At the cell company, I quickly go to the simplest, cheapest phone. “This one will do.”
“What? No,” Jeremy snorts. “We need to get you a smart phone.”
“Really?” I reply. “What would I need a smart phone for?”
Rolling his eyes, Jeremy goes, “To go on the internet, text, play games, the list is endless, oh and play music.”
“I have an mp3 player for that,” I articulate. “Anyway, my computer wouldn’t even be able to sync with one of those things, and I swear if you say you are going to buy me a computer, I will walk out of here.”
With a groan, Jeremy says, “Fine, but you can use my computer.”
“Jeremy,” I hiss quietly, because an employee is looking at us. “I really don’t need a fancy phone.”
“Okay, we will go with one of the free phones, but you can still get a really nice phone, because of signing the contract.”
I sigh. “Fine, we can do that.” So, we do. When we get into the car, I just shake my head. “It’s going to take me a month to learn how to use this. I have never had a cell phone before.”
“I will go over it with you tomorrow. We need to go get your stuff for tonight,” Jeremy says, as he starts the car.
“Are you sure about this? I mean, I can stay at home. I don’t want to have to take up your couch.”
With a disgusted look, Jeremy snaps, “Who said you were sleeping on the couch? You can sleep in my bed and I will take the couch.”
Shaking my head vigorously, I stammer, “No, no, no, I am not kicking you out of your bed. I will take the couch.”
“If you fall asleep on the couch, I will just pick you up and put you in my bed. So, you might as well fall asleep there in the first place,” Jeremy retorts matter-of-factly.
“Fine,” I groan.
We get to my house, and I pack up a small backpack of stuff. Jeremy carries in my bags as I do that. “Do you want me to help you hang this stuff up?” He asks.
“No,” I reply. “I will get it this week. I want to wash everything before I wear it.”
“I never do that,” Jeremy adds. “I should, but, well, I am a guy and I don’t care.”
That makes me laugh. I zip up my bag and say, “Alright, I am all set.” Pausing, I ask, “Are you sure about this?”
“Oh yeah,” Jeremy answers, “I am definitely sure.”
“Doesn’t this go against bringing girls home to your place?” I giggle.
Jeremy winks at me. “You are a special case.”
“Well, I do appreciate this. I just don’t like being home alone.”
“No problem,” Jeremy says, ruffling my hair. “Let’s go.”
When we get back to his place, he walks me to his room. I look into it and laugh. “You are a pig.”
“Hey, I am the one who has to live here, and I am fine with it. I just washed the sheets so you don’t have to worry about any cooties.”
I set my bag down. “Cootie free, good to know.”
“Are you hungry?” He asks.
“Yeah,” I reply. “Do you want me to cook?”
“Nah, we can order Chinese. I depend on delivery a lot. Got them on speed dial.”
Snorting, I chuckle. “Well, if I am here, I will cook for you and then you can freeze it.”
“That’s a good idea. I don’t really have anyone around that cooks, so that has never been an option. We will still order Chinese. Then we can set up your phone,” Jeremy states, as he walks into the living room.
Looking around, I just shake my head. It’s going to take me a day to just organize this place, let alone clean it. I laugh and turn off the light. We spend the rest of the night eating, playing with my phone and watching movies.
Finally, I am lying on the couch next to Jeremy. My eyelids start to get heavy and I yawn. He looks over at me. “You should go to bed if you are tired.”
“Yeah, I think I will get ready for the night. Do you need to use the bathroom?” I ask, as I stand up.
“Nope, it’s all yours,” he replies, with a smile.
Nodding my head, I go into his bedroom and grab my bag. It doesn’t take me long to get ready. I just put pajamas on and brush my teeth. When I come out, Jeremy is making his bed. “You didn’t have to do that,” I say, walking up behind him. “I am just going to make it a mess again.”
“Yeah, but there is nothing like getting into a made bed, it will feel better. Are you going to be okay in here? You don’t need anything?” He asks.
I smile and say, “No, I should be okay.”
“Okay, night toots,” Jeremy whispers, as he kisses me on the cheek. “I will be out there if you need me.”
“I will be fine and again, thank you. Really, I mean it. Thank you for….well…everything.”
He brings his hand up and runs his fingers along my jaw line. “No problem. I am happy to do it. Now, get some sleep.”
“Okay,” I whisper. He turns and leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. I bring my hand up and touch my face. It feels so good when he touches me.
Stop it Isabelle! Ugh, he is your friend, stop being ridiculous. I go and climb into his bed. When I lay down, I roll over on my side. It’s then that I smell his pillow and it smells exactly like him, really good. I slap myself on the forehead and groan. Go to sleep! With that I turn off the light.
Chapter 9
The next morning, I wake up and look at the clock. Its ten thirty already? Wow, okay. I get up, realizing Jeremy is probably up already. I walk out into the apartment to find it empty. What in the world? I go back into the hallway and check the bathroom. Jeremy isn’t there either. That leaves one door. I open it and burst out laughing. There is a bed, I think, and boxes EVERYWHERE. My, oh my, he wasn’t kidding about unpacking and leaving everything where it was. I go and look into some of the boxes. Some have stuff in it and some are empty. Then I see a box in the corner that seems to have been kept really neat.
I reach over and pick up the photo album off the top. I sit down on the edge of the bed and open it up. The first two pages are filled with pictures of a younger girl, maybe in the 8th grade. She is an awkward looking girl, much like me. I flip to the next page. Sitting solitarily on the paper is a 5 X 7 picture of Jeremy and this girl playing violins. They are both dressed really nicely. Maybe it is a concert.
As I am about to turn to the next page, I hear a knock at the door. I quickly put the album back down where I found it. I don’t want Jeremy to find me snooping through his things. Why I am going through his things is beyond me in the first place. Hello, major intrusion into his private life. Really Isabelle, you know better than this.
There is another knock, this one sounding more impatient. I get up and go into the living room. Suddenly I hear, “Jeremy! Dude, open the door!”
So, I go and open it. Standing in the hallway are two guys. Both of them are pretty darn cute, and here I stand in my pajamas, fresh out of bed. Awesome. The blonde guy looks at me a little bewildered. “It’s a girl.”
The other guy, who has black hair, makes the comment, “Umm it’s a girl……in Jeremy’s apartment.”
“Can I help you?” I ask, feeling somewhat awkward. “Who are you?” The blonde asks.
Raising my eyebrow, I retort, “Who are you?”
“My name is Joshua,” the blonde replies. “This is Kent.”
“Oh!” I exclaim. “I am sorry. My name is Isabelle. I should have suspected it was you guys.”
Kent smiles. “The infamous Isabelle, Cassandra told me all about you. She likes you.”
“Well, that’s good, I like her, too.” I pause, and then stammer, “Jeremy isn’t here.”
Joshua bends over and whines, “I have to use the bathroom! Please, let me in.”
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “I mean, I really don’t know you guys. Jeremy may get mad.”
“Here,” Kent says, pulling me into the hallway. “Leave the door open, stand out here and I will call Cassandra. Josh, go to the bathroom.”
“Hold on,” Kent retorts, holding up his finger. He grabs his cell phone and dials a number. After a few seconds, I hear him say, “Hey honey, will you do me a favor? Isabelle is at Jeremy’s and she is worried we aren’t who we say we are. Can you talk to her?” There is a pause, and then he hands me the phone. “Here, say hi.”
Bashfully, I take the phone. “Hello.”
“Hey!” I hear Cassandra cry enthusiastically. “If I had known you were going to be there, I would have come with, but that’s beside the point. That goofy guy is my boyfriend Kent, and the other goober is Joshua. Where is Jeremy?”
“You know, I have no idea.”
“Huh,” she replies. “Well, if they get out of hand, just slap em.”
I laugh. “I am not one for violence.”
“Is she telling you to slap us?” Kent asks. I just nod my head. “Thanks hon,” he shouts at the phone.
Cassandra giggles. “Hey, did you get a cell phone yesterday?”
“Yeah,” I exclaim. “I have no idea how to use it really, but I have one.”
