Moving In With R5
~Chapter Ten~
The next morning, Rydel wakes up with a huge grin on her face. She literally jumps out of bed, feeling exuberant due to the events of last night.
Rydel, feeling far too happy with herself, doesn't even bother to run a brush through her unruly hair before she bounds energetically down the steps.
The only person she finds down there is Laura, who appears to be making pancakes. Rydel stops abruptly at the sight. She's not gonna lie; she feels a little guilty for how she's been treating Laura.
But she pushes all that aside for now, and enters the kitchen just like she would any other morning.
"Morning Laura," she says, her back is turned to Laura as she gets some milk from the fridge.
"Morning, Del." Laura herself is distracted as well. She focus all her attention on her pancakes, making sure they stay perfectly round (or at least as round as possible) and reach that lovely golden color. She expertly flips it over and it lands back on the spatula unlike the last one she flipped that landed on the floor.
She could have probably saved that one for Rocky since he pretty much eats anything.
Rydel grabs a glass from the cabinet and pours some milk into it. She sits on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island and takes a sip from her drink.
"Why are you making breakfast?" Rydel inquires with genuine curiosity.
"I woke up pretty early and couldn't get back to sleep so I came downstairs and I though that I'd make breakfast." Laura shrugs. "Ya know, give your mom a break."
Rydel nods her head in understanding. She smiles softly and then sucks in a breath.
"I'm sorry."
She kind of blurts it out before she has a chance to think about it.
Laura just stares simply at Rydel. She blinks a few times, then goes back to the pancakes. "Really Rydel, it's fine. You have nothing to apologize for."
"Ugh, don't do this Laura," she groans, "we both know I've been acting like a hostile bitch these past few weeks for no good reason. I'm sorry. I tend to be over dramatic at times."
"Yeah," Laura agrees. "That seems to be a shared trait here at the House of Lynch. But it's okay. It's merely genetic, therefore I won't hold it against you."
"Gee, thanks," Rydel replies sarcastically.
Laura laughs. "Since you're apologizing that must mean that he finally grew a pair and asked you out. Oh my gosh did he ask you out?!"
Rydel can't help but blush and break out into a smile. "Yeah he did. Last night actually. It was really random, I mean here we are in some unfamiliar neighborhood at dark just walking around and all of a sudden he stops me and says, "Rydel, can I talk to you?" Laura chuckles a bit at the ridiculously deep voice Rydel used to impersonate Ratliff. "And then he told me that I had to chew the bubble gum, which was weird and I was thinking 'Really? All I wanna do right now is kiss you and you're gonna make me chew him first?' But I did and I'm kind of glad I did because that's what made it really special, ya know? That's what made it... us." She smiles, a warm feeling spreads throughout her whole body just thinking and talking about last night. The memory evokes so many emotions. She's just really happy. That's pretty much the just of it.
"Wait-" Rydel cuts off her own ramblings, confused. "If you knew he was gonna ask me out, then... You knew this whole time?"
"I knew that the guy you liked that you thought I liked and thought liked me had actually liked you this whole time?" Laura smiles smugly. "Yeah, I did."
Rydel groans. "Oh gosh, now I'm really starting to feel like a dumb blond."
"It's okay. You're still very pretty," Laura offers and pays her head condescendingly.
"Thanks," Rydel mumbles.
She finishes off the rest of her milk and then hops off the bar stool. "I'm just glad that things are back to the way they used to be between us. I don't like being mean to you Laura. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. We're girls. We're allowed to be ridiculous from time to time. We menstruate, we get emotional, then we get over it. It's the circle of nature." Rydel laughs, spreading her arms out wide and offering Laura a hug. Laura just shakes her head and smiles, and accepts the hug wholeheartedly.
"Besides," Laura says once they've pulled away, "If the roles had been reversed and I had been the one thinking you were going after the guy I liked, I probably would have reacted the same way."
