♥Chapter 28: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ꜱʜᴇ ᴍᴇᴇᴛꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏᴜꜱɪɴ♥

❆Jake❆

My eyes silently read the words in my book. My back rests on the couch with my feet propping on the coffee table.

In other circumstances, this would feel so fucking normal. Absolutely fucking normal.

Except now...

Kennedy's head snuggles into my chest, her front pressing against my body with her legs on either side of me. Her soft snores fill my ears with a small stain of drool staining my hoodie.

She's submerged into a deep sleep right here on my lap.

An overwhelming feeling seeps into my heart the longer I hold Ken's warm fuzzy body. The way she just melts on my lap, so small, so perfect.

My arm, which holds her, tightens for some reason. It still feels unreal to have someone like her with me.

I want her.

So fucking much.

What's happening to me?

No doubt that I'm addicted to her.

It's been a month now since she came here and I'm already so deep into whatever I'm drowning in. This feeling overwhelms and submerges my heart, but I don't fucking know what feeling this is.

I want to go back and beat the fucking shit out of myself for trying to push Ken away or when I hurt her with my words.

I did make myself closed off to Kennedy because how I couldn't control my words from fucking hurting people. But being here right now with Ken is making me realize that she makes me want to get my fucking words right.

Being with her is changing me so very slowly in the most contending way possible.

I sat at the dining table with Alex for fuck's sake!

During breakfast.

Things between Alex and I have been complicated since mom died. So I ignored Alex completely to not make things more difficult or awkward between us.

I don't know if Alex was glad about that or not. I don't know. I never paid attention.

But maybe it was a wrong decision that I made...

I don't know.

It's been kind of fucking with my head since Kennedy made me eat breakfast with her and Alex.

Kennedy shifts in her sleep for the hundredth time. Her hands tighten around my torso, with her turning her head to the other side.

I shift a bit too to make myself more comfortable for her to lie on.

She's hugging me like I'm the tree to her fucking koala.

She's wearing my hoodie that engulfs her, so I'm not worried about getting a blanket or something.

The front door opens all of a sudden and I mentally curse myself for not locking it.

Corey barges in shouting, "Who let the dog—"

"SHH!"

I silence him with a deadly glare.

He stops mid-sentence and blinks at me in confusion.

"If you make a fucking sound, I'll throw you into a box and fling your pathetic ass into the sea," I warn Corey keeping my voice as low as possible to not wake Kennedy up.

Not that she'll wake up even if there's an earthquake going on. But once she wakes up, she doesn't go back to sleep for a long time.

Corey looks at Ken sleeping in my arms and his mouth forms an 'oh' in realization.

"Oh," He whispers, "Don't wanna wake up sleeping beauty?"

I nod.

He raises his hands on either side of his head, "Shit, my bad then."

"What do you fucking want?" I whisper, glaring.

This fucker's coming to my house all the time now.

He needs a limit.

"Toothy's not talking to me right now," Corey whispers, looking a bit glum now.

It takes me a moment to realize what he meant. I sigh.

Whenever Toothy doesn't wanna talk to Corey, it meant she needs her own time. A time when she gives herself the 'me-time'. Where no one's allowed to even look at her or else she'll scratch your eyes out.

And when that happens, Corey comes to annoy me. For some reason this motherfucker doesn't like to remain alone. He always has Toothy at his side and when he doesn't, he comes to me. I always try to figure out what's wrong with him but he likes to keep a few secrets.

I gesture towards the couch adjacent to the one Ken and I are with my chin. Corey sits down on that.

He stretches his legs, wiggling his body like a cartoon character to get his back well-settled against the couch. He even lets out a baby dragon noise which makes me wanna smack his stupid mouth.

Finally, he gets settled. 

"So what now?" Corey whispers.

I shrug, showing him my textbook and gesturing that I was studying.

A smile comes on his face, "You're getting cute ya know?" He says, "Ken's rubbing off on you. Just look at you!" He hisses a bit loudly but then silences himself again when I shoot him a warning glare to tone his voice down.

"You're cuddling, you're kissing, you're having a fucking girlfriend. You literally punched me when Kennedy got kidnapped." Corey chuckles in disbelief, "You're fucking whipped, bro."

I don't deny his words.

There's nothing to deny.

"Do I need to put on a red curly-haired wig to get cuddles from you now?" Corey grins.

"Suck my dick," I respond.

"Seeing dreams about me getting on my knees for you?" Corey teases, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"It'd be easier to kick your fucking balls," I reply.

"Everyone knows your gay for me, Jake," Corey states.

"I'd be a fucking corpse before being your anything," I grumble.

"God, am I blushing or what?" Corey pats his cheeks, "I can't handle this sort of love that you keep showing me. Kennedy would burst with jealousy."

I shake my head at Corey, trying to hide the tiny smile coming onto my face.

When I first met Corey, I saw him to be the completely dense, stupid fucker that only cares about his social life and was all about being the "cool" jock.

He's proven me wrong.

He's cool and the socialist of butterflies, but he's got a damn big heart.

For the first few days, I didn't trust him to be around Toothy, even as a stepbrother. I kept a watch on him, questioning his every motive when he tried to talk to Toothy and me, keeping an observation of his behaviour.

If this guy was going to live with Toothy then I had to examine him as much as I could. I owe Toothy that.

Now Corey is something fixed in my and Toothy's life.

