3. He Rolls in that Direction
"Woah man! What'd you do? Jump in the pool?" Jason grinned devilishly up at Peyton; he was busy coloring on a poster board that would announce tonight as the official Opening Night!
Peyton looked down on him in annoyance, he just got worse on closer acquaintance, probably one of the reasons why she could already tell the twins apart. "My hair isn't that wet," she replied, running her hand through it again.
"Don't pay attention to him," Damien spoke and stuck his tongue out at his brother. "He's just upset because I totally clobbered him today," he got a marker thrown at him for that and Damien laughed. "Oh by the way Peyton, did you hand out all those flyers we gave you?"
"Sure did!" Peyton spoke cheerily as she went behind the counter and started making herself a latte.
"Yeah, yeah he did," Jason snidely remarked. "I saw him giving a flyer to that one kid, with the purple hair? You know Damien?"
"In the gay squad?" Damien asked, watching Peyton not really paying attention.
"Yeah, what's his name? Rafe? Well, you gave one to each of those weirdo's didn't you?" Jason was now asking Peyton.
"So what if I did, this is a public place, and besides, I think just having girl customers is boring," Damien and Jason both looked at each other in confusion at this declaration. Peyton finished making the latte and slapped on its lid.
"What," Jason got up from the floor and strolled over to Peyton. "We're not enough for you?" he trapped her against the counter with his hands firmly planted on either side of her.
"What are you doing?" Peyton scrunched up her face.
"Seducing you, is it working?" Jason watched Damien out of the corner of his eye, and when Damien had taken a big gulp of the latte Peyton had left unobserved on the counter, Jason let her go.
"Dude! That's mine!" Peyton shouted when she noticed that her latte had somehow found its way into Damien's hands, and reached out for her drink.
"Is that pumpkin spice? A little early for that don't you think?" Damien smacked his lips as Peyton snatched the drink from his grasp.
Peyton glared at the twins as she inspected her latte, sniffing it, acting cautious, "Of course not." She said, sticking her tongue out at the devilish twins, and popping the top off the latte and setting it back on the counter. "It's never too early for pumpkin spice," she grabbed the whipped cream bottle and shook it, intending to disinfect the latte with a bit of whipped fat and sugar.
Damien smiled, almost sheepishly, sticking a hand into his pocket, looking off into a not-so-far-off distance and a serene, somehow sad look appeared on his perfect features. "I suppose you're right, after all, pumpkins are magical things," his devilish smirk came back as if he had never lost it. "And it sure is delicious," he said, licking his attractively thin lips, "But," he began to advance towards Peyton, and when he was close her, he placed his elegant fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face up so he could gaze into her sapphire eyes as he uttered: "I bet it would taste even better, spilling from your soft lips."
And in that moment of explicit seduction, Peyton lost control of herself and the whipped cream bottle seemingly erupted, all over Damien's red button down shirt. He looked down at the creamy globs on his shirt and frowned disappointedly, then took a rag and wiped most of it off.
"Nice," Jason commented, laughter in his voice.
"You know," Damien spoke demurely while he examined the dark spots left on his shirt. "It took me hours took pick out this shirt for tonight, this really sucks," he sounded pouty.
"Well, it's your fault," Peyton said, and squirted what was left of the bottle into her latte, the hissing sound making Damien flinch involuntarily.
"Eh, whatever, I'm going to go change," Damien looked over at Jason who was now leaning on the counter, looking mildly bored. "I'll be back in a minute," Damien winked at Jason and left, the bells on the door jingling merrily. Jason watched the door shut and wondered idly why Damien hadn't wanted him to go with him, but then dismissed it and went back to his poster board on the floor. He looked at it, wondering if anyone would notice if he didn't color the rest, decided he didn't want to care what anyone thought, grabbed the board and the tape and went out the door.
Peyton had watched Jason's every move, assuming that he would try making another creepy pass at her, and when he hadn't she was honestly surprised. Then something dawned on her as she sipped her latte, this was the first time she had ever seen one twin without the other, besides that one time when she had taken the trash out with Damien – but that didn't really seem like it should count for much because when she and Damien had turned at the corner of the café's building Jason had jumped, out of nowhere, onto his brother saying that he had missed him and that he couldn't live without him or whatever – they were like a package deal, two halves of one person, they were always together. And Jason wasn't really living up to his creep standards at the moment.
After he had taped up the sign, a little crookedly, on one of the café's windows he strolled back into the café and went straight to the dropdown and started messing with one of the guitars. He didn't even bother to glance at Peyton who had been staring at him ever since he had walked out the door. Jason plucked a few strings then went over to the sound board and started messing around with the nobs, Peyton was curious about whether or not she should ask someone if he was actually supposed to be messing with all that stuff, wondering if maybe he was just trying to pull a prank, which would not be out of character for him, she thought.
