Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Jaclyn
"Well, then how do you want to wake her?" says a familiar voice.
I shift, making me feel a hard, warm surface against my cheek.
"We can just put her up in the room, so we don't wake her."
"I'm pretty sure mom wants to meet her, Hayden."
I slowly open my eyes and see I am on my side, resting on someone’s lap. I look up and see Hayden looking down at me. "Sorry," I say as I move off him.
I touch my lip, wiping off some dried drool on my cheek. I am praying that I didn’t drool on him.
"It's fine," Hayden mumbles before opening his door and getting out.
He didn't have his sweater on, only a compression tank top. I look down at my chest and see the brown sweater he was wearing.
How did he put this on without waking me?
Why would he put it on me?
"Jaclyn! Get your ass over here so you can meet my mom!" I hear Natalia shout from outside. I open the car door and get out, going to the back of the car. Hayden and Chris are getting bags out of the trunk while Natalia talks to a very beautiful woman. She looks like she is in her early fifties or maybe late forties. Natalia turns around and waves me over. "Jaclyn. Come here. I want you to meet my mom." I walk a little closer to Natalia and the older women. "Meet my mom," Natalia says while motioning her hands to her mom. “Alex or Alexandra but everyone calls her Alex.”
"Hi, it's nice to finally meet you," I say and offer my hand to her but instead of taking my hand in hers, she pulls me in a hug.
I tense up as she wraps her arms around me but I slowly hug her back to be polite.
"Oh, Jaclyn, I have heard so many things about you from Natalia and Hay," she says as she lets go of me. "I'm Alexandra but you can call me Alex for short."
"It's nice to meet you and I hope they were good things." I chuckle, looking at Natalia.
"Oh, trust me they were. Especially from Ha-"
"Hey, Alex!” Hayden calls from a few feet away. “I think the kitchen might be burning down! You should go check that out.”
Why would he call his mom Alex?
I never met someone who called their mom by their first name.
"Hayden, relax.” Alex rolls her eyes but she still has that soft smile on her face while looking at Hayden. “But yes, let's go inside. I'm making food," Alex says and she walks towards the house as we follow her.
"You'll meet my dad during dinner. He is at work right now, but he will be home soon," Natalia says. I nod my head as we both walk through the front door. "I'm pretty sure mom is making pasta. She loves pasta."
"Good because I love pasta too." I smile at Natalia. Their house is huge. I've never really had the luxury of visiting or even sleeping in a house this luxurious before. All of my friends lived in apartments. I could tell they paid a lot of money for it because the driveway was very long. "Your house is so nice," I say as Natalia and I walk into the kitchen.
"Thanks. My mom and dad actually reconstructed this house, and my mom was super involved with the interior," Natalia says.
I look at Alex. "You did? It looks amazing," I compliment her.
"Thank you, honey. Now I am going to start making dinner. Natalia your dad is on his way so how about you girls freshen up. Also, show Jaclyn around the house and where she will be staying. I'm pretty sure Hay put her bags in the guest room," Alex says.
Natalia nods her head and grabs my hand pulling me out of the kitchen.
After Natalia lets me get settled, she shows me around the house. Their house has so many rooms.
There is a theater room, a library, an office, another office, a second living room that was upstairs, and the dining room.
Natalia showed me her room which looked a little plain but that's because most of her stuff is at her apartment. Natalia also had her own bathroom too which was super nice. She showed me the guest room which looked like a normal guest room. While I was in the room, I changed into something more appropriate. I didn't want to meet Natalia and Hayden's dad while wearing sweats and Hayden's sweater. I already met their mother like this.
I have to share a bathroom with Hayden since both of our rooms are kind of connected. Her parent's room is on the floor above us. They have a whole floor to themselves which is surprising because I didn't know they would need that much room.
Natalia is now showing me the game room which is the last room in the house. She opens the door and we hear Hayden and Chris yelling at each other while playing a video game. "And this is the game room. If you can't find any of the boys they're probably in here."
"What games do you have?" I ask as I sit next to Hayden on the couch.
"Uhh, Need For Speed , UFC 3 , COD , some other games too that I don't really play anymore," Hayden says while playing around with the controller.
The game they were playing was COD .
Mateo would play that game a lot. I was never able to watch TV in the living room because he was always playing. My mom wouldn’t care though.
She never did care about anything he did, even when he cheated sometimes. She loved him too much and I think she felt like she was indebted to him because he got her out of a dark place that was caused by her mother passing away.
"Chris, watch your left!" Hayden yells even though Chris is right next to him.
The guys play the game while Natalia and I play Air Hockey. They have every game in this room you can think of plus a bar. I can already tell they spent a lot of money on this room.
Natalia told me that her dad owns his own business while her mom is a lawyer. They make a lot of income together and it’s now not a surprise why Hayden has a Porsche and Natalia has a Range Rover .
About ten or twenty minutes later Alex yells, “Dinner’s ready.”
Currently we are all seated at the dinner table.
I am not lying when I say that it is tense.
Hayden is seated next to me and Chris and Natalia are seated across from us.
Mr. Night a.k.a. Carter Night a.k.a. Hayden and Natalia's father is also here. He is in a suit and his hair looks like he ran his hands through it a couple times. He looks so serious and professional which makes him more intimidating than I thought.
No one said anything ever since Alex called us all up for dinner. I was kind of scared to say something.
The pasta is good though. Alex made bolognese sauce with the pasta and then brussel sprouts wrapped in bacon and chicken on the side.
"The pasta is really good, Mrs. Night," I complimented trying to make the atmosphere less tense.
