Categories > Original > Romance > Just You and Me
Chapter 10 The Parsonage
Two days past since the Harry Potter movie marathon night and Joe was still wallowing in his sadness. He was sitting in front of the TV in his pajamas eating Coco Puffs.
"Joe why don't you go for a run or something? You used to go on runs all the time. Now all you've been doing is sitting around the house for the past few days," Denise suggested to her son.
"I don't really feel like it mom. Maybe tomorrow."
"Okay sweetie," she said before kissing the top of his head and heading to the laundry room.
Kevin came down the stairs and sat next to Joe. He saw Joe was still in his pajamas. He looks like a townie, Kevin thought to himself before saying, "Umm, you might want to change."
"Why's that?" Joe asked as he shoveled a large spoonful of Coco Puffs into his mouth.
Kevin waited till Joe swallowed then said, "Because I asked the girls to come over."
"What!?" Joe asked getting up and almost spilling his cereal. "Why would you do that? Now she's gonna see where we live. I haven't showered in two days, she's gonna think I'm a slob!"
"So go take a shower they should be here in 15 minutes."
Joe then ran up the stairs to shower while Kevin took Joe's forgotten bowl of cereal and put it in the sink.
"Kevin, what's going on with Joe?" Denise came into the room with a basket filled with freshly dried clothes.
"Oh well... it's really not my place to tell." After getting a pleading look from his mom Kevin continued to say, "It's really nothing, but Joe thinks it is and it's really got him down. Don't worry mom he'll be okay, I'm looking out for him."
"Okay sweetie," she said and gave him a motherly kiss on the cheek.
"Oh mom, umm, my... girlfriend's coming over with acouple of her friends. I hope that's okay."
"As long as I get to meet her of course," she said with a smile.
"Of course," Kevin repeated.
A few minutes later the doorbell rang and Kevin answered.
"Good after noon ladies," Kevin greeted the girls. "Come on in."
"Your hair's curly," Aina said a bit surprised.
"Yeah I usually straighten it, but I thought I'd change it up a bit today," Kevin explained earning him nods from the girls.
"You look good with curls," Jenna said before giving him a kiss. "I'm sure you look good with anything."
"Hey Joe," Larissa said as Joe came down the stairs with his hair still wet and curling a little bit.
"You all have curls," Aina said with as much surprise as she did earlier.
"Well mine are more of waves, but yeah," Joe confirmed.
"You girls hungry?" Kevin asked looking right at Aina.
"Why are you looking at me?" Everyone gave Aina an are-you-serious look. "Okay fine I know I'm always eating. And no, I'm not hungry. I just ate before coming here."
"Hello ladies," Denise said coming into the living room.
"Guys, this is my mom," Kevin said with his hand around Denise's shoulders. "And mom," he continued removing his arm from her shoulders and walked to the girls and pointed respectively to them, "this is Larissa, Aina, and my girlfriend, Jenna." Kevin placed his arm around Jenna's waist, gave it a squeeze and kissed her temple.
"Awww..." Larissa and Aina said at the same time.
"Well it was lovely to meet you girls. Unfortunately, a mothers work is never done, even on her day off of work. I have a lot of things to do around the house and then Nick and Frankie will be coming with me to the grocery store later," Denise said the last part more to her son's than to the girls.
"We completely understand Mrs. Jonas," Aina said and with that Denise went into the laundry room once again. "I see where you get your awesome hair from," Aina said.
"What's with you and hair today?" Larissa asked.
"What? I've only seen Nick and Frankie with curls. It's new to me," Aina explained.
"Speaking of Frankie," Kevin said as Frankie came up the stairs from the basement.
"AINA!!!" Frankie yelled.
"FRANKIE!" Aina yelled back holding out her arms as he ran to her and gave her a big hug. "I've missed you buddy."
"Let's go play in the basement! We've got video games," Frankie pulled Aina towards the door he just came out of.
The six of them went to the basement where there was afoosball table, pool table, and a PS2. Nick was sitting on the couch playing on the PS2.
"Oh hey guys. Didn't know you were coming," Nick greeted.
"Hey Nick," Jenna said before Kevin led her over to the other couch so that they could have time to themselves.
"We didn't know we were coming either," Larissa said."But this is better. We probably would have just sat around the house doing nothing."
