If there ever was a perfect day to be driving a convertible, Tori concluded it was probably today. White heat from the afternoon sun bore down on them and fittingly, the light summer breeze diminished just the right amount of the temperature. Jade had thrown on a pair of black, boxy sunglasses and the wind was wildly blowing her hair everywhere, obscuring her sight. Holding the wheel steady with one hand, Jade tamed most of it except for one, dark strand which caught on the sunglasses. She swiped at it distractedly, missing each time. Tori reached over and gently tugged it free, smoothing it down behind Jade's ear. Jade's stiffened, her arms rigidly holding the wheel at ten and two and that nervous energy reached Tori. The adrenaline from the theatre was wearing down and suddenly Tori questioned just exactly what she was doing. She hated this. Being with Jade was like walking through a thick fog in an exotic jungle. New things kept emerging and Tori never exactly knew how to feel about them and spent most of the time lost. Right now she was thinking about how beautiful Jade looked, how much she wanted to say it to her, all while being completely confused by the thoughts. And if Jade's reaction to her affection was anything to go by, Jade wasn't positive on where they stood either.
Pulling up to the house, Jade frowned. There was a large, gray SUV in the driveway and she eyed it distastefully while she parked the convertible beside it.
"Who's car is that?" Tori asked observing Jade's irritation.
"My aunt's," Jade said getting out of the car.
Tori trailed behind, reluctantly shuffling her feet. "Maybe I should come over some other time." She wasn't exactly in a state of mind in which she wanted to meet Jade's extended family.
"As long as she didn't bring her crotch fruit with her, we should be fine," Jade said and peeked into the house through a frosted-glass window at the side of the door. Upon entering, two raven-haired, twin boys leaped on her almost immediately. Jade staggered backwards, using a hand on the doorknob to maintain her balance.
"Jadie! You're home!" One of them yelled.
Jade appeared to tolerate their clingy hug with good humor, then pinched them on the arms them when they didn't let go.
"Hey! Mom said you weren't allowed to do that anymore!" The other one protested.
"Your mom also told you not choke me," Jade said to them.
The two boys giggled, still somewhat holding on to her despite the pinches. They couldn't have been older than eight. Tori struggled to not act delightedly surprised at their obvious adoration of her. Last time the group of them did anything involving kids, Jade signed a little boy's card with some rather creative profanity.
"Where have you been Jade?"
Dressed in a crisp, charcoal suit, her father appeared from the direction of what was possibly the kitchen. Tori suspected that the man rarely wore anything but.
A tall, pretty brunette walked out behind him and came over to Jade, giving her a hug and kiss on the cheek. It looked like something Jade was normally okay with but felt a little embarrassed accepting with Tori there.
"Hi Aunt Stephanie," Jade said to her, ignoring her dad's patronizing demand. Mr. West appeared to not be too concerned with his daughter's cold shoulder .
"Hello sweety. Listen . . ." her aunt began slowly, giving her dad a side-ways glance. "I hate to ask you this but I need your dad to come and help me pick out a new car. Could you please look after Tylar and Dylan for just a little while?"
Jade's face turned into an expression Tori was much more used to seeing on her. "Don't they have kennels for these types of situations?"
"Jade!" Her father bellowed while her aunt only laughed.
"Oh I'm sorry to burden you this way. But maybe you and your friend could play on the Xbox with them," Aunt Stephanie said smiling at Tori.
"Xbox!" Tylar and Dylan shouted loudly in unison, causing Tori to actually jump a little.
"Sure, I don't mind," Tori said cheerfully nonetheless and saw the thoughtful look Jade gave her, as if she never in a million years thought Tori would agree to help her out with something so directly personal.
"Well thank you . . . ."
"Tori," Tori supplied.
"Thank you Tori," Jade's aunt said.
Her father stepped passed Jade and the twins milling around her legs.
"There's plenty of food in the fridge but I know you'll just order pizza anyway so I left some money on the counter," he said, signaling for Aunt Stephanie to hurry up and come along. As soon as they were out the door, the two boys zeroed in on them like wild hyenas. Tori stepped back, not being used to such narrowing intensity from kids.
"Wow, that's creepy."
Jade said nothing and returned their stare. There was some sort of silent dispute going on between Jade and the boys. When she crossed her arms, they crossed their arms.
"No, you are not getting ice cream before dinner," Jade said resolutely and straight away they two boys echoed their disappointment. The one who Tori thought might be named Tylar, pouted cutely.
"You always give us ice cream," might-be-Tylar whined. "You have to play Black Ops with us then."
This must have been a regular routine with them. It caused Tori to realize how little she really knew about Jade and that the only way she would ever learn anything more would be through deliberately invading her life. Jade certainly wasn't going to reveal anything willingly.
"Pleeeease!" The other boy said, interlacing his fingers pleadingly.
"See the pretty girl here?" Jade said to them, her eyes stating she couldn't believe what just came out of her mouth. She continued in spite of it. "She is my guest so you boogers need to do something to amuse yourselves today."
"Like what?" The other one asked.
"Like playing with the gardening tools. I saw a pretty sharp pair of sheers in the garage, I'm sure you can find something to do with those."
"Jade!" Tori exclaimed, grabbing a hold of one boy while the other one went racing off in the direction of the garage.
"Oh fine," Jade said rolling her eyes. "Tylar get back here!"
Tylar, who was wearing the red shirt, sullenly returned and Tori let the yellow-shirted Dylan go. They stood impatiently before them, swinging their arms at their sides.
