you.”

Joe grabbed the pillow and tried to pull it away. Autumn laughed and stood up on the bed, placing each foot on either side of the bed. She hovered over Joe. She raised the pillow in the air and came smacking down onto Joe. It was a one-way pillow fight that Autumn was automatically winning.

“Autumn! Stop!” Joe laughed. “I swear if you give me a concussion!”

“Oh quit whining, you baby. It’s just—“

Joe grabbed the back of Autumn’s Popliteal Fossa (the back of your knee), her knees gave out and she dropped down. Her face was a half a inch away from Joe’s as a permanent smirk written across it.

“You really need to learn how to stop mumbling.” His lips pressed against Autumn’s briefly. Autumn began to defend herself, with her lips pressed to his. “See? Mumbling again. Do I need to hire a speech therapist for you?”

Autumn sat up and scoffed, folding her arms over her chest. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Mm, I love it when you talk dirty.” Joe licked his lips.

Autumn stared at him in amazement with laughter filling the room of how not dirty that sentence was. She rolled off him and planted her feet on the ground, stretching her arms over her head and straightening the oversized t-shirt on her.

“Make me a sammich, sir!” Autumn turned on her heel and pointed her index finger at him.

“How about,” Joe pushed Autumn’s finger out of his face. “We go out for breakfast inside?”

Autumn shook her head. “I don’t want to risk getting caught by the paparazzi or anything. Who knows what bullshit story they might print.”

Joe stood up and pulled over his shirt that was lying on the floor. “You’re right. How about a good ol’ fashion American breakfast then?”

“Hm, a rockstar that cooks? Now this I have to see.”

“Are you judging my amazing cooking skills, A?” Joe lifted his eye brow at her.

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Autumn looked from the door then back at Joe a few times. “Race you downstairs!”

Autumn took off across the room and swung around the banister. Her foot hit each step with a pound. The pounding became louder as Joe raced after her. Autumn looked over to see Joe on her trail but she could tell she was near the last few steps. Joe’s arms branched out and enclosed around the waist of the slim girl he was after. The force of Joe caused them to come crashing down the last few steps.

Autumn laid flat out of her stomach while Joe was sprawled out on his back beside her. Their mixtures of laughter echoed throughout the entire home.

“Are you okay?” Joe breathed out in between laughs as he stared up at the ceiling.

“Yeah, I’m good!”

“Well, now that both of you have stopped acting a couple of five year olds you can tell us why you decided to ignore our calls.”

Autumn raised her head up to see Nick standing in front of her. His arms were crossed and a firm, annoyed expression was moulded to his face.

“Oh hey, little brother.” Joe hopped up and dusted off his shirt. “How’d you get—“ Nick held up the spare key. “Oh yeah...”

“Nick! I don’t think they’re...” Storm walked in from the kitchen with a large glass of orange juice and a bagel in her hand. “Here. Oh hey!”

“Oh hey!” Joe and Autumn said in unison.

“Raiding my fridge and cupboards, Stormy?” Joe asked, eyeing the food in hand.

“Nick wouldn’t feed me.” Storm mutter threw a bite of her bagel.

“Oh let me apologize for being worried that something might have happened to Autumn, Storm.” Nick rolled his eyes and looked away.

“Nick, I told you last night that Autumn would be okay on her own but you decided not to listen to me! And I also told you that she would probably end up here!” She glared at the back of Nick’s head and shook her own.

“Wait you knew I was going to end up here?” Autumn looked at Storm with her head tilted to the side.

“Mhm! It’s this thing I have, kind of like a sixth sense deal going on. You’d be in denial and all that shit and Joe would be the Prince Charming to come save the day.” Storm was simple and easy she knew all along what was going to happen to Autumn. “And it just so conveniently happen that Aiden... well...” She coughed and shifted her eyes. “You know.”