"Or Jenna would drag us to the mall," Aina added.
"Aina come and sit next to me. I'll show you how to play," Frankie said. For the next hour Joe, Nick, and Frankie helped Aina and Larissa learn how to play a few games.
"Nick, Frankie time to go," Denise called from upstairs.
"Coming mom," Nick called back. "Come on Frank lets go."
"So Joe," Larissa said turning to him, "you're alone with two girls, what do you do?" She wiggled her eye brows.
Joe laughed before saying, "I dunno, foosball tournament?" This caused the three to laugh.
She's original, never trying to fit in. She's got away to always go against the grainLarissa's phone sang.
"Oh sorry, it's Lauri. I gotta take this," Larissa excused herself and sat at the top of the staircase to talk to Lauri.
Joe and Aina were left there in awkward silence thinking about the things that were going through their mind two nights before.
Jenna said to compliment him. Oh man I totally suck at this! Compliment, compliment, think of a compliment. HIS HAIR! Aina thought to herself.
"Do you know that song?" Joe asked before she could compliment him. "You know Larissa's ring tone. I've never heard it before and it sounds good."
"Umm it's called 'Underdog' by TBWTLNJ. You know that band that has the same last name as you guys?" Aina replied.
"Oh... I really need to check those guys out," and with that they were back to an awkward silence. Come on Joe think of something to talk about. You can do this, just talk to her, Joe coached himself.
Do I really want to comment on his hair? Aina questioned herself. She looked over at Jenna and Kevin and saw them in a deep make-out session. She then looked over at Larissa and she was giggling at whatever Lauri was saying. When she looked at Joe he was looking at pretty much anything, but her.
"Your hair looks really nice wavy like that," she decided to say.
"Thanks," Joe said giving her a small smile.
Why am I so lame? Aina asked herself.
Come on she just commented you on your hair, you gotta say something back, Joe thought.
"Are you excited about London?" Aina asked.
"Yeah, totally," Joe answered. "Are you a music major?"
"No, business."
"So why are you interning at a record studio?" Joe asked getting into the conversation.
"Well, a part of the business program is to take an internship. This was one of the internships available and Jenna convinced me to apply for this one because its in London. So I applied and thankfully I got it," Aina explained. "So I'm guessing you're a music major?"
"Yeah I am. So is Kevin. I'm not sure what Nick's gonna do, but he's pretty good with music."
"So what exactly do you want to do? Musically I mean."
"I mostly just want to be in the studio. You know just producing and stuff. I'm not much of a singer, but I do write songs sometimes and I do know how to play a couple instruments."
"Like?"
"Guitar and piano mostly."
"Wow, maybe you could play a song for me some time?" Aina asked in a softer tone scooting a little closer to him on the couch.
"Yeah, maybe I will, in London or something," Joe said finally looking at her with a smile on his face.
"Hey guys," Larissa started getting everyone's attention, "let's go do something. I don't wanna stay indoors all day."
"Let's go to Disneyland!" Jenna said standing up.
"Umm... we would love to, but we're kinda running low on funds," Kevin said a little nervous looking at Joe who was looking at the floor.
"Oh no it's okay my dad gets passes from one of his clients. He's some kind of important manager there or something," Jenna said bouncing on the heels of her feet.
"What does your dad do?" Kevin asked.
"He's a general contractor. I guess this guy really liked how my dad handled things that he decided to send us Disney passes every couple months, and they're usually good for the year. So, since we haven't been in Cali since Christmas we probably have a bunch at the house, enough for Nick and Frankie too."
"Okay, we'll just wait for them to come home," Kevin said and pulled Jenna onto his lap for another make-out session.
"Does she taste like chocolates or something?" Aina asked jokingly earning her a laugh from Kevin and the others as Jenna turned around to give her a glare. Aina just put on a large fake smile and turned towards the TV. "You know I feel kinda weird being in here," She said after a while.
"Why?" Joe asked. It's probably not as glamorous as you're used to, he thought slipping back into his slump.
