Chapter 10 Zander
We make good time on the drive back to the house now that we aren’t hitting mid-afternoon traffic.
Jade held my hand the whole way there. I’m unsure if it’s because she forgot or because she wanted to, but I wasn’t going to say anything either way.
By the time we get back to the house, she looks exhausted. I’m sure she’s hardly used to doing so much in a day, but she doesn’t say anything. I half expect her to head to her room for a nap, but instead, she goes to the kitchen, fills a glass of water from the sink, and sits at the bar.
Before she can take a sip, I pluck the glass from her hands and dump it.
“Hey!” she shouts in protest, but I grab a water bottle out of the fridge and toss it to her before she can really get mad.
I’m so used to the guys that I didn’t even think about the fact that I just all but chucked a water bottle at her until after I'd done it.
I turn around just in time to watch her snatch it out of the air with ease before she cracks it open and takes a big sip.
She twists the cap back on as she gets up from her seat and heads out.
She stops and looks up at me on her way past. Pressing a finger under my chin, she pushes my mouth closed with a smile.
I hadn’t even noticed it was open.
“Careful, or you’ll catch flies,” she giggles before turning the corner and disappearing down the hall toward her room.
“Did she just make a joke?” Spencer asks, and I realize they are both watching the doorway where she disappeared, just like I am.
“Maybe she’ll be able to handle Zander after all,” Rick says as he moves from his spot by the back door, shoving me out of the way of the fridge.
He reaches in and grabs a beer for each of us, putting one in my hands and tossing one to Spencer, who catches it just like Jade did.
Somehow, it’s less impressive when he does it.
“So what now?” I ask them as I pop open the beer and take a long drink.
It's exactly what I needed after all the shit we learned today. Honestly, we could probably all use something stronger, but we don’t often drink the hard stuff.
You never know when you need to handle something, so it’s better to keep a clear head, just in case.
“Classes start back up in less than two weeks,” Rick says, sounding anything but excited, while Spencer huffs.
School starting back up means that we will, in fact, be going to a few parties, and while I love parties, they don’t. Given the current situation, I also can’t say I’m super excited.
Usually, I love the attention, the girls who try to throw themselves at us, and the power trip that comes with our earned status. But with Jade here, it somehow doesn’t have the same appeal.
“What about Jade?” Spencer asks, and we both turn to Rick.
“I don’t know, honestly. I'll have to talk to her and Kratos about it. I don’t even know if she can go to school, let alone if she should.
” I hadn’t really thought about that. I doubt Jade has ever been to school, so college probably isn’t even an option.
Though Kratos may be able to get her in if Froggie decides it’s for the best, again, that’s if she even wants to go.
The idea of her at college both excites me and freaks me out. I’m sure she would love it, but how will she handle it? Regardless, I would love to have her there with us.
I jump up to ask her if she’d be interested, but I don’t make it two steps before Spencer grabs me.
I turn to look at him, confused.
“Let’s have Rick talk to Kratos before we talk to Jade. I don’t want her to get excited about something they could shoot down. That girl’s been through enough,” he tells me, dropping his hold on my arm before heading over to put his bottle in the recycle bin.
Damn, I didn’t even think of that. I would feel terrible if I offered her that experience only to let her down. My eyes go wide as I look at Spencer, but he doesn’t look back at me. Instead, he heads toward the basement door.
“Did you just do something nice for her, Spence?” I ask.
I mean to tease him, but it just comes out as a genuine question because Spencer isn’t one to care how you feel.
He gives facts and hard truths, never one to tiptoe around anyone's feelings. He’s not outwardly mean per se, but this almost sounds like he was genuinely looking out for her.
“I’ll be in the gym if you guys feel like doing something with your day instead of standing around gossiping like a bunch of schoolgirls,” he shouts back to us as he heads down the stairs, leaving the door open and completely ignoring my question.
I turn to Rick, who’s still nursing his beer.
“You heard that, right? Like I wasn’t just hallucinating?” I ask him, gesturing to where Spencer just disappeared down the stairs.
He shrugs before dumping the remainder of his beer and throws his bottle in the bin as well.
