Just The Boy Next Door

~28~

~Jake Pitts~

It had been a couple weeks since the announcement of Andy and DJ's little one, and Naomi and I were in a good spot. Good spot, meaning I had been shoping around with Jinxx and CC for an engagement ring for her myself.
It took some thought, but I decided the week after Naomi bought the entire nursery set for DJ and Andy, and everyone minus DJ made home made decorations for the rock and roll infant's room. Watching how excited she got when talking to me about the baby and their up and coming wedding, which they had chosen a date in September, made me realize just how much in love with my mixed dread locked princess I truly was.
Naomi had gone home for the night after we watched a movie, and I was up looking for beach houses to rent over Spring Break. I thought with everything that had been going on lately, the entire group could use some vacation time. I knew it would be in March, but there were a few warm days at the tail end of break.

I also wanted to ask Naomi to marry me.

I might not seem as involved with everything as Jinxx and Ashley, or CC for that matter, but this vacation would be for DJ and Selena; especially Selena.
When Naomi was coming over a week ago after she and DJ put the nursey set together, Ashley said the blue sedan was back, but across the street. I decided not to let Andy or DJ know, not because it was two thirty in the morning, but because they needed their rest while they could get it. Selena had fallen asleep on the couch while her and CC watched FUSE television, and he began freaking out calmly, hoping the woman wouldn't come to the front door.

Sure enough, the car drove away.

When the police came to investigate the note on the mailbox a few weeks ago, Ashley didn't tell anyone but me what it said, for he feared it had something to do with Naomi and her vigilante attempt across the VCU radio airwaves. It mentioned something about something happening if she meddled in Selena and Maggie's business. Unfortunately, Mags, it is our business now because she is involved with us.

My eyes were burning, aching for rest, as I put in a reservation to a beautiful bungalo off a small bar of land in VA Beach. Only 500 for the entire week; I couldn't pass it up. I looked over on my night stand; the maroon box stared back at me. Smiling, I decided I really needed to carry my ass to bed. Jinx and I were doing grocery shopping in the morning, and picking up a few things Andy had forgotten to pick up for DJ, who was now two weeks into her second trimester.

"Man, he is lucky," I said to myself as I pulled my blankets back before stripping off my holey black jeans and replacing them with black basketball shorts, "Andy man, I hope you don't fuck this up."

Smiling to myself, I sent Naomi a text message, knowing she was asleep. She was supposed to come over in the morning for early cuddles; something I looked forward to more than most. That was when we did most of our talking; she was brilliant. I'm not just saying that either; she was salutitorian in our class.
Finally climbing into my bed, I pulled the covers up and stared at the ceiling. While I was calm, I felt like something was going to happen that was going to mess all of that up and throw it violently out the window, watching it splatter in the streets.

But, sleep came first as did Naomi.

Drifting off into a deep sleep, I began to dream a dream most horrendous.
I woke to a scantily clad Naomi climbing into my bed, dread locks pulled back into a ponytail. She kissed me sweetly on the forehead and smiled.
"Good morning, handsome man," she spoke softly, "How did you sleep?"
"Oh, not good," I rubbed my eyes and ran my arm up under the pillow her head was on, "Weird dreams all night; I think this Maggie shit is getting to me."
"We haven't seen her in person for a few weeks to a month, Jacob," she ran her soft fingers over my cheek, "I think we are all okay. Besides, her face is plastered all around campus."
"Yea, I know," I sighed and nuzzled my nose against her cheek, "I'm so glad you are here to ground me, babe."
She smiled brightly and placed her soft lips against mine, cooing into my mouth.
"Well, what did you want to do today?"
"Well, I just bought Black Ops 2 for you to enjoy while Jinxx and I do grocery shopping later, but I would like to spend some time with you today."
Her eyes lit up at the thought of Call of Duty, our video game of choice.
"Sounds good, babe."

After our verbal "saving the world from destruction" conversation, she got out of bed and redressed herself, making her way downstairs for coffee. DJ and Andy had another doctor's visit this afternoon, so they would be busy most of the day. CC and Selena were at the coffee shop, having an early morning date before CC began working on the wall mural for DJ's nursery with Ashley again. And Ashley was working on an online dating profile; I think him being single with all of us in some sort of a relationship was finally eating at him.
Getting out of bed myself, I wandered into my bathroom. Throwing my mid-back length hair into a ponytail of sorts and throwing the jeans from yesterday and a Pantera t-shirt on, I grabbed my boots and socks and made my way downstairs.

