Justin
Jhondie had thought it was Kayla and her boyfriend in their mother's room. So I had to admit I was curious as to why she was just standing there, not saying a word in the doorway after kicking the door in. Then I got up behind her and felt my jaw land somewhere beside hers.
"Jhondie!" Ashley gasped out, holding the sheet up to her chest. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but what was there to say at that moment.
"Naked," Jhondie squeaked. "You're naked. And together. And naked." I didn't think it was possible for her eyes to get any wider than they were.
In all the years since my mother had died, I had never caught my dad with another woman. Ever. He made it a point to not flaunt a relationship in front of the twins and me. I had seen him kiss a few girlfriends, but this was brand new territory. And oh, God, I wished it was still unexplored.
I caught Dad's eyes and we just stared for a long minute. He was embarrassed yes, but I think it wasn't just that he had been caught in the act. He had very deliberately kept something from me that I should have known about. Neither of us had ever lied or deceived each other about relationships before. Until now. I couldn't even imagine what kind of excuse he was going to have.
But that was for later. I knew that I had to get Jhondie out of there while she was still at a loss. Because if she got it together while they were still in bed, someone was going to get hurt, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to be me or her mother. I grabbed Jhondie's shoulders.
"Downstairs," I ordered softly. "We go downstairs now and wait." I almost added 'for them to get dressed' but that might have snapped her out of it. Don't ask me how I managed with the crutches, but I got her to take a step back, letting the door swing shut. Jhondie just stood there for a second, still totally dazed.
"The door opened and they were naked," she whispered hoarsely, still staring at nothing. "In bed. Naked and in bed and...together." She had opened the door and they were probably still...oh, God, that mental image was making me sick. I could just imagine what an actual memory could do.
"Let's go downstairs," I managed to say, getting her moving. We went into the living room and sat down on the couch, waiting. Jhondie was starting to get her equilibrium back when Ashley and Dad finally came down the stairs. They weren't holding hands or anything. Thank God for small favors.
They sat on the couch opposite us and everyone was dead silent. I'm the one that's supposed to have the words for any situation and I couldn't think of a single thing that was appropriate. Finally I found the one question that I did want an answer to. "How long has this been going on?" I asked. Dad hadn't been dating anyone for a while and I wondered if they had kept this from us all this time.
"About six weeks or so," Dad finally answered. "You know we were friends longer, but six weeks since...ah...we've..."
"Been intimate," Ashley provided quietly.
Jhondie's head was in her hands. "I'm going to be sick," she muttered.
Ashley's eyes narrowed. "I know this was unexpected, but the drama isn't required."
Jhondie looked up sharply, her eyes flashing with anger. "I haven't even started with drama," she snapped back. Dad didn't know what she meant but I did and so did her mother. If Jhondie's goal was to scare her, she had just done a good job of it. "What the hell were you thinking, Mother?"
One cool eyebrow raised as Ashley stared at Jhondie. It was the look most mothers knew the second they gave birth. The one a kid ran from. But Jhondie was too heated to be intimidated. "Pray tell, when did I start answering to you concerning my behavior, Daughter?" The subtle emphasis on the word 'daughter' let Ashley's opinion come through more than the words.
"I don't know," Jhondie said sarcastically. "Maybe when you started fu..."
"Fighting's not going to help," I broke in quickly. Jhondie looked at me, her eyes boring in, telling me that I better not be agreeing with them. Trust me, I wasn't. "We just have to deal with it."
"Deal with it?" Jhondie's tone had dropped to complete menace.
"It happened," I said. "We can't make it not happen. They had a brief affair. Fine. Caught now, fun's over, so we just deal with the aftermath."
Dad shot Ashley a look. "Son, this isn't a brief little fling," he said. "Yes, it's out in the open and needs to be dealt with like four adults. But it's not over by a long shot."
I swear, I could feel everything in my stomach want to come spewing out. It wasn't that my father had slept with a woman or that I had walked in on them. I could deal with that. Probably laugh it off. It was just that his choice of bed partner was severely lacking in good taste. Yes, she was an attractive woman, but I knew from Jhondie she hadn't dated much since becoming a widow, so she was lonely and vulnerable, and taking advantage of that was just sick.
