Back to the Beginning || Raura

6.0

Back to the Beginning | 6.0 |
| Laura Marano |

| Thursday: February 7th, 2019 |

I hold Ross' keys out as I walk down the two steps into the garage. The boys were each in their chairs, Ross with an acoustic guitar in his lap and Rocky controlling the computer. I smile at Jaz who was sitting on the couch, her laptop in her lap as she sat criss-cross. Ross turns around at the sound of Jaz saying hi to me.

"Aye, I was wondering when you'd show up." Ross says before I could even give Jaz my own hi. He holds his hand out for his keys. I hold them a few inches above his hand.

"I filled her up." I announce. He raises his eyebrows.

"How much was it? I have some cash in my room that I can give you later." He tells me. I brush him off. Like he actually thinks I'd make him pay me back.

"You've been letting me use it all week, I don't need to be paid back for filling up your car. Plus, it wasn't that pricey." I furrow my eyebrows. "I think Colorado has higher gas prices right now." He makes a reach for his keys. I raise my hand out of his reach. Good thing he's sitting down. "I have a question to ask you first." He sighs and leans back in his seat. I give him a small smile. "I'm staying here tonight and tomorrow night." He nods his head. "And tomorrow night is the Jesse McCartney show we're going to go watch." Ryland was being his LD for his North American tour and the entire family was invited to come watch. I was beyond excited to see RyRy, I haven't seen his cute face in ages. Ross nods again. "And then Friday is the tea party." He nods his head again. "Can I barrow your car again that morning? I want to help her set up for it."

"Yeah, sure. Just please use my card next time to fill up my car." I give him a smile. "I know you're running low on money, so don't do that again." I shove his forehead.

"You little shit logged into my account." He chuckles and swats my hand away. "But you're right, I'm running low." I admit. I hate admitting I don't have money. Without my job, I've been spending a little too much. I went out to dinner twice last week, I bought groceries for Rydel last week and didn't accept her money (it was my way of saying thanks for letting me stay there three nights out of the week), and I went to a nail appointment with Stormie a few days ago. My savings was slowly getting smaller and smaller and I know I need to look into jobs asap.

"Then let me pay you back for gas, bug." I shake my head. He's always trying to help me, and usually I accept, but money is the one thing where I draw the line.

"No no, it's really okay. I don't need to be paid back for something that I'm actually using." He keeps his eyes on me. "I just need to budget myself for the rest of my time here and probably start looking for jobs back home. My mom's been texting me everyday with screenshots or pictures of businesses and politicians needing more employees." Rocky turns around.

"When are you planning on going back?" He asks me. I bite the inside of my cheek. I haven't really thought about going back home at all, really. "We all love having you here, but your mom called me the other day and was asking me all these questions about you." I roll my eyes.

"Great, who else did she call? I know she already called you." I mumble, now looking at Ross. He FaceTimed me two days ago while I was helping Rydel fill her boutique orders again and told me about the conversation they had.

"I don't know." Rocky replies. I cross my arms in front of my chest. "I didn't think anything weird of it until she started asking questions. I thought it was just her normal checking in call we always have every month." He tells me with a shrug. I knew she had a checking in call with all the Lynch kids, but I didn't think the checking in call would result with talking about me. "Have you even looked at jobs?" I look down at my feet.