"Good morning," mumbled the sleepy Bachelor in the den, sitting at his laptop scowling, "How did you sleep?"
"Looking like it was better than you," I wandered to peer over Ashley's shoulder, "Do you need help?"
"No," he leaned back and sighed, "I have only been up a half an hour and already bitches are trying to get random play instead of a relationship. I don't understand this shit!"
I chuckled and patted my friend on the shoulder. He growled in response and turned back to the screen, finally smiling at someone who actually wanted to go get coffee with him the week after Spring Break.
"For you, my love."
Looking up, Naomi stood with a large mug of coffee, made the way I liked it. Smiling, I took the mug and kissed her cheek.
"Thanks, baby."
Sitting down at the dining room table, I placed the mug down and grabbed my wadded up socks. Pulling them and my boots on, I looked into the living room at the news on the television. Jinxx was obsessed with local news. Having only lived in Virginia for three years or so, it amazed him how stupid some people can be. I mean, LA had its group of idiots, but Richmond held a special bunch.
"Anything good this morning, dude?" I sat next to him, boots officially on and coffee back in my palm.
"No, not really," Jinxx frowned, "Only an arson case from Henrico. The news has been boring as of late."
We laughed together as Naomi walked in, Call of Duty in hand.
I looked at the time; the clock read quater til twelve. Nodding, I set up the Xbox for her as Jinxx and I agreed that going out earlier was a better plan than going later. While I received kisses and hugs from my loving girlfriend, Jinxx grabbed the shopping list on the table and waved me to the door.
"I'll be back, babe," I kissed Naomi on the forehead, "I love you."
"I love you, too, rock star."

I was surprised I got the "I love you, too" out of her as I left; usually, when it came to the video games I barely got a head nod.
She was right this morning; besides the random car sighting across the street, Mags hadn't visited us, and good thing too. As Jinxx and I passed the coffee shop, Maggie's face was printed on a posterboard, complete with the word "WANTED". I did notice Selena begin to relax more; hell, her and CC started going out on their weekly dates again. Thankfully, Spring Break was in a week; the readjustment to normal life was needed and welcomed. The only couple that was still having trouble with readjusting was Andy and DJ, but then again with an infant growing in your body, readjusting is the last thing on your mind.
With DJ being fourteen weeks along, Andy had become super protective of her, and for some strange reason so had Jinxx and Ashley. CC was busy making sure Selena was safe and sound, and I, my beautiful dread-head.

"Hey, man," he pulled the list out and squinted at Andy's hand writing, "What did they say they needed again?"
We looked up and the Ellwood Thompsons we were now in front of and entered the sliding doors.
"Umm," I took the list from him, "DJ needs prenatals, so I got that covered... standards like bread, milk, and eggs..."
I stopped and chuckled at the bolded letters: ICE CREAM FOR DJ.
"... And ice cream for DJ. Ha, apparently she has made him run out nightly for it."
Jinxx chuckled and shook his head; there was no denying our friends were having a baby.
"Dude, I cannot believe he is going to be a dad," I spoke, still in disbelief, as I grabbed a cart from the cart return inside.
"You can't?" Jinxx looked at me with a grin, "I can't believe he is going to be married in September. That... is what shocks me. Andy loves kids, dude; I knew he would be a dad one day."
"Yea, but now?" I narrowed my gaze and shook my head, "It is all too surreal."

Chatting and making our way around the store, I had told him about the beach trip I had planned and he texted everyone minus Naomi, who was supposed to be surprised with it. Grabbing items on the list plus a few extras, we went through the self check out and headed on home.
The whole group of us shared food; if we didn't have it, DJ and Andy most likely did. She had an open door policy for the most part, which made things easier on the group especially the couples.
"You brought your backpack, right?" I looked over at him as he pointed to his back.
I loaded most of the unbreakables into the bag and opted to carry the rest. Making our way up Main Street, we stopped at a few shops to look for items for Baby Biersack and tried to be gender neutral. Jinxx found a little leather vest with three removable patches for boys, girls, and gender neutral purposes. We both were amused by this find, seeing as though their child would be like either parents and grow up around rock and roll.

