Ch90 Little White Lies

“Can I sleep over while your mom’s away?” Troy said with a devilish grin.

“Shut it!” Jasmine said under her breath. “If Mom even hears you say that, she won’t go at all.”

“She’s not even home now,” Troy said.

"Yeah, but she might have the neighbors spying on us. You never know,” Jasmine said, looking around as if to spot one of these supposed spies.

“What are they talking about?” Wes asked Janet as they approached the front porch of her house, following the others. “Where’s your mom going?” 

“New York City. Mr. Frank is taking her for a whole week to see how the finest restaurants are run, and of course, for more shopping,” Janet said. “She’s so excited!”

Wes relaxed. “Oh…that’s okay then. I thought for a minute…” he said shaking his head.

“What?”

“My dad just told me he was going to Boston for a college reunion and I thought…”

“That they were going together?” Janet shrieked. “That’s totally ridiculous.”

“Yeah, well, can you blame me… the way they’ve been all… whatever?” Wes said.

“Wes, you know what this means, don’t you?” Troy said.

“Uh…what?” Wes asked.

“Two houses with no parents and the four of us and did I mention no parents? Get it yet?” he said.

Janet stared at Wes. “What is the bozo trying to say?” she asked.

“Party! Party! Party!” Troy chanted.

“Our mother would kill us!” Janet shrieked.

“Not if she doesn’t know,” Jasmine said, in a sing-song voice. “I’ve already invited some of my friends.”

“You’ve done what!” Janet shouted.

“Just a few. You should invite Luke and anyone else you know who is good to know,” Jasmine said carelessly.

“Why spoil a perfectly good time with him?” Troy said.

“Are you two insane?” Wes said. “What about Cindy and Stevie? I have to watch her while my dad’s away. We can’t just leave them alone to have a party and we can’t have them at the party. They’ll rat us out!”

“I know what we’ll do,” Jasmine said. “We’ll get Daddy to babysit them. They can go to the movies or something and we can have the party at Wes’ house. It’s the perfect party house.”

Wes and Janet exchanged looks. “What do you think?” they said simultaneously.

“Come on! We can do this. It’ll be fun,” Troy said. “And what could go wrong?”

“Plenty,” Wes said turning to Jasmine. “Who have you invited?”

As she rattled off each name he nixed each one.

“Why are you shaking your head at me?” Jasmine snapped. “These are my friends.”

“I’m not having any of those guys at my house. I for a fact know they drink, they smoke, they do… stuff I don’t want going on at my house,” Wes said. “You un-invite them and then we’ll talk about a party. I’m making the list of who gets invited, and if you don’t like it, you can have your own party at your own house. Got me?”

Jasmine glowered at him, folding her arms over her chest, but stayed quiet.

“I think we should invite Luke and Alana, plus Billy and Joanne and Marc and Amy,” Wes said, turning to Janet. “They’re good kids and won’t get us in trouble.”

“We had a great time with them at the engagement party. Oh, maybe we can get Peter to come, too.” Janet said.

“Who?” 

“Peter Adams,” Janet said. “He goes to our school.”

“Oh, yeah, I know him,” Wes said. “He’s in my Chem class. How do you know him?”

“I don’t yet. Luke told me he’s in his band and that he’s very talented. If Luke says he’s a nice guy, he must be,” Janet said. 

Wes frowned. “Not sure about that, Janet. He hangs out with Jason Hellerman and Neil Wiggins and they’re both major party animals.”

“You sure? That doesn’t make sense,” Janet said. "Luke just told me he's getting rid of some guy cuz he's a druggie. I'm sure Peter's not like that."

“Let’s stick with the others for now. I don’t want too many people there anyway.”

“But you really think we can do this… I mean without getting in trouble?”

“I think so,” Wes said, eying Jasmine’s mutinous expression. “If there is no drinking or anything. My dad would kill me if he found out there was a wild, noisy party with drinking going on at his house, but he’ll only half kill me if he finds out I had a nice, quiet party with a few friends and no drinking.”

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Some party this will be. Nobody will want to come.”

“Don’t say that, Jazz. It can still be fun. Food, music, dancing. It’s all good,” Troy said, grinning at them all. “It’s a done deal, then. Party at Wes’.”

Janet and Wes smiled at each other. “Okay,” they said together before going into the house.

********

“Thanks for coming to my game, Dad,” Stevie said, as they turned onto the driveway.

“I love watching you play. You’re a far better athlete than I ever was. You must get it from your mom,” Jeff said.

“Can you come in for a while?” Stevie asked, opening the car door.

Jeff looked toward the house and saw Jasmine waving them in. “I guess I have to,” he said. “Your sister wants me for something.”

“Hey, Jazzy, you okay?” Jeff asked.

She giggled, threw her arms around him and kissed him. “Hi, Daddy! I’m good. I just wanted a hug.”

He laughed and held her tightly. “Love my Jazzy girl.”

“I love you, too, Daddy. I have something for you. Come in,” she said, pulling him inside and taking him to the kitchen where Janet sat at the table with her laptop in front of her.

Jeff noticed she turned pale when she spotted him. She looked at him, not with disdain as usual, but with a curiously nervous expression. He didn’t quite understand it, but as it seemed like an improvement he wouldn’t question it.

