Joni
"When you are done with that can you help Ava?" Mrs. Grey asks as I cut the carrots and peppers. After our conversation in her room Phoebe, Ava and I came down stairs to help Mrs. Grey with dinner.
"I don't need any help" Ava grumbles as she continues to cry over the onions.
"Here" I offer pulling out a spoon and putting it in her mouth upside down. "If this isn't enough cut it while running under water."
"It works" she squeals. "Thanks."
"You're welcome" I smile at her. "This is nice, cooking together as a group."
"You don't help your mom?" Mrs. Grey asks.
"Oh my mom cannot cook" I scoff. "She burns water, and I am not saying that to me funny, she was boiling veggie dogs and forgot to turn off the stove when they were done. Dad said she was asleep upstairs while the kitchen filled with smoke, he banned her from using the stove when no one else is home which is now always."
"You don't take after her do you?" Phoebe asks eying the knife in my hand.
"I am not nearly as bad, but I have my moments" I admit.
"Yeah she thought sushi rice was white rice that you added too much water too" Teddy says walking into the kitchen. He presses his front against my back and runs his hands down my arms.
"What are you doing?" I ask trying to hide my body's natural reaction to him.
"I am helping you cut" he answers placing his hands over mine and guiding the knife. "You could hurt yourself with this big thing" he says softly in my ear as he presses himself into me.
"Teddy" I hiss. "Your mom."
"Is too busy cleaning potatoes to notice" he whispers in my ear capturing my earlobe between his teeth. I look up and sure enough her back is to us.
"Don't start something you can't finish" I argue trying to squirm away from him.
"You guys are gross" Phoebe says with her face scrunched up.
"We are in love" Teddy retorts and my face flames from his unabashed declaration.
"She's blushing" Ava squeals pulling the spoon out of her mouth to laugh.
"Idiota" I grumble throwing a piece of carrot at her.
"You speak Spanish?" Mrs. Grey asks.
"Yes, I am half Puerto Rican" I inform her. "I also speak Russian due to the same reason."
"I meant to ask you why your mother has an English accent" Teddy says guiding my hands once more. "If the two of you didn't speak Russian to each other I never would have known she was."
"She has lived in England since she was eleven, they moved there for work" I explain letting Teddy do most of the work. "She stayed there after my grandparents retired to attend Oxford and traveled after. She worked for a non-profit that aided supplying kids in Africa with school supplies and she had a blog on the side. One day she wrote about this village in Cameroon and got picked up by a magazine and the rest is history."
"How did she meet you dad?" Ava asks completely giving up on cutting the onions.
"That story depends on who you ask" I laugh. "The both agree they met in Kazan while my dad was stationed there and my mom was on holiday, but who saw who first and who spoke first causes an argument to this day."
"So you aren't American right?" Ava asks.
"Of course she isn't she was born in Russia" Phoebe sighs.
"I have dual citizenship" I clarify. I glance out the window and gasp. "TEDDY IT'S SHADOW MAN" I screech dropping the knife and pointing out the window. I hear him sigh behind me as the others move away from the window.
"What is a Shadow man?" Ava asks nervously.
"It is a figment of Joni's imagination" Teddy explains as he picks up the knife and continues to cut.
"He is not" I growl spinning in his arms.
"I will ask again 'who is Shadow man?'" Ava asks.
"He is a guy that follows Teddy and me around in Cambridge" I explain. "I see him everywhere I think he lives in Teddy's building, nut I never see him go into any particular apartment nor speak to anyone. He is super creepy. He is real and he is outside of your house."
"Just like he was outside the library on campus or those restaurants on date night?" he asks sarcastically. "You had me chasing after this guy for weeks and each time we come up empty handed."
"But…" I start only to have Teddy kiss me.
"Baby there is not a man following us around" he says leaning his forehead into mine. "Even if there were he would never make it on to our property."
"I know what I saw Teddy" I argue. I really hate that he doesn't believe me.
"I know what you think you see, but it's not real" he urges. He is smiling at me like I am crazy, but he loves me anyway. I cross my arms and lean against the counter, glaring at him. "Don't pout" he urges kissing my lips lightly.
"What do I hate most?" I ask against his lips. He sighs and takes a step back.
"Being doubted or underestimated" he answers.
"And what are you doing right now?" I ask rhetorically.
"Doubting you, but…" he begins and I put my finger on his lips to stop him.
"I know what I saw" I demand as I push his arms open so I can walk away. "Finish helping your mother cook I am going to wash."
Teddy
I watch her walk away and I know that any hope that I had of convincing her to have sex with me today and probably this weekend has evaporated.
"You know you messed up right?" Phoebe asks.
"Yeah I know" I grumble and continue to cut. "But see it from my perspective; we spent nearly a month searching every nook and cranny of my building, her building, all of the campus it got so bad she was talking about asking her dad for a gun."
"A gun?" mom asks.
"She is convinced that he wants to kill us" I say shaking my head.
"Does she know how to use a gun?" mom asks.
"I think she can use a gun" I say slowly. "Her dad is a marine who left her in the woods for four days with a knife and a bag filled with something called rations."
"That sounds like abuse" Phoebe says.
"It's called survival training your grandfather did something similar like that to me, not as intense, but similar" mom shrugs.
"Remind me to stay on Grandpa Ray's good side" Phoebe whispers.
"All I am saying is that if I followed up on every figure she think she sees or sound she thinks she hears we will never get anything done" I steer the conversation back on track.
"Then don't get anything done" Phoebe huffs. "Love is sacrificing your wants for another person's needs. Right now Joni needs you to believe in her don't let her down because out of all of the girls you have let into your bed she is the only one who I like so you better not screw this up." I sigh as I see Ava nod her head in agreement.
"Then what do you think I should do?" I ask resigning myself to asking for help from two sixteen year-old girls.
"Beg like you have never begged before" Ava says. I laugh, but quickly stop when I realize they are serious.
I guess I am begging…