Sweetness (Bold As Love 1)

Once home, I found dad already asleep. Thank goodness. Drake ran up the stairs to his room and shut the door. I sighed and went to fix myself something to eat. A ham and cheese sandwich with some chips would have to do for tonight. I didn’t feel like fixing anything requiring more effort.

I

took in the silence of the house and ate quickly. Upstairs, I checked on Drake. He ignored me, of course. I went to my room, flopped on my bed, and tried to watch TV. I couldn’t focus and I was exhausted. Soon, I was sleeping.

“Jake!”

I rolled over, but Drake kept yelling. “What?” I asked.

“Can we go to Emily’s today?”

I groaned. “Drake, you spent all day with her yesterday,” I pointed out. It was no use. He had made up his mind as to what he wanted to do.

“Please! I want to play with my car! Please, please, PLEASE!”

I rolled over to face him. He already looked as excited as if I said yes. “Drake, she probably doesn’t want to spend her Sunday with a little kid hanging around.”

His face fell. “She likes to hang out with me more than she likes to hang out with you,” he yelled, running out of the room. What was it with him and her? Maybe I just didn’t like that she would rather hang out with Drake than me. I tried to ignore that thought.

My phone buzzed on my nightstand and I grabbed it. “Hello,” I answered, without looking at who was calling. I immediately regretted it.

“Hey, Jake. It’s Claire.”

“Hey, Claire.”

“Anna, Josh, and I are going to the movies today. I was wondering if you wanted to come with.”

Immediately I thought of Drake. I couldn’t leave him here with my dad. I didn’t want to leave him with Emily either. I really didn’t want to go with Claire. I would probably hear it from Josh if I didn’t go.

“What are you guys seeing?” She named some horror movie. “I don’t know, Claire. I’ve got Drake.”

“Can’t he go to a friend’s?”

Emily’s face popped up again. I shook my head. I would have to give in to someone. It was either Drake or Claire, or both. I could spend the day with Drake and Emily…or with Claire.

“Sorry, Claire. I just remembered I promised to spend the day with Drake. You know, just us brothers.” She sighed and quickly said goodbye. I took a deep breath and called Emily, flopping back onto my pillow.

Her quiet voice answered on the second ring. “Hey, Jake.”

“Hey, Emily, what are you up today?”

“Nothing much.”

“I hate to ask you this, but Drake has been giving me the cold shoulder since I picked him up. Do you want to hang out with us today?” She was silent on the other end. I checked my phone to make sure I was still connected. Yep, I was.

Finally, her sweet voice replied. “Sure. That’s fine, but Jake…I know I’m not the most fun person you could hang out with. You can just drop Drake off and do something you want to do. I don’t want you to just hang around because of Drake.”

“So basically, if I don’t want to hang out with you, then I shouldn’t?” Once again, she was quiet for a minute before she answered.

“Yes.”

Without knowing how she would react, I decided to say, “Look, Emily, if I didn’t want to be there, trust me I wouldn’t be. What makes you think that I wouldn’t want to hang out with you? Drake obviously loves you and I don’t see anything wrong with you. So, tell me, why do you think I wouldn’t want to hang out with you?”

This time she was quiet for a full three minutes before she replied. She took a deep breath and in a shaky voice, barely a whisper, she said, “No one else wants to.”

If I were standing right beside her, I probably would have heard her heart breaking. It would have sounded like the cracking of a wooden bat connecting with a baseball. No, that was too clean of a break. It would have sounded like rain from a powerful thunderstorm pounding on a tin roof. Millions of drops relentlessly pounding away on the surface until it shattered into billions of tiny pieces. Pieces Emily couldn’t put back together by herself.

Right then, hearing the tears that had to be falling from her beautiful brown eyes, I wanted nothing more than to take each piece and put it back together again until she was whole. I had to do it. I had to for her and for me. Maybe if Emily can be restored and healed, then maybe, just maybe, so could I.