The Art of Life (31 page)

               
“Stop picking on the girl,”
Joshua demands, even though he is obviously trying not to smile.

               
With a nod, Kent hands me my
phone.
 
“There you go, all set.”

               
“Thanks,” I say.

               
Going over to the TV, Josh turns
it on and one of Jeremy’s gaming systems.
 
“While the cat’s away the mice shall play,” he chuckles.

               
“Do you think you should be
doing that?” I ask.
 
“Won’t he get mad?”

               
“Who, Jeremy?”
Josh asks.
 
“Nah, he is used to it.
 
We don’t have the nice set up that he does.”

               
“Set it up for two players,”
Kent instructs Josh.
 
He goes over and
gets a second controller.
 
They each take
one side of the couch.
 
Kent turns around
and pats the middle seat.
 
“Come, sit, we
don’t bite.”

               
Josh laughs, “Unless provoked.”

               
Awkwardly, I go and sit
down.
 
For a half an hour they play, and
it’s hilarious watching them. Finally, they talk me into playing.
 
I am horrible, but it’s fun none the less.
 

               
So, about an hour of them being
there, I am on top of Josh, trying to get the controller away from him.
 
I yell, “You are such a cheater!”

               
“Am not!”
He yells back.

               
Suddenly, we hear,
“Isabelle!
 
Are you crazy!?”

               
We all turn towards the
door.
 
Jeremy is standing there with bags
in his hands.
 
We stop and I get off of
Josh.
 
“Hi,” I squeak.

               
“Hi,” he growls a little
bit.
 
“Are you seriously this stupid?”

               
“Not particularly,” I retort.

               
He starts to rub his
temple.
 
“I realize these two idiots are
my friends, but you had no way of knowing that!
 
They could have hurt you or killed you!”

               
“I talked to Cassandra,” I
whisper, shying away.

               
“Hey, lay off,” Josh snaps.
 
“We are just guilty as she is.
 
I had to use the bathroom.”

               
Jeremy hangs his head.
 
“Sorry, I just….am a little
protective of her.
 
I forgot to
leave a note, but I figured I would have gotten here before she woke up.”

               
“We were just playing video
games,” I say, feeling really bad.

               
“Yeah, we were kind of
slaughtering her,” Josh laughs.

               
With a shocked face, I exclaim,
“That’s because you cheat!
 
I should get
a handicap or something!”

               
“There is no such thing as a
handicap in video games,” he retorts with a smile.

               
I shove him.
 
“Whatever, next time, you have to let me kill
you like ten times and then you can play.”

               
“Oh jeepers,” Jeremy groans, as
he walks into the kitchen.
 
“I got stuff
to make lunch.”

               
“Sweet, I am starving,” Kent
yells.

               
Looking at him, Jeremy says,
“Who said you get to eat?”
 

               
Getting a disgusted look, Kent
retorts, “That’s just mean.”

               
“I was going to have Izzy cook
enough to freeze, but with you two here, there will be barely enough for all of
us,” Jeremy sighs.

               
“We are growing boys,” Josh
states.

               
A snort escapes me.
 
“I don’t think you are growing anymore.”

               
“Whatever,” he replies, winking
at me.

               
This is actually fun.
 
I never thought I would be able to hang out
with guys and not feel awkward.
 
Jumping
over the back of the couch, I go by Jeremy.
 
“What am I making?”

               
“I thought of chicken and I got
potatoes.
 
We can bake them or
something,” he says, pulling everything out of the bags.

               
“I will make fried
potatoes.
 
They are so much better with
chicken.”

               
Jeremy opens the
refrigerator.
 
“I have BBQ sauce, if you
want to use that.”

               
“It’s up to you guys, what do
you want?” I ask.

               
Josh yells, “BBQ chicken,
please!”

               
“Then I can do that,” I say,
snagging the sauce from Jeremy.

               
So, as the boys play video
games, I cook.
 
Jeremy comes back into
the kitchen after a little while.
 
“We
are being so rude.
 
Putting you in the
kitchen and making you cook for us.”

               
“Get in that kitchen woman!
 
I am hungry!”
 
Kent jokingly yells.

               
“Cassandra would smack you right
now if she heard you say that,” Jeremy laughs.

               
Kent sighs.
 
“Isabelle won’t tell on me.”

               
“That’s what you think,” I reply.
 
“We girls need to stick together.”

               
A gasp comes from the living
room.
 
“How rude!
 
Traitor!”

               
“Maybe next time you will take
it easy on me when we play video games.”

