"You actually sound like you'd enjoy that," Josh laughed behind us.

I stopped, dead in my track, turned around and narrowed my eyes at Josh. "Say that again Mister Puss?"

"Hey, I'm just saying, Stockholm syndrome is making a come back," Josh grinned.

I rolled my eyes. "Please, I'm not pathetic like that."

"Well, true. You did turn down the Blake serenading at your window offer the other night," Josh frowned.

"It was naked at the window, but whatever," Blake corrected, smirking.

I scowled at Blake. "You told him that?"

"Don't you remember? I told you I was having an argument. I was with Josh working on his mural, and we were discussing the fact that creepy unhealthy things seem romantic to kids these days."

"At least we know you haven't fallen for it," Josh chuckled.

For one tiny second, I was actually a little disappointed. I guess in the back of my mind I would have liked to think Blake really was waiting at my window, not naked but yeah. Even though they were right and it was creepy, for some strange reason I wanted to have someone that would drop everything they were doing to show up just to surprise me.

"Alright, let's go eat. I'm starving," Blake whined and dragged me again towards the stairs, but I stopped, because I needed to use the bathroom, and it would be smarter to go now, than during dinner.

"I gotta go to the bathroom first," I told him and then frowned, trying to think of where the bathroom was exactly. "Which is where?"

Was I supposed to use Blake's one or some other really expensive looking one, with a golden toilet seat bowl and silk as toilet paper?

"The door right beside the computer Pumpkin, though you might want to be careful. I'm not sure if I gave the right amount of sedative to my whore this time," Blake frowned and then chuckled at his bad joke.

"You're an idiot Blake," I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks! Oh, and just follow the music to get to the dinning room after," Blake laughed and I walked towards the door, not so sure what he was talking about while he headed out with Josh.

"Why the hell were you acting like an asshole?" I heard Blake hissed before I closed the door of the bathroom behind me.

"I'm doing you a favor, just..." Josh said but his voice got lost in the stairs.

Huh?

Acting like an asshole?

I didn't dwell on this bit of conversation though, because for one second my mind focussed on something else. I was in Blake's bathroom, alone. I could look in all his drawers like some stalker. That could be funny, though I was worried for a second about everything I could find in here.

This was Blake after all.

The bathroom, like everything in this house, was really beautiful. There was a big shower and a big bathtub on my left and then the sink and toilet on my right, everything in beige and cream tones. And on my right between the toilet and sink there were four steps and a door. That made me even more curious.

Once I was done and washing my hands, I couldn't help but walk up the steps and then turn the doorknob.

I was all braced for some high-tech computer room with weapons, or a torture chamber, you know, something worth a cliché novel, but then pouted at what I saw.

It was just his closet.

His very full closet, which also had a door on the right that opened on the second floor, to Blake's library.

That was boring. Sure, there was a lot of clothes but it was all male clothes, so I didn't really care about it. Though, for one second, I wanted to go sniff them, because Blake smelled, really really good, and also because there was something about that smell, something I couldn't quite put my finger on, something I should remember.

I shook my head and closed the door behind me, my curiosity still unsatisfied.

I smirked a little and then opened the door under the sink. Rolls of toilet paper and cleaning products.

Boring.

I then proceed to the two cabinets, one on each side of the mirror. The one on the left was almost empty, just Q-tips, Axe deodorant, some dude cologne that didn't even look open, cold syrup, and band-aids.

The one on the right was a little bit more interesting. There were normal pain killers, Advil, but also two prescription bottles of medicine. I quickly looked at what they said, all brace to learn some heart condition or something, but one was sleeping pills and the other pain killers for like big headaches, the kind of thing he gave me.

Boring too.

I closed the door of the cabinet and pouted at the very little info I had found. There wasn't anything compromising. I was disappointed.

I needed to get out now, because I didn't want them to start thinking things.

I got out of the bathroom and then walked down the stairs, worried for a second about finding where I was supposed to go. What the hell had been Blake thinking letting me alone like that? I could get lost.

But then I heard music.

It was Frank Sinatra singing. I recognized it immediately and smiled a little.

I headed down the Titanic stairs and walked in a hall I had never seen before, the walls covered with pictures, following the music.

I tried not to linger to long, but there was a lot of info about Blake on these walls and I just really wanted to understand Blake already. He was always so cryptic.

But then I saw Josh alone standing in front of a table, holding a picture in his hands, and they almost look like they were shaking.

