Chapter 4

To say this simply, I felt awkward when I woke up. There has never been a girl in this bed overnight. The other time was when Caren came over and asked me how a girl would please a boy. That was awkward, but not as awkward as this was.

I could feel an erection, fully hardened, going down my leg and against Stacy’s. Removing my head and peering down at her she was still asleep. I slowly unwrapped my arms around her sliding them away quietly.

There were mere inches between our bodies when everything was done. The room was cold when I left the comfort of the bed. Stacy blinked her eyes open a couple times looking my way as she sat up.

“Good morning, Jack,” she said. I went next to her and sat on the floor. The blankets we used last night were hanging over her shoulders.

“Good morning to you too. Did you sleep okay,” I asked. She shivered as she threw the blankets off her.

“Besides right now, last night was great.” I stood up holding my arm out towards her. She took my hand and let me lift her up. Stacy tripped forward as the mattress moved under her feet. I caught her pulling her into my torso.

“Thanks,” she whispered. I helped her step off the mattress and over to the door. “What about you? Did you sleep okay,” she asked me.

“Of course. Having you there made it better than it usually is,” I said, hopefully making her happy. She smiled playfully pushing me into the hallway. I chuckled waiting for her to come out.

The apartment was quiet for it being close to 10 o’ clock. Stacy immediately went into the refrigerator and pulled out a water bottle. I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was as messy as usual when I woke up.

Stacy stood next to me and looked at the mirror as well. “You forgot something,” she said. I looked over myself again noticing what she meant.

“No wonder it was colder this morning than it was yesterday.” I quickly buttoned up my shirt watching Stacy grab a hair brush. She put it in her hair and stroked it through to the end. “Do you mind doing that in the kitchen? I need to piss.”

She grunted before doing as I asked and slamming the bathroom door shut behind her. I grabbed my toothbrush and did everything I had to. There was a knock on the door. “Can I come in now,” Stacy asked. I opened the door and looked down at her.

“Sure. I’ll let you in here, guest.” She frowned, shoving me into the door as she walked in. Her eyes moved from the sink to the many toothbrushes we had.

“Why the hell do you have 11 toothbrushes here,” she asked getting more annoyed. I almost fell over remembering she hadn’t met anyone of them.

“The names that were on the boxes upstairs use most of them. Dad and I keep ours in the same place,” I answered.

Another pair of feminine hands grabbed my shoulders lightly. I slowly turned my head to see Stacy’s mom standing behind me wearing one of dad’s robes. “I hope your treating my daughter properly,” she said into my ear. A shiver shot down my back from her tone.

“O-of course I am,” I shakily said. “Sh-she is a g-guest after all,” The both of them giggled as I spoke. I sighed giving them the win this time.

“I’m only kidding you, dear. Your dad told me about you last night.” She slapped my back as she turned towards the living room. “Also you can call me Joyce. It’s a mouth-full hearing ‘Stacy’s mom’ coming from all of her friends.” And with that, she was gone.

Stacy giggled more as I returned my gaze to her. I walked back in there and shut the door. Her eyes widened as I grew closer to her. “I’m going to take a shower,” I said bluntly.

“Do you want me to get out,” she asked. I shrugged my shoulders unbuttoning my shirt again. She went back to looking at herself in the mirror.

The water came on and Stacy startled, turning my way. “If you want to finish up in here, you can wait till I get in or just continue. It doesn’t matter to me.” I watched her grab one of the many toothbrushes cautiously. She must have been waiting for me to say that was someone else’s already.

I threw off my socks and left my boxers on as I stepped into the shower. The sink came on and stopped when Stacy poked her head through the curtain. “You shower in your underwear,” she asked.

I laughed leaning up against the wall close to her. “Not all of the time. This only happens when someone stays over and is also using the bathroom,” I answered. The shrugged and walked out of the bathroom.

The rest of my shower was uninterrupted with the water being my only company. The warmth made my body freak out inside deciding whether it was hot or cold.

I got out of the shower a couple minutes later and threw off my boxers and grabbed a towel from the door. There were voices coming from outside I couldn’t distinguish. A male voice was talking to two female voices so I assumed it was dad talking to Joyce and Stacy.

I wrapped the towel I used around my waist and walked into the kitchen. There stood Joyce and Stacy as I thought glaring at Aiden who was at the door. Why was he here?

“There you are,” he said. “I thought today was going to be us.” I tilted my head going through my plans for the weekend. Then I remembered how Aiden asked to be alone with me today. Eric’s conversation with me about it played again.

“Who is he, Jack? He wasn’t here last night so how did he just walk in,” Stacy asked me, yelling. I looked from Stacy to Aiden. There had to be a way to calm everyone down. Dad came in and examined the situation. He glared at me pointing to my room.

“Give me a minute you two,” I said before ramming my door open and shutting it. I grabbed a t-shirt and some sweat pants from my drawers. When I walked outside, dad was with Joyce in the living room explaining who he was and why he was here.

