Page 12 of The Runaway

Right now, in this moment, Joci was more than just a pretty face. The way she had to pause, think, realization, and then come up with a response she couldsay— it was a beautiful process. Before she ever opened her mouth, I saw her thought process in her eyes.

“Hey, Jacob!” I froze like a teenager caught in a jacuzzi at Costco as a harddun-dun-dunechoed through my bedroom. My heart nearly burst, sucking all the blood from my groin to pump it into my head. “You got a minute to talk about earlier?”

Joci’s wide eyes narrowed on me as she waited. Clearly, she wanted me to tell Caleb to fuck off. This was a perfect example of the ‘not illegal but annoying as all Hell’ situations my cousin put me in. Slumping in defeat, reluctance slowed my hands drawing back, and irritation curled my fingers.

“Sorry. This isn’t going to be a thing. He needs to find somewhere else to go, and I’m not backing down on kicking him out.” She poutedso hardthat I couldn’t help but smile, but Joci clamored off me regardless. Her thick lower lip trembled as she huffed, and I reached to pull her hair back and caress her neck. “Hey—”

“Now I know why Lyov screamed and stomped at interruptions.” A laugh escaped me at that while she scooted to the foot of the bed to hang her legs over. Frustration and elation mingled toxically in my blood, and I followed her to press my palm against her lower back. “… My knees hurt.”

“Why?” I’d rather stay here, in this dark room, with Joci. Both my and her coats were hanging out in the living room. If that wasn’t enough of a damned hint to keep quiet, I didn’t know what was. Standing up to arch my back, I took off my shirt to let it flutter to the floor as Joci shrugged lightly without a verbal reply.

12

Joci

“Oh— you’re here.” Pausing to frown at Caleb’s surprised observation, I pursed my lips thinly. More and more, it was becoming clear why Jacob got all scrunchy-faced and pissy when Caleb was around or mentioned. The dumb look on his face as I slowly shut the bedroom door was almost insulting— or it would be if he hadn’t done the same thing last night. At least, this time, I knew what to expect. “So, Jacob— uh, we’ll talk when you get back, yeah?”

“Where am I going? Joci is staying the night.” Caleb’s expression froze, and I flexed my toes on the carpet before wandering over to the sofa. “Is that a problem?”

“Uh-h… no… I just wanted to try to talk to you about earlier at the pizza place. No hard feelings, right? Cousin’s fight, but we shouldn’t make rash decisions every time we get pissed at each other.” I rubbed my knees absently as a stony silence filled the air, and Jacob sighed heavily. Leaning back on the sofa, discomfort strained my features at how the cushions just sucked me in. The coffee-colored furniture was so overused, and I sat up straight before both men came into my peripheral.

Jacob sat down on the modern-style armchair to my left, and Caleb stood across the glass coffee table. There were a few noticeable, circular stains, and I reached to grab one of the coasters and make myself as small as possible. I wasn’t going to get between Jacob and his cousin— this had very clearly been an issue for a long time.

“Caleb, this isn’t a rash decision. You pay to sleep on my couch, you contribute to the bills a little, and that’s great… but you’re becoming a pain in the ass. I’ve talked to you about it before, but you never stick to any agreement we make. It’s been two years, and you need to get your own place or move back home with Auntie Jess.” Jacob spoke in a reasonable, firm tone, and I closed my eyes to let it wrap around me. The feeling of him against me made me feel…loose… as if the screws and plates holding me together weren’t there. As if I was human and feeling human things, not just the metal grating against my bones. “I’ve told you over and over again that you need to respect my boundaries. If I want to go out by myself, I should be able to without you inviting yourself anyway. Being late to everything, and then whining that I’m not hanging around. Not cleaning your own messes because they’re small. Coming in at 4am and not bothering to be quiet— I’m not dealing with this anymore. I let you stay here, but your bad habits are impacting my life in a negative way, and no matter how many times I’ve talked to you about it, you don’t change.”

“The whole point of me staying here is because I can’t afford to live by myself, Jacob— you know that finding good roommates is damn near impossible. I can’t just go back home. Mom will throw a huge fit—” When I opened my eyes, Caleb lookeddevastated, his face drawn and pale and his eyes wide with uncertainty. “You can’t just kick me out… we can work this out.”