"Is everything alright?" I asked stopping a few feet away from him, the beat of the music in the background.

"Huh? Oh, hey Lexi hadn't heard you," he mumbled looking up at me, his face sad.

I looked at the picture in his hand and on it there were two ladies, one with blonde hair, the other a brunette. They were smiling widely, almost laughing, holding each other by the side, in front of a big fountain.

"Who's is it?" I asked quietly and then wanted to catch the words back.

This wasn't any of my business. I shouldn't pry.

"Blake's mom and mine," he whispered and I could see clearly Sophia in the blonde-haired girl.

The brown-haired one looked so full of life. Josh's mom. It was weird to believe she was dead now.

"She's beautiful," I whispered to him, trying to have a comforting voice.

"Yeah, she was. I remember that. I remember her smell too, and her voice. But it's so hard to remember everything. It's all blurry," Josh said quietly, his eyes staring at a spot, his mind far far away from here. And then he looked at me straight in the eyes. "You mind if I ask you something? I noticed the face you made when I mentioned my mom, and well Blake said it wasn't his story to share, so I'm asking."

"My mom didn't die. She just left us." I answered him.

"That's gotta be rough." he let out in a breath.

"Not as rough as her dying," I sadly pointed out.

"Yeah, mine, is dead, she's not coming back, but yours, she left you, purposely, and, well that hurts. And that was kind of mean to say, sorry."

"No don't worry. Things could always change if I forgave her."

"Do you want to forgive her?" he asked me.

For one second, I thought about it, really thought about it.

And I realized that yes, I could forgive her.

Whatever she had done, whatever had happened, she was my mom and the bond was far more than blood here. Things would never go back to the way they were, but yes, I could forgive her.

Why was I even thinking that? Why was I even admitting that? After all, she had hurt me.

But I realized I didn't want to be bitter. I didn't want to become that. I didn't want to hold a grudge and be unhappy for the rest of my life. There was more to my life than the way my family was when I was a kid, other ways.

I was happy with my life right now, as idiotic as this sounded, even though Dad and Tyler were still so sad. It felt wrong but it was true.

And a little voice in the back of my head told me that if it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't be here right now, so in a way I was even grateful.

I probably needed to be hospitalized for thinking that though.

"We should go eat now," Josh trailed and then placed the picture back on the table.

I saw him brush his fingers lightly on the glass and something flicker in his eyes. A tear?

I wasn't going to ask.

The music grew louder has we approached an arc and then I gasped a little when I saw the dinning room.

Again, the room looked like it had been stolen from a book filled with castle pictures. The ceiling was high and there were paintings on it, almost like the freaking Sistine Chapel and there were two crystal chandeliers hanging from it.

There was a big window behind the extremity of the table, opening on the back yard which was basically the forest, and an old china against the opposite wall from the arch.

And then there was Blake and his mom, plates and forks and knifes and spoon in their hands, going around the table, placing them.

And Blake was laughing with her, while she sang Frank Sinatra's song. It was Love and Marriage I recognized.

She was moving the utensils in her hands like a music conductor's baton laughing, her face trying to stay serious.

Blake looked happy, happier than I had probably ever seen him. And he looked at his mom with such admiring eyes. I had never seen that in him.

I almost wanted to stay back and watch him being happy, and not interrupt. Josh was frozen too, but then the song changed.

Sinatra sang Young at Heart and Blake looked over where me and Josh and stopped.

"Wow Josh, I didn't think you'd get lost when I said go see if Lexi fell in the toilet," Blake chuckled and placed a plate on the table.

Six plates were set on it.

"I had to drag her here. She tried to escape," Josh laughed.

"Hi Lexi," Blake's mom said, smiling widely, and walked up to me, hugging me. "I'm so glad you're staying with us tonight," she said.

"Me too," I answered, her smile spreading on my lips.

"Was everything okay after the other day?" she asked and set the last knife on the table and then started with the spoons.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Josh sweetheart is everything alright?" she suddenly asked.

"Huh? Yeah," he mumbled and sat at the table, in the middle on the same side as the china.

"What's wrong?" she frowned.

"Nothing," he shrugged, taking his knife, rolling it in his hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I found it the other day while cleaning. I should have warned you, or Blake at least," she said, her hand covering her mouth.

"Don't worry about it."

"Oh please, can we change this song?" Blake said, interrupting the conversation, when another song started to play.

"Those fingers in my hands," Frank Sinatra sang.

