♥Chapter 13: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ꜱʜᴇ ᴀɴɴᴏʏꜱ ʜɪᴍ♥

✿Kennedy✿

I'm gonna pick up boxing classes.

I swear I wanna get all that arm strength and knock out Alex and Jake in a single blow.

What am I even saying?

I shake my head at myself as I put my hair in a ponytail. After putting on a cream t-shirt tucked into jean shorts, I walk downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Guess who's ready to commit murder again?" I grin as I plop down on a barstool in front of Alex.

He gives me a look, "Aren't you tired of it by now?"

I shake my head, "Those mother lovers need to be put in their place."

He sighs and gives a nod. He looks tired with dark circles under his eyes and a shadow covering his face.

I furrow my eyebrows in worry, "Are you okay, Alex?"

He looks from his coffee at me and nods, "Yeah."

"Sure?" My frown deepens. "You look tired."

He waves it off. "Just work stuff."

Work stuff, huh? Some people just can't lie even if their life depends on it.

The same footsteps thud downstairs and I prepare my eyes again to be met by the dark-haired beauty-slash-beast.

Jake comes into view. Alex and I watch him as usual as he marches downstairs and walks towards the door, not sparing us a glance. He opens the door and like Alex and I already know, he's gonna step out and the door's gonna slam shut. So imagine our surprise when he pauses briefly at the door and turns his head around. His eyes meet mine. 

I almost scream at his sudden glance towards me but manage to give him a smile instead.

Jake's face lay passive the entire time.

His eyes flicker to Alex too then he was out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

Alex and I remain speechless, gazing at the closed door with our mouths hanging open.

"Is it just me or did he finally acknowledge our presence?" He asks, shock evident on his face.

"He wants to date you," I say.

Alex gives me a long look with confusion and shock etched on his face. 

Is getting Jake's attention for two seconds that revolting for him?

✯✯✯

This time when I walk out of school, Jake's car isn't waiting for me. His car is not even here yet.

I stuff my hands in the pockets of my shorts and wait.

The sun's gentle and the weather; cool. Back where I lived, it was always sunny and bright.

Students file out of the school opposite mine, and I try spotting Corey and Toothy from there.

My face lights up when I do find them. Corey walks out of school with a couple of guys walking around him indulging in a conversation. Toothy walks beside Corey looking bored and uninterested.

Corey's eyes spot me, and his smile widens. He says something to his guy friends and breaks off from them, walking in my direction. Toothy mouths a 'finally' looking relieved and bored, as she follows Corey.

"Hey, babydo—ouch." He grumbles as Toothy pushes past him and walks over to me.

"I'm sick of him and his football friends talking only about football and cheerleaders." Toothy grumbles standing beside me and glaring at Corey.

He raises his eyebrows, offended, "You think I enjoy when you make me drive to your nail salons? Oh and the hair salon. Oh and place where you get waxed. Oh and the place where you get your eyebrows done. Oh and-"

"I get it." She snaps.

"Anyways," Corey turns towards me, "guess who's getting a ride with me?"

"Me?" I ask.

"Yup." He smiles. "Jake said he's got something going on so he wouldn't come. Come on." He jerks his head towards the parking lot and Toothy and I follow him to his car.

We get in with me in the backseat and both of them in the front.

"So how is it like living with the grumpy rathole?" Corey asks me.

I raise my eyebrows, "You mean Jake?"

He nods.

With a body like that, I don't think you can call Jake a rat. Like...no.

"Heard he did something and wanted to apologize." Corey laughs then nudges Toothy's side with his shoulder. "You hear that, Toothy? Jake apologized."

Toothy gives him a raised eyebrow look, before shaking her head.

"What's wrong with him apologizing?" I ask.

Corey's eyes widen dramatically, "Jake and apologies? Yeah, no. They don't really fit in the same sentence. Not even in the same book. Not even in the same fucking library!"

I shrug, playing with a strand of my hair, "He seemed pretty good at it."

"And went back to being a jerk again?" Corey snorts.

More like grabbing my face and kissing me.

"I didn't talk to him after that," I say, trying to avoid my cheeks turning pink.

"You know?" Corey says out of the blue, a smirk on his face. "There is one way that could make Jake start liking you."

Toothy immediately gives him a 'what are you up to?' frown.

"What way?" I ask, getting interested.

Corey shrugs, "It usually involves a lot of smiling, a lot of yelling and a hell of talking."

I grin.

That sounds like me.

"I have three degrees in all of those," I say.

"Perfect," Corey grins before speaking, "So here's the thing. Jake's into people who annoy the fuck out of him. Don't believe me? Try it. He loves when people annoy him."

Toothy opens her mouth with a frown but then shakes her head, "You know what? I'm not even gonna say anything," She looks at her phone.

"Really?" I give a look of confusion.

People love when they purposefully get annoyed?

Corey nods, "Yeah. Why do you think Jake has us around him all the damn time?" He gestures between Toothy and him. "Because we annoy the fuck out of him. And he likes that."

"Okay..." I'm still frowning.

Weird but I guess some people are just born that way.