I feel like that’s all I can do because no one is saying anything, not even Natalia surprisingly.
"Thank you, honey. Also, it's Alex. Don't call me Mrs. Night," Alex says and I smile at her.
"So, Jaclyn was it?" Mr. Night asks. I nod my head. "So how did you meet Natalia and Hayden?" he asks .
"Uh well, I met Natalia on my first day of school in our journalism class. I met Hayden officially on the first day of my job. I was serving his table."
That’s kind of a lie but I can’t say that I met Hayden four years ago when he was being a little shit threatening me.
“I hope he wasn’t rude. He’s not very social when it comes to speaking to people.”
He’s not wrong about that, thinking about the first time I met him.
"How would you know? It’s not like you pay attention,” Hayden mutters while moving his pasta around his plate.
"Hayden, cut it out. We have a guest here." Carter motions his hand pointing to me.
"Yea, sure whatever," Hayden mumbles.
"Chris, how is football going?" Carter asks, looking at Chris.
"Good. We are actually dominating this year which is kind of surprising. We are playing USC next month which is a big game for us."
"I know USC can be a difficult team to play against," Carter agrees.
"Yea, but I'm sure Chris is going to do amazing as always," Natalia says, smiling at Chris.
I didn't even have to look under the table to know they are holding hands .
"How are you, Hayden? How are you liking business?" Cater asks, switching his attention over to Hayden.
"Fine."
"I hope you are not still doing those fights and boxing matches that you used to do," Carter says, keeping his eyes on Hayden.
Hayden snickers and shakes his head lightly. "Well, it's not really your choice Carter is it?"
"Hayden, stop. You know he just wants the best for you," Alex says, conflicted on what to do or say.
"Well, I'm good. I've been good since the day you guys took me in. I was even good before that," Hayden says before he stands up, dropping his utensils and leaving the table.
I watch him leave the dining room and Carter and Alex doing nothing to stop him or console him.
Took in?
So, are the Nights not his biological family?
"He is always mad at the stupidest things," Carter rolls his eyes.
"Dad, you know how he is," Natalia says, trying to back up Hayden.
"Well, he is never grateful for what we did for him. He always acts like a child and it's ridiculous," Carter says.
“He’s grateful, you know how he is. He was never good at expressing things,” Alex says in a soft voice.
Carter looks at me. “Sorry for that. He never knows when to quit. We haven’t seen him since the summer. He’s been distant since then.”
“It’s fine. Every family has problems.” I shrug.
“Sorry if this might seem personal but I’m just curious, are you and Hayden involved or-”
"Dad!"
"Carter!"
Natalia and Alex yell, Natalia’s face turning red while Chris laughs lightly.
"No, it's fine." I look at Natalia and Alex before looking at Carter again. "No, Hayden and I aren't involved. I probably wouldn’t even consider him a friend."
Carter nods his head silently, thinking of something but not saying anything out loud. "Interesting. What do you want to do when you're done with school?"
"I want to become a journalist. Maybe live in California or New York."
"Why New York and California?"
"I love the city and the weather in New York. I love California because I'm familiar with the atmosphere there."
"Well, I have traveled to New York many times and it's hard to find a stable place to live in. Do you have that kind of money?"
"Carter, I don't think that is an appropriate question to ask," Alex says, giving him the look.
"It's fine Alex, really," I say looking at Alex and then back at Carter. "I wouldn't say I’m the luckiest girl in the world who has money and expensive things, but I work hard for what I want."
"That's good. It's good that you know what you want to do in the future. You seem like a wonderful young woman," Carter says, making me confused cause he seemed like he didn't like me that much.
"Thank you, Mr. Night. I appreciate it."
"Of course. Also, if you need anything at all please don't hesitate to ask. Any friend of Natalia or Hayden is a friend of ours. Family even."
"That means a lot. I will definitely keep that in mind."
"Good. Now let's finish eating," Carter says, relieved that all of the tension is gone.
"Oh, do you have Christmas off dad?" Natalia asks Carter.
"No, I have Christmas morning off, but I have to go back to work after 1:00 pm."
Natalia nods her head and continues eating. She looks bummed out but she doesn’t say anything to Carter about it.
The rest of dinner is spent in silence, but one of us would exchange a few words. Alex would ask me some questions, same with Carter. Once we were all finished, we washed our plates. Alex got mad because I was trying to help her, but I have always been taught to wash my own dish .
After the dishes, I was still a little tired from the road trip, so I went straight upstairs to the guest room.
Hayden's door was closed, and my hand was itching to go over to his door and knock or just check on him.
But I didn't.
I walk inside my room fully and grab my phone. I go to Hayden's contact that I saved but never pressed.
I don’t think as I open his contact and press the message icon.
are you okay?
My phone buzzes in my hand as I’m about to set it down. I turn it over and see a text from Hayden.
i'm fine.
are you sure?
it's whatever. it's not like I ever cared what his opinion was of me anyways.
you shouldn't listen to him. you are your own person. you're an adult.
aren't you tired?
He texts, making me smile a little without noticing.
yes, but I wanted to make sure you were okay.
i'm fine. are you?
what do you mean?
i heard him from downstairs. sorry if he made you feel uncomfortable.
it's fine. I can handle myself.
halloween says otherwise.
I roll my eyes and glare at my phone.
why do you always have to ruin conversations between us?
because seeing you mad turns me on.
goodnight princess.
I toss my phone on the other side of the bed and bury my head in my pillow as I smile and blush.
This isn’t supposed to happen.