Or maybe she was wrong. She got comfy, situating herself on the counter and sipping her latte, waiting to see what Jason would do, and he surprised her. He began playing the guitar he had been fiddling with, and he wasn't bad. Peyton had always supposed that Damien was the more down-to-earth artistically inclined one, simply because he was just so much chiller than Jason was. Damien was friendly and nice and could even be empathetic, Peyton wasn't quite sure Jason was capable of that. But maybe, she thought philosophically, he just put up a strong front, and maybe you just had to work at your friendship with him before he let it down.
"Hey Jason," she called over to him over the sound of the guitar.
"What?" he turned toward her and stopped playing, for the moment, looking mildly annoyed.
Peyton wasn't daunted by that though, whenever they looked annoyed they were usually curious, they just didn't want you to know it. "You want a latte or something?"
"Oh, sure," he played a cord or two.
"What kind?" Peyton called over the guitar again.
"Uh, whatever you have, Damien liked it," Jason turned around again and started playing something bluesy sounding.
"He did?" Peyton asked, but he hadn't heard her, so she started on the latte, wondering when and if Damien had actually said he had liked the latte.
Peyton was just finishing up the latte when the little bell on the door jingled merrily and she looked up to find the rest of the café gang enter the building.
"Ah!" Danny spoke after he had inhaled deeply. "The smell of pumpkin is in the air! I attribute this wonderful aroma to Peyton's handy work!" and he approached the counter as Peyton snapped the lid onto the latte. "Am I right?" he leaned on the counter and smiled up at Peyton.
"Yeah, I've been using pumpkin spice today," Peyton said, not at all matching Danny's dramatic display of fondness, which he found rather disheartening.
"Darling boy," he spoke softly. "Have I in some way, unbeknownst to myself, upset you?"
"No," she spoke in a bored tone she knew the twins would congratulate her on.
"So cold!" Danny swooned. "What has happened to you? Was it Jason?" Danny gasped at his own realization.
"No," Peyton nearly laughed, and began heading for the drop down.
"What are you doing?" Danny spoke as he tried to follow her, but was cut in front of by an overly excited Billy.
"Hey Peypey!" He hopped beside her.
"Hey," Peyton smiled at Billy but kept heading for the dropdown.
"Will you bake cookies with me and Tommy-cat?" he asked. "Maybe you can teach Tommy more about cooking than I can, he always ends up burning something," this he whispered while hopping to get nearer to Peyton's ear.
Peyton couldn't repress a slight giggle. "Sure," she smiled and walked to where Jason now stood by the sound board. "Here you go," she offered the cup.
Jason turned and smiled broadly, which seemed odd, though Peyton couldn't figure out why. "Thanks," he said, took the cup and turned back to the sound board.
Peyton turned and began walking back to the kitchen, but looked back when she thought she had heard something, but Jason was still leaning over the sound board, completely immersed in whatever he was doing. So she kept walking and ran head first into Danny's chest.
"I don't think you should hang around them so much," he spoke to the space above Peyton's head.
"And whys that?" She asked but didn't intend on sticking around for the answer, and headed for the safety of the kitchens, where Danny had been mercilessly banned for being a fire hazard. It seemed to Peyton that Danny had taken it upon himself to be her guardian of sorts, not that he was any good at it, and she didn't particularly believe she needed one anyway.
"Isn't it obvious?" he all but yelled, and followed Peyton, completely unaware of where exactly they were heading. "They are not a good influence on you, plus I firmly believe that they are kin to the devil," and here is where they both entered the kitchen, though no one took notice of Danny at first, that is, until he yelled: "Possibly even the spawn of the Devil!" and flung his arms wide, luckily not knocking anything to the floor, like he had just yesterday, a whole tray of fresh baked cookies ruined.
"Tommy! Get him!" Billy ordered when he spotted the intruder, and Tommy went into action, approaching Danny slowly, his face solemn.
"Oh, no!" Danny began backing up. "This really isn't necessary; I was just talking to Peyton."
"That's what you said yesterday!" Billy crossed his arms.
And finally Tommy lifted Danny off his feet and slung the blond boy over his shoulder and carried him out the door. Billy came to stand in the doorway as Tommy placed Danny back on his feet and awaited his next orders.
"The ban still stands!" Billy spoke almost as dramatically as Danny would have, then motioned for Tommy to follow him back into the kitchen. "Now we can get to work!" Billy was all smiles when he turned to a staring Peyton, who was still not quite used to all the dramatics used in this café.
