I was sitting on the floor by the king-sized bed in my room. The walls had been painted an ivory colour and the tiles were beige. There was a picture of Daniel and I in a restaurant on the nightstand next to the dresser. There were other pictures of me and my family hanging on the wall and there was a vanity by the wall opposite the bed.
I had just finished unpacking my boxes when a knock came on the door.
"Come in," I announced and the door opened. Daniel poked his head in before stepping into the room.
"Hey hot stuff," I said as he shut the door behind him and he gave me a smirk before walking over to where I was on the floor. "Are you done helping Zeke?"
My aunt, Ezra's mum, had bought some gaming stuffs for Zeke that needed to be setup and he had enlisted Daniel's help.
"Yeah, um... " I quirked my eyebrows up when he trailed off.
He clasped his hands in front of him and grimaced, he looked like he'd rather not do what he was about to do. I zipped up the boxes in front of me and made them stand upright before getting to my feet and sitting on my bed.
"Is something wrong?" I asked as I ran my hand over my curls.
"No, no, everything's fine," he said and he unclasped his hands.
"Dude, just ask her," Zeke's voice came from the other side of the door and I narrowed my eyes at Daniel.
Zeke had begged me during our flight to give him the key to dad's man cave and I had given him a firm 'no'. Dad had specifically told me not to give it to Zeke. I could give it to Ezra and Alison but not Zeke.
"No," I stated and he let out a groan as I grabbed my phone from the nightstand.
There was a message from Roshni welcoming me back home and asking if I wanted to go see a movie with her tomorrow night. She was probably at home for her to know that I was back. I replied with a 'sure' as Daniel sat down next to me.
"Enny?"
"Hmm?" I didn't want to look at his face because I knew that if I did I'd give in.
"Enny?" he repeated as he placed a hand on my upper thigh and my eyes automatically darted to it.
He tipped my chin up with his other hand and hit me with his famous puppy eyes, the one that always got him out of trouble with his mum.
"Christ," I muttered as I quickly looked away. "Daniel, I can't give it to Zeke."
"But you'll be giving it to me, not Zeke," he pleaded and I realized that he was right. Ezra or Alison could also be the ones to ask for the key and Zeke would still end up in the man cave.
Well, dad didn't think that one through.
"If anything happens I would hold you responsible," I stated and he eagerly nodded just as an excited 'yes' came from the other side of the door.
I stood up from the bed and walked over to my dresser, fishing the key from one of the drawers before reluctantly handing it over to a very happy Daniel.
"If anything happens –"
"I'll be held responsible," he completed my statement and gave me a peck on the lips. "Thank you so much."
"Thank you sis," Zeke said, sounding as happy as Daniel looked, after Daniel dashed out of the room and I rolled my eyes.
A couple of minutes later, I was on my bed replying messages from my friends when Alison suddenly rushed in.
"They broke dad's TV!"
My mouth fell open and my heart dropped as I scrambled up from my bed. What the heck?
I ran past Alison and down the hallway to the room that had its door wide open. My eyes skipped over all the games in the room to the TV. Shit. There was a wide crack in the TV's huge screen that was in the middle of the room, like someone had thrown something heavy at it. Daniel stood beside the TV with shock written all over his face while Zeke looked extremely confused.
They finally noticed that I was standing in the doorway and Daniel opened his mouth to say something but I held my hand up. I didn't want to hear anything that he had to say because it didn't matter who did it, I was holding him responsible. Then I remembered dad's 'no boys in the house' rule which meant that Daniel wasn't even supposed to be here.
Oh my God. Dad's going to kill me, dad's going to kill Zeke and then I'm going to kill Zeke.
Laughter began to bubble up within me and I let it out. I'm so dead. I laughed even harder and their mouths fell open.
"Enny, are you okay?" Zeke asked after a while and I responded with more laughter.
They shared a nervous look before Daniel moved towards me and I left the doorway, still laughing as I headed back to my room.
------
They didn't come out of the man cave till Alison and I took Jack for a walk. That was most likely because I had gone to cry to Ezra after my laughing phase and he was so pissed, he yelled. And Ezra doesn't yell.
I had already texted mum about the broken TV and she left me on read. I texted her about something else after some minutes and she replied that just fine.
My phone buzzed with a message from the cheerleaders group chat and I was about to open it when Jack pulled the leash. He had way too much energy. He could run all day and still be eager to go again. Every walk is as exciting for him as a person being offered tickets to a rock concert, even if he's done the exact same route a thousand times before.
I glanced at Tamara's house as we walked past it. The door was wide open which wasn't unusual. I had asked her once and she said it's to let air in which made me confused about what windows were for.
"Hi Faye," Alison said drawing my attention to the girl in front of us.
Her chestnut brown hair with blonde highlights was poker-straight and pulled back into a pony-tail. From under side bangs shone eyes the colour of a dazzling sapphire blue, which travelled from me to Alison before a smile grew on her lips.
"Hi Alison."
The smile slipped away and her lips drew into a hard line across her face the moment she looked back at me. She didn't look away till she walked by me and I felt like I could finally breathe.
She and I used to be friends but she just suddenly hated me one day. Cheri told me that it was probably because I took Daniel from her because she stopped talking to me around the same time Daniel and I started dating but I don't think so because that's a dumb reason to hate someone. Daniel had also made it clear to her that they couldn't be more than best friends and they remained best friends long after he became my boyfriend till she suddenly attacked me one day.
"Hello girls," came a voice, interrupting my thoughts.
It was Mr. Horton, Faye's dad. He was wearing a suit and standing by his red Mercedes-Benz in front of his house which was opposite ours.
"Good evening sir," Alison and I responded as I pulled the leash to stop Jack.
"When did you get back?" he asked with his usual friendly smile as he shut the car door and started to approach us.
"Today." I pulled the leash again as he pulled harder in the direction of Faye's dad and began to growl. He turned a circle around me, making me turn with him and I muttered a 'settle down' which he answered.
"Are your parents home? I need to talk to them."
Jack suddenly began to bark wildly when the man was a few feet away from us and my heart jumped.
"Whoa." Faye's dad took a couple of steps back.
"Jack, settle down!" I pulled on his leash again and he whirled so fast that I panicked and let go of the leash.
He immediately went after Faye's dad who quickly kept an arm out in front of him as Alison screamed for Ezra. I didn't know what else to do but give commands in a frenzy as he latched onto the man who began to scream.
Ezra, Zeke and Daniel emerged from the house and quickly de-escalated the situation but I was still in shock. Jack had never behaved like that before. Zeke and Daniel instantly took Jack to the back of the house while Ezra and I profusely apologized to the man who claimed he was okay before he got into his car and drove to the hospital. I could see some of our neighbours looking out of their windows as Ezra turned to face me.
"What the hell happened?"