Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 1)

I’d always wanted long hair like Anna’s.

Maybe one day I’d be able to have it.

Not any day soon, mind you.

But one day!

It was hours later when Dax and I were once again reunited for the night.

I’d done my level best to ignore the living room, not sure that I could handle all the hotness in it.

Instead, I’d made myself useful in the kitchen on my mother’s laptop.

I’d looked at furniture on Amazon and started making plans with my mother on some areas to look for a new place.

Though, plans for my new place also stemmed off what I was able to find in this area. None of the stuff from my old place was coming with me since I had rented it furnished, but I still had some knick-knacks, kitchen items, and clothes in San Antonio.

My old place that still needed to be dealt with. Sooner rather than later.

“I can drive down with you in two weekends,” Mom said.

“Mom,” Derek said as he came into the kitchen, arms loaded down with pizza boxes. “Nobody is going to really get anything out of you being there. No offense, but Dad won’t even let you carry a box up the stairs anymore.”

That was true.

A while ago, my mother had been walking up the stairs when she’d nearly tripped and fell straight down them. Granted, it was because she was carrying a laundry basket up them that she’d overbalanced, but that hadn’t mattered to my father.

From that point forward, he’d made sure that she didn’t need to go upstairs.

Upstairs was where my brother’s room and Katy’s room had been.

Derek and Katy had been forced to never allow their rooms to get to the point where my mother needed to intervene with anything heavier than a dust mop. If they did, there was a lot of hell to pay.

“Well, I can offer moral support then,” Mom said.

The kitchen door pushed open once again and my father and Dax came inside, empty tea jugs in their hands.

I felt myself respond to Dax’s closeness, even though his eyes were on the ground and not me.

“No offense, Mom,” Derek said. “But nobody needs moral support when they move. They need muscle.”

That was when I intervened.

“I can get it all myself,” I interjected. “I just need to pack it up. Nothing will be too heavy anyway. At most, I’ll need a truck.”

Derek was already shaking his head.

“I’m working every weekend for the next month,” Derek said. “It’s my month on.”

Dad piped in then.

“I have training the next two weekends that’ve been scheduled for months. I can get off Sunday, though. If we can turn around and make it home by Monday,” Dad said.

That probably wouldn’t work.

As much as I wanted it to, I still had a lot of shit that I needed to do there on a workday, and that would likely mean at least a two-day stay. If not more.

“I could help you move,” Dax offered. “I have a covered horse trailer that I can borrow from my parents. And I’m not doing anything this weekend.” He paused. “And there was something that I was wanting to get in San Antonio anyway.”

I narrowed my eyes at the man that was suddenly being so very helpful.

“I can handle it,” I said. “I just need to borrow a truck.”

“You’re not borrowing my truck, Row,” Derek said. “Sorry. And Dad’s truck is in need of new tires. I highly doubt that he’ll allow you to take it until he can get that done. The car guy already has them on order. They should be here next week sometime.”

I scrunched up my nose at him.

“Why are you so selfish?” I asked him.

“I’m not selfish,” Derek said. “I’m a realist. I don’t want to have to wait for my truck to be repaired after you fuck it up.”

I gasped in outrage.

“I wouldn’t fuck it up!” I cried out.

“You always manage to fuck something up,” he countered. “And wasn’t it just you that ran over a curb in your car and bent the rim so that it had to be replaced?”

“That could’ve happened to anyone!” I countered.

“Sure,” he agreed. “But wasn’t it also you that drove Mom’s Tahoe to the store last night and…”

I gasped and pointed at him. “You said you wouldn’t tell!”

Mom’s attention was now fully on me.

“What did you do, Row?” Mom asked.

I sighed, shooting my brother a murderous look.

“Some guy dinged it,” I said. “He was old and could barely walk. So I don’t really think it’s something we should pursue, even though he gave me his information.”

Mom scrunched up her nose.

“I was hoping to fix it before you noticed,” I admitted. “It shouldn’t cost too much.”

Dad turned to Dax then.

“I’ll pay you gas money and pay for a hotel for the night if you can take her this weekend,” he said, taking the empty tea jugs from him and shoving them into a big black trash bag.