Rydel opens her mouth to respond, but almost immediately closes it. It would probably be better to just keep that comment to herself.
"Well, now we just have to find you a boyfriend then," Rydel says and then she adds on as an afterthought, "Or a girlfriend. Whatever you're into. We don't discriminate here at the House of Lynch."
Laura rolls her eyes good-naturedly. Though had there been one around she probably would have given the blond a good pillow to the face.
"Very funny."
Rydel laughs. "You know I was just teasing!" She leans over the counter to inspect Laura's cooking. "When is breakfast gonna be ready?" She whines.
"Um, actually, I think we've got enough pancake here," Laura says. "Help yourself. I'm gonna go get a change of clothes and take a shower."
Laura exits the kitchen and goes upstairs to her room.
"Knock, knock," someone says from behind her door as she's rummaging through her dresser to find clothes.
"Come in!" Laura calls over her shoulder. She doesn't bother to check who it is first, but just blindly gives them permission. She's pretty sure it's not anyone out to kill her.
"Hey," someone -she recognizes the voice to be Ross's- speaks up behind her. She turns around on her heels, and smiles to acknowledge his presence.
"Hi Ross, something you need to talk to me about?"
"Well, yeah, actually. Rydel said you were up here, so yeah..." His tone detects a hint of awkwardness. Why was he being awkward? Were things awkward between them? She honestly had know idea what was going on between them anymore it seemed like.
"Kay, so, what's on your mind?"
"I just wanted to thank you for Rydel's gift... Again." He looks back at Laura sheepishly and his cheeks have a rosy pink tint to them.
Laura chuckles. "You know you can stop thanking me right? That like, the third time you've done it."
"I know, but the other ones didn't seem sincere. At least not to me. She told me how much she loved my present last night and I think she was really surprised because normally, the gifts I give people always suck." He kicks at the floor with his shoe a little bit and then looks back up to meet Laura's gaze. "So, again, thank you."
"Again, you're welcome." Laura smiles. "And I had fun shopping for her present with you. It was chaotic, but it was still fun."
Ross doesn't respond, other than nodding his head. When it looks like he's getting ready to say something else, Stormie pokes her head inside the room.
"Oh, sweetie, there you are. I was looking for you. I need to talk to you about something," Stormie informs her son.
Laura gulps nervously, because she's 99% sure she knows what this "something" is she has to talk to Ross about.
"Um, okay.." Ross says, uncertainly. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Okay," Stormie says and then leaves the two of them alone.
Neither Ross nor Laura comment on what just happened. Really, there was nothing to say, but Laura at least thought Ross would come up with some explanation. Did he know about his doctors appointment? Probably not if his mom wanted to talk to him about it. But on some level he probably already knew it had something to do with his cancer. Other wise his mother probably wouldn't have been so vague.
And who's to say that's even what Stormie was referring to? She could have wanted to talk to him about any number of things. This was just Laura being paranoid and jumping to conclusions.
The deep worry she was feeling must have been evident on her face, because Ross was looking at her weirdly by the time she snapped out of her thoughts.
She hastily grabs a pair of jeans and a shirt before pushing past him toward the door. "I'm gonna take a shower now!" She says quickly, marching forward.
But she's stopped when Ross grabs her by the wrist. "Woah, wait- wait, are you okay?"
"Yeah," she scoffs, "of coarse I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You look like you're upset about something," Ross observes.
I'm upset that you have cancer.
I'm upset that you have to go to the doctors soon because of your cancer.
I'm upset because I'm worried something bad is gonna happen to you.
I'm upset because I can't tell you why I'm upset because you don't know I know you have cancer.
I'm upset because I know all these things that I'm not suppose to know and it's becoming harder and harder for me to keep them to myself.
"I'm fine," Laura says. Her words come out very forced and she can tell Ross heard it too.
But he lets it go, nodding his head slowly and easing his grip on her wrist.
