Back to reality

The taxi pulled away as Grace handled the fare, with you still feeling guilty for not helping with the payment. Grace obviously knew your financial situation given that she was going to be the one paying you at the end of the week so she waved away your words when you offered to pay her back, the same way she was likely to dismiss Mom when she got over her hangover tomorrow.

Speaking of Mom, she still leaned against your arm and clung to you as you walked up the drive, your other arm carrying everyone's bags until you reached the porch. Grace was happy to take over supporting her when you had to find the key to unlock the front door.

“I’ll take her to her room” Grace said and directed her up the stairs, with you keeping a close watch on both of them for the first couple of steps before it became clear that Grace wasn’t having any issue with staying steady.

That left you to organise whose belongings were whose as you separated them out, heading into the dining room so you didn’t have to scatter the bags on the floor. Your stuff was quickly put to one side and it took a little longer for you to figure out what was Mom’s and what was Grace’s but you managed eventually.

You were about to head upstairs as the both of them had been gone a while but you heard the sound of footsteps when you got to the hallway. You were expecting Grace to return but you were met with Sarah coming down in her evening wear that you always enjoyed looking at.

“Grace is still helping Mom from the looks of it but she shooed me away pretty quickly. How much did you all drink?” Sarah asked, hopping down the last couple of steps to join you downstairs.

“Less than you would have thought. I think Mom had a couple glasses of wine but she still seemed to look the drunkest out of the three of us” you replied, chuckling to yourself before you asked a question back.

“What did you and Lucy get up to with your evening without us?” you asked, curious as to what your sisters got up to while you were out of the house.

“Oh! We had a talk and we’re watching a movie in her room like we did a few days ago. When you got back she paused it so I could say hi but I’m not planning on making her wait too long. We got pizza as well!” Sarah replied excitedly, the mention of food making you realise you hadn’t eaten anything substantial in a while.

From Sarah’s reaction, whatever talk they had had must have gone well and while you wanted to learn a bit more, it could wait until another time when Grace wasn’t in the house.

“Good, I’m glad you two are hanging out. You wanna come grab some snacks before you go back up?” you asked walking towards the kitchen with Sarah following closely behind, your hunger leading you to search for something to eat yourself.

Sarah went towards the cabinets while you focused on the fridge, hoping to find something quick and easy to fill your stomach before going to meet Emma. Nothing stuck out so you went with just a sandwich and started laying everything out on the kitchen island while Sarah continued looking for what she wanted, sticking her head into one of the cupboards below the counter.

“Jess was asking about you earlier” you announced, watching as Sarah straightened up and hit her head on the inside of the cupboard with a loud bang.

You tried your best to stop yourself from smiling as she got up and turned to face you but you weren’t doing a very good job, waiting for her to finish rubbing her head.

“When did you manage to speak with her? I thought she hated your guts?” she asked, not knowing if the scowl on her face was from the mention of Jess or the bump to the head.

“She’s in one of my classes and apparently she doesn’t hate me enough to completely ignore me. She was still pretty hostile at the start but she sat next to me and asked about you, wanting to know about this morning and how you were doing” you replied, finishing up the sandwich prep and digging in while Sarah took a few moments to think.

“What did you tell her then?” she questioned.

“Not much. Just that I wasn’t the person she should be asking and she wasn’t gonna get any information out of me. Whatever happened is between you and her and I’m not about to stick my nose into your business” you answered.

Sarah stood on the other side of the island and gave a slight nod at your admission but she still didn’t seem ready to tell you what had happened with Jess, something you were happy to let be until she felt the need to bring it up herself. Sarah returned to searching for her snacks and you finished up your impromptu meal just as Grace popped her head into the kitchen.

You could see Grace had already picked up her things from the dining room table and while she probably wanted to get home herself, she still took the time to say hello to Sarah who was excited to see her. Sarah rarely got to chat with Grace while Mom wasn’t there and you could tell she was a bit of a role model for her even if she didn’t say it directly.

The two chatted a bit about the gym with Grace extending the same invitation she had given Mom for Sarah to join, Sarah sounding a lot more enthusiastic than Mom did at the offer. Grace looked ready to go after that so you led her towards the front door while Sarah headed back upstairs, giving you a bit of alone time in the hallway with Grace. The first time since some of your secrets had been revealed.

“I hope you don’t start expecting me to start blowing you in the back of a taxi” Grace blurted out after having made sure it was just you and her who were around, the thought of what Mom was doing in the back seat still obviously on her mind.

“Hey, I wasn’t the one who started it this time. I would have probably stopped her if I was thinking straight but… I wasn’t” you admitted, knowing if the same thing was to happen again there was still a chance you would let it play out exactly the same way.

“You seemed to be enjoying whatever she was doing anyway” Grace replied with a smirk, not sounding bothered by what she saw.

“So did you from what I remember. You were staring pretty hard at the back of her head when she was in my lap. You sure you don’t want me to order another taxi?” you teased, seeing her blush and struggle to reply for a second.

“Of course not and don’t even consider it!” she shot back, her overreaction making you think she had already had the thought in her mind.

It felt strange to have Grace on the defending side for a change when it came to flirting and now that you knew you had something to push her on, you wondered how much you should tease her.