“Hello, Janet,” he tentatively said.

“Hello…Daddy,” she said then quickly looked down at the computer screen.

“I baked you cookies, Daddy,” Jasmine said, placing a plate and a tall glass of milk at the table-- right beside Janet’s chair.

“Oh, Honey, you didn’t have to do this,” he said, smiling at her.

“Sure I did. We miss you,” Jasmine said, her eyes growing misty.

 He smiled and placed a hand on her cheek. “I miss you, too. All of you,” he said, his eyes going to Janet. 

Janet didn’t dare look up and had no intention of speaking. 

Jasmine had other ideas, though. “Sit down and eat, Daddy,” she said, practically shoving him into the chair.

“Where’s mine?” Stevie asked.

“At the store. These are for Daddy,” Jasmine snapped.

“Stevie, Cindy called for you a while back. Said she needed help with some homework,” Janet said.

Suddenly cookies were the last thing on his mind. “Um…See you, Dad. Got homework to do,” Stevie said and he bolted up to his room.

“Man, he’s got it bad,” Jasmine said.

Jeff laughed and took a bite out of a cookie. “He does seem to like that girl, huh? Hmm…this is great. You’re as good a baker as your mom.”

“Well, I had help. Janet did most of it. I just stuck them in the oven and watched that they didn’t burn.”

Janet glared at her sister. “You just have to follow the recipe. She was gonna toss in the eggs and flour before she creamed the sugars and butter together. Honestly!” she huffed.

Jeff laughed. “Well, thanks. I appreciate the effort,” he said, staring at Janet, who steadfastly refused to look at him. “Doing homework?”

She shook her head.

“Did you know, Daddy? Janet started a Yenta business.”

Jeff’s eyes widened in surprise. “You mean like a match-maker? Is there a calling for that? ”he asked.

“You’d be surprised. She matched me up with Troy, although we really didn’t need her.”

“Yeah, right,” Janet muttered, rolling her eyes.

“And she has many happy clients including vice-principle McIntyre and Mrs. Palmer. She’s even invited to their wedding,” Jasmine said. “She’s quite the entrepreneur, Daddy, just like you.”

“I wouldn’t call myself an entrepreneur, Sweetie. I just like to make jewelry,” he said.

“You’re an artist,” Janet adamantly said, before she could stop herself.  

Stunned Jeff merely stared at her until the ability to talk returned. “Thanks, baby.”

“You’re welcome,” Janet said stiffly.

“She’s making loads of money,” Jasmine interjected. “And soon she’ll have enough saved so she can buy us a car.”

“What do you mean us?” Janet said.

“Well, you’ll let me use it. We’re sisters!”

“As if,” Janet muttered.

Jeff laughed. “You mean…you’re actually getting paid good money for this…service?” he said, incredulous.

“Of course she is! It’s a real business. Show him the website Wes made for you, Janet. It’s totally awesome!”

“He doesn’t want to see that. Sure he’s got better things to do,” Janet said.

“I’d love to see it actually,” he said. “I was thinking of getting a website done for my shop.”

“Wes is awesome. He would do a great job for you, Daddy. Show him yours, Janet!” Jasmine nudged.

“I’m in the middle of something, Jazzy,” Janet said, her cheeks going rosy all of a sudden.

“Maybe some other time,” Jeff said, taking the hint. He stood and kissed Jasmine on the cheek. “Thanks for the cookies, Sweetie. They were really good. Um...Tell your boyfriend…Wes, that I’d be interested in seeing what he can do for me any time he gets a chance. Okay, Janet?”

She nodded, her eyes glued to the screen.

“Good night, Jazzy. Good night, Janet,” he said, ever-so-sadly.

“Good night, Daddy. Take these with you.” Jasmine pushed a colorful tin full of cookies into his hands, then hugged him again. 

“Love you, Daddy. We both do,” she whispered in his ear.

“Love you, too, so much,” he said, giving her an extra squeeze. He then turned and left.

Jasmine watched him go then whipped around and had been about to yell at her sister for being so cold to him. That's when she saw Janet with her face in her hands, crying.

“Oh, Janet,” she mumbled, putting her arm around her. “Why couldn’t you just…”

“I don’t know how,” she said between sniffles and sobs.

"All you have to do is give him a hug and he'll understand. That's all he wants. For you to forgive him."

"But I don't forgive him. He hurt Mom. He hurt all of us."

"But you made him those cookies. I thought....I should have told him you baked the cookies all yourself. He would have seen it was your way of saying you’re sorry. Don’t know why you made me say I had anything to do with it,” Jasmine grumbled.

“It’s just a little white lie that won't hurt anything. It's better this way,” Janet said. "I don't want him to think I'm okay with what he did and I don't want Mom thinking...that I've betrayed her, too."

"Mom won't think that. She doesn't think that when Stevie and I spend time with Dad or when we're nice to him."

"I won't stab Mom in the back, even if... I gotta go," she said with a sniff.
 “I gotta call Wes…see when he has time to work on Dad’s website.”

Jasmine sighed as she watched her sister gather her laptop and head upstairs, wiping her eyes as she went.

“Could there be a more stubborn and confusing girl?”