"So you ready to annoy the fuck out of him?" Corey asks, smirking at me from the rear-view mirror.

"I'm ready to annoy the buck out of him." I nod.  

✯✯✯

❆Jake❆

The phone in my pocket rings.

I lift my hips while keeping the car steady on the road and take out my phone from my back pocket.

The caller ID displays 'Dean' and I pick up.

"News?" I ask.

"They've started searching." He says.

"Good."

Silence radiates from the other side of the phone and I know Dean wants to say something else.

"Speak, Dean," I say.

He sighs deeply.

"I respect that you want to find this man, Jake."

I raise an eyebrow, "But?"

"Don't you think you should leave this entirely to the feds and police? You're too young to involve yourself in this." A tone of worry laces his voice.

My jaw clenches, "I want that bastard, Dean."

"And you will." He assures. "He will be put behind bars. All I'm saying is that you need to get a life and let go a bit. You've been behind this case for as long as I can remember."

I remain silent. My face tightens into a grim look.

"Anyways." Dean sighs, "We've started looking. 'Called to inform you."

He hangs up.

I fling my phone to the seat beside mine and rub the spot between my eyebrows.

Pulling up into the driveway, I cut off the engine and pull out my keys.

Closing my eyes, I take in a deep breath, resting my head against the seat for a while. 

Get a life? 

Who is he? My dad? 

I open my eyes and get out of the car and trudge towards the house.

Pulling open the door, I'm immediately met with the smell of flowers and vanilla.

Kennedy.

It's everywhere.

I glare at the Yoda greeting me with open arms. Someday someone's gonna die of a stroke looking at this shit.

I look around the house and find the living room and kitchen empty.

No Kennedy here.

The house is unnaturally silent too.

It's never been fucking silent since she got here.

There's always the TV, music or her mobile games playing or it's her talking to herself.

My forehead tenses with an incoming headache, and I rub the spot between my eyebrows again.

I need to get some sleep.

"Kennedy?" I call out. 

No reply.

"Are you dead?" I frown with a slight feeling of worry.

Still no reply.

Maybe she's still with Corey and Toothy. I can sleep peacefully until then. 

I tread up the stairs and walk into my room. Taking off my hoodie, I fall flat onto the bed and close my eyes, feeling my muscles slowly loosen and relax onto the mattress.

Not even a second after...the door creeps open.

I don't open my eyes but furrow my eyebrows.

It's silent but the smell of Kennedy is too fucking strong for me to know she's in my room. 

Plus she breathes kinda loud.

If she was at home then why the fuck wasn't she replying to me?

I hear a giggle before she screams in an overly excited voice making me jump up in my bed with a heart attack.

"What the fuck—" I gasp.

"Ahoy Matey! Guess what do we have on the menu today?" 

I frown at her while she stands in the middle of my room grinning ear to ear at me. She has ray bans on top of her head.

"What the fuck?" I grumble.

She throws something at me which hits my face. I close my eyes at the contact and open them to see she threw a bagel at me. A fucking bagel.

"Bagels." She hollers loudly. "Fifty more of those and you'd be having a hanging belly in no time, am I right?" She tips her head down, letting the ray bans fall to her nose.

I pick the bagel and glare at her. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I snap.

That usually makes her shy and turn her eyes away from me but this time her grin widens.

"Who wants to have a pillow fight?" She wiggles in excitement before jumping on my bed and standing over me.

I blink at her in confusion.

Is that mental problem catching up with her?

My eyes travel from her face to her legs. Those legs. I wanna take her down on this bed. Fuck, be fucking nice.

She whacks my head with a pillow.

Her grin falters when she sees my head barely moved an inch.

Sucks for her. That was barely a hit.

"Again!" She hollers before hitting me again.

"Die motherlover!" She yells, whacking my face again and again.

I jump out the bed, glaring at her.

"What? Not gonna fight back?" She challenges placing her hands on her hips. "Someone's scared?"

I want to yell at her but clench my jaw instead. Be nice, be fucking nice. 

I glare hard at her instead before walking out of the room. 

I just wanted to sleep for a while.

I take ten steps downstairs before I hear her soft footsteps follow me.

I ignore her and walk into the kitchen to get something to eat.

"Catch!" I hear her yell.

I turn around just in time to catch a toy she flings at me.

"Again!" She flings another, then another and another until I get fed up and let the toys hit my back as I walk into the kitchen. 

"Hey! You didn't catch that one!"

I open the fridge and search through the items.

I feel a hand on my ass trying to push me into the fridge.

"Oh mama, you're heavy." Kennedy breathes in disappointment when I don't move.

I frown and turn around. "Were you just touching my ass?"

Her face turns bright red. "That wasn't your head?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Did that feel like my fucking head?" 

She stands with her bottom lip between her teeth. Her lips. I wanna suck those lips—Be nice, be fucking nice.

God, she's making this hard.

I come out of my momentary trance from staring at her lips to realize she was talking.

"I'm getting really fat too. I eat junk all day. I think I need to stop eating, don't you think?" She looks up at me.

What the fuck is she talking about? I look at her small figure. Pretty sure she wouldn't survive if I decide to lie on top of her. Who the fuck told her she's fucking fat? And even if she was, why the fuck would she care?

