Chapter Twenty Eight-1

Let's get something straight here: Jesse North is not a very patient person. Never has been and most likely, never will be. So when he went an entire day without asking his older brother a single question about that trip to Arizona, the guy nearly lost his mind in anticipation. So the next morning, Jesse woke up with determination on his mind. While waiting for Everett to wake up, he made his bed, basically walked around his room in a circle for a few minutes; he gathered his wits about him and worked all his inquiries about what happened in Arizona. To be fair, Jesse refrained from asking Everett any questions yesterday, despite how badly he wanted to. Clearly, this territory was still very much undiscovered for Everett and Jesse could see his mental gears working hard to process everything. Jesse didn't want to ruin anything or blurt out inquiries when Everett just wasn't ready for everyone to know about what went down. So he kept it all to himself. Instead of asking all the questions, he just watched Everett throughout the day and let the inquisition in the back of his mind stew. And boy, did it stew. He had all sorts of questions and he wanted all the answers to them. Part of Jesse wondered if maybe he should have Lizzie around as well for the interrogation. Then he decided that was silly and continued with the already established plot line in his mind. And with his room clean, bed made and outfit ready for the day, Jesse left his room. His intent was to go to the kitchen and make coffee, maybe have a bit of cereal before Everett came out of his own hibernation. Jesse walked down the hall and down the stairs. As he walked through the den, his hands slid along the piano that for the first time in years, had just a pinch of dust on it. He made a mental note to take some polish and a rag to it later and get it all pretty again. After all, Everett hadn't played in a little over two weeks. Surely he itched to get his fingers on those keys again and when he did, Jesse wanted it to be clean and ready to go. "Well, look who decided to get up." Startled from his daydreaming, Jesse missed half a step while entering the kitchen and nearly went tumbling to the floor. His eyes grazed the kitchen until he landed on his smirking older brother. Everett had a cup of coffee in his hands, lips blowing on it for cooling purposes. His body was the picture of calm and content. He didn't look like he just rolled out of bed, that's for sure. Everett looked well rested and wide awake.66 "What time did you get up?" Jesse demanded petulantly, his whole plan of ambushing Everett thrown completely out the window. He half stomped over to the coffee maker himself and poured a cup of coffee and took a huge gulp. Jesse made his way over to the table where Everett seemed super comfy and sat down. He grabbed the box of cereal sitting on the table and poured a bowl, spilling milk over it soon after. "About an hour and a half ago, I think," Everett replied. "I wanted to be up before you. Throw you off your game," he said teasingly. The younger of the two North brothers sputtered at the underlying accusation (regardless of how true it was) causing Everett to roll his eyes. "Oh, come on, Jesse. We both know you've been chomping at the bit to ask questions so . . . ask away. I'm here, we have coffee. Let's be adults about this." Jesse sputtered a bit more, confused. He really thought there would be much more agony in getting answers out of Everett. But . . . he apparently is okay with sharing what's going down in his life, so . . .cool. "Okay, uh . . ." and suddenly all the questions just sort of vanished from his mind. Thankfully, though, one question stuck out vibrantly in the forefront of his mind. "What happened out there?" Everett took another sip of his drink, a thoughtful gleam in his eye. He appeared to be contemplating the response he would be giving Jesse. Soon, though he seemed to settle on a reasonable one and setting down his coffee, he replied. "We kissed." And then Jesse's mind exploded. * * * * * * * * * * "I just . . . I don't think you realize how long I've been waiting for this," Jesse told Everett enthusiastically. The trampoline was moving all over the place, so Everett assumed his brother was making wild gestures with his hands. After Everett made Jesse's brain completely melt with his confession, the two quickly finished breakfast and made their way outside to finish the conversation. The trampoline out back hadn't gotten much use as of late, so the two climbed up and laid back in the warm summer air. Everett told Jesse everything he could muster up, even before the trip. He admitted to how his attachment to Lizzie began much sooner than even he realized. Everett described in as much detail as he could the adventures he took part in while in Arizona. He even confessed how he told the story of losing his vision to Lizzie. Jesse's mind continued to be blown. Everett chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh? And just how long have you been waiting for this?" Silence followed before Jesse sheepishly replied, "Since you first ticked her off and she came back swinging by eternally gluing herself to you?" So, basically the entire time Jesse and Everett had known Lizzie. Well. There's that. "Huh," was Everett's eloquent response to that. "Did you ever think you two would be like . . . a thing?" Jesse asked quietly. His eyes scanned the skies, looking for any peculiar looking clouds. Unfortunately, there were only a few wisps of clouds. He frowned and went back to waiting for Everett's response. He looked over to his brother to see Everett deep in thought; possibly trying to pull together his thoughts and create a sentence that would show Jesse exactly what he meant. Even if what he meant wasn't too difficult to understand. "No," he finally said. "No, I didn't. I really . . . really, just . . . it never occurred to me that she would be so important to me." On that note, the two brothers dissolved into silence. And this is something Jesse truly enjoyed about his brother now; he and Everett could just exist together once more. When they were kids, they did it all the time. They wouldn't speak, they would just draw and color or do whatever it was they were doing at the time. Conversation wasn't something so important. Thankfully, both brothers understood. And they enjoyed comfortable silence together. For a long time, Jesse hadn't experienced that. It made him happy to have it within his grasp once more. "Hey, Jesse?" The boy grunted in return. Everett took that as a go ahead to keep speaking. "So, uhm, I have this question. I know it might be a bit strange. So, you don't have to, you know, say anything back. Maybe, you don't want to answer at all. Which would be okay, but I'd really like to know and I thought I could give it a shot and - -" "Bro!" Jesse exclaimed, a lilt to his voice. "Get on with it." Everett took a long deep breath before saying, "What does Lizzie look like?" Silence once again stretched between them. And the more time that went on, Everett wondered if maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. But to be completely honest, the question had been nagging at him for ages. He constantly thought about what it would be like to see her, even just one time. He just wanted to have that image in his mind. To know exactly what color her eyes were, or the exact shade of hair color. The little quirks she displayed when she smiled. The small things that other people didn't always think about when they watched others. Everett just wanted those things.