10

Kade’s POV
I woke up with the light blinding me from the balcony door as a strong arm holds me tight against their body. I find a way to get out of the grasp and when I do, I sit on the edge of the couch as I look down at the beautiful man that’s still asleep. He has one arm thrown over his face to cover his eyes from the sunlight while his shirt has risen up as he’s moved around during the night. I can see his soft, muscular skin that’s now exposed and I just want to reach out and touch him, but also knowing that would seem pretty weird.
I settle on running my hand through his hair as he slowly becomes less tense from whatever he’s dreaming about. I slowly get up as I notice the TV has the Netflix screen asking if I’m still watching since it was running all night. I make my way to the kitchen because why not make some breakfast for when he wakes up ?
I’m surprised they even have breakfast stuff by the low amount of food that’s in the fridge. I pull out the eggs and bacon along with the pancake mix before taking out pans to place on the stove to heat up while I text my mom to tell her that I’m alive since she texted me twice after I told her that I was staying at Melissa’s since she would hate if I was staying with a guy I barely know.
Halfway through making breakfast, I feel like someone’s staring at me so I turn slowly to see Joey leaning against the kitchen wall while he looks at me with a smile. I jump back in surprise, making him chuckle before walking over to me. What’re you doing ?
Just making breakfast, I tell him as he wraps his arms around my waist to kiss me before going over to the Keurig to make some coffee for both of us. I flip a pancake as I wait for everything to be thoroughly cooked before taking it to the coffee table for us to eat.
We sit down to eat as Friends plays again. So I have to go home to help my dad with something for a few hours, but that’s not until later, so we have a few hours left to ourselves.
I nod my head as I take a sip of the hot coffee with milk. Can I stay here again tonight or is that too much ?
No, that’s fine, we’ll just have to go get your stuff for school tomorrow first. But you’re okay to be here by yourself for a few hours ? He asks, biting off a piece of bacon.
Yeah, I’ll be fine, I tell him.
After we finish eating, he gets dressed in some light skinny jeans and a fitted black t-shirt that’s from some beach that I’ve never heard of before. He gives me some skinny jeans that are way too long that I have to roll them up and a purple long-sleeved shirt that’s super soft. I walk out of the bathroom to see Joey typing on his phone before he looks up at me with a smile.
Hey, those fit pretty well, he motioned to the jeans that are a bit too big and long, but otherwise, they fit and are pretty comfortable.
I mean, they’re like ten feet too long for me, but they’re pretty comfortable, I tell him and he chuckles as we walk towards the apartment door to go to his car.
Okay, Mr. Dramatic, let’s go, he tells me as he reaches back to grab my hand and pull me out of the apartment and to his car where he opens my door for me before going over to the driver’s seat. He puts the radio on as he speeds off towards my house.
So I might’ve looked in the bedroom last night while you were showering, I admit to him and he chuckles, not thinking it’s too big of a deal. But those pictures kinda freaked me out because of the guy in the robe that was at their wedding and whatever the other ceremony was. It just struck me as weird because the robe he was wearing really reminded me of a cult or whatever.
Find anything interesting ?
Yeah, I was looking at the pictures and I’m just kinda confused about the guy in the robe at your parents’ wedding, I tell him and I can see the way his eyes widen in fear before he suppresses it by clearing his throat, which immediately tells me that there’s something he’s hiding that he doesn’t want me to find out.
That’s the minister at the church that my parents go to. They really like him so they asked him to do all ceremonies that they ever have, he tells me.
What was the other ceremony in the pictures ? The one where your mom is wearing the yellow dress ? I’m just curious, I ask him and again, that look of fear enters his eyes before he suppresses it by looking at the car that’s passing him.
That was just… a pre-wedding thing. They wanted to, like, express their promise to each other, so they had, like, a ceremony to exchange promise rings since they were too young to do the whole thing, he tells me, but I can tell he was making this up as he went by the way he was hesitating and using the word like a lot.
Oh, okay, I say, not wanting to push him too much because if he really didn’t want to tell me, then it’s not my business to pry. I notice the way his shoulder relax when I drop the subject and that makes me even more inclined to pry, but I don’t because it’s his choice of whether or not he wants to tell me the secret.
After about 10 minutes in the car, we pull up to my house and my parents must be at my grandmother’s house or at lunch because their cars weren’t in the driveway. We walk into my house where we saw Emilie sitting on the couch, watching some sci-fi movie with her phone in her hands. When she hears the door opens, she looks up with a confused look.
I thought you were at Melissa’s ? She asks as she picks up the remote to pause the movie that’s playing so she can hear us.
I was, but I needed to get my stuff for school tomorrow, I tell her as I notice that some of the pictures are now hanging on the walls in frames, which means Mom got really tired of the bare walls and finally got around to it.
You’re sleeping at her house again ? Emilie asks as she gets up to give me a hug.
Yeah, I lied because if I tell her, she’ll probably tell Mom and I’ll get in serious trouble because I’m not where she thought I was.
Oh, okay, she says as she goes back to the couch to pick up her phone. Joey and I make our way through the living room before she stops us. nice hickey, by the way.
I look over at her as she smirks at her phone as she continues typing. I turn to Joey with a glare and he holds his hands up in surrender as he backs up. I clear my throat, looking at my sister. I fell.
Sure, you did, she says with a giggle before she presses play on the movie and I walk up the stairs with my hand over my neck where the dark mark lays out on my skin.
We walk into my room and Joey looks around before going to sit on my bed while I pick up an extra bag to put some clothes in. I pick out my outfit for tomorrow before putting my school stuff in my backpack since I guess we had to go to school.
Your room’s cute, you unpacked really quickly, he tells me while he inspects the pictures that I had hanging above my bed of my family and friends that I had memories with. I noticed how he picked up a picture that must’ve fallen down onto the ground that was a Polaroid that my friend Jessie took of me on her bed after prom last year. I was hugging a pillow to my chest as my hair was sprawled all over my face as I had my eyes closed.