"I hate Witchcraft," Blake mumbled.

"Aw come on, it's good," Sophia said, shaking her head lightly.

"I just can't stand it when he says taboo I don't know why, it annoys me. And witchcraft too is annoying," Blake frowned and I laughed a little. "What?" he asked, half smiling at me.

"It is annoying," I agreed.

"HA! See? We're changing it," Blake beamed and walked to the stereo I hadn't seen and changed the song.

Dream started to play.

"Much better," Blake nodded.

"Dinner ready! And Mister Christopher just drove in," Anita said, walking in the dinning room, pushing a tray with food on it and then Blake and Sophia helped her put the food on the table.

It was home made pizza with veggies on it and chicken, it seemed. It looked good. There was also a huge bowl full of salad, but I could see rice and spinach and raisins I think and broad bean and a bunch of other things.

"Have you ever eaten a Salade d'Amour?" Sophia asked me smiling, seeing me eyeing the salad.

"No," I chuckled.

"There's so much stuff in it, it could be the dinner for itself," she snorted and the walked up to the chair on Josh's left.

"Alright Lexi, you can sit in front of Josh and then Blake beside and your father will seat at the head."

There was another plate on Josh right and then Anita went to sit there and I realized it was for her.

She was really a part of the family. It was nice.

What Is This Thing Called Love almost finished when Blake's father walked in the dinning room.

"I'm late," was the first thing he said and then laughed.

I started at him.

For an older man he really was handsome.

Well basically everyone in this room was freaking perfect, even Anita. Everyone except me.

His hair was dark brown, but there was a little sign of grey on his side, though it was barely noticeable. And he had Blake's grey eyes, though there was something about them that wasn't exactly the same, like maybe they couldn't turn a little blue like him.

"And who have we got here?" he said, smiling to me.

Okay, so this was a renowned artist in front of me, and there was a published genius too.

I felt really insignificant.

"Hi, I'm Lexi Grayson," I said, smiling a little.

"Nice to meet you Lexi. Your dad owns MG Motors right?" he asked and walked up to the end of the table.

"Yeah, that's right."

"It's a good thing for people in town. It gives a lot of jobs. He can be proud of himself," he told me and then looked at his wife and smiled at her, looking at her with so much admiration it almost wanted to look away. I felt like I was looking at something I shouldn't.

"Hello love," he smiled and then kissed her lips quickly, the smile never leaving both of their faces. "And I see we got the stupid duo too," he chuckled.

"Don't talk about Anita that way, Dad," Blake snorted.

Blake's father rolled his eyes.

"I've seen what you did the other night boys," he said shaking his head.

"Sorry, next time we'll say we were sponsored by Christopher Eaton," Josh said with a grin.

"Just don't use that can of spray again, your father needed it," Christopher laughed shortly and then looked at Anita. "Alright Anita, I'm sorry, your food is getting cold," he said apologetically.

She waved the matter away, smiling. She was smiling at Blake actually and then mixed the salad and passed the plate with the pizza to Josh, the food going around the table.

It had been a while since I had actually sat at a table and not the counter, even though our counter was almost like a table at this point.

Christopher and Sophia were speaking with each other the salad between them and then Blake set the pizza between us.

"Stop rubbing my leg Lexi," Blake smirked.

"Not me, that's probably Josh," I smirked too.

"Oh shit that wasn't Anita?" Josh gasped, and then laughed.

"You boys don't drag me in your silly stories again. One too many times," she said shaking her head and then pinched Josh cheek and took a bite of her pizza.

I laughed along with the boys.

"We missed something?" Sophia asked, smiling

I had a hard time believing that Blake hadn't been smiling before, what we had talked about at the Creek, because with a family like this, so perfect and always smiling, there really was no way to not smile.

I was smiling.

"It's all Lexi's fault," Josh said and then took a big bite of pizza, his mouth full so we couldn't ask more of him.

"Oh, is that right?" she laughed and then passed the salad across the table to Blake.

And then I was really aware that Blake's father was still looking at me. I tried to ignored it, but then I looked at him, smiling guiltily a little, unsure if I had done something wrong.

"Has anyone ever told you you'd be a good subject to paint?" he asked me, frowning.

Okay. I was definitely not prepared to that.

"Eh, no not really," I mumbled.

"You do remind me of Degas ballerina dancers. Did you ever dance ballet?" he asked, still frowning.

Sideways, I could see Blake staring intently at the salad.

