Jacob's morning started fairly normal. He woke up early, went on his morning run, and showered before breakfast. And it was at breakfast where things got interesting. As he's making his eggs, His mom walks in. No sign of his stepfather anywhere, which is odd since they usually get up together. Jacob's mom, Elizabeth (or Sissy as she insists she be called) is a small, pale woman with short platinum blonde hair that can only be bleached, but not in any way that could be seen as tacky. As usual, she sports a black tank top with the name of some metal band and dark skinny jeans. You wouldn't be able to tell she was the mother of two adult men unless you were told.
"Morning, mom." Jacob says. "Do you want me to make you something to eat?"
"Ah, no thanks. Angel and I are going to visit Nana soon." 'Nana', Jacob's stepfather's mother lives in Hawaii. Elizabeth and her husband Angel did this often. Elizabeth is an eccentric who regularly takes long trips without warning, and her husband Angel just sort of goes along with it. They make an interesting pair seeing as Angel is the quiet sort for the most part, and Elizabeth is loud and pushy about getting her way. Jacob supposes that's what they mean by 'opposites attract'.
Elizabeth takes her surprise vacations more often now that both her sons are adults, and Jacob doesn't mind so long as she's safe, but he can't speak for his younger brother Adam, who is still in bed after a long night of getting high.
"How long this time?" Jacob asks, stirring his eggs.
"No longer than a month at the most." Elizabeth leans up to kiss her son's head. "Oh, but I should warn you, you'll be having a guest while we're gone."
"What?" Jacob's confusion is interrupted by the front door opening. In steps Angel, a relatively tall, tan man wearing dark jeans and a black T-shirt putting his arm tattoos are on full display. His black hair is slicked back, and his usually stoic expression has shifted into a small smile as he talks quietly with someone behind him.
"Are you sure this is okay? I don't want to impose..." The voice from the door is soft and polite, and… female.
"It's fine honey! It's the least we could do!" Elizabeth rushes past her husband to hug the mystery guest.
"Still, you're going on a trip. I don't want you to-" The person starts
"It's okay, Eris. We're happy to help." Angel says. Eris. That's the name of Angel's niece and Jacob and Adam's pseudo cousin. Sure enough, when they come further inside, Jacob sees Eris standing there with her Jade green suitcase, looking slightly disheveled. Honestly, he isn't surprised that she's staying in the house. Angel and Elizabeth dote on her, Elizabeth almost to an aggressive extent. What is surprising is that she's in Texas at all. She's been in new york with her dad since she graduated early a year before.
"She's staying here?" Jacob says, still slightly confused. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm sorry. If it's going to be a problem, I can find somewhere else to stay." Eris says.
"We got a call from her last night saying she needed a place to stay for the next month. Apparently she wasn't able to stay in the motel room she reserved, and she wasn't able to find a new room last minute, so I insisted she stay here in our guest room." Elizabeth says. From the look on Eris's face, it's easy to tell she only asked to stay a few nights but was pressured into staying for the whole duration of her visit, but considering staying with them could save her money, and she doesn't have anywhere else to go at the moment, he would rather her stay here than have her try and find somewhere to stay in the city.
"Well, okay I guess. We have a spare room since Adam doesn't use his anymore, so I don't see an issue with it." Jacob shrugs.
"I'm really so sorry again..." Eris says, clearly embarrassed at having to ask for help. In fact, Jacob can't seem to recall a time in the past decade that Eris hadn't been embarrassed or flustered around him. They have a two year age gap separating them, making her the same age as Adam. They all went to the same high school for a couple of years, but Jacob hardly ever saw her, though it seemed like she made a conscious effort to get close to him. They had never been particularly close, but it seemed like she wanted to change that. He, however, was a stupid teenager and didn't meet her halfway. After all, he was on the varsity football team, and she was an artsy loser and all that cliche bullshit. He regrets that now. She may have been shy, but she went out of her way (and her comfort zone) to work as a camera girl for all the games and practices so they could maybe see each other a little more. She's bowing slightly. Probably a reflex. She's Hispanic and Korean like Angel, and she clearly takes more after the Korean side, so it wouldn't be a surprise if she had adopted some Asian mannerisms as she learned about her culture. Not that she fits any stereotypes or anything, just that she has a very polite attitude and has a tendency to bow sometimes out of habit.
