Jasmine and Sam returned after a few minutes when Julie took Macy to bed. Quickly Nick banished his reaction to Julie’s talk with him. “How’s Danny?”
“He stayed in his room and hasn’t said a word,” Jasmine told Nick. “I’m sorry I should have told you two sooner, Danny’s been taking it very rough since the accident. I’ve tried to talk with him but between work and his school I’m barely around and…” Jasmine sat down with a depressed look, “I’m a horrible parent.”
Sam quickly started to comfort Jasmine, “No, you’re a great parent. You have a wonderful family and they all seem very nice.”
Nick scoffed inwardly. “Yeah, they seem like good kids,” Nick said sarcastically that neither of them picked up on. “So about Annabel, have you told her about us?”
“Oh, right. Yeah I called her when I was at Danny’s practice and the same with Tracie. Tracie is with the soccer team at the finals and won’t be back till Monday, while Annabel is also out. She had a conference and won’t be back till next week.” Jasmine gave an ashamed look, “I told them you wouldn’t mind waiting to see them. Is it ok if you wait a little while…”
Sam waved her hand at the remark as if were no biggie. “We would love to stay, right?”
“Yeah,” Nick said trying not to let them know that something was up. Like the fact that Julie was using Sam to get Nick to be her personal… well he wasn’t sure yet but it couldn’t be good. Sam’s smile died for a split second but quickly reappeared, making Nick debate if he really saw it happen. Did she know that something was up, Nick wondered.
Jasmine let out a relived sigh, “I’m just glad that I got to see you two now. Things have been getting kind of rough since Gabriel passed away and… It’s just nice to see you two.” Jasmine gave them a warm smile. “Well, I’m going to change into my night gown. I’ll be right back.” Jasmine got up and left Sam and Nick alone on the table.
Nick looked at Sam who was eyeing him suspiciously, “What?” Nick asked dreading what she might say.
“You’re hiding something, what’s wrong?”
Nick was pushed into a corner. He couldn’t possible tell Sam what Julie threatened to do to her. She didn’t need to know that she was being used as black mail against him. Of course he did promise to try and be more open with her. Hating what he was about to say, “Nothing’s wrong.”
Sam’s look intensified. “Really? You’re telling me that there is nothing that you want to share with me?”
“Can’t think of anything, why do you ask?”
Sam looked away and in a quick response, “Forget it.” Sam knew that Nick was hiding something and refused to share with him. It hasn’t been a day since the promised to not keep secrets and here Nick was lying to her. It hurt her to realize that Nick didn’t trust her enough to tell her. Before Nick could say anything Jasmine came back with a smile on her face.
“Ok, let’s catch up. How are things with you two…”
The next couple of hours Jasmine, Nick, and Sam caught up. Sam told Jasmine about her school and her personal life while Jasmine told them about hers. Jasmine told them about how she met Gabriel when she was in high school. They fell in love at first sight and went to the same college afterwards and started to have sex and she got pregnant with Julie. At first she was scared that Gabriel was going to leave her but it turned out he was ready to quit school and help support her by getting a fulltime job. Jasmine’s parents were at first furious at Gabriel but eventually realized how far he was going to go for Jasmine and told Gabriel to not worry about financially helping and to complete school. With Jasmine’s parents help she and Gabriel were able to complete school and still have Julie in their lives. Shortly after they got married and eventually Jasmine got pregnant with Danny.
Annabel started to take school serious after Nick and Sam left and when she got into college and started to take up science and wanted to help change the way buggies were being viewed.
“So, is Annabel married,” Sam asked interested. Jasmine blushed and shook her head no. “Oh, well how about a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, kind of,” Jasmine said almost avoiding the question.
“Kind of,” Nick asked giving Jasmine a questioning look.
“Well… Annabel …” Jasmine took a deep breath as she seemed to blush more. “There is another reason why she wanted to be able to understand buggies. She befriended a bug in college… and they have been together since.”
“Oh,” both Nick and Sam said together.
“Yeah, they are still together and want to get married but… a buggy isn’t recognized as an actual person and therefor she can’t marry him.” Cupcake walked up to Jasmine and started to rub up against her leg. “I didn’t forget about you,” Jasmine said in a joking voice. “That’s right Muffin had a litter. We gave away all but one which we called Muffy. Well she too had a litter and that’s how we got our sweet little Cupcake here,” Jasmine said in a singsong voice as the cat let out a meow at the mention of her name.
“She looks just like Muffin,” Sam said shocked at the likeness of the cat.
“I know, that’s why I was so attached to her even though she was the runt of the litter,” Jasmine said laughing. Suddenly she let out a yawn and looked at the clock, “My, look at the time.” It was nearly midnight. “Well I should head to bed, Danny’s got a soccer game tomorrow morning.”
“Yeah, it’s been a long day. We should go to bed too,” Nick said.
“If you want I can make a bed for you all and put you in my room like old times,” Jasmine said trying to hide her excitement.
