“I’ll be fine, and it’s not that cold,” he shrugged. “Come on. Let’s go. I wanna see the otters before it gets too dark.”

The sun wouldn’t be out for much longer, but I couldn’t stand being in it for that long anyhow. If we were going to the zoo, there were a few animals that Jack wanted to see while we had the chance. He was telling me about how he refused to compromise on the prairie dogs as we went down the stairs, but then I saw Peter and completely tuned out.

- 21 -

It might seem pretty weird that I lived in the same house as Peter, directly across the hall, but I had managed to avoid him since we kissed. The reason for that is that I hadn’t left Jack’s room. I didn’t want to see Peter, and that was part of my logic behind the zoo trip.

Unfortunately, when we descended the steps into the living room, Peter happened to be standing right there. He wasn’t looking at us, but my initial reaction was to panic anyway.

“Something wrong?” Jack asked.

“No, I’m fine,” I shook my head and hurriedly pushed my feelings away.

Ezra hung a new giant flat screen TV on the wall, and Peter and Bobby supervised in some way. I’m not sure what was wrong with the old flat screen, although I would lean towards nothing. Peter stood a few feet back from where Ezra held the TV up, and Bobby was sprawled out on the couch, popping some of the bubble-wrap that had come with the new television. The cardboard box was on the floor by his feet, along with the “old” TV.

“What’s going on?” I asked, even though I didn’t really want to say anything. I wanted to rush out of the room before Peter had a chance to look at me or Jack, but that would seem odd.

“Ezra bought a new TV,” Bobby answered, watching as Ezra handled a TV that would be too big and too heavy for any one man to deal with alone.

“Is it straight?” Ezra held onto the bottom of it and took a step back to look at it. “It better be since I have all the wires hooked up already.”

“Yeah, it’s straight,” Peter said, and just hearing his voice made my pulse change.

“What was wrong with the old TV?” I asked to distract myself.

“Nothing.” Ezra stepped back further into the room so he could admire his handy work. “Jack and I just went to Best Buy this morning, and this TV is way better than the last one.”

“You went to Best Buy?” I cocked an eyebrow at Jack. “How early did you get up?”

“Early enough,” Jack shrugged. “Ezra was going to the store and asked if I wanted to come with, and like I would pass up a trip to Best Buy?”

“I don’t see how this TV is any different than the one we had before,” Peter said, echoing my thoughts. “It isn’t even bigger, is it?”

“It’s not about being bigger!” Jack walked away from me, closer to the TV so he could explain all the merits of it. His lingo instantly got technical, which was silly since Peter probably knew less about technology than I did. Ezra and Jack were the ones who were obsessed with all things new and electric.

“It just looks like a television to me,” Peter said when Jack finished explaining how awesome it was.

Jack scoffed loudly, and this time, even Ezra defended his purchase. At that point, they were mostly talking to themselves, and Peter looked back at me. Just briefly, and I looked away almost instantly, but his eyes still caught me. It shouldn’t even be possible for eyes to be that green, and I shouldn’t be thinking about how stunningly attractive they were.

At least he played it cool better than me. If Jack and Ezra weren’t so damn excited about their new gadget, I’m sure they would’ve noticed how frazzled I acted. When I looked away from Peter, he went over to them to pretend to be interested in it.

Bobby sat in the chair, swinging his feet over the edge, and he looked more entertained by the bubble wrap than he did the TV. Milo was missing, which was strange, because he loved this kind of thing. He should be in here gushing all over the TV too.

“Where’s Milo?” I asked Bobby, since nobody else would listen to me unless I used the words “HD” or “plasma.”

“Helping Mae with the laundry,” Bobby said and popped another bubble.

I was tempted to steal the bubble wrap from him, but I had my chance to escape, so I took it. Jack wouldn’t be ready to go for at least another ten or fifteen minutes, and I’d rather spend that time waiting somewhere Peter wasn’t. At least Jack was too distracted to notice me slipping away.

Down the hall, between the den and the main bathroom was the laundry room, filled with two sets of super powered washers and dryers. Seven people lived in the house, and that amounted to a lot of laundry. I tried to do mine and Jack’s, but Mae somehow always got to it before I did. She was magic that way. The laundry room had several racks with hangers.

Most of Jack’s overflow clothes ended up down here, hanging on racks. His suits were in plastic bags, all neatly pressed, and they stayed down here to keep them from getting smooshed and wrinkled in our closet. The room was filled with the clean scent of clothes, but I could still smell us on them, especially Jack. No matter how many times they were washed, clothes managed to maintain some of their owner’s smell.

On one wall were the machines themselves, one set dark blue, and the other a weird orange. Apparently, the days of ordinary white machines were gone. Milo sat on one of the washing machines, watching as Mae pulled towels out of the dryer and folded them. I’m sure he offered to help, but she refused. She thought it was her duty to do everything for us.

Milo was dressed and looked good, except he’d painted his toenails, and I blamed Bobby for that. Mae, on the other hand, still wore her pajamas, and I hadn’t seen in her in real clothes in days. Her hair was up, but it was more of a rat’s nest than a bun.

“How’s it going?” I asked, trying for casual instead of concerned. When I walked in the room, Milo gave me a wary look, and Mae barely glanced back at me.

“I’m going to have to buy new towels,” Mae said. The usual warmth of her British accent sounded stogy and commandeering, but that was better than sobbing. “You leave the towels in your room for so long they smell of mildew, and I just can’t get it out.”

“Sorry. I’m working on it,” I said. Jack and I were the messiest ones in the house, unless Bobby turned out to be inordinately dirty.