"It's fine. Are you hungry?" Jacob says. Eris shakes her head. Hmm. In school, they only ever saw each other in passing, and while she usually waved to him, sometimes, when she didn't notice him, he would catch her looking at the ground, her eyes sunken in and distant. When he would see her at lunch, she rarely had anything in front of her. He didn't think much of it back then, but now he's a little worried. She seems mostly fine if you don't look closely. Her body is maybe between kind of pudgy and the normal weight for someone of her stature, but looking at her dad, it's obvious it's more genetic than anything. Looking closer, he can see a faint shadow under her cheekbones that doesn't seem like it should be there, and the faint indication of circles under her eyes that would probably be more prominent if she let her face fall more into the shadows. He frowns, doubting she's been taking care of herself in college.
"We have to leave for our flight now. Have fun!" Elizabeth calls, pushing her husband through the front door. For such a small person, she's deceptively strong. He wonders if this is all a ploy to get him and Eris together. He knows she always kind of wanted them to get together, and he isn't sure why? You'd think that would be something a family wouldn't want, but no one really knows what goes through Elizabeth's head. She is an enigma of the utmost capacity. He's still staring at the door when Eris's voice catches his attention.
"Are you sure it's okay to stay here? I don't want to get in the way..." Eris looks at Jacob with her gentle brown eyes, and he wonders when she became so docile. Sure, they didn't see each other often, and people change, but she used to be such a tomboy. Smart, but energetic and carefree. It's like a baby lion growing up to be a rabbit, and it doesn't make sense.
"Of course it's okay. It's not like we don't have space." Jacob says.
"I didn't know you guys had a spare room." Eris says.
"Adam moved into the shed so mom would stop complaining about his smoking habits inside the house." Jacob says, making sure his eggs didn't burn and putting them on a plate.
"Ah. That makes sense." Eris nods. She goes quiet, at a loss for a conversation topic. She's about to ask about the spare room when a small plate of eggs is placed in front of her. "I said I was okay..." Her brow is furrowed.
"You didn't actually say anything. Before you go saying you don't want to bother people, I promise you aren't. Besides, you shouldn't skip breakfast." Jacob smiles. Eris's cheeks flush a little.
"Okay, Dad." She teases before starting to eat. Jacob chuckles and does the same.
Unlike before, they eat in a comfortable silence until Adam walks in.
"Woah, Jake. Did you have a lady stay the night? I didn't know you could catch one with such a nice ass." He teases his brother. Adam is the troublemaker of the family, which still isn't saying much since he's really just lazy and kind of rude. Adam and Eris have always been closer than her and Jacob, Maybe because of their similar age, or maybe because Adam has been sweet on her since they were kids. Doesn't anyone in this family think it's odd? No. Of course not. Is Jacob a little jealous? No comment. It's not really that weird. Eris was never really 'family' so much as the boys' childhood friend.
Eris's eyebrow twitches and she turns around in her chair. "Try that again without objectifying me, and maybe I won't bruise that pretty face of yours." Jacob can only imagine the pissed off smile that he can hear in her voice. It's not like she would ever be that comfortable with him. He does, however, see his brother's face light up.
"Eris! When did you get here?" Adam goes over to the table and leans over her in an almost flirtatious way.
"Not long ago. Don't think you can distract me, you little bastard." Eris says, pinching Adam's nose.
"Aaaa, I'm sorry!" She releases her grip and he holds her hand in his. "You do have a nice ass though."
"Right."Eris sounds unimpressed.
"Oh come ooon~ You know I think you're gorgeous." Adam smirks. He's absolutely flirting now. Jacob realizes his jaw is tense. What's up with that? He stands to go wash the dishes.
"Oh, Jacob, I can do that." Eris says, standing up.
"No, it's fine. I'll do it this time." Jacob says, grabbing her plate. He's only just turned away when he hears Eris squeak. When he turns back around, Adam has Eris pressed against him, chest to chest, two hands on her ass.
"Let him do the boring chores. You don't even like doing the dishes." He's infuriatingly close to her, and it bothers Jacob that his brother, who couldn't focus on anything ever, can only focus when it comes to harassing her.
