That had to be one of the funniest ordeals she had ever seen her brother go through. It was something out of a weekly, impractical prank show, watching the whiplash Jon was dealing with as he tried to help Liam work on the car.
In one moment he’d be laughing a little too hard at one of Liam’s jokes, asking questions but not really listening, and oohing and aahing as he’d loosen a bolt. This wasn’t anything new and something Zoe had seen a lot of as a high-school girl dealing with friends who had crushes, but to see it from Jon, Mr. Stoic, be taken for a ride by Sandra’s rodeo was soooo needed. Watching that bronco buck Jon almost made up for all the times he teased him for crying over a (sometimes animated) boy. It wasn’t so easy dealing with those hormones, was it?
But the really funny part came when he’d snap back- when Jon would catch himself batting his eyelashes and get the reins back from Sandra’s impulses. Sometimes he’d mouth ’What is wrong with me?’ when he assumed Liam wasn’t watching, as a course correction. But it wouldn’t be long before he’d be batting his eyelashes or laughing so hard he snorted at some joke that couldn’t have been that funny. He was bouncing between love-sick girl and teenage boy, all in the body of a middle aged mom which just added up to pure unintentional comedy for Zoe.
God, that snort is going to end arguments between me and Jon forever!
It could have gone all night, at least Zoe hoped it would, but Liam had some fan thingy turning again and she and Jon were both back in the car, listening to ads from Sandra’s free version music app. Jon silently cursed himself, a little frightened by how out of control those Sandra behaviors had gotten there. It was because he was tired, Jon reasoned.
Then there was Zoe basically vibrating with excitement to tear his male ego down another peg, to drag him for letting his stupid body’s nature get the better of him, like this week hadn’t been hard enough.
“So, you’re going to a hockey game this Friday?”
“Yeah,” Jon mumbled, hoping some music would save him but getting treated to another ad.
“His hockey game,” Zoe followed up. “Jon, you don’t even like sports.”
“I don’t like most sports. Hockey always seemed cool and besides, he’s helping to fix our car...”
Zoe had so many follow up questions about whatever this ‘transaction’ was in Jon’s mind and to press him on his newfound love of men’s adult beer league hockey, but decided it wasn’t worth it. She didn’t like seeing mom, er Jon, so rattled. So instead of doubling down or making him admit to some crush, like was her right as a little sister, Zoe offered an olive branch.
“Just don’t ask me to go. Anyways, how was your day?”
Jon didn’t need to be asked twice to talk about anything other than Liam Black and put those feelings as far from his mind as possible. He’d never really been one to share, but had been itching to complain about his job and how boring it was to someone all day. And once he got going… well, Zoe is just really easy to talk to.
He found himself opening up quite easily and honestly as he weaved between tail-lights on the highway towards home, heater on high per Liam’s instructions. Jon complained to Zoe about his hard-ass of a boss, how he had to keep his phone locked away at work, and got stuck listening to one of Sandra’s audiobooks she must have queued up instead of one of his own. Jon was quick to turn around and admit that the book was pretty interesting- about a magical school, of course, but in it a clique of relic hunters and history students dubbed Finders trying to understand and explore the dangerous ruins of a lost magical empire buried deep beneath the school and- he could go on but Zoe calling him a ‘nerd’ got Jon to move along.
Which might have ended up saving him from divulging too much and telling Zoe about the tidal cavern scene, when Kymber and that annoying, arrogant Fey-touched Lacoste were separated from the rest of their class and how they had to make due by the cold water’s edge by any means necessary…
Jon gulped. It was a Sandra book after all and he was coming to understand the genre she liked to read… and it’s appeal…
It was a really well written scene!
Moving quickly from that mental image, Jon moved along, telling Zoe about Linda McMillan surprising her during her lunch break. Zoe was quick to react, “Gross,” which Jon agreed was his reaction at first too. But apparently, Susan and Sandra are close friends going all the way back to their own days on the cheer team so Jon felt he had no choice but to go along with Sandra’s schedule.
“She was funny,” Jon admitted. “I never want to be on her bad side, but her tongue is hilarious when it isn’t pointed at you. She even had some stories about Sarah that were quite eye opening.”
Jon told Zoe how she paid for lunch, how she gave Jon all sorts of hand creams, and tried re-telling one of her jokes she made while smelling candles at the Bath & Body Store. She was genuinely a fun hang, considerate, and a breath of fresh air compared to Jon’s experience with his own mom now sister, and tried to paint a positive picture of a McMillan as possible.
He didn’t mention how Susan would liberally hit a THC pen and how said pen was at currently at the bottom of Jon’s purse. He didn’t want to know what Zoe’s reaction would be to that, but it did help the second half of his shift go a lot smoother and he almost didn’t mind his lazy coworkers or the steady stream of folding unmentionables Sandra had made a career out of.
And just as Jon was getting into it about one particularly awful customer, Zoe ready to fight this woman and her ‘service dog’ herself, Jon pulled into their covered parking spot and mercifully released the sedan and its devilish heater from its service. But the conversation continued, going from this to that, current events to Zoe’s school day, through brushed teeth and mouthwash gurgling the two just continued to… talk.
They were getting good at it, sharing, communicating, as someone else’s well worn rut was becoming more comfortable by the day.
