CHAPTER EIGHT ~ Breakfast Surprise
"Guys, what do you think y'all are doing? That's my sister that you're all drooling all over. Come on, she's here for a reason that I'd rather not discuss with you all at the moment. Just give her some room, please," Ashley asked before he followed his sister into the room they would be sharing.
"Guys, Ash is right. Nicole looked rather frightened at all the attention. Give her some space and time to get to know you," Erik said, still thinking about the kiss he had shared with Rachel. "I think that Ash and Nic have the right idea. We've gotta be at the studio at 9 for dance rehearsals, and we need to be ready to go by 8:30."
"Hey...where am I supposed to stay?" Trevor asked, for the first time realizing that he hadn't been included in the rearrangement plan that Rachel had discussed earlier.
"Guess you get the couch, my man," Ikaika said laughing as he picked up the phone in the living room and called his girlfriend Malia.
"Ikaika, can I use your bed, since you're usually out here until like 5 in the morning anyway?" Trevor asked, hoping to have found himself a bed to sleep on instead of the couch which was extremely lumpy.
"Sorry, man, ah..I need to have my bed when I get done talking to Malia," Ikaika said before going back to his conversation with his girlfriend.
"Come on, Trev. There's room for you in our room," Jacob offered as the rest of them made their way to their rooms.
"Thanks, Jacob. I'll have to talk with Rachel about this in the morning, see if there is some other way for us to all sleep," Trevor answered.
The next morning, everyone was woke up at 6:30 by the smell of bacon and eggs. "Whoa, man, who got ambition to cook a good breakfast this morning?" Jacob asked himself as he climbed from his bed, and walked towards the kitchen in nothing but his boxers, forgetting that Ashley's sister was staying at the house with them. As he opened the refrigerator to get the orange juice out, he thought he heard a girl gasp behind him.
"Uhhhh....hi, Jacob, right?" Nicole said, trying to hide her eyes, because she wasn't used to seeing any guy in just his boxers.
"Ummm...yeah...that's me," Jacob answered. "I'll be right back," he added as he bolted from the kitchen to his room to find some clothes to put on, but not before he ran into Ashley walking towards the kitchen.
"Yo, Jacob, remember my sister's here. Keep some clothes on," Ashley said, joking, and hoping that his sister hadn't seen Jacob running around like that.
"Uhh...yeah. I remembered that after I came out of the room...that's where I was heading right now," Jacob answered still trying to get into his room.
"Hey, sis," Ashley said as he walked into the kitchen. "Dang, your cooking smells as good as I remember it," he said walking up and kissing her on the cheek.
"Thanks, Ash. I've missed having you to cook for. You know dad never did like to eat anything for breakfast, and mom always had supper cooked for us."
"Yeah, well, I'm glad you got dressed before you came out to start cooking," Ashley said thinking about the way Jacob had been dressed when he ran into him in the hall.
When Nicole had finished cooking breakfast for all eight of the guys, Ashley went and made sure that everyone was up and dressed and invited them to join the Angel siblings for breakfast. "Ashley, man, there is something I need to tell you," Jacob said as Ashley turned to walk back to the kitchen.
"Can it wait? I really have missed Nic's cooking, man. I want to make sure I get some."
"Ashley, your sister saw me in just my boxers," Jacob spit out, not wanting to hide that fact from the person he considered his best friend out of all the other candidates for the band.
"WHAT?!?!?!" Ashley yelled.
"I said your sister saw me in nothing but my boxers." Jacob repeated, this time a little slower.
"How could you??? Come on, what made you decide to go walking around in nothing but your underwear man?"
"I forgot she was here. You know that I've been walking around in my boxers first thing in the morning since we got here. Ashley....I can't stand to see Nic again now. I'm so embarrassed."
"Well, you'll have to get over that. You're gonna see her again, she isn't leaving for quite awhile if I have anything to say about it," Ashley said, finally realizing how silly the situation was.
"Man, I can't face her again. She saw me in my boxers," Jacob repeated.
"Jake, man, come on. She saw you in your swimming trunks last night. How much more revealing are your boxers than your trunks?"
"Ash, that's not the point. I WAS WEARING MY UNDERWEAR IN FRONT OF HER."
"Jacob, your gonna have to move past that. Just think of your boxers as your swimming trunks, and go have some of my sister's great home cookin. But don't be walking around like that again, alright?"
"Thanks for understanding, Ash. I didn't know how you'd react to finding out, and I wanted to be the one that told you," Jacob said as the two friends walked towards the kitchen.
"It's about time you two get here. Do you realize how hard it was to save you some of my eggs and bacon?" Nicole asked, not able to look at Jacob because she was still embarrassed about the way she saw him earlier.
"Sorry, sis. Jake needed to talk to me about something," Ashley said before taking the plate his sister offered him. "Dang, I think you're cooking has improved since I left home to come out here."
"I don't know how it could. I haven't done any cooking since you left," Nicole responded blushing because Ashley's compliment brought compliments from all of the other guys, including Ikaika, who Jacob had half expected to find a way to say it wasn't as good as Malia's cooking.
As Paul and Trevor finished putting the dishes in the dishwasher, Mark and Rachel both showed up to provide rides to Trans-Con to the group of nine people. "Hey, everyone is up and ready to go!?!? Mark, are we at the right house?" Rachel asked, because they had not yet found a day when they didn't have to prod at least one of the members of the group to get up and going.
"Yeah, it helps when there is someone cooking a good breakfast so the smell wakes you up," Paul said smiling as he leaned over and kissed Nicole on the cheek. "Thank you, sweetheart. You're breakfast was tremendous."
"Alright. Ashley, Nicole, Bryan, you're coming with me. The rest of you are with Mark. Let's go. Don't want you to be too late for your rehearsal today," Rachel said, trying to get them to be ahead of schedule for once. When Rachel didn't include him in her car pool for the day, Erik's face fell, thinking that he had done somethin wrong the night before.
"Hey, Erik, what's wrong, bro?" Trevor asked once they were situated in the Trans-Con van that Mark was driving.
"I was just hoping to be able to ride over with Ashley and Nicole," Erik said, trying to hide his feelings for Rachel.
"Yeah...and you wanted to spend more time with the car driver too," Paul said more as a joke than anything else.
"So? All you want to do is get a quick lay from Nicole. I want to try to develop a relationship with Rachel. She's everything I've ever looked for in a girl," Erik countered.
Mark had overheard the conversation going on in the back of the van, and he interrupted them all. "Come on guys; no fighting, please. You've all got to work together for this band to work."
"Yeah, well tell Erik to butt out of my personal life," Paul said.
"Hey, you're the one who got involved in my personal life first," Erik said.
"Enough!" Mark yelled. "You'd think the two of you were in first grade, instead of being MATURE ADULTS," he added hoping to get his point across.
"Erik, I'm sorry. I can tell you've got feelings for Rachel, and well, I guess I'm jealous because the feelings seem to be returned," Paul said trying to make up with his friend, because he realized that Mark was right, and a fight just wouldn't be good karma for the group.
"I'm sorry, too, Paul, but come on, lay off of Nic. You've got a girl back home," Erik said. "In the little time I've known her and Ashley, they're like my family, and I don't want to see them get hurt, you understand that, right?"
"Yeah, I know where you're coming from on that. Thanks for caring," Paul said before the two men hugged to make up as they arrived at the studios.