"Well it's a parsonage and I hate going to church,"Joe's head snapped up surprised she didn't say anything about how it looks. Thinking he was shocked because she doesn't like going to church she continued, "But I do believe in God! It's just I've always been so busy with school and stuff that I always thought it was a waste of time... I mean not a waste of time, but I just had better things to do... Not that you and your family don't have better things to do, but-"
"Aina just shut it alright," Larissa interrupted her friends rambling. "You're just digging yourself a bigger hole," she said laughing.
"No it's fine," Joe said. "Not a lot of people like going to church and I'm sure you did have better things to do. We're just used to it since our parents are really religious and stuff, so it's like aroutine."
When Denise and the boys got home Kevin asked if they all could head down to Disneyland.
"Disneyland, Disneyland, DISNEYLAND!!!" Frankie chanted.
"I would love if you could take Frankie out of the house so that I could clean up around here. Do you need any money?" She asked.
"No mom it's fine, I got it," Kevin said.
"Okay kids have fun. And Frankie listen to your brothers, don't go running off on your own."
"Okay mom," Frankie said before giving her a hug and kiss goodbye and the other boys followed, each giving her a kiss goodbye and saying their I love you's.
The girls said their goodbyes as well, along with saying, "It was nice meeting you."
"Awww," Aina said as they walked out of the house.
"What are you 'awwing' about?" Jenna asked.
"Well I think it's so cute when guys can openly tell their mother 'I love you' in front of girls. It's cute," Aina explained throwing a little glance toward Joe.
Kevin, Jenna, and Frankie drove down in Jenna's car while Joe drove the rest in Kevin's car. A few minutes later Aina's phone beeped and vibrated. When she pulled it out the "New Text Message" sign blinked on the screen.
That was a nice compliment. The ones that you don't have to come up with are always better, plus it had to do with his mom. You pass. I believe you can move on to Flirting 102 now :P It was from Jenna of course.
Not 10 seconds after she finished reading did she get another text.
"Well someone's popular today isn't she," Nick said from behind her.
"Psh, I wish," Aina said as she read the new text message.
I saw that look you gave Joe when you said that thing about HIM being cute when he told is mom he loves her.
Joe looked over at Aina when she closed her phone after reading Larissa's text and saw a slight smile on her face. Maybe she got a text from a guy. Some rich, smart guy, who's majoring in business. Someone like her, Joe thought.
Two days past since the Harry Potter movie marathon night and Joe was still wallowing in his sadness. He was sitting in front of the TV in his pajamas eating Coco Puffs.
"Joe why don't you go for a run or something? You used to go on runs all the time. Now all you've been doing is sitting around the house for the past few days," Denise suggested to her son.
"I don't really feel like it mom. Maybe tomorrow."
"Okay sweetie," she said before kissing the top of his head and heading to the laundry room.
Kevin came down the stairs and sat next to Joe. He saw Joe was still in his pajamas. He looks like a townie, Kevin thought to himself before saying, "Umm, you might want to change."
"Why's that?" Joe asked as he shoveled a large spoonful of Coco Puffs into his mouth.
Kevin waited till Joe swallowed then said, "Because I asked the girls to come over."
"What!?" Joe asked getting up and almost spilling his cereal. "Why would you do that? Now she's gonna see where we live. I haven't showered in two days, she's gonna think I'm a slob!"
"So go take a shower they should be here in 15 minutes."
Joe then ran up the stairs to shower while Kevin took Joe's forgotten bowl of cereal and put it in the sink.
"Kevin, what's going on with Joe?" Denise came into the room with a basket filled with freshly dried clothes.
"Oh well... it's really not my place to tell." After getting a pleading look from his mom Kevin continued to say, "It's really nothing, but Joe thinks it is and it's really got him down. Don't worry mom he'll be okay, I'm looking out for him."
"Okay sweetie," she said and gave him a motherly kiss on the cheek.
"Oh mom, umm, my... girlfriend's coming over with acouple of her friends. I hope that's okay."
"As long as I get to meet her of course," she said with a smile.
"Of course," Kevin repeated.
A few minutes later the doorbell rang and Kevin answered.
"Good after noon ladies," Kevin greeted the girls. "Come on in."
"Your hair's curly," Aina said a bit surprised.
"Yeah I usually straighten it, but I thought I'd change it up a bit today," Kevin explained earning him nods from the girls.
"You look good with curls," Jenna said before giving him a kiss. "I'm sure you look good with anything."
