Try mending first

"Janie, why did you dance for me if Eric wasn't there to see it?"

Janie rolled her eyes. "He certainly saw the result."

"You didn't know it would be like that."

Janie shrugged. "Didn't have to. I gave you some encouragement and the end result worked for me. Why overthink it?"

Jake took a bite of his microwaved burrito and stared into space. Now that he was clear-headed, he wanted to figure out how this betting shit worked. He just couldn't tell Janie that.

Eric walked into the kitchen at that moment. He had changed into shorts and a t-shirt at some point, most likely before sleeping. His eyes locked on Jake and scanned him up and down, which made Jake look too. Jake still had the bathrobe, and it was hanging open enough to see that Jake only wore boxers underneath.

"Jake, what exactly happened with you two last night?"

Janie shoved her burrito deeper into her mouth than seemed reasonable and took a huge bite that couldn't have been easy to chew, drawing Eric's attention as she did so. Her expression was completely blank. She chewed very slowly and did not break eye contact with Eric.

He waited patiently for 20-25 seconds for a clue but there was no change at all in Janie's blank expression or slow chewing. He lost his cool and balled his hands into tight fists, and hissed through clenched teeth: "I think I should be protecting you from creeps and I guess that includes Jake now, but I should have known a bloodsucking whore like you would take the side of any man that had more than ten minutes to worm his way into your slutty little cheerleader shorts."

"Shitting fuck 'Ric," Jake blurted out awkwardly. Eric mostly continued to glare at his sister, who somehow hadn't reacted, but not without shooting a harsh glance at Jake.

Jake took a few moments to collect his thoughts into something other than a pathetic string of random words. "Eric, please, I bet if you just calm down then I can clean your controller safely and effectively. If not, I'll pay the huge markup necessary to get you a new one from someone who resells collectibles."

The change in Eric was instant. At the exact moment Jake finished the word "collectibles" Eric looked completely calm. He walked to the freezer to get a burrito of his own while casually saying, "Yeah, sure, if you think you can do it. I know nothing really happened between you two. She likes to antagonize me. Don't trust her."

Janie spread open her fingers and made some motions at the air. "HMMPH! HMMPH! HMMPH HMMPH HMMPH! HM HM HMPH HM HM, HM-MMM-MMPH HMPH!"

Eric gestured dismissively with one hand while he set up the microwave with the other. "Go cheer him on while he cleans up his mess. He doesn't know fuck all about electronics, he'll need it."

Jake's thoughts were racing furiously. Eric didn't have time to think about Jake's offer at all, Jake was certain that something supernatural was going on.