Chapter 12: – Chapter 12

Dinner goes without any casualties. Everyone behaves and Rhys seems to go back to his usual self now that Ashley is here. She doesn’t hang out with us much, but it’s always awkward when she does. She’s a year younger than us and it shows. She’s peppy and if the school offered cheerleading, she’d be the captain. That’s the person she is. She is bubbly and social. The complete opposite to Rhys.

The look on Millie’s face was priceless when Hayden walked in. He’s the same age as Millie and Julia. She’s no doubt seen him around school. He’s a bad boy in every sense. Where Rhys shies away from attention, Hayden runs towards it. They head inside after dinner to watch a movie. Mum makes her rounds hugging all of us before heading to bed.

Not long after, GW says goodnight and leaves me sitting outside with my friends. It’s been a nice afternoon just hanging out. Yasmin chose to sit on my lap again. I love that I can run my hand up and down her exposed thigh. She shivers every time I toy with the hem of her dress. Rhys is distracted by Ashley. They’re making out in the corner. Arden and Yasmin are discussing our joint birthday party.

“Did you just say jelly wrestling?” Yasmin asks, bringing my attention back to the conversation.

“Yep, and sexy clowns. It’s going to be epic; you only turn 18 once.” I’ve let Arden plan the last three parties. It’s more for him. For me it’s just another day.

“When is this epic party?” Yasmin asks again.

“Next weekend. You’re coming right?” Arden asks her.

“Umm, am I invited?”

“Of course. If you don’t come, neither will Chase and then it wouldn’t be Arden and Chase’s big birthday bash.”

“I suppose I could make an appearance,” Yasmin teases.

“As long as it’s okay with Millie. I don’t like leaving her at home by herself.” Yasmin showed me a message from her dad earlier. He told her he needed to go to New Hope for the week for work training. Promised to call her tomorrow.

He didn’t ask. Just left Yasmin and Millie here to fend for themselves. It made me angry. Yasmin brushed it off. Told me she was use to it.

I spoke to Mum about it briefly earlier. She said that the girls were always welcome here, although she would know where I was if I wasn’t here in the morning. She knows that I won’t leave Yasmin alone. Not now that I know we have a history. I’m eager to bring back old memories while creating new ones.

“She can stay here with Mum. Julia as well if she wants. I know she won’t want to be at the house during the party.” I suggest.

Arden installed locks on our bedroom doors at the house so that no one could get in when we have a party there. He wanted to know that Julia would be safe and same with Ally when she goes off to bed.

“Millie and Julia are chummy. I haven’t seen Julia that interactive in years.” Arden says.

“I know. It was good to watch; you know she’s like a sister to me as well right?” I ask. Not sure that Arden realises that it goes both ways. His family is mine as well. Even if we do spend more time here.

“Mine too.” Rhys chimes in. I guess he was listening after all.

“I’ve missed her.” Ally says. “I still message her every week to check in on her, even though I know she won’t reply. I just wanted her to know that I was here when she was ready.”

“What happened?” Yasmin asks. I love how she feels sitting on my lap. I like being close to her and touching her. It calms me, as much as it calms her. I wait for Arden to speak. He’s the only one that can tell this story. It hurt all of us, but he’s her brother. He took it the hardest.

“Julia was sick as a child. It took a while for the doctors to figure out she had type one diabetes. Once that was diagnosed when she was ten, she was also diagnosed with other auto-immune diseases. Dad pulled her from school and got her tutors because she was in and out of hospital.” We would spend so much time at the hospital with her. Yasmin shifts, giving Arden her full attention.

“Her mum stuck around for a while. Julia got a severe kidney infection and ended up in hospital for a couple of weeks. Her mum left in the middle of the night. Didn’t leave a note. Just packed her bags, emptied her joint account and left. When Julia got home from hospital, she locked herself in her room and pushed us all away. She barely talks to Dad. The only person she let in was Martha our housekeeper.” As Arden talks, I remember the day he showed up here distraught. He couldn’t figure out why she had locked us all out. They were always close.

“What a bitch. Has she contacted anyone since she left?” Yasmin asks.

“Nope. Not a word. Dad hired Casey from Dory’s Private Investigative Services in New Hope to try and find her. Casey is the best in the business and she had no luck, it’s like she just disappeared into thin air.”

“I’m happy she came tonight. It’s nice to know Millie has a friend here. It’ll make leaving next year a little easier.”

