fair/unfair

09.

       “Shut up.”

       Jax glanced up from the laptop balanced on his knees and then turned a perplexed look on Grace, who’d looked up from her book at the same time. “I didn’t say anything.”

       Reid, sitting with his back against his bedframe and knees bent against his chest, closed his eyes and sighed. “You were thinking. Stop thinking.”

        “Jax? Thinking?” The snort that came of out of Grace was as unladylike as it was graceless. “Now I know you’ve gone crazy."

       Reid dropped his knees, shooting her a glare. “You too, smartass. In fact, everyone just sit still for the next fifteen minutes.” He turned his glower on Jax. “No talking, no shuffling, no—”

        “Breathing?” Jax cut in.

        “Existing?” Grace piped up.

       Reid scowled. “Being yourselves.”

       Grace shrugged. “Well, I’d be Jax but that’d require I lose half my brain cells and my balls.”

        “Bitch,” Jax snarled, snatching a pencil off the desk to hurl at her.

       Grace yelped, dodging the pencil. She straightened up and turned a fiery gaze on the culprit. “You’re not supposed to call a lady a bitch!”

       Jax’s rolled his eyes. “When I see a lady, I’ll keep that in mind.”

       Reid frowned at them, entirely unamused with their fighting. “If you’re not going to make yourselves useful, please leave so I can at least think in peace and quiet.”

        “Is that what you’re doing?” Jax raised an eyebrow. “You look like you’re about to have an aneurysm.”

       Reid knew the instant the word left his friend’s mouth that Grace wouldn’t be able to help herself. She sniggered, setting her book aside. “Woah. Big word, Jackson. Don’t hurt yourself there, pal.”

        “Fuck off,” Jax said, sounding mildly hurt. Grace’s face fell and she opened her mouth to reply – not apologize, she never did that – but whatever she was about to say was lost when Jax turned back to Reid. “What are you thinking about?”

        “That fucking Fox.” Reid sighed, running a hand through his dark brown curls. “The blond one. With the Tesla,” he added once he saw how confused Jax looked. “I know him from somewhere, I just can’t…I can’t figure it out.”

        “Is this why you’ve been so MIA the past two weeks?” Grace asked. She leaned forward, crossing her arms across the edge of Reid’s bed and propping her chin on them. “Because you’ve been locked in this hellscape obsessing over some guy you probably saw once at a grocery store and now falls under the category of vaguely familiar.”

        “He’s not vaguely familiar,” Reid shot, sounding more sure than he was. “I know him. I fucking know I do. I just don’t know where…or when.”

        “One night stand, maybe?” Jax asked.

       Grace slapped her hand on the mattress excitedly. “Okay, wait, I got it! You met at a roadside bar, had super-angsty, ‘don’t kiss me, it’s too personal’ anonymous sex, and then parted ways. Now, you meet again as mortal enemies and over the next few months, you’ll overcome your differences and find love in the unlikeliest of places.”

        “You read too much fanfiction,” Jax deadpanned.

       Grace glanced over at him, startled at being addressed, and then she grinned, her front teeth crooked and sharp as a canine’s. Sometimes Reid resented these two for how easily they fought and how gross they were when they made up two seconds later.