“Bay?” He knocked softly on my door, over an hour later. “I ordered take out. Are you hungry?”
“Did AJ leave?” I asked without answering his question.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “He said that you can call him later if you would rather talk to him as opposed to me. Which, we all know, you will.”
“Probably,” I agreed as I finally looked up at him from my position on the bed.
“At any rate, food will be here in a half hour. You can pick out a movie to watch while we eat, if you want.”
“Okay.” Was all I said before he walked back out my door. He gently closed the door and I pulled out my cell phone. It rang several times before AJ picked up.
“Hey there, little B,” he greeted. His girlfriend must be over because he sounded pretty chipper. The man was seriously head over heels for this chick. I was happy for him though. I have never seen him so happy…he’s like a love sick puppy.
“AJ, I’m the only B,” I sighed with a roll of my eyes.
“Hey now, don’t roll your eyes at me, young man,” he chuckled. AJ had a lot to do with raising me. He had been there for me and my guardian, ever since my parents passed. Sometimes, I think he knows me TOO well.
“Why does he have to be so strict?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Honestly, Bay, do you think your parents would have let you get a tattoo?”
“No,” I answered simply.
“Then why did you expect HIM to let you?” he asked me.
“Because, he is supposed to be cooler and let me do stuff that my parents wouldn’t have let me do.”
“Oh yeah, that makes PERFECT sense. Cut the guy a break, Baylee. He is trying to care for you the way your father would have. All he wants to do is make sure that you grow up to be the type of person your mom and dad would have wanted you to be. Besides, he’s not THAT bad.”
“Yes he IS! You don’t understand!”
“Aaaah, such a teenage thing to say. I can’t count how many times I told my mom that she didn’t understand me,” he chuckled. Why does AJ ALWAYS have to take HIS side? It is so frustrating, it seems like I have no allies.
“Maybe that’s because I am a teenager?” I asked sarcastically.
“Maybe. Or, maybe, you just don’t want to admit that he’s right. You knew, damn well, that he wasn’t going to agree to something like that! He lets you get away with a lot of stuff, if you think about it. Just imagine what it would have been like if you lived with your Uncle Harold.”
“Eeesh, I guess ANYone is better than him! I mean, I love Uncle H. but he is so weird!” I scrunched my nose at the thought and AJ laughed loudly.
“See? Things could always be worse. If you lived with me, I would probably be just as bad. We all love you Bay and don’t want to see anything happen to you. All of us are guilty of being a bit over protective,” his voice was so comforting. He was right, of course…not that I would admit that. I did remember how my grandparents reacted during the 6 months I spent with them. They did everything short of putting me in a bubble!
“The only thing worse, would be if I was ACTUALLY his son!” I exclaimed.
“Shut up, Bay. You love him, just as much as he loves you. I’m not stupid and I don’t believe, for a second, that you hate him. Besides, you are just as bad of a liar as your father was,” he snickered at me.
“You are not helping,” I said with a bit of anger.
“Oh, sorry, am I supposed to be helping? Because, I just thought I was here if you needed to talk…I didn’t say shit about helping.”
“You are such a smart ass, AJ.”
“Hey now, that’s smart ALEK to you, young man. Trust me when I say that soap does not have a very good flavor.”
“Let me guess…you know from experience, right?” I asked, rolling my eyes and grabbing a can of soda from the small refrigerator by my bed.
“A little too well, actually. I made the mistake of dropping the F-bomb in front of mom and Kevin when I was…come to think of it, I was right about your age. Of course, Nick laughed his ass off, but, when told me I shouldn’t have said that shit, he ended up right next to me with a similar bar of soap. I think it was Zest…whichever one has that distinct foresty, rainy, clean kind of smell,” he rambled. He always rambles on about stuff that happened when he was younger, which is funny because I have always thought he was too young to do that storytelling stuff.
“Irish Spring?”
“YEAH, that’s the one!”
“What did my dad and Howie do?”
“Your dad lectured us, like usual and Howie sat there, shaking his head,” he answered with another laugh.
“I bet you were a lot more careful, after that,” I replied and took another drink of my soda.
“Hardly! Nick and I found ourselves with a bar of soap in our mouths on a fairly regular basis.”
“But you give ME a hard time?”
“Hey, I said that I did it…I never said that it was right.”
“Yeah well…” I tailed off, not really sure what to say. Then I heard a yell from downstairs. “I think our take out is here.”
“Alright, Bay. Just…try, okay?”
“I guess. I will talk to you later.”
“Sure thing. And remember to cut him some slack,” AJ emphasized his point again. “Night, Bay.”
“Night AJ.” I flipped my phone shut before heading downstairs to eat.
AJ always did a good job of proving his point…which was USUALLY a good one. Curse him for making me feel guilty for starting, yet, another fight. I hadn’t intentionally gotten up in the morning, saying “I’m going to do whatever I can to make my guardian mad, today.” We just always…kind of…end up in a fight.
I guess my parents had a good reason for picking HIM, even though, I doubt, I will ever understand why. Granted, I used to get along with him really well but, now that I’m older, we are SO different! No one else understands why I got stuck with him either. By all rights, I should have been with a set of my grandparents or Uncle Harold, or even Uncle Kevin. But nooooooooooo. That’s not who I got at all!
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you so very much to everyone who has reviewed already. I am surprised to see that so many people like it, already! *grin* I hope you like this chapter, too!
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