“I can just kick you out, Caleb. I’ve tried to work on this with you for a long time, and you brush me off. This ismyapartment,mylife, and you’re taking advantage of my kindness and because we’re cousins. I can live without you easily. You can’t live without me, apparently. You should’ve realized that you don’t have the liberty of ignoring me giving you rules or expectations, but that’s exactly what you did. The only thing you do that I asked is fold the sheets after you use them, but even then… I’m the one that washes them. I’m the one that does your dinner dishes because I want to make something. I want to be alone, like today, and you invite yourself along and don’t shut up, and then you get mad for my being annoyed at you. You’re never on time for any of our plans, but if you need something from me, you expect me to drop everything and come rushing. I’m tired of it. So, you have two weeks to find somewhere else to live.”

Jacob’s anecdote came to a solid end, and I fiddled absently with the coaster as I glanced over at him. He was firm, not raising his voice, not getting too emotional, and my lips thinned. The silence rang in my ears, but even sitting down, Jacob was the more powerful of the two. His lean shoulders rippled as he pushed on his thighs to stand, nodding curtly at his cousin.

“That’s all. As of Monday, you’ve got two weeks, Caleb.” The finality in Jacob’s tone left no room for argument, and Caleb opened his mouth only to close it again. Dejectedly shuffling for the door, he shot me a nasty look as he passed the sofa, but I ignored it. Only when he was out of the apartment did Jacob heave a sigh, rubbing his hands down his face and shaking his head roughly. “Fuck…”

“Are you okay?” He paused, eyes fixing on mine, and cocked his head, and I licked my lips heavily. “Was that hard to do?”

“Uh-h… Caleb and I grew up side by side. We went all through school together, and he was my best friend until I went to college.” Interest rose my brows, and I set the coaster back on top of the pile while Jacob frowned under furrowed eyebrows. “He’s always been this way. That’s the problem. I got my shit together, but the things about him that I liked in high school are annoying now. I don’t think the idea of getting blackout drunk for my 27thbirthday is particularly fun, for instance.”

“You’re 27? I am, too.” Jacob was so easy to smile, even when he’d just done something that was obviously very difficult on him. Rubbing his jaw, he scratched his stubble and around to the back of his neck. He just didn’t know what to do, now, and my heart ached for him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know— it’s a weird situation. Caleb is an only child, and I have a bigger family, so he was always around foreverythingwe did. Summer vacations, spring break, weekends. I was always encouraged to invite him, but he was always treated as a guest— he never had to take responsibility the way we had to.” Sauntering over to sit next to me, Jacob frowned when he sank into the cushion. “Obviously, he abused my sofa, but I’m gonna get stuck with the bill for a new one.”

“You are good with your family? My parents died five years ago when I broke up with Anatoly.” Leaning over to rest my cheek on his shoulder, I liked how smoothly Jacob’s arm slithered around my back. Obviously, he didn’t work out, but he wasn’t lazy, either. He wascomfortable. His warmth enveloped me, the coarse, sparse hairs tickling me as he inhaled deeply at my confession.

“Yeah, we’re all close. We live in the city. My sister Emily supports my parents, since she makes the most money of us all. I have a brother that’s super into drugs, and his girlfriend’s a major hippy… every family has at least one of those, though.”What’s a hippy?I didn’t know, but I couldn’t ask to find out when Jacob exhaled heavily, his hand caressing up and down my back. “I didn’t bring you here to screw around, but now I feel like we’re not gonna do anything at all. Caleb’s probably calling his mom, and she’ll call my mom, and my mom will call me…”

“You don’t have anything bad, right?” Shaking his head, he arched a brow quizzically as I turned to him. “Why not doing something small?”

“… Oh—” His eyes lit up with his realization, and Jacob flopped his head back to stare at the ceiling. “Doesn’t seem worth it if I can’t give it back, and even if I had the time before my mom starts blowing up my phone… I have to be honest, Joci— I would feel totally defeated if you got me off and we got interruptedagain.”

“So, turn your phone off. I did. It works.” Rather than reply verbally, Jacob just wrapped his arms around me and dragged me to his chest. My gasp echoed through the room, and he rubbed the top of my head as I blinked to stop the world from spinning. His heart beat hard against my cheek, and I had to consciously unwind my muscles. Tilting my head up, he captured my lips firmly, and surprise jolted my body and bristled the fine hairs on my face.

Heat flooded my system as I cuddled against him, and Jacob grabbed my hand to press my palm against his heart. Opening my mouth for him, I moaned softly as his tongue danced with mine. The taste of him was thick and heady, and he cupped my jaw while his other hand swept down my back. Fog descended on my brain, but one thing was startlingly clear…

Jacob’s a great kisser.

13

Jacob