Reaching our block, I noticed a change in the wind. It smelled of summer breeze and felt warmer on my face than the wind had been. Since we were all heading to the beach next week, I was hoping the weather would warm up, any way.
Looking up, Naomi stood in the front yard in a tight long-sleeved t-shirt, dark blue skinny jeans, and Chucks. He dreads were now tipped green, new since I had been gone, and in two braided pigtails. My curvy, busty girlfriends looked amazing.
"Dude," I turned my head to find Jinxx blushing, staring down at his shoes, "Sammi would kill me if she knew I just checked out your girlfriends rack."
I widened my eyes and laughed heartily.
"I know she would, " I patted my best friend on the back, "And, technically, I should, too."
"Sorry man," the shorter man shrugged, "I'm going to go call her, by the way."

Walking up to the house, my smile faded as a frown danced gloomily across her once bright face. She looked bothered by something. Setting the bag down on the front porch of the frat house, I walked back over to where she was standing.
"Baby, what's wrong?" I put my hand on her shoulder, rubbing softly.
"I got a weird phone call while you were gone." she bit the inside of hr lip nervously.
"Really? From who?"
"Selena's mom." she looked up at me as she answered.
Now I was weirded out.
"Why in the hell would she call you?" the weirded out feeling changed to panic, "better yet, how did that bitch get your cell phone number?"
"Our numbers are everywhere baby, what with the search going on and stuff."
"Well, did you answer it."
"Yes, because I didn't know who it was," her brown eyes narrowed out at the street, "And then, I got my life threatened."
This was the feeling I had earlier; the feeling something would fuck up my being calm.
"That bitch is fucking crazy."
"Yea, but she threatened my life, Jake," she looked me directly in the eye, "And do you know what they did when I tried reporting it? Nothing. Delvin told me it was out of his hands, and VCU police told me I couldn't do anything."
She was obviously flustered with a hint of pissed off and scared.
"What?" I was in disbelief, "Well, why the fuck not?"
"They said something about how we already took care of warning the campus, and already set up some sort of alert system," she crossed her arms in from of her, kicking at the grass as she looked down at her feet.
"Well, then we can only be but so mad at them, right" I hugged her from behind, nibbling on her ear playfully.
Giggling, she rapidly turned to face me again.
"You know," she smiled, putting her arms around me, "I guess you're right."
Finally relaxed, she rested her forehead againt mine. Her hazel eyes flashing seductively. I really couldn't believe how lucky I was, or how perfectly we fit together.
"I love you, rock star," she kissed the tip of my nose sweetly.
"I love you, too, dread-head."

Laughing, we turned to go inside.

~Jinxx~

With everything the girls had been going through and how Andy, Ashley, and CC had the displeasure of meeting that poor excuse for a woman, I felt more emotional with the distance between Sammi and I. With our marriage straining more by the day, I constantly made communication of utmost importance between us. She and I talked on the phone everyday and Skyped every night, but I was still worried. What if something like this happened to her while I was on the other side of the country; I can't protect her from here.

But I knew what I could do; I could help with Selena as well as Naomi, who had recently become a target of Maggie's rage. We all believed that Mags had decided to leave DJ alone, not seriously caring about her niece in the slightest way, but only because how Andy had stood up to her over the winter holiday.

Finally taking time to sit down, I climbed onto my bed and looked at the wall; pitures of Sammi and I dotted the has-been blank, white canvas, moments in time varying. It had to have been a matter of a couple years worth of photographs on my wall. Smiling slightly, I was thankful we were trying to work through things; we had been together since what seemed to be the beginning, and I was thankful nothing like this had happen to us, or to her. As bad as it made me feel for having the thought, I was, indeed, thankful that this shit wasn't happeneing in our little land of Underland.

Staring out my window, I caught a glimmer of something; like a flash of something metalic. It was probably some kid on their phone, screen flashing the street lights that were now turning on for the evening.
I looked down at the grass in front of the house; Naomi and Jake were wrestling, covering themselves with the fresh cut grass. Andy and DJ had pulled in and were in their house, probably planning out week 16 doctors visit and finding more baby stores in the area. CC, Ash, and Lena were hogging the Xbox now, playing Black Ops 2, Selena cheering that she was beating the guys.

Looking back up, I saw what looked like a person in a sweatshirt making a beeline for the front yard.

And that is when I saw it; the shimmering object in the persons hand.

A handgun.

Freezing for barely a nanosecond, I shot up off my bed and hurried to the front door, running into Jake who had come back into the house for their jackets.

His smile disappeared as we both heard his world crumbled from the lawn out front.

Notes

The calm before the storm...