Something came up. Oh, of course, it had. It always did. It'd been three months since Luke had finally told Millie and (presumably) his mates about Jody, but she'd only seen him a few times in the last two months. While she'd expected to see him less during term time than the summer holidays for obvious reasons, she hadn't anticipated the random last-minute cancellations he'd thrown at her at least twice now. She was beginning to lose faith in him all over again; despite being good at heart, he was turning out to be a terrible brother at the expense of being a better boyfriend. She wasn't stupid—she knew his girlfriend was behind the numerous cancellations.
Honestly, she'd expected the university-born relationship to have fizzled out by now but the two were still going strong, much to her dismay. She hadn't even had the pleasure of meeting the woman who kept her brother away from her so often; there was always some sort of excuse for why said woman couldn't accompany Luke on one of his rare visits. As if the cancellations weren't bad enough, Millie managed to dig her claws into Luke even when he didn't cancel; he'd had to cut their most recent meeting short because Millie had needed him back at home to 'fix the window', as if repairmen didn't exist. Then again, maybe Millie thought Luke was her personal repairman as well as her servant, seeing as she had him at her beck and call.
If she wasn't mad at him for cancelling one time too many, Jody would've felt sorry for her brother. His girlfriend clearly wasn't any good for him in the long run and was most likely using him because she couldn't afford to pay the full rent on a place of her own. If she paid any rent at all, that was; Jody hadn't had the heart to ask Luke if Millie was contributing to his household in any way, but she had a feeling that the answer was no, at least in the financial department. Oftentimes, she wished she could oust the unpleasant woman from her brother's life but after her ill-fated go at discrediting Ella, she knew better than to dig around for dirt on Millie and end up inviting more trouble. Besides, that one time she had tried to warn Luke about that woman, he hadn't wanted to listen to her at all. He loved Millie, and apparently, she loved him back. If he reckoned he loved her, what could Jody do about it?
Anyway, she had bigger things to concern herself with, namely Tyler's mum not showing up for her fortnightly visit. She'd never missed one before, not without cancelling at least twenty-four hours in advance, so Tyler had gone to check up on her, outside of contact, and Mike had allowed him to. Jody could only hope that Sally wasn't sick again. Tyler didn't admit it all too often but it was plain to her that he was buckling under the pressure of their upcoming GCSE exams (still six or seven months away but looming ever closer), his podcasts and being on the forum, and that his mother being ill would push him over the edge. Since his mother's illness was apparently hereditary—she'd searched it up sometime last year—she worried that too much stress could cause him to get the same illness.
A knock to the door put an end to her ruminations, and she immediately sat up and called for the person on the other end to come in, wondering if it was Tyler, back from his mother's. He had set out quite a while. She got her answer when Charlie popped her head 'round the door.
"Hi," Jody greeted, warily eyeing the older girl's wide smile. What was she so happy about?
"Hi," Charlie responded, leaning in from the doorway with her hand still on the handle. "Bird's just challenged us all: he'll do our chores if we beat him at a game."
Jody had, of course, noticed that the others frequently asked Bird to do things for them but she'd thought he did them because he wanted to, not because he was being forced to. The challenge said otherwise.
"What game?"
"Anything!" Charlie answered, her smile growing wider, if possible. "We get to choose. I'm picking Jenga. Should I get Candi-Rose to add your name to the list?"
"List?" she asked, swinging her legs over the edge of her bed. "How many people are involved in this thing?"
"Umm, eight. Well, only five of us are playing Bird; Candi-Rose, Ryan and Jay are just going to watch. Tyler's gone out somewhere, and Joseph and Taz are off making slime, so..."
She just nodded, not really interested in the whereabouts/activities of the entire household. Now that she thought about it, if Bird did her laundry, hoovering, and clothes-hanging duties, she'd have some time to blow off steam at the gym. She'd got used to going nearly every day during the half-term that had just come and gone, and was practically itching for another go. As for the challenge, beating Bird at a video game was a done deal.
"Yeah, add my name to the list."
.:. QK .:.
Funnily enough, Sally hadn't shown up because she'd been so busy spending time with her fiancé that she'd forgotten all about the scheduled visit to Ashdene Ridge. Well, not funnily, exactly, but strangely because now Tyler was fighting the same battle she was: having to share a family member's time with their significant other. Like her, Tyler was horribly jealous, but unlike her, he was not minding his own business and leaving the adults be. Instead, he'd gone on to actively stalk his future stepfather.
She'd been unimpressed for many reasons, the chief one being that Tyler had strongly dissuaded her from spying on Ella all those months ago but had basically done the same thing himself when it'd suited him best. When she'd pointed this display of utter hypocrisy out to him, he'd insisted that his spying was justified because Kamal was his mother's fiancé whereas Ella had only been their housemate. There was also the fact that Kamal hadn't prevented Sally from seeing Tyler, a luxury that said boy had taken for granted. His childishness was seriously grating at her nerves.
