18
JASON
“Good morning.” I wake her with a delicate kiss on the forehead, hoping not to scare her.
I didn’t sleep much last night, was too busy watching over her resting, making sure her breathing was regular, keeping an ear to her chest to make sure her heart continued beating.
I don’t think there’s a more melodious, reassuring song in the world.
Good Lord, she’s alive.
Is it going to be like this every day?
“Hi.” She smiles at me, and I think yes, I could do this every day, or as long as she’ll want me to be by her side.
“Breakfast is ready, everyone’s downstairs. Let’s go, I’ll give you a ride to work.”
“I can take the bus.”
“Bullshit.” I cut her off right away. “I would never permit my girlfriend to take an hour-long bus ride to work when I can get her there in half the time in my car.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“What you just heard me say, Alex.” I smile at her. “It means we are together.”
“Well…I don’t want to be with anybody.”
“I am notanybody.”
She pulls herself up and sits on the bed. Her hair is a mess and her face is still laden with sleep. She looks simply fantastic.
“Well then, I don’t want to stay with you,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest.
“That means I’ll stay with you then. We’ve wasted enough time.” I give her a kiss on the nose. “I’ll be downstairs waiting.” And I disappear before she’s able to reply.
“There’s my girlfriend,” I say blatantly, causing Patrick to choke on his coffee.
Rain turns to me in expectation and I shoot her a wink and her eyes fill up on the spot. Liam puts his arm around her, squeezing her gently and she dries her eyes and goes back to finishing her coffee.
“I’m not…I’m not his girlfriend,” Alex says, taking the place next to me.
“But I am her boyfriend, so Rain, tell that asshole Keith not to dare look at her again, and by the way, tell him he’s fired.”
“Jay,” Aaron intervenes, with his usual father-of-ten parental authority voice. “You can’t fire Keith just because he made eyes at her.”
“That’s not all he did,” I inform him, as Alex looks at me, shaking her head. “He tried to take her out, he put his arm around her, he—”
“Okay,” Patrick chimes in. “Keith is out.”
“Excuse me?” Rain joins in. “We can’t throw someone out just because—”
“The argument is closed,” Aaron says. “Keith is out. I’ll call him today to let him know.”
“But…Aaron, you can’t—”
“Yes, I can, we’re already two against three. The decision has been made.”
Aaron gets up and comes towards me, he lowers his head to whisper something to me and says: “Anything for you, friend.” And he leaves me without words.