"Oh really?" Jhondie asked brightly. "So why don't you guys get married, and then I can marry my stepbrother and we can all move to Alabama and go on talk shows." She picked up a redneck accent. "Sounds like a hoot ta me!"
"That's the response I would have expected from Kayla," Ashley snapped. "Really Jhondie, I would expect some maturity from you. Maybe even the slightest bit of happiness that I'm happy, or is the world revolving around you again?"
"HAPPY?" Jhondie yelled. "Happy? You're screwing my future father-in-law, lying about being "just friends" and I'm supposed to be happy? Sure, Mom, I'm soooo happy for you. And mature? How many times have you lied about where you were going to be in the last six weeks? Claiming you were working late and taking off for a quickie kind of reminds me of saying you had to study at a friend's and run off. Isn't that what you were grounding Kayla for? You've done nothing but lie for weeks and it's perfectly okay?"
I recognized the look on Dad's face. I used to run from it when I was a kid. "Lying?" he said in a low voice. "Tell me, Jhondie, since you seem so adverse to lying and wanting things to be in the open, have you done what you promised me you would and told your mother about your involvement with Eyes Only?"
Ashley looked confused. Jhondie paled, her mouth snapping shut. Dad smirked. "I didn't think so. If you want to get self-righteous, you might want to make sure you're not being a hypocrite in the process."
Ashley shook her head slightly. "No," she said softly. "Tell me you wouldn't be so stupid as to do something like that. Either of you." Dad didn't understand the depth of what she was saying. And I was willing to bet that she had just figured out why Jhondie and Zack had been fighting so hard just a few months ago.
"I got involved with him a few years ago," I answered. "Jhondie helped me out for a while with research and the like." Ashley glared daggers at me, letting me know she knew exactly what "and the like" meant.
"He's the only media for the truth about things to come out," Jhondie said in a much more subdued voice. Her eyes met her mother's squarely. "You never know when a big secret might need an impartial way of getting to the public."
Dad caught the underlying tension to her remark. He glanced at me, but I wasn't saying a word. "Oh my God," Ashley muttered, her fingertips against her temples. Her hands dropped and she glared at Jhondie again. "And you thought it was perfectly okay to keep this from me?"
Jhondie's eyebrows rose. "What I was doing affected me, not you. I made sure you and Kay were never dragged into what I was doing."
Dad went to say something, but I cut him off quick. If he mentioned what I had told him at the hospital, there was going to be a free-for-all. "And we're still dealing with two different situations," I said sharply. "On one hand, Jhondie knows what I am doing, but she's no longer an active part of it. You two obviously are still active and what you're doing." I looked at directly at my father. "And I've heard a whole lot of times growing up that if you're hiding and lying about something, it's because you know it's the wrong thing to be doing."
"And what the hell do you think you've been doing?" Ashley exploded. Great. She was still stuck on the Eyes Only thing.
"Protecting you," Jhondie said coldly. "Some secrets are required or else the person that knows it is responsible for that knowledge. You of all people should be able to understand that." That steel in her voice only came out when she was dropping back into soldier mode, and it was scary to hear. Ashley noticed it too and backed off slightly. Dad was still confused about the weird by-plays. I had to get Jhondie out of there or she was going to lose it and God only knew what was going to be said then.
Jhondie was on her feet before I could say a word. "You know what," she said quickly, "You're going to do whatever in order to defend your positions. You've talked yourself into being blind about why it's sick and ignored all of the reasons why you shouldn't and nobody is going to make you wake up. Go back upstairs and screw away. Just try not to let Kay walk in."
Jhondie glanced at me and her expression begged me to get her out of here. I was way ahead of her on this. What were they thinking? What was he thinking? How could anyone mistake this for something that would be a good idea? I couldn't help but think about when Jhondie's dad had died. Jhondie had turned to me as a friend, and it would have been very easy to use that to have seduced her. But it was wrong. I was tempted that one night when she was in my bedroom, but the difference was that I didn't give in. Ashley had turned to Dad wanting a friend and I wondered how long it was going to be before she realized he had used her vulnerability against her. That was going to make for some pleasant family relations later on.