“I did, and I think he’s right.”
“I didn’t say he was wrong! I was just concerned that I might have smacked my head at some point.
Since when does Spencer care about people who aren’t us, especially someone he just met?
You both seemed to hate her yesterday!” I’m losing my mind.
That's what this is. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
“We didn’t hate her, Zander. We were just concerned about how she was here and her intentions.
Her showing up here didn’t seem like a coincidence, but apparently, it just worked out,” he says as he begins to follow after Spencer.
He pauses at the basement door, turning back to face me, his usual serious expression back.
“I think after today, we can all agree that she’s had a shitty hand in life, Zan. Froggie wants us to look out for her, so that’s what we're going to do,” he tells me as he starts down the stairs.
I race to the door and watch as he takes a few steps down before calling after him.
“So we're just helping because Froggie said so. She’s just another mission now?”
He pauses mid-step, but doesn’t say anything, and after a moment, he continues walking as if I’d said nothing.
“You guys are both assholes. You know that, right?” I shout as he disappears down the hallway, heading to the gym.
I slam the door shut as my frustration grows.
Unfortunately, it does nothing to calm me down.
Usually, when I feel like this, I would join the guys in the gym and spar until I feel numb instead.
But seeing as they’re the source of my anger at the moment, that’s the last place I want to be.
Even if pounding on them sounds fantastic.
I abandon my beer on the counter. I know Clair will give me shit if I don’t clean it up, but I’ll come back for it later. Right now, I just need to find a distraction.
I ended up in my room. Throwing my knife at the target I’d made a few years ago on the back of the door. I hoped keeping my hands moving would help, but even as I hit bulls-eye after bulls-eye, I still feel my anger simmering right below the surface.
The longer I think about it, the more upset I get. I mean, I get it. She is the mission, and what Froggie says goes. But that’s not really why I’m upset. I’m mad that they are going to act like that’s all this is, like she’s not a person who has a shot at life.
I’ve seen the way both of them look at her, and not just on the first night when she was just a pretty girl who needed saving.
At the mall and club, they had moments. Hell, she and Rick made breakfast together, and all of those moments happened before we knew she was the mission. Before, we knew just how fucked her life was.
I throw the knife again and let out a frustrated groan as I give up on it. I don’t even bother going to retrieve it, instead leaving it buried in the door and heading out of my room.
The problem is, I don’t know what else to do with myself.
I stand in the hallway for a moment and contemplate going to the gym, anyway.
We usually fight it out, but it’s not often that they’re both the reason for my anger.
Maybe I’ll go for a ride. I shoot that thought down, remembering my bike isn’t here.
Fuck it.
I make my way down the hall, intent on going down to the basement, but I don’t make it far. The sound of soft music fills the hall, and it takes me a minute to understand that it’s coming from Jade’s room.
In my anger, I had forgotten that her room was right across from mine.
I stand outside her door for a moment. Maybe going to see her is better than going to the basement. I can see how she’s doing after everything today, and maybe even mention school and see how she feels about it.
I move back down the hall to her door, knocking lightly so as not to scare her, and wait to see if she’ll let me in. After a minute and no response, I wonder if maybe she’s asleep. I put my ear up to the door and listen. It’s faint, but there are sounds of movement coming from inside.
I take a quick step back and knock a little louder. Maybe she just didn’t hear it the first time.
As soon as my fist makes contact, the door swings open. Jade stands there in one of her new sundresses with a slight smile on her face. Her hair is soaking wet, and drops of water drip onto the floor as she stands before me.
“Sorry, I was in the shower,” she says, stepping to the side so I can enter.
I walk in and see her bags from the mall are spread out all over the ground. It looks like she might have been going through them. There’s a pile of clothes right outside her walk-in closet, and just a glance lets me know it’s probably all the stuff that was scraped up for her when she had nothing.
“It’s kind of a mess. I was trying to get everything put away, but I really have no idea how to organize anything.
When I got done taking the old stuff out, I didn’t know what to do next, so I took a shower instead,” she tells me as she looks around the room at all the stuff.
If I didn’t know better, I would say she’s avoiding looking at me.