Chapter Five

{Kennedy's POV}

"Did you seriously get lunch detention?" Is the first thing that comes out of Simon's mouth when he walks in the front door with the rest of the ginger(ish) gang. I spin the bar stool around to face them. I hold one finger up while I finish swallowing the 4 chocolate m&m cookies in my mouth. "Hi, Jazz." He mutters. She grins brightly and waves enthusiastically back. 

"They have the munchies. don't they." Logan grins giddily from beside our brother, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Yes." 

"Without me?" Logan whines.

"Don't make the face, Log dude. You look like a lumber jack sitting on a cactus." He scrunches up his nose in distaste at my comparison.

"I was gonna say a bunny getting eaten by a snake." Jazz jumps in from behind me. I turn around and look at her. When I do, I can't help but burst out laughing. She, in turn, laughs back at me, while trying to drink her milk. She ends up spitting all over Simon with some coming out her nose. 

Simon never really approved of us smoking, but it's medical for my anxiety. Sometimes, okay I can't lie, half of the time it's for fun. But I don't drink or smoke cigarettes. I won't ever go harder than weed. I've seen what that shit can do to a person's life. And we don't need anymore drama in our lives.

"I'm gonna walk away." Simon mutters, completely shocked and disgusted. When he's out of the kitchen, the three of us burst out laughing. "It's not funny!" He shouts from the top of the stairs. 

"I'm gonna go check on him." Logan jerks his thumb backwards at the exact moment the door bell rings. "Kennedy, can you get that, it's the guys." 

"Yeah." 

"What guys?" Jazz questions. 

"What?" I ask. 

"I don't even know." She giggles. The door bell rings again.

"Kennedy!" OH!

I get up and walk to the door with Jazz following. I go to open the door but Jazz yanks my arm back. "Dude, what the fuck?" She puts her finger over her lips in a sushing manner. 

"You can't just open the door, it could be a murderer." She whispers and tip toes to the peek hole. I roll my eyes. "OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! I MIGHT FAINT!" She whisper shouts. I raise a quizzical brow. "It's Mr. Parker."  My blood runs cold. I shake my head, unbelieving. 

"No way." I shove her out the way and open the door. HOLY SHIT! 

"Kennedy?" Mr. Jones looks just as surprised. 

"Uh, yeah. I think that's my name." I mutter and he chuckles. That was the most sexy laugh.

How can a single laugh turn me on like nothing else.

"Pinch me." Jazz mutters from beside me. I punch her in the arm. "Ow! I said pinch not punch." She glares while rubbing her arm.

"Beggars can't be choosers." I grin. 

"I didn't realize this was your house." Mr. Jones says. 

"Oh, yeah. We just moved back two weeks ago."

"Yeah, I would've come by sooner, but work. Um, anyways," He clears his throat. "My sister and mother are staying over for a few weeks and wanted me to come over and invite you and your family for dinner." 

"Oh, you don--." I start.

"She'll be there. They all will." Jazz smirks beside me. 

"You're welcome too Jazz." He says and walks away. "Dinner's at 5:30, right next door." He grins. And enters his house. 

I close the door. "Did that really happen or did the weed fuck with us?" We laugh. 

xxx

It's 5:00 now and Jazz is trying to convince me to 'slut it up' for the dinner. Her words, not mine.

 "No." I groan rolling over while shoving my face into a pillow. She pouts.

"You've said no to every outfit." She whines. I deadpan.

"Every outfit you picked makes me lose my modesty and my dignity at once. I'm going over to my teacher's house for a 'welcome, neighbor' dinner not a street corner. If I showed up in that," I point to the very small blue dress that could be mistaken for a shirt for an eight year old girl. "He'd think I'm some desperate slut." I scrunch up my nose.

"Ha!" She suddenly yells out. 

"What the fuck?" 

"I knew it!" I raise an eyebrow telling her to go on. "You do care what he thinks and you like him. And he needs a reason to like you back." Uh?

"Pardon?" Her eyes widen and she start stuttering out a reply.

"Oh, Kenz. That-t-t's, I mean, you know that's not want I meant. I-I mean, sometimes you're a little cold and scary. Some guys find that as a turn on but other's don't." 

"If he doesn't like me for me, then whatever. He's not worth." I roll my eyes. "I'm not going to dumbly put myself in someone's hands who can break me at any moment when they don't actual like me for me. That's like dating in high school." I give her a pointed look. "If you date in high school, you're basically setting yourself up for heartbreak. These dudes are in high school, most of them haven't even mentally, emotionally, or physically dropped their balls yet. They're 18, you can't expect a life commitment at that age. Sometimes even 30 year olds can't keep a life commitment. It's pitiful watching girl 'fall in love' just for them to be dumped two months down the line." I rant. 