"Hey Joe," Larissa said as Joe came down the stairs with his hair still wet and curling a little bit.
"You all have curls," Aina said with as much surprise as she did earlier.
"Well mine are more of waves, but yeah," Joe confirmed.
"You girls hungry?" Kevin asked looking right at Aina.
"Why are you looking at me?" Everyone gave Aina an are-you-serious look. "Okay fine I know I'm always eating. And no, I'm not hungry. I just ate before coming here."
"Hello ladies," Denise said coming into the living room.
"Guys, this is my mom," Kevin said with his hand around Denise's shoulders. "And mom," he continued removing his arm from her shoulders and walked to the girls and pointed respectively to them, "this is Larissa, Aina, and my girlfriend, Jenna." Kevin placed his arm around Jenna's waist, gave it a squeeze and kissed her temple.
"Awww..." Larissa and Aina said at the same time.
"Well it was lovely to meet you girls. Unfortunately, a mothers work is never done, even on her day off of work. I have a lot of things to do around the house and then Nick and Frankie will be coming with me to the grocery store later," Denise said the last part more to her son's than to the girls.
"We completely understand Mrs. Jonas," Aina said and with that Denise went into the laundry room once again. "I see where you get your awesome hair from," Aina said.
"What's with you and hair today?" Larissa asked.
"What? I've only seen Nick and Frankie with curls. It's new to me," Aina explained.
"Speaking of Frankie," Kevin said as Frankie came up the stairs from the basement.
"AINA!!!" Frankie yelled.
"FRANKIE!" Aina yelled back holding out her arms as he ran to her and gave her a big hug. "I've missed you buddy."
"Let's go play in the basement! We've got video games," Frankie pulled Aina towards the door he just came out of.
The six of them went to the basement where there was afoosball table, pool table, and a PS2. Nick was sitting on the couch playing on the PS2.
"Oh hey guys. Didn't know you were coming," Nick greeted.
"Hey Nick," Jenna said before Kevin led her over to the other couch so that they could have time to themselves.
"We didn't know we were coming either," Larissa said."But this is better. We probably would have just sat around the house doing nothing."
"Or Jenna would drag us to the mall," Aina added.
"Aina come and sit next to me. I'll show you how to play," Frankie said. For the next hour Joe, Nick, and Frankie helped Aina and Larissa learn how to play a few games.
"Nick, Frankie time to go," Denise called from upstairs.
"Coming mom," Nick called back. "Come on Frank lets go."
"So Joe," Larissa said turning to him, "you're alone with two girls, what do you do?" She wiggled her eye brows.
Joe laughed before saying, "I dunno, foosball tournament?" This caused the three to laugh.
She's original, never trying to fit in. She's got away to always go against the grainLarissa's phone sang.
"Oh sorry, it's Lauri. I gotta take this," Larissa excused herself and sat at the top of the staircase to talk to Lauri.
Joe and Aina were left there in awkward silence thinking about the things that were going through their mind two nights before.
Jenna said to compliment him. Oh man I totally suck at this! Compliment, compliment, think of a compliment. HIS HAIR! Aina thought to herself.
"Do you know that song?" Joe asked before she could compliment him. "You know Larissa's ring tone. I've never heard it before and it sounds good."
"Umm it's called 'Underdog' by TBWTLNJ. You know that band that has the same last name as you guys?" Aina replied.
"Oh... I really need to check those guys out," and with that they were back to an awkward silence. Come on Joe think of something to talk about. You can do this, just talk to her, Joe coached himself.
Do I really want to comment on his hair? Aina questioned herself. She looked over at Jenna and Kevin and saw them in a deep make-out session. She then looked over at Larissa and she was giggling at whatever Lauri was saying. When she looked at Joe he was looking at pretty much anything, but her.
"Your hair looks really nice wavy like that," she decided to say.
"Thanks," Joe said giving her a small smile.
Why am I so lame? Aina asked herself.
Come on she just commented you on your hair, you gotta say something back, Joe thought.
"Are you excited about London?" Aina asked.
"Yeah, totally," Joe answered. "Are you a music major?"
"No, business."
"So why are you interning at a record studio?" Joe asked getting into the conversation.
