Chapter 8 - Chapter Eight

Jet moved in after school the next day. Tia’s mother was delighted. She had cleaned out the room, made the bed, aired the room out and all that shoot.

“Hello, Jet, dear, so nice to have you staying with us,” she gushed as she opened the door to let Jet in.

“Thank you so much for having me,” Jet said, ever the gentleman. Tia wanted to puke.

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all.”

~

“Well, kids, dad and I are going out for dinner tonight with a couple of friends. Now Jet, you’ll take care of Tia, won’t you?”

“Of course, Mrs. Green.”

“Really, Jet, you must call me Charlene. Mrs. Green makes me feel old.”

“Uh, right. Okay, Charlene.”

Tia sat down on the stairs and buried her head into her hands.

“Now, Tia, bedtime is at eleven thirty as usual.”

“Mom, I don’t have a curfew.”

“That was before you fell down into that well,” her mother said, sniffing.

Tia made a face. “Fine.”

“Jet, make sure she gets to bed at that time, okay?”

“Yes, Mrs.—I mean, Charlene.”

“Dinner’s in the fridge. Thirty minutes in the microwave will heat it right up.”

“Yes, I know, mom. Have fun.”

“You too dear, although not too much fun, if you know what I mean.” Her mother winked—not very subtly—at her and Tia grew bright red.

“Mom!”

“See you, dears.”

“That,” Tia muttered once her parents had left, “was just plain embarrassing.”

“That,” Jet said cheerfully, “was just plain amusing.”

“Oh, shut up.”

~

“It’s eleven thirty,” Jet said, leaning against the doorframe of Tia’s room. “You should be in bed.”

Tia snorted. “Oh, please. I don’t remember you telling me to be in bed when we’ve been staying up talking till one in the morning for the past month.”

Jet clicked his tongue. “Ah, but your mother gave me specific orders tonight to see that you’re in bed by eleven thirty. I wouldn’t want to disappoint her. Now get into bed.”

“No.”

“Tiana.”

“Jethro.”

Jet half frowned, half laughed. “My name’s not Jethro.”

“Dammit. Isn’t Jet short for something?”

“No. It’s just Jet.”

“Dammit. Your name’s boring.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

“Will you get into bed if I told you a bedtime story?”

“Would you really?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

Jet strode into her room towards her.

“Hey, you don’t have permission to be in my room,” she protested. “Hey, you don’t have permission to pick me up either. Put me down. Now.”

He ignored her protests and dumped her—quite unceremoniously—onto the bed.

“Ow,” she complained, climbing in between the sheets.

“Sorry,” he said, sounding anything but. “Well, goodnight.”

“No!” She dragged him down so that he was sitting on the bed next to her. “You have to tell me a bedtime story.”

“What are you, six?”

“Six and a half, to be precise. Now tell me that damn bedtime story.”

Jet sighed. “Once upon a time, there was a princess called Tia. She never wanted to go to bed. So Prince Jet, young, handsome, brave and perfect as he was, would go and tell her to go to bed. And since Princess Tia and Prince Jet were such good friends, Princess Tia always listened to what Prince Jet said. And so, Princess Tia would go to bed like any nice six and a half year old girl would. And she slept happily ever after. The end.”

Tia looked at Jet for a while. “That was crap,” she said finally.

Jet laughed.

“How is that a bedtime story? There was no kiss at the ending of the story!”

“Not all bedtime stories have a kiss at the ending.”

“Mine always did.”

“Very well, then,” Jet said as Bingo bounded into the room and jumped onto the bed to lick Tia. “Before Princess Tia fell asleep, Bingo, her dog came and licked her face goodnight. The end.”

“You’re a horrible storyteller.”

“What, aren’t there enough kisses?”

“No.”

“Very well. The next morning, Bingo came to lick her good morning. And also to lick her good afternoon. And to lick her good evening. And—”

“Stop now.”