“Put in my phone number then. If you ever need anything you can call me. Also, then we can go shopping for the women’s apparel that we wanted to get.”
Smiling, I say, “Okay.” I go into the apartment and grab my phone. Looking at it, I frown. “I am not exactly sure how to put a number into it.”
“If you let me in, I can do it,” Kent says from the door.
“Oh, yeah, come in,” I reply, handing him my phone. “Kent is going to put it in.”
“That’s good,” Cassandra retorts. “We can go sometime in the next week or two.”
I can’t help but grin. “That sounds nice.”
Kent bobs his head back and forth, and then hands me my phone. “Now, you have Cassandra’s, Josh’s and my phone numbers.”
“Why in the world did you give me your numbers?” I ask. “Not that I mind, but you don’t know me.”
“Eh, you may need to find Cassandra or Jeremy, and we would probably know where they are,” he replies. “Anyway, you need more than Jeremy’s number in your phone. You can’t have one number.”
Putting my hand out, I ask, “Can you put a number in there for me?”
“Yeah, what is it?” He replies.
“Hold on,” I demand. “Let me get it. Oh! Cassandra, I am going to give you back to your boyfriend.”
“Okay,” she chirps back. With that Kent takes the phone from me. I go down the hallway to the bedroom. As I do that, the bathroom door opens and Josh comes out.
He stops. “Hey, so you let us in, huh?”
“Yeah,” I answer. “I am getting something from my backpack.”
Josh watches me go into Jeremy’s room. “I didn’t realize you and Jeremy….umm…slept in the same bed. Not to pry or whatever.”
“Oh,” I gasp, “No, he slept on the couch.”
Grimacing, Josh says, “You survived sleeping in Jeremy’s room alone? I have looked in there. It’s kind of scary.”
“The sheets were clean, and I ignored the rest,” I reply. I reach into my backpack and pull out my sketchbook. “He was nice enough to sleep in the living room.”
“What a gentleman,” Josh laughs. “You must be special, because he doesn’t even let girls into his apartment, let alone give up his bed for them.”
I try not to smile. “He is being super nice to me.”
“Do you know where he is?” Josh asks.
“No,” I reply, shaking my head. “Here, I want to give this number to Kent.”
Josh gestures down the hallway and I go in front of him. “I have the number,” I say to Kent.
“What is it?” He asks.
“555-6504.”
Kent punches it into my phone. He looks at me. “Name?”
“Eric,” I reply.
Getting a smirk, he asks, “Boyfriend?”
“No!” I snap. I can feel myself blushing.
“Stop picking on the girl,” Joshua demands, even though he is obviously trying not to smile.
With a nod, Kent hands me my phone. “There you go, all set.”
“Thanks,” I say.
Going over to the TV, Josh turns it on and one of Jeremy’s gaming systems. “While the cat’s away the mice shall play,” he chuckles.
“Do you think you should be doing that?” I ask. “Won’t he get mad?”
“Who, Jeremy?” Josh asks. “Nah, he is used to it. We don’t have the nice set up that he does.”
“Set it up for two players,” Kent instructs Josh. He goes over and gets a second controller. They each take one side of the couch. Kent turns around and pats the middle seat. “Come, sit, we don’t bite.”
Josh laughs, “Unless provoked.”
Awkwardly, I go and sit down. For a half an hour they play, and it’s hilarious watching them. Finally, they talk me into playing. I am horrible, but it’s fun none the less.
So, about an hour of them being there, I am on top of Josh, trying to get the controller away from him. I yell, “You are such a cheater!”
“Am not!” He yells back.
Suddenly, we hear, “Isabelle! Are you crazy!?”
We all turn towards the door. Jeremy is standing there with bags in his hands. We stop and I get off of Josh. “Hi,” I squeak.
“Hi,” he growls a little bit. “Are you seriously this stupid?”
“Not particularly,” I retort.
He starts to rub his temple. “I realize these two idiots are my friends, but you had no way of knowing that! They could have hurt you or killed you!”