"You'd look good in booty shorts." She blurts.

My eyes flick to her and I internally groan at the thought of imagining her in booty shorts.

Be. Fucking. Nice.

"Never mind." She shakes her head, "Hey, wanna talk about something? I got a couple of topics to talk about. We can smile a lot too. I can smile all day. See." She smiles widely at me, showing all her teeth.

I know Kennedy is usually hyperactive...but this sudden extra energy? Did she get too much sunlight or something?

"Wanna talk about Fifty Shades of Grey?" She asks. "I heard people say it's really good, but Gary says he'll hang me if I even think about watching it."

"You've gotten really close with your doctor, didn't you?" I wonder out loud.

A big grin comes on her face on that. "He's a like a father to me. That doesn't mean he wouldn't give me up for adoption if I was his daughter though."

The headache comes on again and I wince slightly. Sleep.

"Come on, dude." She nudges my arm with her fist, faking a deep voice. "Let's talk about girls and stuff. Wanna have a beer? Smoke weed?" She asks before frowning in confusion. "Is weed made from seaweed?"

Her body is way too close to mine. Way too fucking close that I have to restrain my hands from grabbing her.

I run a hand through my hair instead, groaning, "Please stop talking."

"You know you love when I talk." She grins, poking my biceps.

Yeah, cos it makes me wanna do things to you.

"Stop." I groan again.

"Jake, watch me moonwalk." She says and starts doing something that definitely isn't moonwalking.

"Bet you can't do this." She challenges and does the weirdest fucking hand movements.

"I'm glad I can't," I mutter thankfully.

"One, two, three, cha, cha, cha." She says and bursts out laughing for no reason.

Should...should I call a doctor?

She does a twirl and lets out a 'whoop' when she trips and stumbles forward towards me. I immediately catch her by the arm and steady her. 

"Phew, thanks." She stands up straight and grins up at me.

She's obviously too fucking oblivious to see which position she's put me in right now. She literally has my bare back glued to the fridge with her warm fuzzy body so close to mine. I'm already way too sleepy and the thought of just resting my head on her chest and going to sleep makes me groan again.

"You know I always wanted a cat. I love cats but for some reason they hate me." She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth again before releasing it.

I lick my lips in response.

She gasps with an idea, "Wanna play something? I play a pretty mean game of footsie."

I look at her wide excited eyes.

She unknowingly leans closer and, fuck, her leg brushes mine. She starts talking again but this time my mind could only focus on her moving lips.

Fuck it.

I grab her by the waist without another thought and flip us around so it's her back to the fridge and my lips on her mouth.

She gasps in surprise. Her body melts in my arms. Sweet Jesus. She tastes so fucking sweet.

My hand goes to the hair tie that holds up all her hair and I pull it down, letting her hair free and slip my hand into them, feeling her soft curls. Her small warm body rubs against my bare chest and fuck if that wasn't turning me on.

I pull away before I get carried away and glare at her, "I tried so fucking much to be nice. You make it so hard."

Her lips are swollen as she breathes fast. She looks breathtaking. Her finger trails her lips with her hair dishevelled.

"Oh mama." She breathes out.

I raise an eyebrow at her, waiting for some other expression or something.

"Corey didn't tell me you'd kiss me if I annoy the freak out of you. Do you kiss him and Toothy too?"

My eyebrows raise, "Corey?"

She nods, still trying to regain her breathing. "He said you like people who annoy the buck out of you."

I roll my eyes.

Of course, he would.

"He was teasing you," I say flatly.

She nods, "I see that now."

I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

"Fuck you," I mumble under my breath.

"Oh mama." She breathes again before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her inhaler. She takes a few pumps from that.

Before I can think of what else to do, the door to the house bursts in making Kennedy jump in her place.

"Who let the motherfucking dogs out?" Corey waltzes in before he jumps ten feet in the air. "AHH! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! You little stupid piece of shit!" He raises his foot to kick the Yoda.

At the last moment, he realizes Kennedy standing in the kitchen with her face morphed into an expression of extreme horror as she watches him. I feel my own heart drop. 

Not gonna lie, even I have the urge to kick that shit away every single time but because of Kennedy, I don't.

Corey quickly puts his foot down. "I-I mean...what a lovely cute little guy that I would love to hug and cuddle with." He laughs nervously, patting the Yoda's head. "What's up? My two favourite people!"

Toothy, who comes in behind Corey, her eyes immediately narrow in confusion when her gaze stops on us, "Why are you without a shirt...and standing like that close to her?"

Kennedy flushes a bright red before clearing her throat and stepping away from me, running her fingers through her hair to straighten them down.

She's stepping away from me.

I shoot Toothy a glare at that.

"Ooo did something happen?" Corey wiggles his eyebrows, looking between Ken and me.

"Come here you little piece of shit." I march towards him remembering what he had told Ken.

His eyes widen before he bolts out the door with a yelp and I run after him.

✄ ✄ ✄ ✄

How is the story so far? Who's your fav character?

Words: 3,000

Date of posting: 24th March 2022