“What are your plans next year?” Rhys asks Yasmin. I shift so I can hear her response. I don’t know if she plans on going back to wherever she came from or if she will be sticking closer to here.

“Law school. Hopefully at New Hope University. I decided last year that I wanted to go to NHU. When I was looking at campuses online, it was the one that stuck with me. I was drawn to it. I didn’t even pick a back up school.”

Rhys looks kind of surprised. “Me too. Dad has been pushing law school on me for years. He’d have a coronary if I decided to do something else. Lucky for him I like the idea of being a lawyer. Although, he wanted me to attend Neverland University. I compromised with him and we settled on NHU.”

Yasmin watches Rhys. It’s obvious she’s shocked that he is talking to her. I love him, but he is definitely not a talker.

“Well hopefully I get in. It’ll be nice to have someone to study with.” She smiles at Rhys. He just nods and whispers in Ashley’s ear.

I relax at the idea that she’ll still be close next year. I’m not sure I could say goodbye to her.

After a while Rhys, Ashley, and Hayden leave. Ashley didn’t drink so that she could drive the boys home. We discovered Millie, Julia and Daisy passed out in my bed.

“Wanna stay with me tonight?” Yasmin asks. She licks her lips and moves a little closer.

“You don’t have to ask me twice.”

We ask Arden and Ally if it is okay if the girls stay here with them. Mum’s already asleep; I know she won’t mind. She’ll love having the girls here in the morning. Ally and Arden practically shove us out the door. I guess they don’t mind either.

***

Walking into Yasmin’s house brings back memories of earlier. I pull her close the minute the door closes. She walks backwards holding up her hands to stop my approach.

“Whoa, back up. Can we at least make it to the bed this time?”

“Lead the way.”

I follow her up the stairs and into her room. Looking around, I see the wall-to-wall bookcases packed full.

“I think you might need some more shelves.” I suggest.

“Yep, I still have ten boxes downstairs. Dad told me I can’t get any more bookshelves because I am leaving, and they won’t fit in a share room next year.” She pouts as she talks.

Right here right now I tell myself that I will build this girl as many bookcases as she wants if it makes her happy. Her dad is right though. The five she already has probably won’t fit in a share room.

“You’ll have your own library one day.”

“I hope so.”

I move to her, pulling her to me. My lips find hers and she melts into me. Moving towards her bed, I lower her slowly, not breaking the kiss.

I spend the next few hours getting to know both my girl and her body before she falls asleep in my arms.

Early in the morning, Arden messaged to let us know that he and Ally were taking the girls to his house to watch movies in the theatre room. He’d bring Millie back tonight. Allowing me to spend some much-appreciated alone time with my girl.

***

Yasmin is leaning against Wander reading when we pull into the parking spot beside her. She looks up briefly smiles and then goes back to her book. She told me yesterday how much she loved to read. Her eyes lit up as she talked about all the books and authors she loves. I drape my arm over her shoulders. She shuffles closer, lifting her face and pouting her lips at me.

I chuckle and lean in and place a quick kiss on her lips.

“Morning pretty girl.”

“You already said good morning to me in the shower earlier, or have you forgotten already?” She grins.

“I could never forget.” I wink at her.

“Ewww you guys are gross.” Arden pretends to gag.

I flip him off as I grab Yasmin’s bag off the ground and lead her across the car park. She continues to read, trusting me to guide her.

Ally is already waiting at Yasmin’s locker.

“Back up Romeo. I’m borrowing your girl.” Ally says as the only warning either of us get before she pulls Yasmin down the hall.

“Morning to you too Ally. I’ll take your stuff to home room.” I say to them both.

“What was that all about?” Arden asks.

“Fucked if I know. Yasmin mentioned yesterday that she wants to spend some girl time with Ally. Maybe they are discussing that.”

“Who knows? Chicks are complicated.”

I put mine and Yasmin’s bags away and grab what we need for our first class.

“How do you feel about mimes? I want to get some for the party.”

“Fuck no. Mimes are creepy dude.”

“What about fire twirlers?”

“Do you really think that is a good idea?” The idea of over a 100 people and fire makes me shudder. Something is bound to go wrong.

“I guess not. Dad would kill me if I burnt down the house.”