Autumn frowned as the rush of last night started to flood her mind again. Her eyes shut tightly as her body swayed into Joe’s side. He grabbed a hold of her arms and grasped tightly. Trickles of tears ran down Autumn’s cheeks.

“Autumn, it’s okay.” Joe hummed into Autumn’s ear. She pulled away from Joe’s grasp and cleared her throat while fanning her eyes.

“Where’s Ella?” Although she cleared her throat, it was dry and with no tone to it.

“Taylor insisted on looking after her for a few days since this whole... situation came abruptly.” Nick faced the window, away from the other three. It seemed like he was annoyed or upset with Storm yelling at him. It was kind of stupid. “Oh would you look at the time! I have a meeting to go to.”

Really Nick? What are you eleven? Running away from situations like in fucking grade school?

Autumn narrowed her eyes at Nick as he slipped on his sneakers and quickly opened the door. He waved casually and walked out.

“He did not just...” Autumn bit her tongue. “I’ll be right back.”

“Autry, don’t.” Storm grabbed onto Autumn’s arm and slung her back. “We’ve been fighting for days now. It’s okay.”

“Fighting? Since when? I haven’t noticed”

“Yeah. I mean, Nick would have told me or something.” Joe added in.

Storm shrugged and looked around the room. She was avoiding the problem that she clearly didn’t want to talk about ever.

“Did he do something?” Joe asked after a moment of silence.

Storm set down her glass and flopped onto the couch. “I told him that he cares more about his music then me. I was being honest, right? Because relationships are suppose to be filled with trust, honestly and loyalty. So I just told him what I thought and he started to bitch at me that I had no fucking idea what I was saying and that it was a bunch of bullshit.”

She paused and the pause was for a long time. Far too long, really.

“And then?” Joe urged on. “What else happened?”

“Nothing. Nothing else happened. He decided that he couldn’t handle the truth and went all quiet Nick on me and is now shutting me out or yelling at me.”

The front door busted open with Nick stomping back inside.

Autumn jumped. “Nick? What’s wrong?”

Nick’s hand latched onto Storms wrist and dragged her out of the house. “I forgot my girlfriend.” That’s all he said as the door shut behind him.

Joe and Autumn stared at the wooden door in complete silence. Joe scratched the side of his head as he tried to process what the hell just happened.

“I am so...”

“Confsued.” Autumn finished his sentence for him and shook her head. “Wow, um, alright. Cool. I think.”

“What?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

[&&]

“Alright, so I underestimated you, Jonas. You make a pretty damn good ol’ fashioned American breakfast.”

Autumn wiped the corners of her mouth the napkin and smiled at him from across the short end of the dining room table.

“Well my mommy did raise me well.” Joe commented with a signature, ‘Yes I’m the fucking best cook out there’ smirk.

“Your mommy?”

“Yes, my mommy. Do you have a problem with that?” He challenged, he wanted her to press back.

But she didn’t.

“No, Mister Jonas.”

“Ew!” Joe shouted. “I ain’t old, A.”

“Right.” Autumn snorted and snickered. She picked up both his plate and hers and walked into the kitchen, placing them in the sink. She turned on the tap, pouring the liquid soap onto the sponge and began to wash the plates.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know. But I want too, since you’ve been generous to me in the past twenty-four hours.” She smiled lightly in his direction. “I figured some dishes would kind of make up for it.”

“You don’t have to pay me back, or whatever you’re doing. It was my choice to help you and let you stay.” Joe explained and flicked on the television.

“And it’s my choice to clean the dishes.”

“But you don’t have too!”

“But I want too!”

Joe blinked and broke out into a smile. “Are we really fighting over you doing the dishes?”

“Yes. Yes we are.” Autumn stuck out her tongue childishly.

“Oh these Sunday mornings are going to be changing drastically.”Joe chuckled to himself as he watched the sports updates on ESPN. Autumn set down the wet plate into the rack and looked at him.

Changing drastically? What the fuck is that suppose to mean?