               
Jeremy snorts.
 
“Not likely.”

               
“Yeah, well, that will teach me
to play with you guys,” I say.
 
“Anyway,
lunch should be done soon.”

               
“Turn off the TV guys.
 
We are going to be adults and eat at the
table,” Jeremy declares.

               
The response he gets is a bunch
of groans.
 
“Come on, really?” Kent
pouts.

               
“Yes, turn it off.”

               
Josh hops up and goes over to
the dining room table.
 
He suddenly picks
up the picture of the lilies that I did.
 
“This is awesome!
 
Where did you
get this from?”
                           

               
“Oh,” I squeak.
 
“I did it.
 
I don’t usually let people see my work, but Jeremy wanted that done.”

               
“Dude, Isabelle, you are a great
artist.
 
Kent, check this out,” Josh
says, holding up the picture.

               
Kent walks over and his mouth
drops open.
 
“You did this?”

               
“Yeah, last Sunday,” I
reply.
 

               
Getting a little wide eyed, Josh
says, “
Wow, that
is all I can say is wow.”

               
“I am going to get it framed,”
Jeremy tells him, as he takes plates out.

               
Looking at me, Kent asks, “Did
he tell you what the lilies were about?”

               
“No,” I answer, shaking my
head.
 
“It really isn’t any of my
business.”

               
“Darn, he won’t tell us either,”
Kent mumbles.

               
Jeremy shoots him a look.
 
“You know that I am a private person.”
              

               
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kent
laughs.
 
“Blah, blah,
blah.”

               
That makes me giggle.
 
I look at Jeremy and he just rolls his
eyes.
 
We sit down and eat lunch.
 
The guys love it, which makes me really
happy.
 
They talk a mile a minute about
the most random stuff.
 
I just sit there
and listen.
 
Jeremy keeps nudging me with
his knee and looking out of the corner of his eye.
 
I smirk and push him back.

               
After Jeremy and the guys clean up,
because Jeremy commanded them to, we just sit at the table.
 
“So,” Jeremy says, “What were you guys doing
here anyway?
 
Other
than to eat all my food?”

               
“We wanted to see if you wanted
to go for a ride today.
 
We didn’t know
you had company,” Kent retorts.

               
Turning to me, Jeremy asks,
“Would you like to go on a ride today? I mean, we usually go for a few hours.”

               
“Sure,” I reply, with a
smile.
 
“I would like to shower though,
if that is alright.”

               
“Do you need help?” Josh quips
with a grin.

               
Suddenly, Jeremy slugs him in
the arm.
 
“Don’t talk to her that way.
 
Hands off Josh.”

               
“
Grrr
,”
Josh teases.
 
“Relax, I will behave.”

               
I roll my eyes.
 
“I will be back in a few.”

               
“Yeah, hours,” Jeremy says with
a smile.
 
I smack him across the
head.
 
He grabs my arm and pulls me onto
his lap.
 
“Don’t start a fight you can’t
win.”
                                         

               
“I could take you,” I snidely
retort.

               
Josh and Kent laugh.
 
Kent agrees, “Probably.”

               
Jeremy gets an appalled look on
his face.
 
“Maybe I can’t kick your ass,
but I sure can take Josh.”

               
“Oh, geez,” I moan.

               
“Hey, I should teach you a few
things Isabelle,” Kent says to me.

               
My eyes get wide.
 
“I don’t think I could defend myself if I
tried.”

               
“That’s not a good thing,”
Jeremy replies.
 
“We will have to teach
you the basics.”

               
Shaking my head, I just
sigh.
 
“Alright, I will probably just
hurt myself.”

               
“You need to be able to hurt
someone else, not yourself,” Kent chuckles.

               
“Yeah, well I will try, that’s
all I can give you.”
 
I try and get off
of Jeremy’s lap, but he just holds me in place.
 
Looking at him, I say, “Can I go take a shower now?”
                       

               
Smiling, he says, “Sure.
 
Have fun.”

               
“Hopefully you don’t die from
something inside that bathroom,” Josh yells, as I walk away.
 
“There is probably a monster hiding somewhere
in the mess.”

               
I hear the smack of Jeremy
punching him again.
 
Grabbing my bag, I
head into the bathroom.
 
It is kind of a
mess.
 
Not necessarily dirty, but he has
stuff everywhere.
 
I shove all his dirty
clothes into the corner, and then put all my toiletries in the shower.
 
Stripping off my pajamas, I put them nicely
on the counter.
 
The shower doesn’t take
long to get hot, which is nice.