"Well, you know you can always come talk to me right? If something ever is bothering you?"
Laura looks up at him, completely caught off guard. "Um, actually, no I didn't know that. Since when has that been a thing?"
"Weren't you the one that said it was time for a change? For us to start being nice to each other?" He asks, defensively.
"Yeah, but I didn't know you were gonna get all sappy on me. I mean, let's not go changing to many things Lynch. I thought what we had was special. You can't mess with a good thing," Laura replies.
Ross smirks. "No, but you can always improve upon them."
Laura couldn't help but feel really weird about all this. Then again, this was Ross she was dealing with and he was pretty weird.
"Well, thanks. But seriously, I am fine." 'That's a lie! You liar!' she screams inside her head. "Just me being silly and impractical." Roos looks at her confused. He really has no idea what she's talking about. "But, maybe I'll take you up on your offer sometime."
"Go for it," he says and then tacks on as an afterthought, "just make sure my door is open. If its not it means I'm probably naked."
Laura knits her eyebrows together. That was a little more information than she was asking for. "Okay then, um, I really didn't need to know that Ross, but hey, what you do in your bedroom is your own business."
Ross's face heats up at the hidden meaning behind her words. "No! Nothing like that! Gosh, get your mind out of the gutter!"
Laura blushes too. "Geez, sorry. How was I suppose to know what you meant by that?"
"I meant that sometimes I take naps during the day."
"And you don't wear clothes...?"
"Nope. I always sleep naked."
"Well then, thanks for sharing!" Laura says, embarrassed by this whole conversation.
"Don't judge me Marano! Don't act like you don't do it too!" He says, still smirking.
Laura's lips form into a thin line and she shakes her head. "I can honestly say that I don't."
And that's the last thing she says before she goes back downstairs to take a shower.
…
The faint sound of guitar playing and Ross's voice carries through the hallway.
Laura sneaks around his bedroom door, which is open just a tad. She rests the laundry basket full of clothes on her hip and just listens intently.
Even though it is maybe a little bit creepy that she's listening in through his bedroom door, she can't doesn't seem to care. She's entranced by his voice and his guitar playing. Damn, she may have hated him for all those years when they were kids, but he really did have musical talent. She'll give him that.
Laura, being the clumsy person she is, looses her balance and falls into the door. She stumbles into his room, falling on her knees and her cheeks burn bright crimson.
Ross stares at her, bemused. She stands there with her mouth agape for awhile, unable to offer any explanation.
"Just thought you'd drop in to see me, huh?" Ross asks cheekily.
Laura looks back at him, flustered. She runs a hand through her hair and laughs awkwardly until her laughing eventually turns into a cough. She stands up quickly. "For the record, I wasn't snooping."
"I never accused you of snooping," Ross says.
"Yeah... well, I heard you playing," she gestures to his guitar, "and I just kind of... stopped... and listened." Laura stops when she realizes how awkward that sounds. "But, I had a legitimate reason for being up here in the first place."
"Mm hmm?" Ross hums.
"I was bringing up your laundry." She gestures down the the laundry basket and all the clothes that have so conveniently been dumped on the floor.
"Well, you're doing a hell of a job with the laundry if I do day so," he teases.
Laura glares at him and then begins to attend to the clothes that need refolding.
"There's really no need for that," Ross interrupts her. He grabs his shirt out of her tiny hands and throws it in his drawer. Laura observes that the drawer is full of many other unfolded articles of clothing. She looks at Ross and he just shrugs. Then he takes some more of his clothes and puts them away too. When he's done, he scoops up his siblings clothes and dumps them in the basket.
"There," he grins at her. She offers him a half smile and a head shake.
"What's up with you doing all the chores around here anyway?" He asks her.
"What do you mean?" She asks him back.
"You made breakfast this morning, did the dishes afterward, cleaned the entire kitchen, and apparently you did the laundry too," Ross replies. "You better quit it or else mom is gonna adopt you and get rid of one of us."