“If you insist.”

“Those were licks. Not kisses.”

“Very well. How’s this? The king and queen come back to kiss the princess goodnight.”

“But they’re too busy making out with each other.”

Jet grinned. “Fine then. I suppose there’s only Prince Jet left.”

“I suppose there is.”

“So Jet kisses Tia goodnight.”

“That’s right.”

Jet’s smiled faded as he became more serious and his gaze dropped down to Tia’s lips. She could feel her heart speed up, going at about two hundred miles an hour.

“Well?” she asked boldly, sitting up on her bed. “Isn’t he going to kiss her goodnight?”

“I suppose he should,” he murmured. And so he did.

It was meant to be quick, brief but also sweet at the same time. When Tia sensed that he was about to pull away, she slid her arms around his neck and slid down so that she was lying down again, bringing Jet with her. She felt Jet’s gasp of surprise when she suddenly dragged him down, but he made no move to resist, either.

After a while, he pulled away gently.

“Tiana,” he said, sitting on the edge of her bed again, “that was hardly necessary.” He bit his lip. “I shouldn’t have done that,” he said after a while. “It was wrong.”

Wrong? Was it wrong? Did it feel wrong to him? She didn’t answer him from where she was still lying down on her bed. She looked up at him, his inky black hair, and those mesmerising yet sharp blue eyes. He lifted his hand to stroke her cheek once, and then he stood up.

“I should go,” he said reluctantly after a while. “You parents will be home soon.”

Just as Jet was about to leave the room, they heard Charlene run up the stairs.

“Well, Jet?” Tia’s mother asked him, coming into Tia’s room. “Were you able to put Tia to bed?”

Jet grinned. “It took a lot of hard work, but I finally did it.”

“Good, good. Tia, I hope you didn’t give Jet a hard time.”

“Mom, he’s my friend, not my babysitter.”

Her mother clicked her tongue and told Jet that she wasn’t always this rude. Jet smiled politely at her left after wishing them both a good night.

“Jet’s a good boy,” Tia’s mother said, sitting down on the edge of Tia’s bed.

Tia raised her eyebrow. “Yes, I know.”

“You are dating him, aren’t you?”

Tia faltered. “Not really. I don’t know.”

“How can you now know whether you’re dating a boy?”

Tia shrugged. “I think we’re more than just friends, but if we’re dating, then it’s going to be a casual thing, y’know?”

There were times that Tia and her mother could be close (but most of the time, she just found her mother annoying).

“Why?” her mother pressed on.

Tia shrugged again. “I don’t know. I mean, mom, he’s three years older than me. Nothing can possibly happen. He could be screwing around with some random girl and I wouldn’t know about it.”

Her mother clicked her tongue at the word screwing. “Jet seems like a nice boy. If he genuinely likes you he wouldn’t be...‘screwing around with some random girl’.”

“That’s the thing, mom. I don’t know whether he genuinely likes me.”

“And do you like him?”

Tia shrugged. “I guess so.”

Her mother tousled her hair. “He’ll come around. The smart ones always do.” She kissed the top of her head and left.

~

Tia was about to fall asleep when she heard a soft knock on her door. Jet peered in a second or so later.

“Tiana?”

Tia’s eyes flew open at the sound of Jet’s voice. “Jet.” She sat up on her bed. “What are you doing here?”

He shushed her. “Not too loud. Your parents are still awake. I came here to...apologise.”

“For what?”

“For saying that what I did was wrong. I still think I shouldn’t have done it, but it definitely wasn’t...wrong.”

Tia wanted to ask him whether it felt right, but she didn’t. “Okay.”

“So...I apologise for that.”

“Okay.”

“Right then. Goodnight.”

Tia watched Jet as he left her room. Just when he was about to close the door, she called his name.

“Yes?”

“Do you really think that you shouldn’t have done it?”

“Very much so.” He closed the door behind him.

Dammit.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment