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chapter thirteen: the lakehouse

( a/n: 😏😏😏 )

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Early the next morning, Jamie gets woken up and stuffed into the backseat of Phillip Banks' car.

For the first hour or so, she unknowingly sleeps on Adam, who lets her do so with a soft smile on his face. But when she can't sleep anymore, she sits up groggily and starts to rub the sleep from her eyes. They're stalled out in the parking lot of some fast food place, and the sun is finally cresting the horizon; his parents are bickering over directions, but he doesn't seem phased, handing her a breakfast sandwich with a tired smile.

"How long was I out?" She asks, nibbling on the sandwich.

"A while." He shrugs. "We're about halfway."

She nods and glances up at his parents before she turns her attention back to him.

"Wanna play I spy?"

Adam stares at her like she's got three heads for a moment before the corners of his lips twitch up.

"Sure."

Jamie nods again and looks out one of the windows for something.

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When they finally reach their destination, they all happily get out of the car.

The house is a white, three-story, colonial-type house; every window has shutters that are a pretty pale blue, the front porch being painted that same color but faded from the sunlight over the years. Behind it is a stone path that leads down to the water, where there's a dock and a boathouse. She takes a deep breath, stretching out her tired limbs and enjoying the crisp air for a moment.

"I've got the bags, kids. Go have fun." Phillip says from around the trunk area, making a shooing gesture.

Adam, with a grin, grabs Jamie's arm and pulls her to the house as she laughs.

The two teenagers run around the building, up and down the stairs while the adults settle in- they re-familiarize themselves with every nook and cranny of the house they used to play in as kids, avoiding the attic and basement because who wants to go there? At one point, she stops in front of one of the framed pictures off the wall.

"Hey, look at you!"

It's a picture of Adam when he was really little. He's got a fistful of blueberries and the juice is smeared all over his face.

He groans. "Gimme that."

She backs up, climbing onto a chair and holding it above his head as he reaches for it.

"JJ."

"Look at how cute you were!" Jamie grins, glancing down at him and cocking her head. "What happened?"

"Oh, ha ha."

He jumps up, finally snatching it back, and she continues to mock him as he puts it back on the wall.

"You're a bitch."

She's still smiling as she hops down. "Mhm. And you are no longer cute."

That's a lie. Adam's still very cute, just in a different way.

Jamie has to duck out of the way as he grabs at her, running down the hallway and into one of the rooms. He chases her, because of course, he does, and then stands over her with a huff, as she plops back on his bed.

"Still no tv?"

"No tv." Adam confirms, eyes dancing around the room.

"Bummer."

He nods before climbing over her and rolling onto his back in the space next to her. There's a pregnant pause before she turns her head to look at him, lying there with his arms underneath his head; he turns to look at her, too, and he smiles softly. When they were little, they did this all the time, but there's something so much more intimate about it now, and it almost makes her uncomfortable- maybe more so because he doesn't seem to notice it.

Yeah, she's definitely going to take this crush to her grave.

"You two tuckered out already?"

She sits up on her elbows, resisting the urge to jump, and looks at Phillip Banks. He's standing in the doorway, actually smiling, with Adam's bags.

"Nope." She smiles softly. "Just taking a break. We haven't even gone outside yet."

He snorts softly as his son gets up to get his bags.

"Alright. I put your bag on your bed, Jamie." Phillip hums. "Oh, and we're going out to a friend's house for dinner tonight, so be ready."

Both kids nod and Jamie thanks her friend's father, walking to Jake's room across the hall so she can start unpacking.

Around the time she's finished, Adam knocks on the doorway of the room, leaning against it with that stupid, pretty smile of his. There's a twinkle in his eye, one that she knows all too well.

"Hey."

"Hi." She smiles back, pulling her suitcase off the bed. "What's up?"

"Dad gave me the key to the boathouse, wanna go check it out?"

He holds up the ring of keeps and they make a little jingling noise.

Jake Banks, ever the douchebag growing up, once subjected the two younger kids to one of those Amityville Horror movies. Ever since then, the mere thought of being in the boat house made her skin crawl, but she's a big kid now and she's gotta suck it up at one point.

"Uh, sure."

Together, the two of them go down the stairs and out the back door.

He moves much faster than she does, obviously no longer harboring the irrational fear for the supernatural and paranormal that his brother instilled in her. She takes careful steps along the stone path, making it an internal competition not to touch the grass just like she used to when she was younger-

Until something moving in the grass catches her attention.

Jamie pauses, staring at it and trying to see what it is. When she sees the red, she knows.

"Oh! Adam look."

He turns to her with furrowed brows as she carefully picks up the painted turtle, ignoring the way it's trying to bite her.

"A turtle!"

Adam grimaces a bit, laughing. "I see that."

She continues to walk along the path, carefully holding the turtle out in front of her, and rejoins him. They walk out onto the dock together and she crouches down to let the reptile into the water gently, seeing as that was the direction was heading in anyway; he stands behind her, hands in his pockets as he looks around.

"Hey, look at this."

Jamie looks away from the water to him. He's crouching over the wood, touching something with his finger.

"What is it?"

"It's our initials." His nose wrinkles as he turns to look at her. "What do you think this is?"

She crosses her arms over her chest as she thinks, racking her brain for the answer to that question. There are about a billion things that she associates with this property.

It comes to her eventually.

"Oh, holy shit- we got married here."

It was a cute little ceremony. Jake had officiated it, and there was a ring and everything.

"Married?"

"Yeah. For tax reasons, I guess."

Adam snorts softly at her joke, standing up. "We're probably going to have to get that annulled. I'll give you my lawyer's contact information."

"Does it really count if your idiot brother officiated it?"

"I mean, if a Vegas Elvis officiates it still counts."

"Your brother is no Elvis."

He shakes his head, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and walking her back down the dock toward the boathouse. She willfully ignores the way that she leans into his touch.

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Later that night, long after he's ready for the dinner they're supposed to, Adam sits on Jamie's bed and watches her do her makeup in his brother's floor-length mirror. He's bored, but also seems fascinated with it, and she's just glad he's leaving her alone because eyeliner is hard enough without someone getting all up in your business.

He eventually breaks the silence.

"I don't get it."

"Hm?" She pauses, cocking her brow at him in the mirror.

"Eyeliner. I don't get it."

"What's there not to get? You take the pen and you line your eyes."

Adam rolls his eyes playfully and there's another pause.

"Want me to try it on you?"

To her surprise, he shrugs his shoulders. "Sure."

Jamie turns in her seat and reaches forward, holding his chin in her hand.

"Close your eyes."

Adam does as told, but every time she brings the makeup to his eye he flinches away.

She's not entirely sure how they wound up on the bed, her straddling his hips and holding his chin still, but it happened. Her breath has been caught in her lungs her whole time, and, as she leans over him, he exhales deeply, his breath fanning across her face.

"Stay still." She orders, her voice small even as she tries to be authoritative.

He makes a small noise to acknowledge that he's heard her, keeping incredibly still as she finally puts the pen to his eyelid. She finally manages to give him a little wing and pulls back immediately, sitting back a bit and letting go of his face as she can finally breathe.

Adam sits up on his elbows and stares up at her.

Jamie almost asks him if he likes it but she can't.

She can't look away from him.

There's a moment, maybe, where they maintain eye contact a little too long before Philip Banks is shouting up the stairs.

"Jamie! Adam! Are you ready to go?"

Her heart racing in her chest, she flinches and gets off him. "In a minute!"

Ignoring the moment of whatever that was, the two of them hurriedly wipe the eyeliner from his face before rushing downstairs to join the adults.