Tempest (Royce/Winston)

056

Jacob's P.O.V.

"Do you need me to come in?"

I glanced at my mom and shook my head before looking back at the house that we were parked in front of. Today was Winston's birthday, which meant that today he was having a small party at his house. Thankfully my mom was willing to drive me to his address.

"Thanks for driving me" I said, beginning to get out of the car. I stopped when she touched my shoulder.

"Is... Are you and Winston dating?"

I blinked, "um, no... We've talked about it before, but I still needed time, so I asked if we could just be friends".

"Do you still need time?"

"I don't know".

I wasn't just saying that in order to end the conversation and get out of the car, I really didn't know if I was ready to move on and have another boyfriend. Winston never pressed me about us becoming something more serious, so I never thought about it because it never crossed my mind. It did now though, because my mom had brought it up, so now here I was thinking about it and searching for an answer that I couldn't find.

"Okay, sweetheart. I was just wondering is all" she looked down at the bag that was in my lap. "Do you think he'll like the gift?"

I nodded a little, "I think so, well... At least I hope so".

My mom smiled, "tell his mother I said hello".

I nodded for a second time before finally exiting the car. I watched my mom drive off before turning around and beginning to walk up the somewhat long pathway. Winston's house was a bit big, but not bigger than Jasper's house. Jasper's house looked like a miniature mansion because his parents had a shit ton of money. Winston's house was large, but nothing too extravagant.

When I made it to the front door, I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer the door. It took a moment, but the door did open and I looked up to find... No one. My eyes slowly but surely drifted down, and I was met with two wide green eyes that belonged to a little girl with curly brown hair that was styled into two ponytails.

"Who are you?"

"Jacob".

"Oh, I remember you! I'm Aspen, do you remember me?"

Nodding, I smiled a little. "I do remember you, can I come in?"

She took a step back so I could walk into the house, just as I closed the door behind me, Winston appeared at the end of the hallway. There was a small frown on his face, and at first I worried that he wasn't happy to see me, but then I realized that as he walked closer, the frown wasn't for me.

"Aspen, you're not supposed to answer the door. You know that".

"I heard the doorbell and no one moved fast enough" she groaned.

"I don't care, please don't open the door anymore, okay?"

"Okay".

Winston finally looked at me and gave me a small apologetic smile. "Sorry, hey, how are you?"

"It's okay, and hi" I moved closer to him, holding his gift with one hand as I leaned in to hug him. "I'm okay, I guess. Sorry if I'm a bit late, didn't feel like getting out of bed".

"You could've stayed home, I wouldn't have minded".

"I always feel like I can't get out of bed, so it's no big deal. Plus, I said I was going to be here and I wanted to make sure that I stuck to my promise. Is anyone else here?"