Chapter 5

Lainey had been in her room the rest of the day after eating lunch, and now it was close to dinner time. She decided to get up and go see what Rue was making for dinner, but before reaching the stairs she glanced down the hall to see if Peyton's door was open. Sadly it wasn't so she went on downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Hey, Rue, dinner smells amazing." Lainey said walking into the kitchen.

"Thank you dear, I made my special enchiladas tonight."

"Oooo, gimmie gimmie" Lainey said taking a seat while Rue dished up her plate.

Lainey took a bite and was immediately speechless "Oh my god! I swear you make the best food in the world." Lainey exclaimed.

Chef Rue chuckled. "Thank you dear I'm glad it meets your standards."

"Has Peyton been down to eat yet?" Lainey asked between bites.

"No, I haven't seen Miss Chapman all day. Is she sick? I can make her soup if she'd rather have that."

"Oh it's fine. I don't think she's sick. We talked earlier and I guess you could say things didn't go well."

"Lainey." Chef Rue scolded. "What did you do to that poor girl? Don't make me bring out the mother side of me."

"Oh please don't. Mama Rue scares me sometimes. As for the Peyton situation, we just talked a little, and I guess that it didn't go how she wanted. I may have crossed a line or two, but so did she."

"What did I tell you everyday you came home and complained about this girl, or your parents while you were in high school?

"Don't worry about what other people want from you or do to you. Figure out what's important to you and focus on that. Then all that other noise won't seem so loud anymore."

"Exactly! Now if you start fist fighting with this girl I ain't afraid to knock you both upside the head with my spatula" the chef joked causing Lainey to laugh a bit "nah dear, I'm just kidding, it's all about how you look at it. Maybe this could turn into a good thing for you and Miss Chapman. It could give you two a chance to overcome whatever riff is between you. Now I have spoken to her parents about her, so I know what she's accomplished, and it sounds like you two could be quite the team if you learned how to work together.."

"I don't know I-"

"Just give it time dear. Would you mind taking a plate of food up for her? I really don't feel comfortable with her not eating all day."

"Yeah, sure."

Lainey took the plate upstairs but stopped before going into Peyton's room. She couldn't hear any noise coming from the room. Lainey knocked but didn't get an answer. She was tempted to turn around and not leave the food, but for some reason she decided to check the door and it was unlocked. She opened the door to find Peyton asleep with the lights on and her phone still in her hands.

Lainey didn't want to wake Peyton so she set the food on the side table next to the bed and grabbed Peyton's phone from her hands and plugged it in. She covered Peyton with a blanket, shut off the light, and closed her door once again.

An hour or so later Lainey was sitting in her room at her desk taking care of some work projects when she heard a knock at her door.

"It's open" she yelled back without turning to see who it was.

"Hey" Peyton said weakly from the door.

Lainey shut her computer and turned around as soon as she realized it was Peyton. "You're awake."

"Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you for the food. I woke up after you covered me up, but I was still tired so I went back to sleep."

"Oh, ok. Sorry I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine. I probably shouldn't have been napping this late anyway."

Neither knew what to say after that so they stayed in silence for a few seconds. "You should thank Chef Rue by the way. It was kind of her idea for me to bring it up anyway."

"Yeah. Hey, sorry for storming out earlier. I just don't like to talk about Scott. The breakup still hurts."

"It's ok. I'm sorry for asking I didn't know you were still hurt by it."

"It's not your fault."

"I think you're right though." Lainey admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"We should get to know each other better. I mean it's not like making this harder on us is going to keep it from happening."

"Oh, yeah that."

"We don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, no. I think we should try.."

"Ok so how do you want to do this? Do you want to just tell each other about ourselves, or do you want to ask each other questions?"

The girls spent the next two hours getting to know each other better. They were still talking when Lainey's phone started ringing. She looked at who was facetiming her and started smiling before answering.

"Hey munchkin! How was your day?" She asked answering her facetime call from Megan.

"Terrible! You promised to come back home from your dinner last night and help me with my homework but you didn't so I failed and have to do it all over again!"

"Shit! I knew I was forgetting something." Lainey said under her breath so that Megan couldn't hear her cuss. "I'm sorry sis, I didn't come back after dinner."

"I NOTICED" Megan yelled at her sister "Where are you, and why haven't you come home? I miss you and need help on my math."

Lainey gave Megan her best pouty face. "I won't be coming home Meg, I'm sorry. I... I moved."

"Why? Where? Wait who is that over there?" Megan said just noticing Peyton who was sitting in the background on Lainey's bed.

"Into a different house because mom and dad made me, and that is Peyton."

"Why can't you just live here with me and bubba? They're never here anyway so why do they care? She's pretty is she your girlfriend or something?"

"If dad asks then yes she is my girlfriend, but between us no. Dad wanted me to move in with her because of a business deal he is making"

"Fuck business just come home, and bring her if you have to! You can help me with math and maybe she can help me with like science or something because you suck at that." Megan yelled at her sister.

