Chapter 9
J.D's POV
After we got back on the road me and Shynee started playing Go Fish. Shynee was winning and I was losing miserably. Cola and Eric were playing paper football, Dad and Soda began to talk about the 'good old days', Darry was driving, and Steve and Two-Bit were looking at the map. Mikie was sitting in my lap and Pat was sitting on Shynee's.
"Go any 6's" he asked sounding bored.
"Crap." I said looking at my cards and finding two 6's. "Here, take the stupid cards." I handed the cards to Shynee. He smiled and put the pair in his row of pairs. Then he looked at me.
"Do you want to quit?" he asked putting down his cards.
"Yes, man I'm bored." I said putting my cards down as well.
Mike started to cry so I bounced him on my knee till he went to sleep. It's weird that he does that, all you have to do is put him in a sitting position and he'll fall asleep. When Patrick was a baby it toke hours to get him to sleep. Mikie is a good baby. I carefully moved Mikie so he was lying in my arms then toke him into the back of the R-V where there was a bed. I didn't realize that Eric had followed me in here so I jumped when he put a blanket over my brother.
"It's cold back here" he whispered. "Thought he could use a blanket."
"Thanks" I whispered "I guess you aren't as much of a jerk as I thought you were."
"I ain't all bad." He whispered back looking at Mike "Man, he looks a lot like Soda."
"He also looks like my Dad." I said in my normal level of loudness. Eric looked at me and then at my brother. "Don't worry, when he's out he's out."
"Alright, so Cola told me you had a boyfriend, what's he like?" he asked.
"Didn't Cola tell you about, Julius? " I asked
"Yeah, but I want to hear about him from you, so what's he like?"
"He's smart, funny, gentle, plays basketball, and he likes The Eagles." I finished looking at Eric. Why would he care about Julius? It's not like he's ever going to meet him. I'm really starting to miss Julius, I miss hearing his deep voice telling me that he loves me and him holding me in his strong muscle arms kissing my cheek. I need to call him and talk to him like we said we would the day we left for the trip. Dad really liked Julius, mostly because of his good grades and manners.
"So I guess you really like him, uh. By the sound of it he really likes you too." Eric interrupts my thoughts.
"Why do you care so much about this?" I ask him sitting on the bed being careful of the baby.
"I know how guys can be jerks. Girls get their hearts broken all the time and I know it hurts." He says sincerely sitting down on the bed next to me.
"Ok since when did you become Mr. Giveacrap? Last I checked you were the jerk who kept flirting with me since I got here." I snapped at him.
"Hey, hey! I was just being stupid. I wouldn't have done that if I knew about James."
"His name is Julius and why should I believe you anyway?!" I nearly yelled at him.
"Because you're Cola's kid cousin and I ain't that much of a jerk." He snapped at me now.
"Could have fooled me." I said walking out of the room. Cola was sitting on the table where we are suppose to eat in 30 minutes. Crap I said I would make lunch and I need to start making it. I move past Cola when he moves into a seductive pose to annoy me.
"Do you find this attractive?" he asks with a serious face.
"Oh yeah, I think it's sexy." I say sarcastically rolling my eyes and washing my hands. "Get your butt over here and help me with this."
"Fine, so did Eric talk to you?" he asks washing his hands. "I told him that you had a boyfriend and that he needed to lay off. Look he may seem like a jerk, but he's a real nice guy when you get to know him. He just doesn't really give the greatest first impression. Just get to know him, shorty, your gonna have to."
"And why do have to get to know Eric?" I ask
"Because you're going to be living with him for a month." He states getting the plates out.
Crap I didn't think about that.
Shynee POV
After J.D left to put the baby in the bedroom I started to clean up the cards then went over to Kevin and Cola who were talking to Eric then Eric went to follow J.D. I started to follow him then Cola stopped me. I gave him a look. We all had seen Eric flirting with J.D and it was bothering not only her, but the rest of us. Eric can be a flirt when it came to pretty girls. I not saying that me and the rest of the gang aren't, but we are not as bad as Eric.
"Its fine, Shay," he says "He's just going talk to her. Me and Kevin set him straight. Don't be overprotective, Shynee."
"I'm not over protective, Coke-a-Cola" I started "I'm just making sure that Eric is behaving himself." Then Dad came over to us and I looked at him.
"Hey Dad, who's driving the R-V?" I ask him looking at the driver seat.
"Two-Bit is. Where's Eric and Johnny?" he asks looking around for them.
"In the bedroom in the back." Kevin said without thinking what it would sound like. Dad gave a look of anger and discuss as he started for the bedroom. I stopped him before he could get to the door.
"It not like that, Dad. Their just talking, besides Mikie in there too." I reassured him.
"Alright, you wanna come drive for awhile? Two-Bit keeps complaining about how lumpy the seat is." He asks me.
"Yeah sure, I need something to do." I said going up to the front and walked up to Two-Bit. Here's the thing about driving with Keith Matthews, when you have to take over driving for him, make sure that the car is stopped. I had him pull over so we could switch. I was driving for 20 minutes when Cola came up to me.
"Hey you want a sandwich?" he asks me.
"Sure, but can I eat while I drive?" I ask not taking my eyes off the road.
"I guess so. You want turkey or ham?" Coal asks.
"Turkey, with mustard and cheese." I tell him.
"Ok, I'll tell J.D. Oh wait I can't tell her, because I don't won't too." He yelled at me and then ran off. I shook my head and looked at the road again. My family has some of the strangest people in it. After another 5 minutes J.D came back with my sandwich in one hand and the baby in another. Man does that baby look like Dad. Mikie is gurgling in the crock of her elbow. She smiles at me when she sees me.
"Here's your lunch, Shay." She says putting the sandwich on my lap. I take one hand off the wheel and stuff half of the sandwich in my mouth.
"Fanks." I say with the food in my mouth making the words out of my mouth sounding weird.
She laughs at me. "No problem." Mikie laughs and tries to sit up in her arms but fails. He keeps gurgling and starts to pull on the necklace draped on J.D's neck. "No, baby, you can't have that. That's mine." She says patting his back.
"I thought he was sleeping." I said finishing my lunch.
"He doesn't sleep very long." She says leaving me with my thoughts. Ok, now where's the map?