They started on making the cookies and cupcakes for that day, putting Tommy on stirring duty for Peyton, who had been given a simple recipe from Billy, Billy himself was making his famously delicious, sweet but not too sweet, cupcakes, keeping an eye on his two kitchen wards as he worked. Though he needn't have bothered much, his two little helpers were both the type to finish tasks at hand without giving in to much distraction, plus they both seemed to be comfortable with silence, which Billy found a bit odd considering Peyton was a girl and he thought that all girls got intimidated into blabbing around Tommy. However, Billy didn't dwell on this thought; he became absorbed in his cooking and was as happy as could be.
Out in the sitting room of the café Kyle sat leisurely in the corner loveseat that he had come to favor, as it was far enough from the windows and the café bar so that it wasn't too distracting, making it easier for him to focus on whatever he felt like focusing on at any given time. This seat, however, did give him a very good view of the rest of the café, the various sitting areas and dropdown, he could see partly behind the café bar and whatever might happen to be standing in front of it. The downside of having a seat that had a great view of most all of the aspects of the café was that he also had a great view of a pouting Danny, sitting on the floor just outside that kitchen door, which was exceedingly annoying considering Danny was the only person who could distract Kyle just by being present. So Kyle sighed, shut his notebook he had been doodling in and turned toward the distraught Danny, though did not bother himself with standing.
"Danny," Kyle began when Jason set down his bass and walked over to the sound board, yelling to be heard didn't really suit Kyle. "Is there a reason why you're making yourself unpresentable?" he spoke in the most compassionate voice he could muster, which ended up sounding rather annoyed.
"Our guests won't be here for another hour…" Danny spoke solemnly.
"That doesn't change the fact that you're ruining the mood of the café, whatever it is that has you bothered, deal with it now," Kyle spoke a bit sternly, making Danny puff out his bottom lip in an effort toward making Kyle feel sorry for him, which was absolutely futile.
"I can't, Peyton won't listen to me," he spoke as if he hadn't a hope in the world.
"That shouldn't matter Danny," Kyle calmly replied as he readjusted himself on the couch, resingt his elbow on his knee and his chin on his open palm. "Peyton belongs to the twins and Billy; I specifically assigned our little chick to those of us who are burdened with other chores besides being the apple of our guests' eyes. It shouldn't matter to you what Peyton does or does not do, Danny, I arranged things in this manner so you wouldn't have to worry."
"How can I not worry?" he finally looked Kyle in the eye, his bright blue gaze affronting Kyle's dark orbs. "Everyone in this café matters to me, and with Peyton being a new student here I must do my best to help and protect him from," he glanced at Jason who was now tuning his brother's acoustic. "Bad influences," Kyle smirked at Danny's facial expression, so much for caring about everyone.
"With the way things stand, I highly doubt Peyton will take you bad-mouthing the twins all that well…" Kyle's voice drifted off as he opened his notebook.
"Why?" Danny looked confused.
"I believe Peyton considers the twins closer friends than either you or I, simply because our scholarship student spends much more time in the presence of Jason and Damien than with you or I," Kyle spoke rationally.
"He does?" Danny asked, mortified.
"Yes, the three of them are in Class B Sophomores, didn't you know that?" Kyle smiled slyly.
"Yeah… but I didn't really think about it," Danny peeked into the kitchen, catching a glimpse of Peyton laughing at a grinning Stanley, which caught Danny by surprise since Stanley rarely smiled.
"So you see your mistake then?" Kyle asked, hoping Danny would be back to his idiot self in a few moments.
"I guess…" he looked doubtfully up at Kyle, then smiled timidly. "I'll just speak to him about this later!" and he stood up and went over to his beanbags, wondering what he could do to take up time and spruce this sitting area up a bit.
Kyle smiled to himself, knowing that Danny probably hadn't taken in everything he had said, and marked another tally under Danny's name on one of the doodle pages in his notebook. He considered tallying Jason and Damien's names, but couldn't be sure if this would be the day they'd finally figure out Peyton's secret. He had numbered both Stanley's and Billy's names, Stan number one and Billy two, in the order they had found out Peyton's secret femininity. He had thought Billy would be the first to figure it out since he seemed to be deeper and smarter than his character allowed him to appear, but Stanley had found out first, due to a fluke accident caused by none other than the twins.
The bells on the door tinkled as Damien burst into the café, wearing his blue button down shirt, a white V-neck tee peeking underneath the blue. He was holding a white bandana and ran across the café to Jason as if his life depended on reuniting with his twin, who was currently ignoring the rest of the world, playing Damien's acoustic.
"Jason," Damien gripped Jason's chin and tilted his head up. "Stay," Damien said as he walked behind Jason so he could tie the bandana.
"That took you long enough," Jason spoke when Damien came back to the front of his brother to eye his handy work.
