Chapter Twenty-Six

Ezra

I can’t wait to see Jupiter, I thought as I dried myself off. I took the quickest shower possible just so I could see her as soon as possible. I searched through my bags, spotting my HAVE YOU SEEN THE BRIDGE? T-shirt and pulled it on along with a ratty pair of jeans. Not wanting to bother with shoes, I stomped barefoot toward the door, eager to wake Jupiter. I stepped on a piece of paper, peeled it off my heel, and threw it in the trash. Milo and Kai never kept a clean room. 

I practically sprinted to Jupiter’s door and knocked softly. I gripped both triceps with my hands and bounced up and down on the balls of my feet, anxious for her to answer. I knocked again, a little louder.

“Jupiter?” I whispered.

She didn’t come to the door. 

“Jupiter,” I spoke a little louder. My hand gripped the doorknob. “I’m coming in,” I told her. “I hope you’re decent. But not really. Just kidding.” I laughed. “Really, though, I’m coming in. Fair warning. One. Two. Three!” I said, opening the door. 

My smile fell. The room was empty. Damn, she beat me, I thought, and headed for the kitchen. 

I needed to talk to her, but I knew everything would work out. It had to. Everyone, including Cameron, was running around the kitchen getting breakfast ready. 

“Morning, Aunt Rosie,” I said, kissing her cheek and stealing a piece of bacon from her platter. 

“Oh, child!” she said, slapping at my hand, and making me laugh. She didn’t stay mad for long and gave me a sweet smile. “Morning, Romeo.” She looked around me. “Where’s Juliet?” she asked. 

I looked around the room. “I thought she was in here.”

“No, darlin’, we haven’t seen her anywhere.”

I glanced at my cousins. “Haven’t seen her,” Kai said, reaching for a blueberry waffle. 

“Milo?” I asked.

“I swear,” he said, holding up his hands. “Haven’t talked to her since last night.”

I could feel my heart batter at my ribs. “She’s not in her room,” I told them.

Cameron studied her plate. I remembered that piece of paper and put it together. I ran for Kai’s and Milo’s room and dug through the wastebasket, pulled it out, and held it in front of my face. 

“No! No, no, no, no, no!” I bellowed, throwing a fist into a wall.

I walked with purpose back to the kitchen and slammed Jupiter’s note on the table in front of Cameron. 

“What did you do!” I yelled at her. 

She began to cry. I thought Rosie would shout at me to be kinder, but she only stood there, her mouth gaping. 

Milo stood up. “What are you yelling at her for?” 

Pointing at her with as much vehemence as I could muster, teeth gritted, I told him, “Jupiter is not in her room. She’s gone. And she left me this.” I slid the paper over to him to read. 

Kai, Rosie, and Bear leaned over to read the message. 

“For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright. Who art as black as hell, as dark as night?” Rosie asked. “What does that mean?”

Shame inundated my face and chest. “It means that the stupid thing Milo and I did got back to Jupiter, that’s what it means.”

Rosie looked at me, her brows already narrowed in anger. “What stupid thing?”

I sank against the tabletop. “I’m too ashamed to even tell you.”

Rosie dropped the platter of bacon and sausage she’d been holding onto the table. “Somebody better start talking, and it better be now,” she said, folding her arms. 

I cleared my throat, but Milo spoke over me. “We made a bet,” he explained. 

My uncle came into the kitchen, shuffling his slipper-clad feet, his hair a mess on top of his head, and making a beeline for the coffee. 

“Mornin’, honey,” he told Rosie, clueless to the drama unfolding before him. 

“What was the bet?” Rosie asked. Milo’s face turned bright red. “Milo!” she shouted.

Uncle Mike finally caught on and sat down at the head of the table. 

“Well, you know guys,” Milo offered vaguely. 

I rolled my eyes. “Milo bet me that he could get Jupiter to sleep with him before we left for Seattle.” Rosie’s face looked livid, as did Uncle Mike’s. “And I bet him that he couldn’t.”

“No,” Kai corrected, making my own face heat up. “Ezra bet that he could do it before Milo could.”

“That’s not true!” I insisted. “I bet that Milo couldn’t do it, because I could win her over first, not that I could sleep with her first.”