Laura laughs. "Ross, your mom would never get rid of any of you. You have nothing to worry about." Then she adds on: "Plus, if she did, it would probably be Rocky."
Ross nods. "It probably would be."
Laura shrugs her shoulders and sighs. "I don't know. I guess... I just feel sorry for a mom. She has to do everything around here; the cooking, the cleaning, and ya know, still be a mom."
"Well, then she shouldn't have had so many damn kids," Ross responds.
"In here defense she didn't know that one of her kids," she pokes him in the chest, "was gonna be such a handful."
Laura didn't mean it that way. Honestly. She was just contributing to the back-and-forth that they had had going on, but then that slipped out of her mouth and she didn't think about how Ross would take it.
"Yeah," he says quietly. His eyes reflect his emotions very well. He looks troubled, guilty.
"Ross I didn't mean it like that," she quickly apologizes, and then bites her tongue.
He stares down at her, confused. She just stares back. Her mouth is open, but no words are coming out. Maybe on the outside she looks fine, but on the inside she's freaking out. Can he tell what she meant? Was he figuring it out? Did she just give it all away? She had just picked at a major insecurity of his and then apologizes for doing so even though he didn't know she even knew about that.
She had just indirectly brought up his cancer twice without meaning to.
He seems to wake himself up out of sharer trance he'd been in because his entire expression changes. It goes back to normal as the tension in the room dissipates from the air.
"No, it's okay, I know you were just teasing, not trying to be mean." He shrugs, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "I am a handful. We all are, but..." He trails off.
"But me especially."
Laura looks up at him sadly. She wishes she could hug him and tell him it's gonna be alright. She wishes she could tell him that it's not his fault and that no one blames him. He didn't choose to have to live with something like cancer and drag his family into it with him. It was his choice and it wasn't his fault.
"I'm sure you're not that big a handful," she says lightly, trying to get things back to a neutral level before she explodes and ends up confessing to him.
Ross cracks a smile. "Not as a big a handful as you Marano."
"Whatever!" She snorts.
"Hey, if you like my guitar playing so much then maybe you can stop back by and I'll give you a live show," he offers.
"Really?" She asks, genuinely surprised.
He nods. "Yeah, just as soon as you get done with that laundry."
She stares back down to the basket in her hands then up again at the blond. "Right.. I should, uh, get back to that."
"Yeah, you should."
Laura exits his room quickly. When she's out of sight, she leans against the wall and let's out a deep breath.
That was close. Way too close.
And next time Laura's afraid she's not gonna be as lucky.
A/N
Oh! The tension is building! Muahhaha! Is Laura gonna slip up? Can she make it without blabbing her secret? Or will it all blow up in her face? Hmm, I guess we will just have to see *smirks deviously*
I'm really, really, really excited for all the sad part of the story that are gonna happen and to see your guys' reactions to them. I can't make any promises guys, you might cry.
So, I see you guys are just libeling Lauren! Haha, well, you better love her because last chapter was not the last we will be seeing of her. Sorry about the confusion with the names guys, in my original idea for this story, it was necessary for her name to be Lauren, but then I decided to scrap that idea and I added the cancer plot line and so yeah... its not needed anymore. Sorry if its hard to read and keep straight.
Thanks to staying strong 2007- 2013, Kathy0518, pen names are for the weak, xxSmileYoureBeautifulxx, Lilyfanficlover, Scittore Ombra, Screw-calm-n-get-LOUD xD, UselessScottishTigerGirl556, and all the guests who reviewed! And a special thanks to my girl, Citylights at Midnight! She's super sweet and always reviews on each chapter! You rock my socks off girl! You guys are awesome and please keep up the reviews :) I love your feedback. It motivates me to update :)
Alright guys! That's all for today! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. And trust me, I'm just getting started ;) *maniacal laughter*
Kthanxbai!
Morgan :)