“I talked to Cassandra,” I whisper, shying away.
“Hey, lay off,” Josh snaps. “We are just guilty as she is. I had to use the bathroom.”
Jeremy hangs his head. “Sorry, I just….am a little protective of her. I forgot to leave a note, but I figured I would have gotten here before she woke up.”
“We were just playing video games,” I say, feeling really bad.
“Yeah, we were kind of slaughtering her,” Josh laughs.
With a shocked face, I exclaim, “That’s because you cheat! I should get a handicap or something!”
“There is no such thing as a handicap in video games,” he retorts with a smile.
I shove him. “Whatever, next time, you have to let me kill you like ten times and then you can play.”
“Oh jeepers,” Jeremy groans, as he walks into the kitchen. “I got stuff to make lunch.”
“Sweet, I am starving,” Kent yells.
Looking at him, Jeremy says, “Who said you get to eat?”
Getting a disgusted look, Kent retorts, “That’s just mean.”
“I was going to have Izzy cook enough to freeze, but with you two here, there will be barely enough for all of us,” Jeremy sighs.
“We are growing boys,” Josh states.
A snort escapes me. “I don’t think you are growing anymore.”
“Whatever,” he replies, winking at me.
This is actually fun. I never thought I would be able to hang out with guys and not feel awkward. Jumping over the back of the couch, I go by Jeremy. “What am I making?”
“I thought of chicken and I got potatoes. We can bake them or something,” he says, pulling everything out of the bags.
“I will make fried potatoes. They are so much better with chicken.”
Jeremy opens the refrigerator. “I have BBQ sauce, if you want to use that.”
“It’s up to you guys, what do you want?” I ask.
Josh yells, “BBQ chicken, please!”
“Then I can do that,” I say, snagging the sauce from Jeremy.
So, as the boys play video games, I cook. Jeremy comes back into the kitchen after a little while. “We are being so rude. Putting you in the kitchen and making you cook for us.”
“Get in that kitchen woman! I am hungry!” Kent joki
ngly yells.
“Cassandra would smack you right now if she heard you say that,” Jeremy laughs.
Kent sighs. “Isabelle won’t tell on me.”
“That’s what you think,” I reply. “We girls need to stick together.”
A gasp comes from the living room. “How rude! Traitor!”
“Maybe next time you will take it easy on me when we play video games.”
Jeremy snorts. “Not likely.”
“Yeah, well, that will teach me to play with you guys,” I say. “Anyway, lunch should be done soon.”
“Turn off the TV guys. We are going to be adults and eat at the table,” Jeremy declares.
The response he gets is a bunch of groans. “Come on, really?” Kent pouts.
“Yes, turn it off.”
Josh hops up and goes over to the dining room table. He suddenly picks up the picture of the lilies that I did. “This is awesome! Where did you get this from?”
“Oh,” I squeak. “I did it. I don’t usually let people see my work, but Jeremy wanted that done.”
“Dude, Isabelle, you are a great artist. Kent, check this out,” Josh says, holding up the picture.
Kent walks over and his mouth drops open. “You did this?”
“Yeah, last Sunday,” I reply.
Getting a little wide eyed, Josh says, “Wow, that is all I can say is wow.”
“I am going to get it framed,” Jeremy tells him, as he takes plates out.
Looking at me, Kent asks, “Did he tell you what the lilies were about?”
“No,” I answer, shaking my head. “It really isn’t any of my business.”
“Darn, he won’t tell us either,” Kent mumbles.
Jeremy shoots him a look. “You know that I am a private person.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kent laughs. “Blah, blah, blah.”
That makes me giggle. I look at Jeremy and he just rolls his eyes. We sit down and eat lunch. The guys love it, which makes me really happy. They talk a mile a minute about the most random stuff. I just sit there and listen. Jeremy keeps nudging me with his knee and looking out of the corner of his eye. I smirk and push him back.
After Jeremy and the guys clean up, because Jeremy commanded them to, we just sit at the table. “So,” Jeremy says, “What were you guys doing here anyway? Other than to eat all my food?”
The Art of Life Page 15