Rosie’s face turned the angriest shade of red I’d ever seen. 

“Let me get this straight,” Uncle Mike said with an eerily quiet tone. “You,” he said, pointing at Milo, “bet that you could get Jupiter to have sex with you by the end of the week?” He pointed at me. “And you thought that you could get her to become interested in you before Milo succeeded?” 

Thoroughly embarrassed, I nodded, but added, “I only did it because I wanted to keep her from making a mistake with Milo.” 

“Wrong!” Kai said with bravado and a mouth full of waffle. He swallowed. “You did it because you like her but refused to act on it before because you’re as yellow as a daisy but the mere idea of Milo getting with her scared the crap out of you.”

I didn’t answer. Wouldn’t answer. 

Rosie stood up, took Milo’s fork and plate from him, and placed it in the sink. She leaned her hip into the lower cabinets of the island. 

“Never, not even in my wildest nightmares, would I have thought that you were capable of something like this, Milo.”

The blood in Milo’s face drained into his neck. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“That means nothing to me right now, Milo,” she replied. 

“What kind of a man would make a bet like that, Milo?” Mike asked him. 

Milo kept his mouth shut as Mike looked on him with sad disappointment. 

“Cameron,” Rosie addressed, “did you speak with Jupiter about this?”

“Yes, I did,” she said, her hands folded in her lap. 

“What exactly did you tell her?” Kai asked.

“I, uh, I told her,” she cleared her throat, “that Ezra and Milo had a bet going on who could bag her first.”

I folded my arms, sinking into myself. “Why?” I asked her. 

Tears bubbled up in her eyes. “Because I was jealous.”

“Dear God,” Mike said, burying his face in his hands. 

“I’m so sorry,” Cameron told the room. “I thought telling her about the bet would be the perfect thing to get her out of here.”

Kai looked at her as if she’d grown two heads but fixed his expression. “Okay, well, Cameron?” She looked over at him. “I’m thinking you should go ahead and get yourself home.”

She nodded, tears falling down her face. “See you in class, Milo,” she said, then stood, and walked toward the kitchen alcove. Before she left, she turned around and said, “For what it’s worth, I am sorry.” 

We all waited until the front door closed then all turned to Aunt Rosie when she sighed. “Milo, I don’t really know what to do with you right now. Go. Get in the shower. Your dad and I will be in there in a minute to talk to you. “

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, going to his room. 

“Ezra,” Rosie told me, “I suggest you do some growing up. Maybe not become entrenched in bets where intimacy with a girl is considered a boon? Maybe have a little bit more respect for women?”

My face grow hot. “Aunt Rosie, I really meant what I said. I had no intentions like that toward Jupiter, I promise. I only got caught up in the threat that Milo might succeed and panicked.”

“Except now that poor girl is hurt, isn’t she?” Mike asked.

My gut ached and twisted. “Yes, sir.”

“What were you plannin’ on doing when she fell for you? Let her down easy?” Rosie asked.

“I-I don’t know, really.”

“Again, a lie,” Kai said, taking a big bite of bacon, his conscience obviously feeling clear as glass. 

“No, it’s not,” I insisted. 

“I don’t mean you’re lying to us, Ezra,” he pressed. “I meant you’re lying to yourself.”

I dragged my hands through my hair and sighed. 

“Exactly,” he said. 

“Exactly, what? I can’t be with her,” I told him. 

Mike and Rosie each took a cup of coffee down the hall toward Milo’s room. Bear followed to eavesdrop, no doubt. 

“Why not?” Kai asked, swigging a gulp of orange juice. 

I turned around and sat on the bench just as Bear came galloping back into the kitchen. 

“They kicked me out of that part of the house,” he explained. “Threatened to ground me.”

I smiled at him. Bear sat down again and became engrossed in a comic book.

“Why. Not,” Kai repeated. I grasped both triceps again and studied the ceiling. “You really are quite the pansy. You know that?”

“Whatever, Kai.”

“Whatever, Kai,” he mock whined.

“You can be a douche sometimes,” I told him.

“Why? ’Cause I point out the obvious and you don’t like that? ’Cause I call you out on your weird baby hurt-feelings crap?”

