DISCO NIGHTS !
CHAPTER TEN
DISTURBING THE PEACE

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"LUKE, IF YOU seriously think that I'm just going to let you bring him to my house and allow him to stay there for several hours, you're way more delusional than I thought." Maeve raised her eyebrows, shooting Luke a hardened glare from her position standing beside her boss, who was just finishing pouring a customer a cup of coffee.

Luke just blew out an exhausted breath as he refused to meet Maeve's gaze, the man just beginning to walk towards the counter to place the coffee vat back in its original position, with Maeve trailing close behind.

"Luke, I'm serious!" Maeve complained, the girl getting progressively more infuriated with the man the more he refused to entertain her childish behaviour. "I don't want your nephew sniffing around my house!"

"What, like he's a mouse or somethin'? Do you realise how nuts you sound right now?" Luke's eyebrows creased inwards at the intensity of Maeve's denial, the man then grabbing a rag and beginning to wipe the counter with it as he continued, trying to settle Maeve down before she could have an aneurism. "Maeve, relax, he'll just be there for a few hours."

As soon as he spoke the sentence, Maeve just carried on her desperate plea, stopping at the counter across from Luke and placing her hands on it as she continued her string of complaints, the girl tilting her head to the side in an effort to generate some form of sympathy from him. "Luke, you don't understand. That's my safe space. My personal haven, where I can escape the nightmare that is the scary, big, wide world. And by you inviting in all of the hostile energy Mariano carries around with him, you're disturbing the peace within it. The peace, Luke! Don't disturb the peace!"

Luke had to stop his actions as pure bewilderment overtook him, as well as a tinge of concern, as he stared at her. "Now you've lost me."

"Luke, come on! Why can't you just fix everything, like you always do, and leave it at that?" Maeve pleaded, tone incredibly desperate. "I've tried convincing Margie but she's like a rock, you surprisingly can't crack that woman!"

Luke shook his head in refusal as he truly didn't understand the gravity of the situation—for Maeve, at least—and simply decided to get back to work. "You won't even know he's there, Maeve. Don't be a basket case."

"See, calling me a 'basket case' won't make me work more, by the way." Maeve cocked her head to the side and narrowed her cerulean eyes at him, the girl assuming she had had won the argument as she was fully confident in her assertions. "Nor will it make my annoyance with you at this current point in time decrease."

"The work thing isn't a problem, I won't have to pay you, and Jess can cover your shifts. Fine by me." Luke simply quipped, unbothered. "As for the second thing, you'll get over it."

Maeve had one final trick up her sleeve, one final attempt, to try and make Luke finally come to his senses.

"I can only be pushed so far, Luke." Maeve dramatically sighed as she slowly shook her head.

Luke just frowned at the girl as pure confusion overtook his expression. "What now?"

Maeve theatrically shrugged, exaggeratedly slumping on the counter seat as she plastered on her best acting face. "If you bring your nephew to my house, Luke, I'm afraid I'll have to run away."

Luke's momentary confusion was immediately dispelled as he steadfastly caught on to her over dramatic act and chose not to entertain it, as usual. "You're gonna 'run away'?"

Maeve faux-regrettably sighed. "I might just."

"Yeah, I'd like to see how far you'd get without a book." Luke scoffed, again, shifting his focus back to his work.

Maeve's brows creased in protest, the girl standing up quickly as she attempted to defend herself. "Wh- I can live without...a...book..."

Huffing a knowing chuckle at how her words trailed off, Luke just shook his head in amusement. "That's what I thought."

Maeve just blew out a hopeless breath as she slumped back down in the counter seat, utterly defeated.

Jess Mariano would finally see her house.

Great.

As if she didn't see enough of him around town, now he'd be inside her personal space, her home.

Trying to alleviate her exasperation, Maeve thought back to Luke's words. Just a few hours.

Just a few hours, and he'd be gone.

Maeve would be totally and completely fine. Putting up with Jess would be totally and completely fine.

If he annoyed her, she could simply retreat to the safety of her bedroom and drown out everything about him that pissed her off.

That simple.

•

As Jess approached Maeve's front door, his eyes floated around the charming, picturesque estate, the lightly toned, moderate, one-storey townhouse appearing just as comfortable and welcoming on the outside as Luke had described it being on the inside.

It was exactly how Jess imagined Maeve's 'white-picket fence' house to be. Newly trimmed bushes adorned the sides of the house, with pink flowers sprouting from them, which emphasised the beautiful arrangement of fresh plants that were, Jess could definitely tell, growing in the garden behind the back gate.

The front lawn was clearly healthy, it appeared to be frequently watered and mowed, and Jess wondered if Marjorie really took care of all of the maintenance. He had overheard fleeting conversations of the woman informing Luke of whatever new flower she was interested in growing at the diner, which new plant she wanted to harvest, herself, and deep down, Jess actually admired her unrelenting passion.