"I didn't want to get your hair in the knot," Damien smiled, pleased with the effect, making Jason's jeans and t-shirt look like a whole outfit instead of something his brother had just thrown on without a care in the world, he really needed to work on his fashion sense.
"I meant you were gone for… a while," Jason strummed the guitar. "I tuned everything," he spoke plainly, then stood and put the guitar back on its stand. Jason walked over to the sound board and hooked his iPod up to it, and shuffled through the list of playlists until he got to the one labeled opening night, which he had finished compiling the night before.
Damien stood behind his brother, knowing Jason was probably nervous, he always was right before a performance, then noticed a coffee cup sitting on the speaker next to the sound board. "Hey, this yours?" he asked Jason, hoping to take his brother's mind off music for a moment.
"Yeah, Peyton made it for me, you can have it," Jason pressed play and adjusted the volume of the speakers, as Damien took a sip.
"It's just like his?" Damien asked.
"Yeah, you liked it, I thought I'd try it," Jason straightened and cracked his neck, and Damien just nodded.
"You're nervous," Damien said, just to get it out in the open.
"Yeah," Jason admitted and huffed a breath. "Why the hell did he have to go and invite Rafe?" he asked the ceiling.
"Come on," Damien reassured. "Maybe he won't show, who knows, and we're good, so if he does show, it won't matter."
"No, it will matter, everything about this matters," Jason ran his fingers through his hair, nearly messing up Damien's perfectly tied bandana.
"Oh come on," Damien took his twin's hand and pulled him toward the kitchen, knowing Peyton would be in there and at least one of Billy's culinary concoctions would be almost done, and wondering if, perhaps, cookies and Peyton could cure Jason's nervousness.
They entered the kitchen and immediately were assaulted by the aroma of chocolate, making their mouths water expectantly. Billy was leaning over peeking into the hot oven, and Peyton and Stanley were situated next to a big bowl and two cookie sheets, both of them licking cookie dough off a couple spoons, both smiling as if something amusing had just been said. The twins stood just inside the doorway, observing, Damien wondering just how Peyton had managed to get the big man to smile, and Jason wondering what kind of chocolate delight Billy was now poking a toothpick in. They split, not letting go of the others hand until it was absolutely necessary.
Jason ambled over to Billy and leaned down next to the shorter boy, gazing into the oven with nothing but hungry lust written all over his angelic face. Two trays of perfect chocolate cupcakes greeted Jason's hungry eyes, perfect rounded mounds of tantalizing taste and texture. Jason hummed deep in his throat, scaring Billy so that he jerked his hand out of the oven and let the oven door slam shut.
"Oh," Billy sighed. "Jasey, I thought you were Danny…"
"Those look amazing Billy! What are they?" Jason was beaming with delight.
"They're my Bitter-sweet Chocolate Tasty Cupcakes!" Billy placed his hands on his hips and smiled broadly.
"May I please have one when they're done? Please?" Jason was all but begging on his knees.
"Of course! But only if you help me make the icing," Billy grinned, and was happy to see Jason stick out his tongue in mild disgust, if Billy had asked Damien, there wouldn't be any icing for the cupcakes, he'd eat it all.
"Ok, as long as I get a cupcake without the icing stuff," Jason stood.
"You got it!" and Billy began dashing about the room collecting what he needed.
Meanwhile, Damien had been chatting with Peyton about the cookies she and the big man had been working on, then had slyly changed the subject to what exactly had possessed her to invite Rafe and his gang to Opening Night!
"You mean to say you had absolutely no idea that Rafe and his group of guys are actually the most popular band on campus?" Damien was shocked.
"No, I didn't," Peyton admitted. "I didn't even know his name till I gave him a flier."
Damien's jaw dropped and he looked over to where Jason and Billy were stirring together a fluffy chocolate mixture, oblivious, "Then why the heck did you invite them?"
"I don't know, they were just sitting against the wall in the front and they looked bored," she looked up at Damien and could tell he wasn't going to buy that lame excuse. "And I thought the café could use some guy customers," still not enough for Damien. "And I thought they were hot," he looked startled, and so did Jason who had started listening not long before that proclamation.
Damien leaned back and crossed his arms, "Wow, you know," he began. "I really didn't think you were gay… not that I'm against it or anything." Damien's eyes roved over Peyton in a vulgar display, making Peyton blush profusely.
"So," Jason had slunk up behind Damien and now had his arm around his brother's shoulders. "Does this mean that Rafe is your type?" he smiled creepily.
"Well just so you know," Damien grinned wickedly. "He rolls in that direction as well, but…" here he looked at is brother.
"He seems to have some sort of fondness towards me," Kyle spoke from the doorway of the kitchen, his notebook in one hand, a pen cradled in the other. "Which I find particularly awkward, since I don't feel the same way," he admitted with ease.