“That would be great,” Sam replied. Jasmine happily put Cupcake down and picked up Nick and Sam. She took them to her room and told them she would be right back. When she left Sam looked to Nick who seemed to be distracted as he looked off and didn’t notice her staring. Sam wanted to ask what he was thinking but then remembered that he was hiding something from her and wouldn’t share with her. Upset at the memory, she looked in the opposite direction and tried to ignore him.
Nick caught Sam’s upset look out the corner of his eye. She must be mad at him about earlier. He didn’t want her to hate him but he rather have her despises him than have her get hurt. The less she knew the safer she would be, hopefully. Again Nick didn’t know how Sam would react and if she went to Jasmine to save them from Julie… well Nick wasn’t even sure how Julie would react but he was sure that there would be pay back for telling on her.
Jasmine came back with a small bed that looked to be used for a small doll. “This was Jewels’ when she was a kid. She loved playing with her dolls. I saved it just in case for her kids, or for something like this.” Jasmine smiled and set the bed down on the nightstand and pulled out a small fluffy cloth that was a miniature blanket that went with the bed. Surprisingly the bed had a small built in mattress that was covered in a sheet.
Sam thanked Jasmine as she set the bed up. Jasmine gave them two mini pillows that went with the bed. “Wow, it’s just like a bed.” Sam replied as she laid down in it.
“I’m glad you like it,” Jasmine said as she got into her bed.
Nick sat down on the bed. Sam turned her back on Nick and waited for Jasmine to turn the lights off. She switched the lamp on the nightstand off and wished them a good night. Sam tired not to think about Nick and drifted off to sleep.
Sam woke just before an alarm went off. Sadly the alarm happened to be right behind her and the sound was like a truck horn being blown right in her ear. A few seconds of the alarm and then a giant sounding slap silenced the alarm. Jasmine let out a groan as she got up out of the bed. Then she gasped, “I’m sorry I forgot about the alarm being near you all.”
Sam sat up and stretched, “It’s ok, I was up anyway.” Jasmine apologized one more time as she got up and went to the bathroom. Sam looked over to see if Nick was up only to find that the side of the bed was empty. Shocked Sam got up and called for Nick.
“Right here,” Nick said tiredly on the other side of the bed. Confused, Sam went over to see Nick laying on the ground as if he slept there…
“Did you sleep on the ground last night?” Nick didn’t say anything as he sat up and stretched. “Why didn’t you sleep in the bed,” Sam asked.
“Because you’re upset with me, I figured you didn’t want to be around me,” Nick said a matter of fact.
Guilty at what she made Nick do by accident she was going to say something when Jasmine came back and changed ready for the morning. “Ok, who’s ready for breakfast?”
Jasmine was finished cooking pancakes when Danny came running into the kitchen and sat down ready to eat. He was already dressed for his soccer game. “Good morning,” Jasmine said lovingly to her son who greeted her back with a mouth full of food. Jasmine set another plate of pancakes down and went to wake up Macy. Danny stopped eating for a moment as he spotted both Nick and Sam. Nick stopped eating his food as he waited for the confrontation that he was sure to come. After his sister’s threat he was waiting for Danny to follow suit. Just when he thought Danny was going to say something he went back to eating.
Just then Jasmine came back with Macy coddling her and asking if she wanted to eat. Macy replied with an excited squealing noise. Danny finished his food fast and told his mom that he was going to wait in the car. “Ok, I’ll be out there in a little while, are you sure you don’t want another pancake?” Danny shook his head no and left. Jasmine finished feeding Macy and took her to get cleaned up and dressed. When Jasmine came back she asked if they wanted to come watch Danny play soccer.
“Sure,” Sam said and looked to Nick.
“I think I’m going to stay here and rest a little. Feeling kind of sore from yesterday,” Nick said.
“Of course, I understand. I’m still surprised that you’re doing so well after what happen the other day,” Jasmine told Nick as she picked up Sam and started to head for the door. “We’ll be back soon, bye.”
“Bye,” Nick waved them goodbye. Honestly he was fine but needed sometime to himself and wanted to give Sam some room to cool down. Last night before he went to sleep he came up with an idea to help Sam. He was going to start putting some energy into the stone that he had for Sam to use if she was in danger from Julie or whatever else might come up. It was the best he could come up with. When he was done transferring his powers over, he was pretty tired from the ordeal and closed his eyes to rest a little.
“Hey there buggy.” Nick opened his eyes at the familiar feminine voice that belonged to Julie. She was in the doorway that leads into the kitchen clad in a white no sleeve shirt, black short shorts, and wearing ankle socks. Nick sat up and watched her saunter in, pull out the chair that was right behind Nick and sat down. They just stared at each other.
Trying to break the tension Nick started to talk with her, “Look Julie, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.” Calmly Nick offered Julie a smile.