"How about . . ." Tori began looking over at Jade. "We play hide and seek. You guys can go hide and we'll stay here and count to twenty—
"A hundred!" Dylan yelled right away.
"Okay," Tory said. "We'll count to one hundred and then look for you. How does that sound?"
"Works for me," Jade said with a satisfied smile on her face.
Tylar and Dylan dashed away in opposite directions as fast as their socked feet on the slick marble floor could take them.
"No peeking!" One of them called out, disappearing around a corner. There was a muffled thump somewhere in the house and a giggle and then silence.
"So," Tori started, standing with a hand on her hip and grinning. "I'm a pretty girl?"
Jade paused in the middle of hanging the car keys on hooks embedded in a wooden plaque opposite the door. The motto engraved above the hooks said 'Oh, Please! Don't forget your keys!'
Jade didn't respond and slid the key ring onto a golden, narrow hook as Tori approached her from the back.
"You think I'm pretty?" Tori asked again, poking her in the side.
As speedily as she lunged at Trina earlier, Jade spun around, clenching Tori's prodding finger and effortlessly twisting it back at an uncomfortable angle. Tori twisted along with it, bringing her close to Jade.
"You make inflicting pain a lot of fun for me," she said.
Jade's arm was entwined around hers, Jade's lips millimeters away from her partially open ones. Somewhere in the depths of the house there was another dull thud. Jade kissed the air in front of her lips and let her go. Before Tori could say anything, they were interrupted by the shrill ring of her phone.
"Let me guess. It's your sister," Jade sneered.
That's exactly what the display said and Tori nodded, taking the call.
"What do you want?" She asked brusquely. She was far from forgiving her sister for behavior that was disrespectful even by Trina's standards.
"Hey Tori," Trina said from the other end, stretching out the vowels of the words in a way she usually did when she was attempting an apology. Mom probably had a word with her, Tori thought and said so.
"Mom just pointed out that I may have overreacted. So . . . I'm sorry. I really did want you there."
"Didn't seem like it," Tori told her, watching Jade hold her elbow in one hand and examine the nails of the other. There was a shuffling noise and when Trina's voice came again, it sounded like the mouth piece was being partially covered.
"Did I or did I not lie to mom to get you to go?" This was true. "So again, sorry," she restated unmuffled.
Tori heard some muted talking in the background that was probably their mother and would explain why Trina had covered the phone a second ago. Then Trina exhaled theatrically.
"And I apologize to Jade as well."
"Trina says she's sorry," Tori said, lifting her chin towards Jade.
Jade glanced up from her nails, looking at Tori as if she just told her what she ate for breakfast that day.
"Uh Jade says thanks," Tori spoke into the phone.
"Yeah I'm sure," Trina responded, not too bothered by this. "For someone who you say hates you, she was acting pretty nice today."
Tori turned away from Jade, cradling the phone to her ear.
"What are you talking about?"
"Well I'm just saying. She got all protective which was weird."
Tori felt a fluttering in her chest. "I guess," she tried to say casually.
"Anyway I've got to go. I need to lubricate my vocal cords. Ciao!"
Tori put the phone away. Jade was still holding her elbow in the palm of her hand, her fingers at her mouth and her black-lined, green eyes were pinning Tori down.
"What else did she say?"
"Nothing," Tori said quickly. "Maybe we should start looking for Tylar and Dylan."
Jade studied her a moment longer, then walked past her in the direction of the stairs.
"You check down here," she said making her way up the stairs.
o-o-o
After at least ten minutes of thorough searching, Tori determined that the boys must be upstairs or maybe outside. In such a large house, this decision wouldn't have come so soon since there were usually millions of nooks and crannies where two eight-year-old boys might hide. Minus the den, (the same one she had seen Sinjin sitting in during their failed attempt at homework on the plane) Jade's ground floor was rather austere and uncluttered. Large portions of the house appeared to be in the process of getting renovated. One room was scattered with paint cans, ladders and gray tarps so Tori concluded the renovations must be recent.
She made her way back to the stairs and was up halfway when the boys zoomed past her, almost knocking her down.
"Hey!" Tori called out. "Be more careful!"
At the sound of her voice, the boys stopped abruptly on the last few steps and stared up at her innocently.
"Where's Jade?" She asked, growing apprehensive.
"Um she's in her room," Tylar said while hanging off the banister. His brother was beaming deviously.
"Okay. What's she doing up there?"
"Sitting in her chair," Dylan answered and they both burst into a fit of giggles.
Oh no, Tori thought. She had no idea what these two were capable of but they were related to Jade so there was a lot of room there.
"I want you two to go play Black Ops or whatever. I'll go get Jade and if I find out you did something to her, there's going to be trouble," she warned.
She didn't know what else to say and if anything, at least the Xbox would keep them busy. The boys took off and Tori headed up the stairs.
The door to Jade's bedroom was left ajar. For some peculiar reason, Tori felt a bit like she was in a horror movie, like she was going to find Jade in a ghastly, bloody condition. This image stayed with her as she pressed on the door to swing it to open the rest of the way. There was a moment when the image in her mind merged with what she actually saw and Tori held her breath. Then she cautiously let it out through her nose because she was chomping on her lower lip to keep from laughing hysterically.
A/N: Just wanted to thank everyone for reading and a huge thanks to all of you who having been leaving me reviews. Seriously, they're amazing and they keep me going if I'm stuck on part of the story.