"Well, actually I did, when I was younger. My sister wanted to take Baladi dancing classes, and my mom said it would be unfair if only one of us took a dancing class, but I preferred taking a ballet class instead. I just had more interest in that. But it was a while ago," I rambled on uselessly.

Why was I rambling about my life right now? I sounded like a fool.

"You still have the stance, that's for sure. And I you have, I don't know how to put it, the delicate feeling there's to Degas painting? You should look at them, you'd know what I mean," he trailed and then shrugged and ate his salad, smiling at his wife.

"Don't worry, Dad analyzes everyone. He stares at people when he waits in line for way longer than appropriate actually," Blake whispered to me, shaking his head.

"Heard that Blake," his father laughed, without looking at his son.

I smiled a little.

I took salad when Blake was done and then gave to bowl back to Anita.

"Did you hear from Kendall lately?" Christopher suddenly asked his son.

I stopped smiling.

Kendall. Wasn't that the girl on the pictures in Blake's room?

"She called yesterday, but she was in a hurry, why?" Blake answered before shoving salad in his mouth.

"Did she tell you we're probably going to exhibit her work at the gallery? Josh's Dad is clearing out the papers," his dad explained.

"Does that mean I'm going to have to get out of town?" Josh whined.

What was that supposed to mean?

I opened my mouth to ask but I saw Anita give a slight shake of the head, looking at me with you close that mouth right this instant eyes.

"If we plan things out right, I'll let you stay," Blake trailed.

Okay what had just happened here?

Blake had kinda told me his brother and her were in love, right?

Why were they only talking about her and not Jayden, his brother? Unless Blake had lied to me, and he did care about her, or love her or whatever.

I wanted to scowl at my salad right now.

And why did Josh need to be out of town? I was really confused. And a little angry too. We kept on eating, making small talk, but I was kinda grumpy.

And strangely, I didn't feel like eating.

That was strange.

"So how was practice?" Blake's Dad asked him, when he was eating his fourth serving of salad.

"Went well," Blake shrugged.

"Did you tell the coach about next weekend?"

"Yeah, he said that it was alright. It's still off season's games, they'll survive without me."

"What's going on next weekend?" I asked Blake, frowning.

I was not getting any information about anything. I was not letting it slip this time.

"Oh, I'm going away. Actually I had to talk to you about that. We're going to have to do our work before I leave and we won't be able to do anything next weekend. Sorry," Blake frowned.

"You know what? It's fine, I'm going to be out of town too actually," I told him, remembering I had meant to tell him too.

I wanted to ask him what he was going to do, where he was going, with whom? But asking those questions would make him ask the same and for some reason I didn't feel like talking about my father's dead cousin. I didn't feel talking about death.

So I didn't ask.

Would he be with Kendall?

Wow, way to go Lexi. I didn't even know the girl. Why was I thinking about her like she was competition for Blake's attention?

"Why the sulking face Pumpkin?" Blake asked me, eating a carrot.

"Oh, that's not a sulking face. You'd know if you saw the sulking face. The sulking face is bad," I snorted and then took a bite of pizza.

The food was delicious. It was a shame I wasn't hungry.

"Alright, you can rub my leg again Pumpkin, but remember if you turn on you have to finish the job," Blake whispered, smirking.

"Blake, we're at the freaking table."

"Yeah, so?"

"You're unbelievable," I rolled my eyes at him.

"I get that a lot," he nodded sadly, and I punched his shoulder, chuckling.

Blake smirked. I smiled at him.

I shouldn't care about the girls in Blake's life.

I was his friend.

And being his friend was a nice feeling. A feeling I didn't want to lose for something I wasn't even sure about.

So, I pushed any of my worries away, and spent the rest of the night, smiling and laughing, actually enjoying myself, sitting beside Blake, in his house, with his parents, his best friend and his maid.

I was sure the scene would have been a nice subject to paint.

____________

AN: Hello my little Pumpkins. I truly outdid myself this week when it comes to uploading late. I'll start the live reading in one hour, so at 11AM EST, as usual. 

I'm really sorry about the late upload. I've been super tired and last night I had a stomach ache and every time I sat at my computer I just wanted to curl up, so yeaaaaah. Sooooorry! Hopefully I can rest a bit this week and not be late again with my uploading. Weird and Weirder will be up today too.

If you have any questions, you can leave them here. 

Otherwise, see you guys soon, at instagram.com/kaygiard