Sure, she'd been a little surprised to hear that her best friend's mother had become engaged after only a month of dating but seeing as her own mother had started considering marriage a month into her relationship (?) with Grant, it didn't seem like too big of a deal. Sally and Denise were quite different, anyway. For one, Sally was not with Kamal for his money. Rather, if Tyler was to be believed, it was the other way around, but Jody was sure that asking someone to pay for a pizza didn't equal financial exploitation. Not that it mattered, anyway, because the guy apparently had another woman, and that was unforgivable.
She sighed heavily. Tyler was in the Quiet Room right now, no doubt telling Sally that Kamal was cheating on her. He was wasting his time—his mother was never going to believe him, just like Luke hadn't wanted to hear another bad word about Millie. She shook her head. She did not want to think about her.
Seeking a distraction, she walked into the lounge, intent on watching some TV until Tyler was done talking to his mum, only to find a downtrodden Candi-Rose standing by the pool table. She hadn't seen the younger girl this upset since that time she'd fallen out with Chloe during the Grant fiasco.
"Candi?" she spoke, approaching the pool table. "What's wrong?"
Candi-Rose blinked before looking down at her unpainted nails. "Nothing."
"C'mon, it's not nothing," Jody said plainly, crossing her arms. Seeing the younger girl be anything but happy felt wrong, no matter how annoying she was when she was being herself. "Do you wanna talk in your room?"
"No," Candi-Rose replied quickly, leaning against the table. "It's just—Well, it's Bird."
Okay... "What about him? Did Finn beat him as well?"
"He tricked Ryan!" Candi-Rose cried, shocking Jody with the sudden emotion in her voice. "He's been pretending to be rubbish at pool this whole time but he beat Ryan after getting him to agree to take on the chores everyone else had played him for!"
Jody chuckled, unable to help herself. "It's always the quiet ones!" she exclaimed, trying to picture Ryan's defeated face. She'd only seen it once, back when she'd beaten him at their private Kung Fu challenge, and, oh God, had it been satisfying. She quickly frowned upon seeing Candi-Rose's serious expression, however. "Am I missing something? You don't even like Ryan."
Candi-Rose huffed. "It's not about Ryan; he deserves what he gets, especially after..." She shook her head. "It's about Bird; he's supposed to be better than Ryan! He's not supposed to trick people or hurt them!"
"It's not like he tricked an innocent kid," Jody commented, failing to see the problem. Bird was standing up for himself. Good for him. She'd always liked him; he always minded his own business, unlike certain others. "It's Ryan."
"You don't get it," Candi-Rose stated miserably. "You don't know him like I do." She sighed. "Like I did." Jody looked around, not understanding where this was going. "Oh, I don't know, maybe I'm just bad at reading people! Maybe I was just seeing who I wanted to see in him instead of who he actually is."
Pursing her lips, Jody wondered what she'd got herself into. Despite having lived with him for over half a year, she didn't know Bird well enough to make a proper comment on the situation. She had to try, though, if only because he seemed to be a nice guy.
"Hey, I'm sure he's a decent guy," she assured, offering what she hoped was a smile. "He's, uhh, never tricked me."
"Well, then, why did you take advantage of him?" Candi-Rose questioned flatly, narrowing her eyes. "It was hard enough getting him to open up to me. With you and everyone else using him, Jay will turn him against us all without even trying."
"Advantage?"
"Yes! Everyone's always taking advantage of him because he wants to be nice to us," Candi-Rose complained. "You included. Why?"
Jody had no answer to that. While she hadn't realised that everyone was using Bird to such an extent, she'd participated in the playoffs knowing that he'd been somewhat pressured into doing chores for the others. It was his own fault for not standing up for himself but it was wrong of her and the others to use that against him. Her own brother had the same weakness as Bird and his girlfriend milked it for all it was worth for which Jody hated her... but she wasn't much better, was she?
Underneath it all, was she just as bad as Millie?
.:. QK .:.
Jody sat on Tyler's bed, once again waiting for him to return from his mum's. If she hadn't completely been put off spying before, she definitely was now; a mere hour ago, she'd spied on Kamal for Tyler which had led to Sally dumping Kamal over a misunderstanding. She'd been right to stay out of Luke's relationship after the texting incident. He was an adult. Hopefully, he'd realise what Millie was and get rid of her himself, preferably before she made herself even more of a permanent fixture in his life. She just had to be patient, like Tyler should've been.
The door opened without warning and Tyler walked in, his eyes widening slightly upon seeing her.
"Oh, there you are," he said, leaving the door open and just standing there. "I've been looking for you."
She cast around for something to say, wondering if she should get up but he sat down at the foot of the bed, motioning for her to stay. "Could've just texted me," she stated lightly. He smiled and nodded before hanging his head in apparent shame. Uh-oh. Had Sally got angry at him? "How did it go?"
He looked back up at her, seemingly stunned for a second. "Oh, yeah, Kamal proposed to Mum with his granny's ring, and she said yes," he answered with another smile, though this one didn't quite reach his eyes.