I stood, painfully getting to my feet. "Do what you need to do," I said to them flatly. "I can't make your decisions for you. But I don't have to tolerate them either." I glanced at Jhondie. "I'm leaving."
Without a word to either of our parents, she stalked out of the house. "Justin," Dad started to say, but I waved him off.
"Not now," I said, turning away from them. "Whatever you have to say...not now." I couldn't think of another thing I wanted to say and instead limped out of the house and got into the car. Jhondie was in the driver's seat, engine idling and waiting for me.
I barely had time to shut the door when she already tore off. She had that focused look, mouth set in hard lines as she shifted roughly. Great. This was a rental and she was going to tear out the transmission. "Calm down or let me drive," I finally said, sharper than I intended.
Her head snapped towards me. "Don't you dare tell me that I should be calm about this. You can't possibly..."
"No, I'm not," I interrupted her angrily. "I said calm the driving down. When we get back to my apartment, then we both can flip out."
She looked back towards the road and I could tell her driving was a little calmer now. "You're really not okay with this?"
"I am as far from okay as I could possibly get without vomiting. And I'm still not positive that I'm not going to be sick."
We drove quietly for a few minutes. "This isn't going to change us," she said, but it almost sounded like a question. I took her hand.
"Jhondie, you are many things to me, but you've never been a sister. You've got enough brothers already." And quite frankly, at least one of her brothers was on the scary side. I shook my head. "I can't tell you how sorry I am that my father did this. I don't know what was going through his head, but he had no right."
"She's the one that's been lying this whole time." Jhondie's scowl deepened. "Talk about setting an example for Kayla."
"I don't give a damn what they do," I finally declared. "They're going to have to live with the consequences of their actions. But I will not give up you so they can have their little fling. Period."
That got a little smile out of her. "I called becoming a Carter first."
I relaxed a little in my seat. She had called it first. They were just going to have to deal with the fact that this needed to end. I thought it would be over pretty quick now. It wasn't going to be as much fun now that it wasn't a secret anymore. Things should get back to the way they were pretty soon.
But sometimes fate really makes things get weird.
Jhondie had thought it was Kayla and her boyfriend in their mother's room. So I had to admit I was curious as to why she was just standing there, not saying a word in the doorway after kicking the door in. Then I got up behind her and felt my jaw land somewhere beside hers.
"Jhondie!" Ashley gasped out, holding the sheet up to her chest. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but what was there to say at that moment.
"Naked," Jhondie squeaked. "You're naked. And together. And naked." I didn't think it was possible for her eyes to get any wider than they were.
In all the years since my mother had died, I had never caught my dad with another woman. Ever. He made it a point to not flaunt a relationship in front of the twins and me. I had seen him kiss a few girlfriends, but this was brand new territory. And oh, God, I wished it was still unexplored.
I caught Dad's eyes and we just stared for a long minute. He was embarrassed yes, but I think it wasn't just that he had been caught in the act. He had very deliberately kept something from me that I should have known about. Neither of us had ever lied or deceived each other about relationships before. Until now. I couldn't even imagine what kind of excuse he was going to have.
But that was for later. I knew that I had to get Jhondie out of there while she was still at a loss. Because if she got it together while they were still in bed, someone was going to get hurt, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to be me or her mother. I grabbed Jhondie's shoulders.
"Downstairs," I ordered softly. "We go downstairs now and wait." I almost added 'for them to get dressed' but that might have snapped her out of it. Don't ask me how I managed with the crutches, but I got her to take a step back, letting the door swing shut. Jhondie just stood there for a second, still totally dazed.
"The door opened and they were naked," she whispered hoarsely, still staring at nothing. "In bed. Naked and in bed and...together." She had opened the door and they were probably still...oh, God, that mental image was making me sick. I could just imagine what an actual memory could do.
"Let's go downstairs," I managed to say, getting her moving. We went into the living room and sat down on the couch, waiting. Jhondie was starting to get her equilibrium back when Ashley and Dad finally came down the stairs. They weren't holding hands or anything. Thank God for small favors.