Julie scrunched up her face as she thought it over. “The wrong foot…” She said out loud. “Yeah, you’re right,” Julie smiled. Nick let out a relived sigh. He was glad he got to her before things got out of hand-
Suddenly Julie leaned back in her chair and slammed her right socked foot down mere inches from Nick’s face. “This is the right foot, and I think it could use a good massage,” Julie said grinning mischievously at Nick. Nick gulped at the looming foot that was in front of him. She didn’t expect him to really massage her, did she? Her feet were giving off a faint odor that was slightly masked by the scent of clean socks.
“Julie,” Nick started but she gave him a look that told him to stop.
“Two things buggy, first it’s goddess and secondly if I don’t feel you massaging my feet in the next three seconds, I’ll just have your girlfriend inspect my shoes while I’m running my 5 miles this afternoon.” Nick didn’t even waste a second after that. He couldn’t tell if Julie would fulfill that threat but he would never risk Sam’s life. The moment Nick made contact with the foot Julie let out a sigh, “That’s better.” Closing his eyes Nick tried not to think about the sock or the foot he was touching. The smell was slightly stronger, both the smell of clean clothes and a hint of what smelled like cheese dipped in vinegar. Nick shudder and tried focusing on the fresh clothing smell. After a little while of rubbing up and down from the heel section to the arch of the foot Julie leaned forward and grab a pancake off a plate and leaned back with a look of content on her face. “That’s good, keep it up buggy and I might give you a reward.” Nick didn’t reply as he tried to figure out how someone related to Jasmine could be so cruel. Granted this was a cake walk compared to some of the stuff Nick went through but still it was unpleasant.
When Julie was done eating the pancake in her hand she let out a content sigh and closed her eyes. “Ok here’s your reward.” There was another loud slam and Nick was again nearly crushed by Julie’s other foot. “You get to rub my other foot too!” Julie let out a small humors laugh that Nick didn’t find at all funny. The odor of her feet started to grow stronger now that there were two. Grimacing, Nick went over to the left foot and put his hands up against the fuzzy warm fabric and started to rub up and down the heel of the foot. Some lint the size of Nick’s hand started to come off and land at his feet as he rubbed. After a little while Julie let out another sigh, “Ok buggy ready for another surprise?”
“Not really,” Nick said under his breath detesting what was coming next.
Julie took her feet off the table and leaned forward so she was mere inches from Nick’s face, “I asked you a question buggy,” She said with disgust.
“I’m ready,” Nick said with no emotion in his words. Julie gave him a joyful smile. Suddenly she swiped Nick up off the table causing Nick to lose his breath, just as quickly she dropped him down near her feet. When Nick inhaled to breathe he quickly regretted it. The smell of Julie’s feet filled the air. Nick looked around and noticed that Julie took her socks off and had him in-between her feet. The musky smell of feet filled the air as Nick tried not to gag. Apparently Julie’s socks were blocking at least 95% of the odor because Nick had a hard time not throwing up from the smell. How could her feet smell so bad? “I hope you like your present, because I know I will,” Julie said in a sing song voice. Nick coughed and fell to his knees as the smell swarmed his noise and forced him to lean over. When he finally caught his breath he looked up when there was a sudden shadow cast over him.
“Son of a-”
Nick didn’t get to finish as Julie brought both her feet down on top of Nick’s body. Julie let out a loud laugh as she felt Nick practically flatten into the floor. Enjoying the sensation Julie started to roll her feet back and forth and in a circle. She felt Nick’s body crumple and roll with her feet as she played with him. It was like if she had a small ball under her heel. She forced Nick up and down her feet as he could do nothing but wait till she got bored of playing with him.
Nick felt his arm practically get ripped off his shoulder as he was rolled up into fetal position. The smell was horrible but he had no time to think about it as his body was suddenly dragged and pulled forward painfully across the floor. Then suddenly he was being scrapped to the side then down and back to the other side in a circle. Nick shouted to Julie to stop but she either didn’t hear or care. She continued to torture Nick with her feet for what felt like hours. Finally it stopped and Julie lifted her feet off of Nick and put her socks on. She picked up Nick and dropped him on the table and got up and left. Nick wheezed as he tried to clear his lungs from the atrocious foot odor that he was forced to inhale. Just as he caught his breath the front door open and Jasmine, Macy, Danny, and Sam came through the front door cheerful. Not wanting to answer any questions about his condition, Nick quickly brushed himself off and tried to stop from coughing.
“Mommy did you see that goal I made!” Danny asked excitedly.
“I did, and that was wonderful. Your aunt Tracie would be proud.” Jasmine came to the table and set Sam down next to Nick. “Ok, why don’t you get changed and mommy will make you some lunch. How does grilled cheese sound?”
“Great!” Danny ran to his room to get changed.
“I’ll be right back, let me change myself and Macy,” Jasmine told Nick and Sam.
“Alright,” Nick said as Jasmine left.
Sam sniffed the air and scrunch up her face. She sniffed again and leaned close to Nick. She took another sniff, “Why do you smell sweaty?”
“I was training right before you got back,” Nick said calmly.
“Really,” Sam asked almost not convinced. She didn’t say anything else as she took a few steps away trying to avoid the stench that was coming from Nick.