"Okay, Martin Luther King, great speech but we need to get you ready." She smirks. I scoff. 

"Fine, but I'm only changing my shirt. I like these jeans." I state looking down.

They're my favorite pair. My dad bought them for me on my 15 birthday. They're a high-waisted, light blue denim with patches of darker denim up and down the legs. They cut off about 2 inches above my ankle.

"Fine." She groans. I hear her rummaging through my things again. "Aha! Found the perfect sweater." I look up just in time for it to hit me in the face. She stifles her laughter to apologize. "I'm sorry, but that was too perfect." She giggles.

I shake my head and look at the sweater that lays on my lap. I laugh. It's a beige, crocheted, over-sized sweater with a cartoon shark on it, and above it, written in bold, black lettering, live the moment. She gave it to me as a going away present when my parents passed. "Thanks, Z." 

"Of course, Z."

I slip it on and walk over to my closet and put on my old converse. "I don't even know why I try to dress you up. You look absolutely stunning in anything." She compliments. My heart bursts with love for her. I spin around and wrap my arms around her. 

"Thank you." I whispered, utterly grateful for this pain-in-my-ass.

"You know I love you, right?" She questions wrapping her arms around me. 

"You know I'm so grateful for you, right?" I tease, my voice thick with emotions.

"That was truly beautiful." Logan's voice interrupts our moment.

We jump apart and look to see my brothers standing in the doorway to my room. 

"It was, but we need to get a move on." I roll my eyes. Leave it to Simon to be overly-responsible. 

"It's right next door, you butt." Jazz comments while smacking him on the back of the head on her way out. He hisses in pain and glares after her. I laugh smacking the same spot on my way out.

"Stop doing that!" He exclaims. "Kailey, Shelley, c'mon. Let's start heading over." 

We all exit our house and head over to the house next door, which just happens to belong to my hot English teacher. We stand outside his house awkwardly, not knowing who should knock on the door. 

"Z, you knock since you're hot and he's clearly into you." She smirks while wiggling her eyebrows. I glare.

"How about you knock, Z, since you invited us her tonight! And stop with that! He's not into me." I hiss. 

She glares back. "No, I did th-." 

"Alright, I'll fucking knock." Simon interrupts our bickering by ringing the doorbell. "Or ring the bell." 

Not two seconds later, the door opens to reveal Mr. Jones and an elderly lady, I'm assuming his mother, and a slightly middle-aged lady standing side by side with giddy smiles on their faces like fan-girling school girls behind him. "Please come in." He looks miserable. I resist the urge to smile by how adorable he looks. It's the kind of misery you get when you're a 14 year old boy and your mom asks you about your crush. 

"Thank you for having us, Mr. Jones." I reply while stepping in after my siblings with Jazz being the very first. I shouldn't be surprised, it smells bomb in here. Anywhere that serves free food, Jazz will elbow her way to the front. I mentally snort. 

"No, it's just Parker tonight." He says flashing me a smile. I give a small smile back staring into his eyes. His eyes are deep pools of chocolate. It's so mesmerizing. Little squeals and giggles break us from our staring contest. I look over and see Jazz and the two ladies giggling and staring at us in awe. 

"Hi, dear. I'm Maria and this is my daughter Kayla." 

"Hi, I'm Kennedy. This is Simon and Logan. This is my best friend Jazz, and my little sisters Kailey and Shelley."

xxx

"This is absolutely divine, Maria. Thank you." I compliment as I finish the last bite of my pasta. The burst of flavors in my mouth is absolutely orgasm-worthy. I look over at Jazz and see her already looking at me. At the same time we put our pinky's in the air. She bursts out laughing, choking on the pasta currently in her mouth. Out of natural reaction to my best friend being an idiot, I laugh at her. 

"Don't worry about them. They just got back together again." Simon explains our strange behavior to the people sitting at the table that aren't used to this. 

"What was the whole pinky thing?" Mr. Jones asks. I turn to back to Jazz and we start laughing all over again. 

"I want this one!" Logan exclaims. "Okay, so they made it up when they were like 14. When they eat food that tastes so good and can almost give you an orgasm, they usually shout out, 'orgasm' but in public settings they lift their pinky's to each other." Everyone at the table starts laughing. 

"What's an orgasm?" Comes Kailey's question from beside me. Those damn ears. Everyone freezes.

"Uh, you know what, let's talk about this later. Maybe over a bowl of ice cream when we get back home?" I question hoping she'll take the bait. 

"Ice cream?!" She exclaims with her very high pitched, squeaky voice. 

"Yep, Moose Tracks." 

"Our favorite?"

"We'll even build a fort in the living room and watch Brother Bear."