"What's wrong then...?" she asked, confused by his behaviour. Did he just not like Kamal? She had to admit, the guy did seem a little full of himself... but so were a lot of people, including some of their housemates. It was hardly criminal.
"I just don't get something," he admitted, furrowing his eyebrow. "She said she didn't care about that first ring being cheap..."
She released an amused breath through her nose. "So?"
"So I thought girls liked sparkly, expensive stuff."
"Tyler, your mum is not a girl!" she exclaimed, giggling despite herself. "And I don't like sparkly stuff. I hate jewellery!" He gave her a questioning brow. "Well, I'm alright with the simple stuff, I suppose. I just don't like huge jewels..."
"Yeah, but you still like expensive things, don't you?"
Didn't everyone? What did he mean? "Like what?"
"Well, the places Brandon takes you," he replied, a strange expression on his face. She blinked, not having heard Brandon's name coming from his lips in ages. "You know, fancy restaurants and the like."
"He's only taken me to a restaurant once," she told him, feeling defensive. How did he even know about that? Candi-Rose? Sasha, even? "And everyone likes fancy things once in a while. Don't you?" He bit his lip. "What's your point?"
"Nothing. I don't have a point," he insisted, clearing his throat. She fixed him with a stern look and he sighed. "I mean, you wouldn't want to be with someone who doesn't have money, would you? I just thought my mum wouldn't want to be with someone who can't even get her a proper ring because it'd mean he's broke or something. Of course, now I know he had something better up his sleeve but I didn't know that at the time and neither did she."
"You're getting a little dinosaur age again," she warned, crossing her arms. "Women work now; they don't have to pick husbands based on how much money they have and men don't have to pay for everything."
Of course, that didn't stop people like Denise (and probably Millie) from dating men for money but they were hopefully in the minority.
"I suppose," he agreed, turning towards her. "I'm not saying men should pay for everything but people like my mother deserve to be treated, don't they? She's been working so hard to come back from her illness; she deserves it."
"Yeah, of course, but from what you've said, I have a feeling she wouldn't have minded giving that up if it meant being with the right guy."
There was a sort of uncomfortable pause then, and she suddenly found it difficult to look him in the eyes. It'd been playing on her mind for a while now, since he'd first brought up the money issue: the idea that he hadn't made a move on her when given the opportunity because he didn't have much money. It had, after all, been the excuse he'd provided when he'd told her that he wouldn't take her to the pictures. At first, it'd seemed like a silly thought—a desperate attempt to reconcile herself to the fact that he'd rejected her—but everything he'd been doing and saying as of late only backed her theory up.
"You're right," he spoke up, finally breaking the silence. "She said as much when she came 'round earlier." She smiled, vindicated by his statement, and he jerked an eyebrow at her. "Since when did you start believing in all that right guy, wrong guy stuff? Sounds more like Candi-Rose's thing."
She shrugged, honestly not having a clue. She'd never been the sappy type, not even when she'd started dating Brandon, so where was this coming from? Was there really such a thing as a right guy (or girl) or were there many one could choose from? If so, why did people have to wade through disastrous relationships like that of her parents before finding the right person? Why couldn't they just meet 'the one' right off the bat?
Why did Luke have to be with Millie?
Why did she still get the butterflies around Tyler when she'd been someone else's girlfriend for over five months?
Why wasn't she making an effort to see Brandon outside of boxing?
Why, why, why?
A/N: Yup, I was gone for ages again. Can't say I had writer's block because this thing is all planned out and I knew exactly what I was going to write in this chapter but the words wouldn't come out. Once I did start typing though, I was able to get it done as quickly as I've done other chapters in the past. Also, I'm going through some shit but I suppose one can't sit around and cry about their problems forever, no matter how much they want to, especially if the cause is permanent circumstances.
Anyway, enough about me. I've resumed my TDG marathon with my brothers and we've just watched S6e14. I noticed that Taz told Joseph he'd have his own room if he was fostered which was odd considering the fact that he already had his own room at Ashdene Ridge by that point; he'd moved out of Finn's room and into Archie's early on in S6 and got the room to himself when Archie got fostered. Blooper? There's also the fact that S6e13 happened on a Thursday and there was talk of art homework and a school disco but no one appeared to actually go to school! It's weird! I love this show but it wouldn't hurt for the writers to have a scene or two where someone says 'oh I just got back from school' or 'I've got to get ready for school'. Pretty sure Tracy and her housemates were shown in school uniform from time to time in TSOTB. They might not have the budget for it in TDG but it'd make it more authentic.
Thanks to bribri1300 for following and favouriting the story as well as me. You followed and favourited 10+ of my fanfics at the same time so I'm wondering if you meant to or if it was some sort of glitch on the website?
Charlie, thanks for the review! Very late Eid Mubarak to you too! Interesting that you think something happened between Tyler and Hannah. Maybe a certain somebody got their first kiss, eh? As you can see, Millie continues to be a thorn in Jody's side but it's all down to Luke to set boundaries. When, if ever, will he man up?