 I felt myself losing control of my emotions, something I prided myself in keeping in check. “That’s an asshole thing to say. Jessica screwed me up, Kai! Do you know what it’s like to be cheated on? I wouldn’t wish that shit on my worst enemy,” I said, slamming a hand on the table. “I’ve had compound fractures in both my legs, intense and painful physical therapy for almost a year, and the pain I experienced was nothing compared to what it felt like when I walked in on them! Nothing. I can’t go through that again. I can’t risk it.”

Kai lazily took a bite of his food, staring at me as if I was talking about the weather and not having an outburst, then swallowed. “All right, dude. Calm down.”

I tried to hide the smile that caused. “Why do you have to be such a dillweed?”

“I’m not, actually. You are, though. Listen,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin, “get your ass up, pack your shit up, and go after Jupiter.”

I slid my hands down my face. “How am I going to explain this crap to her?” I asked, entertaining the idea that maybe I could risk myself after all.

The truth of the matter was Jupiter wasn’t a game to me. She never was. Kai was right when he said I was lying to myself. I was lying to myself when I watched her every move those two months of our senior year and that just watching her was all I really needed. I was lying to myself when I said yes to her coming to Seattle with me and thought being close to her would be fun while it lasted. I was lying to myself when I watched Almost Famous every day after work over the summer so I could watch Penny Lane and somehow feel close to Jupiter. I was lying to myself when I took the bet with Milo and thought it was just to see what she tasted like and that was all. I’m done lying. 

Kai interrupted my thoughts. “You walk up to her. You say, ‘Jupiter, I lok you alawt. I want to have your babies.’”

“Shut up.”

“How the hell am I supposed to know, jackass?” he shouted.

“You don’t have a single suggestion? You’re useless!”

“Please, you hobo.”

I sighed. “I’ve got a long car ride to Seattle. Maybe I’ll think of something then.”

“Good idea, mold muncher,” Kai said. 

I packed up all my crap, kissed my aunt goodbye, hugged my uncle, Bear, and stupid Milo, and Kai walked me down to his dad’s garage. 

“She’s going to get there a week earlier than everyone else, and I don’t think they’ll let her stay at the dorms yet.” I looked at my cousin. “I don’t really know what I’m doing, Kai.”

“You’re wrong again,” he said.

“Will you stop saying that! It’s getting old.”

He laughed. “It’s true, though. You do know what you’re doing. You’re just scared of it.”

“I really like her, way more than I ever liked Jessica. I-I think I love her a little. It would really suck if she screwed me over, not going to lie.”

Kai shoved me with his shoulder. “For someone who digs that girl as much as you do, you sure don’t know jack shit about her.” I shook my head at him. “Seriously, Jupiter is a fly chick. I mean, she is a little dorky for my taste, but she’s perfect for you. She’s goofy in that genuinely charming sort of way. Smart. Loyal. Really nice. Plus, she has a killer bod.”

“Yes to all of that.”

“And I can tell she really likes you too.”

“Not as much as I like her, though, right? That’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid I’ll fall deeper in love with her than she will with me because that’s my MO and she’ll be like, Peace out, I just realized I dig some other dude.”

“Damn, you really are some sort of something. Get your crap together, Brandon! Don’t let your past affect your future and you’ll be all right. Just chill out.”

“You’re right.”

“I know.”

We reached Mike’s garage and they’d fixed all the damage that’d been done to my car. Mike said he wouldn’t tell my mom as long as Rosie was okay with that. I hadn’t gotten a telephone call from Mom yelling at me, so I supposed everything was all good. 

The key to the trunk was a little tough to turn, but I figured I could oil that out. I stuffed my crap into the back of the car and closed it. I fished a pair of vintage-looking blue-tinted sunglasses, something that reminded me of Penny Lane, out of my pocket. “I found these at a gas station all the way down in Florida and was working up the nerve to give them to her.”

“They’d look good on her.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m hoping they might open up a line of communication.” 

Kai slap-hugged me before I got into my car, starting up the engine.

“She purrs like a kitten,” he yelled.

I smiled. “Let’s hope she makes good time,” I yelled back through an open window. “I’ve got somewhere I need to be. And soon.”