"Megan! You shouldn't be cussing!"

"Why? Dad cusses out the help all the time why can't I say it?"

"Because Megan you're too young to be using words like that. Also don't do what dad does, you're better than him, and they are not 'the help' they are regular people who just so happen to work at the house so you should treat them with respect."

"Come home and make me then."

"Megan" Lainey scolded.

"Fine" the younger girl said rolling her eyes "I still want you to come home though. I miss you sissy." Megan said with her puppy dog eyes.

"I know Meg. I miss you too. How about I pick you up from school tomorrow and we can go out for ice cream."

"Is Peyton coming?"

"I didn't plan on it."

"Why? If you have to live with her you could at least buy her ice cream for having to put up with you. You can be a real handful sometimes Lain."

"Megan! You literally just said that you missed me?!"

"That doesn't mean that you don't get on my nerves sometimes. It just means that I love you and miss you because most of the time you're great! Also you're the only one who helped me with my homework besides Rue, and she's gone too for some reason"

"Whatever" Lainey said rolling her eyes. "Do you want to go out for ice cream or not?"

"Yes, but Peyton has to come." The girl said crossing her arms.

"Peyton probably doesn't even want to come. I mean like you said I'm a handful so don't you think she'll enjoy the break?"

"PEYTON!" Megan yelled.

"Yes little one" Peyton said as she walked over to Lainey's desk laughing.

"You're coming to get ice cream with us right?"

Peyton looked to Lainey before answering. "I don't know I have to wor-"

"No. You're coming." The little girl said.

"I don-"

"You. Are. Coming." Megan said getting a little closer to the screen.

"Yes ma'am" Peyton said nervously.

"Yay! Ok I'm going to hang-up and do my homework now. Bye Lainey love you!"

"Bye Megan. Love you too."

Peyton waited for Lainey to hang-up before saying. "Your sister is literally a mini you. She is so cute, but she kind of scares me."

"Yeah she really knows how to get what she wants. She's definitely going to be a shark when she grows up."

"So about this ice cream tomorrow..." Peyton trailed off.

"Oh yeah" Lainey chuckled "You don't have to come if you don't want to, but when she asks where you are I'm not covering for you." Lainey laughed.

"Wowww! Ok I see how it is. Here I thought we were finally getting somewhere on the friend front."

"Hey, when it comes to Megan it's every man for themselves, I don't care if we are friends, enemies, or married. I'd rather stand up to my dad than her."

"Oof, I guess I have to come then. I'd hate to fight a second grader." Peyton laughed.

"No offense but my money's on her" Lainey joked.

"Hey!" Peyton hit Lainey's arm. "I mean mine would be too, but you could have at least made me feel good about myself for a second."

"My bad. So do you want to ride with me tomorrow to get Megan from school or just meet us at the ice cream shop?"

"Are you going to work tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but I usually leave at noon on Friday's anyway so I'll leave to get her from the house."

"I'll just work half a day then and we can leave from the house together if that's ok with you."

"Works for me. My dad had two of my car's brought to the house today so I can drive if you want."

"Works for me."

"Cool, we should probably leave around 2:45-3:00ish so that we can get there a little early."

"Ok. You're really good with her you know?"

"What do you mean? You're not close with your siblings?"

"No, I am, just not like that. You just kind of seem almost motherly with her."

"Yeah, I'm like that with both of them, and I'd ask Colten if he wanted to come with us tomorrow, but he has practice after school so he can't."

"You're a lot different than I thought you were."

"Uhhh... thanks I guess." Lainey said confused.

"Oh, no it's a good thing don't worry. I just had you pegged as someone who kind of did whatever they wanted and didn't really pay attention to others."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. You're different too."

"Really?"

"No" Lainey laughed. "You're still seem like you're little miss perfect."

"What?! I do not!"

"Oh please when's the last time you did anything your parents disagreed with or said or did something bad about or to someone."

"Back in high school I called you a selfish bitch. Does that count?"

Lainey fake gasped. "What? How dare you? Such vulgar language! I'm so disappointed in you. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"I am actually. It wasn't my finest moment, but I just couldn't help it that day you had really pissed me off. You just had this way of getting under my skin so easily for like no reason and I couldn't figure out why. On the bright side I was wrong though. You really do seem like a good person, and I'm sorry I didn't see that before."

"It's fine I wasn't your biggest fan either, and it's ok that you're perfect. Someone has to be and it damn sure ain't me." Lainey laughed.

"You seem pretty perfect to me."

Lainey blushed. "Um, thanks."

"Guess I should get to bed since it's getting pretty late." Peyton said.

Lainey checked her phone. "Damn, I didn't even realize it was almost midnight. Time really flew."

"Yeah. Way better than sitting in my room alone." Peyton laughed from the doorway.

"Yeah" Lainey chuckled "Night." She said with a half smile.

"Night" Peyton said and shut the door and headed off towards her own.