Eris pushes Adam's face away from hers. "It's called trying to be considerate. Not that you would know what that is if it bit you in the ass-"
"Ouch." Adam smiles.
"-And hands-off. You lost touching privileges ages ago." What the hell does that mean.
"Funny, I don't remember that." Adam smirks.
"Yes, you fucking do." Eris removes his hands, not that he was holding on that tight anyway. He's a flirt, but he wouldn't force anything.
"But you're single again~" Adam pouts, feigning hurt as he puts a hand on her hip. "I thought that meant we could keep messing around. Or…" Adam smirks a little, his intent to tease clear. "Maybe you'd take me up on that dating thing?"
What.
Eris slaps his hand away lightly. "That doesn't change anything, I'm not going to date you, and don't say it like that." She turns to Jacob. She has a slight blush on her face and looks a little perturbed. "We didn't do anything. I'm not that kind of person. I was mostly humoring him."
"You wound me, beautiful. Our light flirting meant a lot to me." Adam says this in a way that's hard to tell if he's serious or not. He slips his arms around her waist and hugs her from behind. "And making excuses so my brother doesn't misunderstand? Should I be jealous~?" He whispers in her ear.
"...You're reading too much into my not wanting to be seen as a slut." Eris says, her face red as she easily escapes his arms. "I'm going to go put my things in the guest room." She grabs her bag and walks off, which raises more questions. She knows where Adam's old room is? Has she been there before? They said all they did was some light flirting, but they were so comfortable together. What does that mean?
"Honestly Jake, don't look so glum. We never even kissed directly or anything." Adam says. "Not on the mouth anyway."
Jacob knows he's just trying to get a rise out of him, but that doesn't mean he's definitely lying. He doesn't want to try imagining what he meant when he said they never kissed on the mouth. It's too strange to think about.
Once Eris had returned, it was a little awkward. Not that it had ever been anything other than that. No, wait… that's not actually true. Jacob and Eris used to be closer. Sure, they were younger then, but still. They used to spend lots of time in the rivers and lakes. She used to really like trying to find "dragon eggs" among the rocks. Thinking about it makes him chuckle a little. He always liked how much imagination she had.
"Hm?" Eris looks up from her phone to see what Jacob was chuckling about. Crap. Is it weird to say he was thinking about how she was when she was little?
"I just remembered something funny." Jacob says. He hopes he doesn't seem like he's lying. That memory was more cute than funny.
"Oh, okay." Eris says, smiling before going back to her phone. Thank God she didn't ask questions. Though, Jacob supposes most people wouldn't. Still, it's not like holding a conversation is a bad idea.
"What are you looking at?" Jacob asks. He tries to seem like he's focusing more on his grip trainer than her.
"Oh, I'm just reading a comic." Eris says. She seems a little embarrassed.
"What's it about?" Jacob asks.
"Oh, it's fantastic. It's about an artist in the post apocalyptic future where only these special people with powers are safe from the space virus that's turning people into Zombie-like creatures! The Art is fantastic. You should totally read it. It's amazing!" Eris's eyes sparkle. She suddenly stops gushing about the comic and her ears turn red. "Ah. But it might not be your thing… there are romantic scenes and stuff."
"I'm okay with romance." Jacob shrugs.
"No, it's..." Eris seems flustered. "The main couple is gay."
Jacob blushes. "Oh. Well, I'll still check it out. I'll be ok as long as there aren't any sex scenes." It's not that he has any issues with gay people. Sex scenes just make him uncomfortable.
"There aren't." Eris says. "I'll send you the Link."
"I didn't realize you had my number." Jacob says
"Oh. Your mom gave it to me..." Eris is red. "Back in highschool..." She mumbles.
Jacob laughs. "Yeah, that sounds like her. What do you feel like having for lunch?"
"Mm… maybe tuna sandwiches?" Eris says.
"Okay. Wanna help me make them?" Jacob stands up.
"Sure! Should we ask Adam if he wants one?" Eris asks.
"Let him starve." Jacob says flatly.
As Eris laughs, Jacob wonders why she never texted him before now. Then he wonders if she texted Adam instead.