“Yes, he would. The party will be good. There is no need for you to hire mimes or fire twirlers. People only care about the food and booze,” I tell him as we walk into home room. Rhys is already leaning back in his chair. Two extra chairs have been placed around our table. I nod at him by way of greeting.

“But there needs to be some WOW factor. I don’t think the party bags will be enough.”

I shake my head at him. “Only you would decide to make up party bags for a party where the guest list exceeds over 100 people.” I sit down and Arden leaves a chair between us when he sits.

“Tell Arden we don’t need mimes, fire twirlers or party bags for our birthday,” I say to Rhys.

“What the fuck is wrong with you Arden? That’s a no to all of the above.”

“You guys just don’t understand,” Arden says throwing his arms in the air in a dramatic motion.

“What don’t they understand?” Yasmin says as she walks up to our table with Ally.

“I want to hire mimes or a fire twirler for the party.”

“Sorry Chuck, I agree with the boys on this one. That’s over the top. People won’t be sober enough to remember anyway,” Yasmin says. “Is that chair for me?”

“Yeah.” Rhys says. “I figured you and Ally would be sitting with us now.”

“Thanks Rhys.” She says making her way around the table to sit next to me. I don’t miss the looks the other girls in the class are giving her.

“Gee thanks Rhys. I’ve been sitting alone for almost five years and now you decide to move a chair over here for me,” Ally says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Don’t start, you’ve always known you could sit with us. You just decided not to,” Rhys spits back.

“I know, what about a tiger?” Arden asks excitedly.

“No.” Yasmin, Rhys and I respond collectively.

“Where the hell are you going to get a tiger from?” Ally asks.

“You guys suck.” Arden pouts. He spends the rest of home room shouting out random ideas. Every time the answer is a unanimous NO.

Once home room is over, I kiss Yasmin goodbye.

“I’ll see you in shop class,” I tell her, reluctantly letting her go. Ally is lucky she is in almost all of Yasmin’s classes.

“Yep. See you soon.” She stands on her toes and kisses my cheek before linking arms with Ally and walking in the opposite direction.

“Strippers. Every eighteenth birthday party needs strippers,” Arden says again.

I punch him in the shoulder and walk past him to go to our next class.

“So that’s a no?” He asks as he rubs his shoulder.

“Hard no.”

“Asshole!” He yells behind me.

***

Arden is quiet during our morning classes until we walk into shop class. He’s been itching to show me the new designs he worked on last week while he was refusing to help me.

This class has nothing to do with design, but Arden doesn’t care. While I’m doing an oil change, he’s picturing how the car would look with new body work and repainted. He has some serious talent; his sketches are amazing. His passion for design shows in all his work. I flip through his sketch pad on our way out of the change room.

“These are amazing.” I compliment.

“Of course, they are.” I roll my eyes at him. Flipping through some more pages, I stop on his sketch of Wander. He’s laid her flat and changed the colour.

“Wow. Wander looks good.”

“I know right. You think Yasmin will let us do it?”

“Maybe. Why don’t you wait and ask her after graduation? I don’t think she’ll want to start a project on Wander until she settles into Uni.”

“Good idea. Hmmm guess that means the house needs to have a good garage.” He says as he pulls out his phone to start his google search.

Arden convinced Rhys, Ally and I to move in with him next year. His dad will buy us a house to stay in while we’re all studying and working. Arden still hasn’t found a house that suits his plans.

I wonder if that vision now includes Yasmin. I don’t like the idea of her sharing a room with a stranger next year. I want her with me.

Speaking of Yasmin, I watch as she walks over to Mr Williams to find out what she’ll be doing today. Yesterday she mentioned that she hoped he would finally let her help work on the cars.

They speak briefly before making their way over to Arden and I.

“Chase, Yasmin will be helping you this week. Since your partner isn’t much help.” He says directing his comment at Arden. I have no issue with Yasmin working with us. I want to see what she can do.

“I’m offended. I offer moral support to Chase. My manicurist would murder me if I got my hands dirty. Not to mention my skin care products are expensive and don’t go well with oil.”

Mr Williams slaps Arden across the back of the head and pushes a packet of baby wipes into his chest.

“I’m not sure why you haven’t flunked out of my class yet. That’s the only thing you need. Baby wipes clean everything,” he says walking away shaking his head.

“You’d miss me if I wasn’t here,” Arden yells back. He places his arms around both Yasmin and I and walks us over to the 2002 Ford Falcon we are doing a service on.