"I wanna watch Clueless."

Oh?

"Are you sure, you di-."

"She wants to watch it, Z. Don't talk her out of it. I've seen Brother Bear way too many times. And we're watching it for the first time together in three years. And before you object, watching it at the same time on facetime doesn't count." I nod. 

"Alright, I'm down." I grin. The rest of the table chuckles. 

"When did you get your nose pierced, hun?" Maria questions. 

"Two-three years ago. I don't really remember." 

"It was during the summer, right before you guys left." Jazz jumps in, snapping her fingers and pointing at me.

"Oh yeah!"

"It was a couple weeks after your parents passed. I remember I helped you." 

"Yeah, it was the day after I cut my finger. I called you over and asked for your help and we went into my bathroom and you stuck the needle in."

"You passed out too, bro. You lost consciousness for like three seconds." I laugh remembering that.

"If I stuck a needle through your septum, I'm pretty sure you'd pass out too."

"Yeah but I'm not stupid enough to let you do that to me." I gasp. Everyone at the table watches.

"You hobo."

"Chicken."

"Homunculus."

"Behemoth."

"Camel toe."

"What?" Her smile drops and her face forms into confusion.

"I win." I smile.

"Nuh-uh. That wasn't fair." She accused.

"How?" I smirk and cross my arms over my chest and lean back into this very comfortable dining room chair.

"Well. Hold on this may take a few minutes to come up with something." I hum in acknowledgement, staring her down. "Okay fine you win." She huffs.

"Jazz, did you forget the rules?" Simon mocks beside her. She snaps her head in his direction and glares. You can see him visibly flinch back. I snort. He glares at me now.

"I didn't forget the rules. There's just people here that don't make it appropriate." She mumbles.

"Rules?" Maria questions.

"Anyone else wanna volunteer to tell our life story?" I question, sarcastically.

"I do!" Logan puts his hand up.

"Go for it. But, dude, that's weird. Put your hand down."

"When they were nine, they got into their first fight. They were both so stubborn that they didn't talk for month. Everyone was miserable. The two princesses were at war and no one knew how to fix it. So our parents planned a play date," he pauses, flinching from the memories.

"Didn't go well, I assume." Parkers asks. I nod, smiling fondley of the memory.

Flashback Nine Years Ago

"Kennedy, sweety. Come here for a second." Her father calls up the stairs to the little girl pouting in her Jonas Brothers themed bedroom.

She got off her little bed and ran down the stairs, immediately happy from the smell of fresh baked brownies. But once she got in the kitchen her sweet smile fell and hatred burned in little gingers eyes. "You." Came her response to seeing her ex-best friend standing in her kitchen with a mouth full of brownie.

"What?" The little black girl shrugs innocently, when they both know its anything but innocent.

She felt tears pooling in her eyes. She couldn't help but feel betrayal sinking in. Her parents knew what she did, and they still invited her here. She hastily wipes a few tears that slipped from her beautiful hazel eyes. "I don't want her here. Guards take her away." She orders looking at her 6 year old twin brothers. They nod, knowing not to upset the princess.

"Wait, Kennedy. Don't you think your overreacting a little bit?" Her mother asks. How dare she side with the she-devil sitting at HER kitchen table, eating HER brownies.

"No." She then run over to her ex-best friend and pulls her hair, making her fall out of the chair. Before she could do anymore damage, her parents pull her little angry body from the hurt little girl.

"Kennedy, there was no need for that." Her father scolds.

"She drank my apple juice and didn't leave me any!"

After a few more hours of that the girls came to an agreement.

Back to the present

"After a few more hours of that the girls came to an agreement. If they ever got into another argument, only one could win. They winner give the loser a risky dare and it goes back to them being lesbian lovers." At the last part, we send each other a wink. Everyone laughs catching that.

"Did you really pull her hair." Parker asks, smiling amusedly at me.

"I did. I was gonna do as much damage as a nine year old could do to another nine year old." I laugh.

"I had a bump on my forehead for two weeks after that."

"You shouldn't have drank my juice and left not even a drop! I was ecstatic to drink it after soccer practice, but instead I walk in to see my traitor of a best friend with the last of the juice going down her throat."

"It was out in the open. How was I supposed to know?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe don't drink a juice that doesn't belong to you."

"They had names on them and that one didn't!"

"You said the loser had to do a dare." Kayla speaks up. I haven't heard her talk the whole time. She just reacted. I nod. "What does she have to do?" I smirk and stroke my non-existent beard. I got it?

I turn to Parker, "do you have an ice tray?"

"Yeah follow me?" He gets up and I follow him.

xxx

Sorry for the late update! I lost my phone at Jack in the Box and everything's been hectic with school. But hope you enjoy.