They sat on the couch opposite us and everyone was dead silent. I'm the one that's supposed to have the words for any situation and I couldn't think of a single thing that was appropriate. Finally I found the one question that I did want an answer to. "How long has this been going on?" I asked. Dad hadn't been dating anyone for a while and I wondered if they had kept this from us all this time.
"About six weeks or so," Dad finally answered. "You know we were friends longer, but six weeks since...ah...we've..."
"Been intimate," Ashley provided quietly.
Jhondie's head was in her hands. "I'm going to be sick," she muttered.
Ashley's eyes narrowed. "I know this was unexpected, but the drama isn't required."
Jhondie looked up sharply, her eyes flashing with anger. "I haven't even started with drama," she snapped back. Dad didn't know what she meant but I did and so did her mother. If Jhondie's goal was to scare her, she had just done a good job of it. "What the hell were you thinking, Mother?"
One cool eyebrow raised as Ashley stared at Jhondie. It was the look most mothers knew the second they gave birth. The one a kid ran from. But Jhondie was too heated to be intimidated. "Pray tell, when did I start answering to you concerning my behavior, Daughter?" The subtle emphasis on the word 'daughter' let Ashley's opinion come through more than the words.
"I don't know," Jhondie said sarcastically. "Maybe when you started fu..."
"Fighting's not going to help," I broke in quickly. Jhondie looked at me, her eyes boring in, telling me that I better not be agreeing with them. Trust me, I wasn't. "We just have to deal with it."
"Deal with it?" Jhondie's tone had dropped to complete menace.
"It happened," I said. "We can't make it not happen. They had a brief affair. Fine. Caught now, fun's over, so we just deal with the aftermath."
Dad shot Ashley a look. "Son, this isn't a brief little fling," he said. "Yes, it's out in the open and needs to be dealt with like four adults. But it's not over by a long shot."
I swear, I could feel everything in my stomach want to come spewing out. It wasn't that my father had slept with a woman or that I had walked in on them. I could deal with that. Probably laugh it off. It was just that his choice of bed partner was severely lacking in good taste. Yes, she was an attractive woman, but I knew from Jhondie she hadn't dated much since becoming a widow, so she was lonely and vulnerable, and taking advantage of that was just sick.
"Oh really?" Jhondie asked brightly. "So why don't you guys get married, and then I can marry my stepbrother and we can all move to Alabama and go on talk shows." She picked up a redneck accent. "Sounds like a hoot ta me!"
"That's the response I would have expected from Kayla," Ashley snapped. "Really Jhondie, I would expect some maturity from you. Maybe even the slightest bit of happiness that I'm happy, or is the world revolving around you again?"
"HAPPY?" Jhondie yelled. "Happy? You're screwing my future father-in-law, lying about being "just friends" and I'm supposed to be happy? Sure, Mom, I'm soooo happy for you. And mature? How many times have you lied about where you were going to be in the last six weeks? Claiming you were working late and taking off for a quickie kind of reminds me of saying you had to study at a friend's and run off. Isn't that what you were grounding Kayla for? You've done nothing but lie for weeks and it's perfectly okay?"
I recognized the look on Dad's face. I used to run from it when I was a kid. "Lying?" he said in a low voice. "Tell me, Jhondie, since you seem so adverse to lying and wanting things to be in the open, have you done what you promised me you would and told your mother about your involvement with Eyes Only?"
Ashley looked confused. Jhondie paled, her mouth snapping shut. Dad smirked. "I didn't think so. If you want to get self-righteous, you might want to make sure you're not being a hypocrite in the process."
Ashley shook her head slightly. "No," she said softly. "Tell me you wouldn't be so stupid as to do something like that. Either of you." Dad didn't understand the depth of what she was saying. And I was willing to bet that she had just figured out why Jhondie and Zack had been fighting so hard just a few months ago.
"I got involved with him a few years ago," I answered. "Jhondie helped me out for a while with research and the like." Ashley glared daggers at me, letting me know she knew exactly what "and the like" meant.
"He's the only media for the truth about things to come out," Jhondie said in a much more subdued voice. Her eyes met her mother's squarely. "You never know when a big secret might need an impartial way of getting to the public."
