The Reason Why

Chapter 13: Mean Streak

2013

 ‘’Shall I drive?’’
‘’No.’’
‘’Why not?’’
‘’Stop nagging, you’re just ashamed because a woman is driving.’’
‘’Yeah, it kinda looks like I’m a sissy.’’
‘’I do think it looks cool.’’ Karen put her sunglasses on. ‘’Cool for me.’’ She started to laugh. ‘’No but serious, I don’t let you drive again. You always get lost.’’
‘’Only once, it was dark!’’
‘’More than once. And now we moved you will get lost for sure.’’
‘’Wanna bet?’’
‘’No. I want to get home as soon as possible, not four hours later.’’
Jimi started to laugh. ‘’It was not that bad.’’
Karen gave him the look.
‘’Okay, okay, maybe it was. What’s that awful sound?!’’
‘’Oh that, that’s my stomach. I’m hungry.’’
‘’The wife’s hungry, that might explain the complaint.’’ Jimi muttered.
And again, Karen gave him the look. ‘’You seriously need to stop.’’
‘’There’s a Wendy’s in less than two miles. Wanna have a romantic lunch there?’’
‘’The lunch is for sure, but you can forget the romantic part.’’
They went to the restaurant and ordered some food.

‘’It’s been an hour since I’ve seen lil man and I already miss him.’’ 
‘’Same.’’ Karen received a text message. 
‘’Well, but we have two weeks for ourselves.’’
Karen started to sigh. ‘’Not for long. My sister’s dropping Cassadee and Bailey with us. For a week.’’
‘’Oh, that means no sleep for us.’’ Jimi laughed. ‘’It’ll be fine. It’s just a week, we’ll get through it.’’
‘’But I thought… that you wanted to have those two weeks for ourselves… only.’’
‘’It’s fine with me.’’
‘’Are you sure?’’ she whispered
Jimi grabbed Karen’s hand. ‘’Yes! Go have some fun with those girls, I bet they miss you a lot.’’
‘’And I miss them too.’’

The door of the cab flew open, Cassadee ran out of it, onto the front porch and hugged her aunt who stood there.
‘’Aunt Karen, I missed you so much!’’ she shouted. ‘’Where’s uncle Jimi?’’
‘’Ahw, I missed you too sweet girl. He’s in the kitchen, he’ll be here soon.’’ Karen yelled Jimi’s name. They heard him yelling back to them.
‘’Yo Cass, so nice of you to let me drag all our stuff.’’ Bailey joked.
‘’I’m already coming.’’ Before Jimi ran out of the house he took his apron off and threw it on the floor. 
‘’Was that uncle Jimi wearing a 50s apron?’’ Cassadee asked.
‘’Yes, Kim and I gave it to him for his birthday a few years ago.’’ 
The two had to laugh.
‘’Hey Bae, how ya doing?’’ Jimi ran to Bailey to help her bringing the suitcases inside.
‘’Hi, Jimi! I’m fine, thank you. How about you?’’ Bailey asked.
‘’Uncle Jimi to you, and I’m fine too.’’ Jimi smiled to Bailey and together they walked onto the front porch. Karen hugged Bailey.
‘’Hey Bailey, such a long time that I saw you.’’ She said.
‘’I know, it was like decades ago.’’
‘’Oh my God, yes. We saw each other at New Year for the last time and now it’s October.’’ Cassadee said. She talks very fast. ‘’Let me help you with the suitcases, of course you don’t have to bring them in here by yourself, doe.’’ She gave her friend a playful hit on her head and ran to the cab.
‘’Eh, Karen, where can I drop our suitcases?’’ Bailey asked.
‘’Aunt Karen for you silly head. I told you that for like a million times. You’re practically family to me. To all of us.’’ 
Bailey spends a lot of her time at Cassadee’s house, they even celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving together, that all because Bailey’s parents are important business people and are out of the country a lot.
‘’Yeah, I said the same.’’ Jimi said.
‘’But I was a kinda shamed you thought it was weird…’’ Bailey whispered.
‘’Of course not, silly. Come inside, it’s cold here.’’ Karen grabbed Bailey’s hand and took her inside. ‘’You could be family, you have brown hair and dark eyes too.’’
‘’Nah, Bae is basically my sister.’’ Cassadee said. ‘’Hey Aunt Karen, what’s the wifi code of this place?’’ she already took a seat on the couch with her legs on the table.
A typical remark of a teenager nowadays.
‘’I’ll get it for you two.’’ Jimi said. He came back to the living room with tea.
‘’No, but serious it’s been a long time since I saw you.’’ He said.
‘’I know! I didn’t even knew you moved!’’ Bailey shouted.
‘’That’s my fault, nah actually mom’s. She told me about it last week.’’ Cassadee took a sip of her tea.
‘’But it’s beautiful!’’
‘’Yes, especially the front porch!’’
‘’Shut up with your front porch.’’ Bailey turned to Cassadee. ‘’You have a kind of front porch fetish.’’
Cassadee made a disapproving yell and threw a pillow to Bailey’s head. ‘’No, you shut up with your fetish… fetish!’’
The two girlfriends started to laugh very loud. 
‘’Where’s lil man?’’ Cassadee asked after she finished.
‘’At mom and dad’s place.’’ Karen replied.
Cassadee and Bailey both sighed.
‘’The next time we need to plan it right, Cass.’’ Bailey said to her friend.
‘’I totally agree. Hey, where do we sleep?’’
‘’Well, you can choose one by yourself!’’
‘’But can I sleep with Bae, I don’t know if this house is haunted yet and if it is I rather not to sleep alone ya know…’’
‘’Yes, oh my God, the guest room in your old house was really haunted.’’ Bailey said. 
‘’Oh, please stop.’’ Karen and Cassadee said at the same time. Both, aunt and niece, are scared to death about ghosts and haunting.
‘’I remember that morning that I woke up with Cassadee laying between us.’’ Jimi laughed.
‘’Oh Lord, yes! That doe left me alone.’’ Bailey made up a sad face. ‘’Well, what about a tour through the house?’’
They ended up in their room for a week and both fell on the king size bed.
‘’Paradise.’’ Cassadee whispered.
‘’I can’t believe Elijah’s bedroom is even bigger than my living room.’’ Bailey said. ‘’I could entertain myself for the whole week in this bedroom only.’’
‘’You should, until 7pm, then dinner’s ready.’’ Karen laughed and closed the door behind her.