I would never trade anything for Corey. Not that I'm gonna say that to this fucker's stupid face.

Right when my eyes land back on the words in my book, Kennedy's head shoots off my chest, jolting me in alarm. She yells. 

"HI I'm Kennedy and I love warm motherlovers—"

I gently push her head back onto my chest and wrap my arms around her, caressing my fingers through her hair.

Her yelling ceases to a low murmur until she goes silently back to sleep with a small mumble of incoherent words.

Once Kennedy starts snoring softly, I turn my head to look at Corey.

He has his eyes wide open with an expression as if he's just seen whales fly in the air.

"What the fuck was that?" He whispers, looking at Kennedy and me weirdly.

I shrug, "She yells in her sleep."

Corey shakes his head, "I thought she was having a heart attack or something. I thought I was gonna have a heart attack."

I shrug again.

It's not the first time Kennedy yelled in her sleep. She does it all the fucking time.

Sometimes it wakes me up in the middle of the night, getting me all protective and defensive. I always think she's yelling for help or she hurt herself or anything.

But it's just her, yelling in her fucking sleep.

I'm still smoothing down Kennedy's hair.

Corey taps through his phone while I go back to studying.

Studying has always been a sort of escape for me. I always pick the hardest subjects just so they can take most of my time and don't leave me alone with my thoughts.

I'm still reading through my textbook, highlighting points when the front door bursts open.

I expected Toothy or Alex. Hell, even our fucking neighbour. But as my eyes flit to the person standing at the door, my face drops.

No.

No.

No.

God, please no.

"Guess who's hereee?" Cole hollers, his voice booming through the entire house as if he's got a loudspeaker right in his fucking mouth. "Come on people, attack me with your love!"

Kennedy jerks off my shoulder at Cole's loud shouting and I grow mad enough to get ready to throw Cole back out of the house.

She wipes her sleepy eyes, looking confused, "What?"

"Cole!" Corey jumps off the couch, rushing towards Cole and if he were a tad bit emotional, he would've even shed tears to see him, "My man!" Corey tackles Cole into a tight hug, nearly toppling over.

Kennedy furrows her eyebrows still in a sleepy daze as she twists around to look at Cole who interrupted her sleep.

The house is no longer quiet.

"Who's he?" Kennedy whispers to me.

My eyes set on Cole, and I grit my teeth.

Cole William Alexander.

My fucking cousin.

My mom had many siblings. So I had many cousins.

Cole in simple terms is a much louder, rowdier and noisier version of Corey.

Fucking infuriating and so very fucking annoying.

Cole and Corey pull away from their hug.

Cole looks at me then at Kennedy on my lap.

"Oh my, my." Cole's eyes widen in amusement with a grin spreading on his face. "We got a sister bear here or what?"

He strolls toward us and offers a hand to Kennedy.

Kennedy reaches out to place her hand in his but I snatch her hand back and hold it to me, glaring at Cole.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" I snap at him.

Cole tsks, "Boy, haven't you learned manners or what?"

I put a still confused Kennedy on the couch beside me before standing up and over-sizing Cole with my height.

Cole's a seventeen-year-old with blue eyes and blonde hair. Again, another version of Corey.

"I saw Corey's tweet," Cole grins. "Boy, was I shocked or what? The whole family has gone whacko after finding out Jake Knight has a girlfriend. Mama sent me to make sure if it's true or not," Cole looks at Kennedy and flashes her a smile. "Boy, you sure are real."

"Don't fucking look at her," I glare, moving to block Cole's eyes from looking at Kennedy.

"Ooo someone's protective," Cole smirks, poking my chest with his finger. He looks at Corey, sharing a look with him.

"Take my advice," He tells Kennedy. "Jake loves when people annoy him—"

"I already did that." Corey shakes her head. 

"Shut up." I glare.  

"Oh damn," Cole says. "Where's Toothy?" He looks around before yelling out to her, "Toothy! Your baby brother's here! I need my fucking hug!"

"Toothy's not fucking here!" I snap at Cole, "Go back to wherever you came from."

"Nah bro, I'm too big now to fit back inside my mom's vagina."

Corey bursts out laughing while Kennedy drops open her mouth a bit.

I shake my head at Cole.

"Let's go get Toothy," Corey says, taking out his keys and slapping Cole's back.

They both walk to the front door.

"Don't come back!" I yell after them.

"Did he say, 'come back'?" Corey asks, faking confusion.

"Nah, bro. He said, 'I'm desperately waiting for you to come back'." Cole replies.

I pick up a couch pillow and fling it at the two shitholes.

They both dodge it and walk out the door with a laugh.

As soon as the door shuts, silence immediately envelopes the house.

I turn around and see Kennedy sitting on the couch with an excited sort of smile on her face.

"Who was that guy?" She asks, grinning up at me.

I take her hand and pull her up to me, crushing her body against mine and pressing a hard kiss to her forehead.

She pulls away and looks me in the eye, waiting for an answer.

"He's just another one of my fucking cousins," I answer.

"How many cousins do you have?" She asks, curious.

"Twenty-four."

Her mouth drops open in shock, "What?"

I shrug, "My mom had too many siblings."

"He seemed fun," Kennedy grins, looking excited again. Probably thinking she can make Cole her friend too.

Not. A. Fucking. Chance.

✄ ✄ ✄ ✄

How many cousins do you people have? 

Words: 2,000

Date of posting: 12th April 2022