Chapter 55: Long Thanksgiving II
After taking a shower, I went back downstairs to the front of the house. Claire was carrying a box filled with what looked like colorful decorations.
Haley was talking to her. "Mom, just so you know, Dylan can't have mayonnaise."
"That's random. Why are you telling me that?" her mother wondered.
"Because he's coming to the party," Haley responded.
Claire made a less-than-thrilled face. "Is that absolutely necessary?"
"Yes, because she can't go ten minutes without her boyfriend's tongue in her mouth. It's like he's feeding a baby bird," Alex commented sarcastically.
Haley shot back, "Don't be so jealous. I'm sure you'll meet someone super hot at dork camp."
"Girls", Claire raised her voice a little to stop the bickering before it could escalate.
Just then, Marissa and Summer showed up, each eating a snow cone.
"Thanks." I took the one Summer handed me.
Haley turned toward me. "Wait, is that your new car, Jake?" she asked, pointing at the Porsche.
"Yep," I confirmed while taking a bite of the blue snow cone.
Now it was Claire's turn to glance at me. "Did you sell your Ferrari?"
"No!" I protested, indignant. "How could you even say that? He's like a son to me! I just bought a second car - sometimes I need one with more space."
Phil examined the car with curiosity. "Is that a Porsche?"
I nodded. "It's the SUV version they launched last year, the Cayenne Turbo."
"You know, the money..." Claire began to lecture.
I cut her off. "Save it, I know what I'm doing. And I have more than enough money."
Gauss LLC already has over half a billion dollars in net worth, after taxes.
"I have a source of income," I added.
"He writes books," Haley revealed. I had already told the girls about the book, since Charlie and the others knew as well.
The content is believable, since I have three cousins around that age, not counting the kids from the group home.
Alex and Claire both widened their eyes surprised. "What?" they exclaimed in unison.
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid," Phil mentioned. "It's a funny book." He gave me a thumb-up.
"So I was the only one who didn't know?" Claire looked at Haley and Phil, ignoring that Alex didn't know either.
"Now you know, Aunt Claire," I continued, "and soon everyone else close to us will too…" I murmured the last part.
Phil laughed but quickly swallowed it back when he saw his wife's expression.
Claire snapped, "Are you calling me a loudmouth?" narrowing her eyes at me.
"No, how could I?" I said with a poker face. "Hey Dylan, good timing," I greeted him, and Claire's attention quickly shifted.
I slipped away with Marissa and Summer.
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We stayed chatting in the corner for a while, enjoying the party food. Marissa had a nostalgic expression as she watched the kids running around.
"Jake!" Marissa spread her arms, both surprised and annoyed, since I had just hit her on the head with a Nerf dart.
I shot her a few more times. "If you keep slipping into that melancholic mood, I'll keep shooting you."
Then I fired again, this time hitting Summer right on the nose.
"Come over here, Jake!" My girlfriend tried to smack me.
"See? That's how a teenage girl should act," I mocked, shooting at Sum's nose again.
Both girls steal the toy guns from the nearby kids and started shooting at me.
"Wow, Marissa, you can actually shoot someone now," I joked as she hit most of her shots.
And the rest of the kids joined in the fun too.
Haley sighed watching all of it. "Sometimes you're such a kid, cousin." She pointed out.
But Dylan, who was standing beside her, got excited too. "Cool, I'm in!"
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After playing with the kids, we went outside.
"Ew," Summer exclaimed, "that clown looks like he escaped from a low-budget horror movie."
I pinched her waist and approached Mitchell, who was nearby. "Hey Mitch, is that Cam?"
"Yeah," Mitchell confirmed, though he didn't look so happy about it. "Fizbo," he clarified.
"It's just Cam. It's just Cam," Phil muttered near us.
Mitchell glanced at him. "You all right?"
Phil tried to play it cool. "What? Yeah. I just have kind of a complicated relationship with clowns."
"Well, join the club," Mitchell snorted.
We stayed a bit longer before heading to Malibu
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"Wow, Dad, Lisa might be quite something," I commented, seeing him wearing long pants and a blue sweater vest over a dress shirt. Almost looking like a responsible person.
"She is, son," Charlie greeted Marissa and Summer.
After that, we said hi to Jake, Judith, and her parents.
We went to the kitchen. "Merry Thanksgiving, Berta," I said, already handing her a bonus envelope.
She took it. "There's already chilled champagne outside with some appetizers,"
She whispered to me, adding with a mischievous grin, "Maybe you can get lucky," nodding toward the two girls - probably implying that Marissa could join in as Summer and I already had our relationship more than established.
I just shook my head, amused, and told the girls to head outside.
Out on the deck, Summer spoke, "I think we deserve this," taking a generous sip of champagne after we toasted.
"But I liked what we did today more than the parties we used to go to in Palisades," Marissa commented, admiring the view. She was particularly fond of the deck (sometimes the girls come here during the week).
Summer grew thoughtful. "Me too. Look what Pritchett did to us, Coop," she said, turning to me with a grin. "Jackass."
"Turned shallow, vain, airheaded girls into normal human beings," I murmured. Both of them stared at me with their mouths wide open. "Oops, I said that out loud."
They started hitting me playfully.
"That was soo mean," Marissa laughed. "Maybe you've been hanging out with Summer too much."
"Coop!" Summer opened her arms betrayed, and we kept our playfulness with each other.
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