What Makes It Wrong for Us to Fall in Love?

I woke up later that day and it was already 6 in the evening when Jawn came bursting through his bedroom door.

I thought he was angry at first but it turned out he was just in a hurry to get away from downstairs.

"What's going on down there?" I asked.

"They're trying to get me to fucking bake, are they kidding me?" Jawn laughed, then he dropped a small bag in front of his bed, kicking the shit I broke away. "By the way, I went over your house to get you some clothes to change into."

I glanced at it then tried to smile at Jawn. "Thanks."

"It was crazy, when I got to your place, there was this.. Drawer thing.. With a bunch of your clothes and other shit. It was just dumped on your porch."

"A drawer?"

"Yup." He sat on the foot of his bed.

"Was it.. Was it wooden and had these stupid scratches on it?"

"Yup." He answered again.

"Did it have some stupid handwriting on it that said Ryan Adams is the sex. on it,"

"Yeah, exactly." He turned to me. "How'd you know?"

I looked down. "It was a drawer of my shit at Stephen's dresser."

"Oh." Jawn awkwardly reacted. He reached into the back pocket of his jeans. "Then this must be his?" He flashed it at me.

I nodded.

"Here." He scooted next to me. "At least wear it. I can't promise you everything's gonna be fine, but.. At least wear it." Soon after he put the necklace on me.

"It's normal to have two keys dangling from your neck." I sarcastically commented.

He ignored my statement then he changed the topic. "Doll, how about you go take a shower or something? Then you can come down and have dinner with us."

"Okay." I walked over to the bag and looked at what Jawn had brought. I zipped it open and I had to force myself not to cry. Instead, I just pulled the shirts out and threw them at Jawn. "Throw these away."

"What's wrong with them?"

"These aren't my shirts. They're Stephen's. Throw them away."

"I'm not gonna do that, doll." He picked up the shirts he missed.

"How nice is it that you coincidentally just took the shirts Stephen let me wear, right?" I let out another sarcastic sentence.

"Okay, okay," He rounded up all the shirts. "Sorry. You can use one of my shirts if you like."

I licked my lips as I watched him open a cabinet that had a stack of drawers inside.

He pulled out an empty drawer and dumped all the shirts I told him to throw away in it. After he closed that, he pulled out another drawer and took out a basketball jersey. He sniffed it before throwing it at me. "Now, will you go take a shower?"

--

"There's my doll." Jawn greeted as I hopped off the stairs.

I kept a straight face as I waved at him to return the greeting.

"Had fun in the shower?" He casually asked.

"No." I simply replied.

"Okay, dinner's almost ready, wanna help me set the table?"

"No."

"Okay," Jawn ran his fingers through his hair. "Go hang in the living room with Shane and Ross."

I did as he told me and went to the living room where Ross was scrolling through his laptop screen and Shane was texting.

"The fifth, what is your girlfriend doing here," Ross complained.

"Be nice, will you?" Jawn yelled after him.

"I'm not his girlfriend." I said. "Just to get things clear."

"How are you not his girlfriend?" Ross added, but in reply to what I had just said. "He has a nickname for you, he brought you home and let you sleep on his bed and now he's letting you wear his clothes--"

"I'm really not--" I stammered. "I'm from a band his band toured with and we just, like, became close friends."

"So defensive," Ross commented without even looking up from his laptop screen.

"Just explaining." I argued helplessly.

"You can sit next to me if you want." Shane patted the spot next to him after throwing a small pillow to the other couch. "You do not wanna sit next to Ross."

I took his offer and got next to him.

"He's really a douche, don't worry about it." Shane joked. He started to laugh, then he put on another serious expression, followed with the statement, "No, seriously, he's really a douche. He gets on everyone's nerves, so don't fret."

"Okay?" I scooted away from Shane.

"You wanna go online or some shit?" Ross asked.

"No thanks."

"Wanna watch some TV?" Shane handed me the remote.

I handed it back to him. "No thanks."

"You can't just sit there. The fifth takes forever to set the table." Ross whined.

"Then why don't you do it?" Shane looked up from his phone.

"Then why don't you do it?" He mocked. "He has to do it because Mom's too busy baking for his girlfriend."

"I'm not his girlfriend." I said for the second time that evening.

"Mom made lasagna though." Ross grinned. "So that's pretty okay. And we even get cake. Yippee."

"Cake?" Shane rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Ross? You're getting excited over cake?"

"Birthday cake of the lady I have never even met in my life. Yes!" Ross sarcastically affirmed.

"Get out of here, you're making a mess!"

"Okay, okay. I just wanted to help. Shane should've helped you!" Jawn muttered as he walked out of the kitchen.

"Aw, Mama's boy's all upset he got yelled at." Ross remarked.

"I am not a Mama's boy and I did not get yelled at." Jawn glared at his brother. "I just spilled water and she freaked out. Man, we have to do something with that OCD."

"Aw, no, I don't think so, I like keeping the house clean." Shane shrugged.

"Always the good boy, huh, Shane?" Jawn laughed as he patted my thigh for me to shift so he could get in between me and Shane.

"Always." Shane proudly put on a smug as a joke.

Jawn crossed his legs, resting his feet on the coffee table.

"Put that down, Mom's gonna get pissed when he sees that." Shane scolded.

Jawn immaturely stuck his tongue out and carried his feet to Shane's lap and rested his head on my lap. He smiled at me. "You look cute in that." He tugged on his jersey.

I slapped his hand away. "Stop that."

He laughed. "Not a good time to tell you you're cute. You're a wreck."

"Thanks, birthday girls love hearing that." I sarcastically thanked him.

"Aw, wrecked as you are, you still look beautiful." He chewed on his lip but managed to smile while looking up to me.

"Get a fucking room--" Ross scoffed.

"Dinner's ready!"

"You're a dick, Ross." Jawn rolled his eyes and rolled off me and Shane and got up, and he seemingly unconsciously held my hand and dragged me to the dining room.

He let go as soon as Ross pried the two of us apart by squeezing his way in the middle of us in the way.

Shane rolled his eyes at how immature his brother was and let Jawn and Ross go on.

"Ladies first." Shane chuckled as he let me pass him by.