It was a sure-fire sign that she wasn't the type of person to easily give up on something, someone. Maeve must be so lucky to have a guardian who is so kind, so involved, in her life. Someone to continually encourage her.

Jess couldn't help but feel a slight sting shoot through his chest at the involuntary comparison he made between his parents and Maeve's guardian.

When he finally realised that he was beginning to ruminate on his own shitty situation, Jess just shook off the thought and chose to focus on the task at hand.

Flashing back to the conversation with Luke—which went on for hours—that led him to Maeve's doorstep, Jess internally weighed out the decision to actually carry on with the task or simply bail, like he would usually do.

"Jess, you're going over there and you're gonna help Marjorie out with anything she needs, alright? You can be pissed off at whoever else you want, but I'm not letting you disrespect Marjorie. It's just for a few hours, and the faster you fix whatever she wants fixed, the faster you can be done with it." Luke firmly explained.

"How many hours?" Jess blew out a reluctant breath.

"Say four." Luke deadpanned.

"Two." Jess bartered.

"Three, and call it even." Luke shot him a stern glare.

"Fine." Jess reluctantly agreed, unwillingly coming to the conclusion that he wouldn't be able to get himself out of this situation.

Usually, Jess would simply ignore the demand and forget all about it, though he could tell that there was an incredible seriousness underlying Luke's words, and he knew that Marjorie meant a lot to him.

So, coming to the conclusion that he couldn't avoid it, there was no point in arguing when he knew he wouldn't have a chance at winning. "She's a terrifying woman, by the way."

"Always has been." Luke quipped in endorsement of the assertion.

Jess blew out a breath as he stepped towards the entrance and knocked on Maeve's door, the boy taking a step back as he waited for someone to open up.

Surely enough, a minute later, the door swung open to reveal Marjorie, a pleasant smile appearing on her face at the sight of Jess, who actually went through with his promise. "Jess, hello. How are you?"

"Hi." Jess met the polite words with a short nod. "I'm fine."

Marjorie raised her eyebrows in realisation as she moved to the side, gesturing for the boy to enter her house. "Oh, come in, come in. Did Luke say he was going to come down and help you out?"

"He was, but he got stuck at the diner." Jess monotonously answered as he took the invitation and walked inside, carefully examining the interior as he walked through the doorway and slowly began to survey the house. "He'll come by later to fix whatever I don't."

Jess heard Marjorie release a laugh from somewhere around the house. "That sounds like Luke."

As Jess moved further into the house, past the sizeable kitchen and small 'sunroom', as he had once heard similar rooms be referred to in the past, he ended up moving from the hallway to the living room, eyes carefully sliding around the quaint space as he took in the vintage-yet-aesthetically-pleasing furniture; dark couches and mahogany tables—likely Marjorie's—that were decorated with more modern, soft pillows, blankets, and other signature 'living room' items.

The entire room was furnished in a neat arrangement consisting of classic living room furniture intertwined with personalised aspects—candles on the side tables, flowers in a large vase on the coffee table, and mostly images of family, friends, and even pictures around countertops and desks that Maeve must have taken on her camera and printed out.

Jess could definitely tell that Maeve embellished most of the room.

It was designed in a way that was warm, open, engaging to younger audiences as well as older, and frankly, it was hard to look away from. If Marjorie had decorated most of it, Jess could tell, for a fact, that it would be an entirely different, way more old-fashioned home.

For some reason, he felt in a talkative mood. "Nice house."

Marjorie was purely taken aback at the compliment.

She truly didn't expect Jess to actually carry a conversation with her willingly, let alone compliment anything. "Oh. Thank you, Jess. Maeve taught me how to decorate in a 'newer style', as she put it," the woman chuckled in fondness at the humorous memory. "I'm convinced that she knows everything there is to know, at this point."

Jess refused to glance at Maeve's professional photos for too long as he continued to work his way through the house, walking past another short hallway, briefly glancing at the baby and childhood pictures of Maeve that were hanging from the walls and walking past, what was clearly, Marjorie's room to soon stop in front of another one.

Maeve's.

"Darling, Jess is here, say hello!" Marjorie's voice called as she approached Jess in order to stand beside him and in front of Maeve's door.

The sound of muffled speaking came from Maeve's closed door, Marjorie sighing as she just grabbed the door handle and twisted it open in the realisation that Maeve wouldn't hear her. Marjorie usually wouldn't interrupt Maeve's privacy without asking first, but she didn't want to be rude to their guest.

As soon as she did so, Maeve's bedroom door swung open to reveal the girl lying comfortably on her bed, landline in her hand as she abruptly cut herself off mid-sentence and twisted her head to expectedly face the door at her grandmother's interruption.

Maeve's, once entertained, face fell at Jess' presence, who had now raised his hand and gave her a little mocking wave of his fingers.

•

AUTHOR'S NOTE
i missed maeve and jess way too much!

© voidvaleska