Chapter Twenty Nine-2

"I just don't see why you'd go so far away," Jesse muttered dejectedly. "I thought you would have been closer is all." Everett huffed out a laugh and stepped away from his younger brother, one hand carding through his hair. "Yeah. Yeah, so did I. But this came in and I just . . . I don't know, Jesse. I've noticed that some things just feel right and. . . Well, this is one of them. I feel it. This is the right place to go, you know?" With a nod, Jesse plunked back down on the piano bench. "It's cool, though, you know?" He said after a few beats of silence. "You're sort of forging your own path. You know what you want and you're going for it. That's . . . That's really admirable, bro." And he meant it. Every single word. It's just . . . "I don't know what I want anymore," Jesse whispered with a sigh. When he was little, Jesse had a list of things he wanted to be when he grew up. The list changed over the years from astronauts and firefighters to things like an art teacher and artist. But now, even those seemed too restrictive; too much. At one point, Jesse could seem himself teaching in front of classrooms and spending quiet nights in his own personal studio. Now all he saw were four bleary walls. He saw bills and settling down. He saw an unsatisfactory life waiting for him and he just didn't get why. "It's okay that you don't, you know," Everett told him. "I just figured my life out. Barely. Lizzie is still figuring hers out. I'm pretty sure there are people twice our age still trying to figure out what they want," Everett explained quickly, the words practically tripping over each other to get out. "It's okay to not be on point all the time. It's okay to not know what you want." "But even if it always changed, I still had something in mind, you know? Some sort of goal,"Jesse insisted. Everett found his brothers shoulder and squeezed it slightly. "You'll be okay. Please don't worry." And with that, Everett closed the lid of his piano and made his way out of the room. Jesse assumed it was to get food. Jesse decided to let it slide. And by it, he meant the internalized hysteria he had of just not knowing where he would be heading in life. Things were so much different now. Everett had his life figured out. He knew what he wanted out of it now and he was pursuing it with everything he had. With a sigh, Jesse shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind and stood, following his brother into the kitchen. "If you eat all the Doritos, I'll end you, Ev." His comment was promptly greeted by all sorts of obnoxious crunching and Everett's food muffled laugh. "Too late." * * * * * * * * * "You two need a life." Those were the kind and loving words the North brothers were greeted with as soon as Lizzie stepped foot through the door. Her eyes landed on the lump of North sitting on the couch as she dumped her bag by the door. Both turned in her direction. One of them grinned widely and shoved the other off the couch onto the floor. "Make room for the pretty one, Jess," Everett mumbled as the latter groaned on the floor. "All of the betrayal," Jesse wailed, though the grin on his face jinxed the effect. He settled down in front of the couch with just enough room for Lizzie to pass by and get comfy. Everett and Lizzie exchanged quiet hellos, a few more words passing between them that Jesse couldn't quite understand. But he smiled and after greeting Lizzie himself, Jesse pushed himself up and walked out of the room. Lizzie and Everett deserved some time just for the two of them to chat and say hi. So he excused himself and with a smile over his shoulder, walked to the kitchen. The conversation between Lizzie and Everett grew in volume. Jesse listened for a moment as they talked about their days so far and when Lizzie let out a laugh at something Everett said, Jesse ducked into the kitchen for some snacks. And drinks. And maybe he would make some tea, too. Just to give them a bit more time together. Cause Jesse was nice like that. * * * * * * * * * * Lizzie watched Jesse walk out of the room with a fond shake of her head. "Does he really think he's that subtle?" she chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to Everett's cheek before ducking and putting her head on his shoulder. Everett's arm tightened around her and he grinned. "I think it brings his fanboy heart huge amounts of joy to see his, and I quote, OTP hanging together." "That guy has been planning this for a long time, right?" Lizzie mused. "He probably know what's going to happen on our first date." The sentiment was supposed to come across as a joke, but as luck would have it, the air turned quiet and just a tad awkward. It hadn't exactly come up before but despite being official . . . Lizzie and Everett were still one date short of . . . well, one date. It's just that they spent so much time together, dates weren't exactly one of the hottest topics of conversation. They spent more time talking about colleges and the future and the best place to get pizza. Which, now that Lizzie thought about it, that particular topic of conversation might have been a great time to bring up an actual date thing. But it just - well, it just never happened. "We should probably do that," Everett said quietly, fiddling with the seam of Lizzie's shirt. He let it go and smoothed it over a bit. Instead, he detached himself from Lizzie and folded his hands in his lap. "At one point. Since we like ... do stuff together. Maybe that's a thing. We should do. Together."