Dad caught the underlying tension to her remark. He glanced at me, but I wasn't saying a word. "Oh my God," Ashley muttered, her fingertips against her temples. Her hands dropped and she glared at Jhondie again. "And you thought it was perfectly okay to keep this from me?"
Jhondie's eyebrows rose. "What I was doing affected me, not you. I made sure you and Kay were never dragged into what I was doing."
Dad went to say something, but I cut him off quick. If he mentioned what I had told him at the hospital, there was going to be a free-for-all. "And we're still dealing with two different situations," I said sharply. "On one hand, Jhondie knows what I am doing, but she's no longer an active part of it. You two obviously are still active and what you're doing." I looked at directly at my father. "And I've heard a whole lot of times growing up that if you're hiding and lying about something, it's because you know it's the wrong thing to be doing."
"And what the hell do you think you've been doing?" Ashley exploded. Great. She was still stuck on the Eyes Only thing.
"Protecting you," Jhondie said coldly. "Some secrets are required or else the person that knows it is responsible for that knowledge. You of all people should be able to understand that." That steel in her voice only came out when she was dropping back into soldier mode, and it was scary to hear. Ashley noticed it too and backed off slightly. Dad was still confused about the weird by-plays. I had to get Jhondie out of there or she was going to lose it and God only knew what was going to be said then.
Jhondie was on her feet before I could say a word. "You know what," she said quickly, "You're going to do whatever in order to defend your positions. You've talked yourself into being blind about why it's sick and ignored all of the reasons why you shouldn't and nobody is going to make you wake up. Go back upstairs and screw away. Just try not to let Kay walk in."
Jhondie glanced at me and her expression begged me to get her out of here. I was way ahead of her on this. What were they thinking? What was he thinking? How could anyone mistake this for something that would be a good idea? I couldn't help but think about when Jhondie's dad had died. Jhondie had turned to me as a friend, and it would have been very easy to use that to have seduced her. But it was wrong. I was tempted that one night when she was in my bedroom, but the difference was that I didn't give in. Ashley had turned to Dad wanting a friend and I wondered how long it was going to be before she realized he had used her vulnerability against her. That was going to make for some pleasant family relations later on.
I stood, painfully getting to my feet. "Do what you need to do," I said to them flatly. "I can't make your decisions for you. But I don't have to tolerate them either." I glanced at Jhondie. "I'm leaving."
Without a word to either of our parents, she stalked out of the house. "Justin," Dad started to say, but I waved him off.
"Not now," I said, turning away from them. "Whatever you have to say...not now." I couldn't think of another thing I wanted to say and instead limped out of the house and got into the car. Jhondie was in the driver's seat, engine idling and waiting for me.
I barely had time to shut the door when she already tore off. She had that focused look, mouth set in hard lines as she shifted roughly. Great. This was a rental and she was going to tear out the transmission. "Calm down or let me drive," I finally said, sharper than I intended.
Her head snapped towards me. "Don't you dare tell me that I should be calm about this. You can't possibly..."
"No, I'm not," I interrupted her angrily. "I said calm the driving down. When we get back to my apartment, then we both can flip out."
She looked back towards the road and I could tell her driving was a little calmer now. "You're really not okay with this?"
"I am as far from okay as I could possibly get without vomiting. And I'm still not positive that I'm not going to be sick."
We drove quietly for a few minutes. "This isn't going to change us," she said, but it almost sounded like a question. I took her hand.
"Jhondie, you are many things to me, but you've never been a sister. You've got enough brothers already." And quite frankly, at least one of her brothers was on the scary side. I shook my head. "I can't tell you how sorry I am that my father did this. I don't know what was going through his head, but he had no right."
"She's the one that's been lying this whole time." Jhondie's scowl deepened. "Talk about setting an example for Kayla."
"I don't give a damn what they do," I finally declared. "They're going to have to live with the consequences of their actions. But I will not give up you so they can have their little fling. Period."
That got a little smile out of her. "I called becoming a Carter first."
I relaxed a little in my seat. She had called it first. They were just going to have to deal with the fact that this needed to end. I thought it would be over pretty quick now. It wasn't going to be as much fun now that it wasn't a secret anymore. Things should get back to the way they were pretty soon.
But sometimes fate really makes things get weird.