"Well, a part of the business program is to take an internship. This was one of the internships available and Jenna convinced me to apply for this one because its in London. So I applied and thankfully I got it," Aina explained. "So I'm guessing you're a music major?"
"Yeah I am. So is Kevin. I'm not sure what Nick's gonna do, but he's pretty good with music."
"So what exactly do you want to do? Musically I mean."
"I mostly just want to be in the studio. You know just producing and stuff. I'm not much of a singer, but I do write songs sometimes and I do know how to play a couple instruments."
"Like?"
"Guitar and piano mostly."
"Wow, maybe you could play a song for me some time?" Aina asked in a softer tone scooting a little closer to him on the couch.
"Yeah, maybe I will, in London or something," Joe said finally looking at her with a smile on his face.
"Hey guys," Larissa started getting everyone's attention, "let's go do something. I don't wanna stay indoors all day."
"Let's go to Disneyland!" Jenna said standing up.
"Umm... we would love to, but we're kinda running low on funds," Kevin said a little nervous looking at Joe who was looking at the floor.
"Oh no it's okay my dad gets passes from one of his clients. He's some kind of important manager there or something," Jenna said bouncing on the heels of her feet.
"What does your dad do?" Kevin asked.
"He's a general contractor. I guess this guy really liked how my dad handled things that he decided to send us Disney passes every couple months, and they're usually good for the year. So, since we haven't been in Cali since Christmas we probably have a bunch at the house, enough for Nick and Frankie too."
"Okay, we'll just wait for them to come home," Kevin said and pulled Jenna onto his lap for another make-out session.
"Does she taste like chocolates or something?" Aina asked jokingly earning her a laugh from Kevin and the others as Jenna turned around to give her a glare. Aina just put on a large fake smile and turned towards the TV. "You know I feel kinda weird being in here," She said after a while.
"Why?" Joe asked. It's probably not as glamorous as you're used to, he thought slipping back into his slump.
"Well it's a parsonage and I hate going to church,"Joe's head snapped up surprised she didn't say anything about how it looks. Thinking he was shocked because she doesn't like going to church she continued, "But I do believe in God! It's just I've always been so busy with school and stuff that I always thought it was a waste of time... I mean not a waste of time, but I just had better things to do... Not that you and your family don't have better things to do, but-"
"Aina just shut it alright," Larissa interrupted her friends rambling. "You're just digging yourself a bigger hole," she said laughing.
"No it's fine," Joe said. "Not a lot of people like going to church and I'm sure you did have better things to do. We're just used to it since our parents are really religious and stuff, so it's like aroutine."
When Denise and the boys got home Kevin asked if they all could head down to Disneyland.
"Disneyland, Disneyland, DISNEYLAND!!!" Frankie chanted.
"I would love if you could take Frankie out of the house so that I could clean up around here. Do you need any money?" She asked.
"No mom it's fine, I got it," Kevin said.
"Okay kids have fun. And Frankie listen to your brothers, don't go running off on your own."
"Okay mom," Frankie said before giving her a hug and kiss goodbye and the other boys followed, each giving her a kiss goodbye and saying their I love you's.
The girls said their goodbyes as well, along with saying, "It was nice meeting you."
"Awww," Aina said as they walked out of the house.
"What are you 'awwing' about?" Jenna asked.
"Well I think it's so cute when guys can openly tell their mother 'I love you' in front of girls. It's cute," Aina explained throwing a little glance toward Joe.
Kevin, Jenna, and Frankie drove down in Jenna's car while Joe drove the rest in Kevin's car. A few minutes later Aina's phone beeped and vibrated. When she pulled it out the "New Text Message" sign blinked on the screen.
That was a nice compliment. The ones that you don't have to come up with are always better, plus it had to do with his mom. You pass. I believe you can move on to Flirting 102 now :P It was from Jenna of course.
Not 10 seconds after she finished reading did she get another text.
"Well someone's popular today isn't she," Nick said from behind her.
"Psh, I wish," Aina said as she read the new text message.
I saw that look you gave Joe when you said that thing about HIM being cute when he told is mom he loves her.
Joe looked over at Aina when she closed her phone after reading Larissa's text and saw a slight smile on her face. Maybe she got a text from a guy. Some rich, smart guy, who's majoring in business. Someone like her, Joe thought.
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