Stacy was still in the kitchen glaring at him from across the table. I stood in between them and looked at Aiden. “I kind of forgot you were coming over today.” He breathed out heavily relaxing his shoulders. Stacy kept her position and her face.

“So why is she here,” Aiden asked. “I can understand the woman being here because of your dad.” I looked at Stacy and down to the table. How did someone explain a woman’s daughter sleeping over without making it awkward?

“Her and her mother are staying here for the next couple of days,” I blurted out. Stacy’s mouth dropped when I finished. Dad and Joyce both came rushing in as well.

“Oh. I guess that’s okay with me,” Aiden said. I was rushed into dad’s bedroom, which was small, closing the door behind us.

“Are you insane,” he yelled at me in a hushed tone.

“I don’t know myself. How was that the first thing I could think of?”

“You didn’t think to say that she was locked out LIKE SHE WAS?” Dad was hovering over me. His eyes shooting blades into mine making me shrink down. I made a mistake.

Dad stepped back and took a deep breath. We never yelled at one another so that what happened with him and mom didn’t happen again. I looked at him waiting to see if he was going to say anything.

“Is Aiden going to be here any other time this weekend,” he asked.

“We’re having a guy day tomorrow. Aiden comes to those when he’s in town,” I answered. Dad sighed. All of this was probably too much to try and figure out right now. He had to work more all week because his job started paying him less. He hides the bills that are unpaid for the month away from me, but I find all of them when he’s gone.

“I’ll see if Joyce is willing to stay until Monday. Before I can do that, you need to get Aiden out of here. Do you understand?” I nodded, sitting on his unmade bed. He sat next to me and placed his arm around me. I leaned my head on his shoulder trying to wish everything can be okay.

“Why are you keeping all of the stress to yourself?” Dad moved his head and glanced into me.

“What do mean by that? I’m not keeping the stress to myself. I don’t have any,” I stopped him there. I reached over to his desk and pulled out the bills he hadn’t fully paid this month. He threw himself backwards onto the bed.

“I’ve been making sure that, financially, we were fine for a couple month now. What I came across shocked me. You’ve been having this problem and not once did you ask me to help.” He tried to get back up, but I pushed him back down. “Even when I said I wanted to help you rejected my offer. Is this what you want just to keep a stupid deal that we make loopholes for every chance we get?”

Dad grabbed me, pulling me into his body. His hand combed through my hair calming me down. He did this when I was younger when he got home because the kids at school made fun of me. It would always get me so mad that I wanted to beat all of them up. Eric got me through the day when he stayed with me and form a connection sending our emotions between our arms.

“Everything is going to be all right, Jack. Once my job is secured, we can go back to the way things are. I promise you there won’t be any need to get a job.” I got up and walked to the door.  Dad followed me as we entered the living room where Aiden, Joyce, and Stacy were silently arguing with their hands.

I took Stacy’s hand and dragged her closer to Aiden. Then I took his hand and forced them up the stairs into my room. We crashed into the walls a couple times with the stairway being small enough to barely fit a person on it.

The three of us at on the floor waiting for someone to break the awkwardness of everything. Stacy stepped up grabbing my PlayStation controller. Aiden helped me grab a few chairs and set them up in front of the TV.

Stacy handed me the controller sitting down in the chair next to mine. “What is it going to be today,” she asked. I glanced around her at Aiden who was looking through my stack of games and downloaded list. He told me to stop when I scrolled to “Gone Home.” Eric told me to download it while it was free after he played through it himself.

“I hope Eric was telling the truth about this being good,” I said before starting the game. Aiden and I played most of the game until Stacy felt left out. She had a hard time getting use to moving the camera and moving throughout her short adventure. I eventually took the controller away before she threw it like Liam.

I noticed Aiden’s eyes wander around more than usual when he wasn’t playing. Stacy thankfully didn’t notice with her eyes glued to the TV trying to guess the ending before it happened. Aiden texted someone also when I was playing. He smiled after a couple texts, looking at Stacy with suggestive eyes.

The game ended making Stacy “aww.” Aiden and I looked at her like she was being typical. The three of us stood from our seats we haven’t left for 2 hours. I banged my head into the slanted ceiling I seem to forget about, causing us to laugh.

“What’s going on with you two,” Aiden suddenly asked. Stacy and I stopped laughing and looked at each other. “She wasn’t anything special,” I thought. “We only met yesterday.”

“Do you have something to say,” Stacy asked making Aiden jump back. He isn’t the kind of guy that gets nervous from a girl that wasn’t asking him to. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you texting your friends about me.” My eyes widened. How did she notice that from the corner of her eye?

“N-n-no! I was just making sure you truly were a new face I shouldn’t know from before.” Stacy stomach growled loudly causing us to laugh again. Aiden took out his car key from his pocket while looking at the clock on his phone. “I should get going. Maybe another time we can get together and have the day we planned,” he said.

I led Aiden outside to his car. Stacy and I said goodbye as he drove away. “Do you think he has a girlfriend,” Stacy asked. The thought of Aiden winning again infuriated me. Leaving Stacy outside, I slammed the door behind me going inside.