Beneath the Surface

Lexie

We walk up the steps to Jax’s porch about an hour and a half after I called him asking him to get the boys. Carson knocks while I lean against the railing of the porch. I have to restrain a laugh when I see him knock and take two steps back away from the door. Guess he’s worried about getting hit again. Justin opens the door smiling at us. “Hold on, we have to clean up our mess before we leave.” We follow him into the living room and exchange a quick curious glance.

The boys have chips and dip and drinks all over the coffee table and are watching TV. Jax is nowhere to be seen. Where the hell is he? “Where is Jax?” They both shrug their shoulders but I catch the amused looks they give each other. I narrow my eyes at them. I know that look, and I know it means they’ve done something! I glance around the living room. “Okay what did y’all do? Is he tied up somewhere?” I’ll never forget the time Mason watched them for me last year and I picked them up only to find Mason tied to a chair in his kitchen. Mason doesn’t babysit for me anymore.

They both shake their heads, “We promised never to tie anyone up again after Uncle Mason.” I hear Carson laughing quietly next to me. I turn and walk into the kitchen to look around. Well, he’s not tied to a chair. I open the pantry door and he’s not inside. I stand in the middle of the kitchen with my hands on my hips and look around again. What the hell did they do? I turn as Carson walks into the kitchen.

“Do you really think they tied him up somewhere?”

I shrug “I’m not sure, but it wouldn’t be the first time they tied up the person who was watching them for me. I do know they did something though. I recognize the looks they gave each other when I asked where he was. They did something to him!” We hear something hit the door on the other side of the kitchen and I look at Carson to see he’s laughing again.

“That’s the basement door. Looks like they locked him in the basement. How did they get him in the basement though?”

“There’s really no telling.” I walk towards the door only to be stopped as Carson holds a hand up and shakes his head.

He walks over to the door and leans against the wall next to it and raises his voice, “You in there Jax?” We here shuffling on the other side and Jax yell “Carson! Yes open the door.”

“I don’t know if I can do that Jax.” I slap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. The boys walk in and hop up to sit on the counter and watch with amused expressions on their faces.

“What the hell do you mean?” Jax yells and sounds like he slaps a hand to the door.

“Last time a door opened around me and you, things didn’t go too well for me. I don’t know if I can trust you to act like an adult about things or if you’re going to try and hit me again.”

“You don’t open this door in ten seconds I’m sure as hell going to hit you again. We been down here like an hour.”

“We?”

We hear Dillon’s voice, “Hey Carson, I’m fine. Do what you got to do I’m not in any hurry. OW! What the hell?”

Carson looks at the twins, “You locked Dillon in the basement too? What did Dillon do?”

They shrugged and Justin grins at him “Nothing, but we didn’t know if he would let him out or not,” He shrugs again.” so he had to go too.”

Me and Carson both try not to laugh. We hear a knock on the front door and Carson turns towards it, “Hold on man someone’s at your house. I got to go answer the door.” Jax is going to kill us when he finally get out. I look around the corner and see Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. Oh shit! We have their son locked in the basement, and now they’re here to witness it. Are they going to be mad? Carson walks them into the kitchen and points at the boys. “Mom, dad these are Lexie’s sons. The one on the left is Jason, and on the right is Justin.”

“Wait your Dillon’s brother?”

“Kind of, sorta, not really. I was a foster kid. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson became my foster parents when I was sixteen. When I turned eighteen and aged out of the system they kept me around, and eventually got tired of being Mr. and Mrs. Johnson so told me to call them mom and dad. It was weird at first but became habit after a while.” They’re both staring at him, Mrs. Johnson’s mouth is hanging open.

Mr. Johnson clears his throat. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that much at once.” He looks at me, “You can call me Brett, and my wife’s name is Nina.” he smiles at the boys, “Same goes for y’all. Now where are my other two boys?”

Justin speaks up, ‘We locked them in the basement.”

Brett’s eyebrows raise to his hairline in surprise. I explain, “We had an issue with Carson’s car and got held up and I asked Jax to get them off the bus for me. When we got here they were locked in the basement. Carson was having some fun messing with Jax when y’all knocked.”

“And why did you boys lock them down there?”

Jason looks at him nervously, “Jax was being mean to our mom again, he apparently didn’t learn his lesson from the paintball guns so we locked him down there to think about how he’s acting. Dillon was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, we don’t have a problem with him.” Carson bursts out laughing.

Brett has his hand covering his mouth while his shoulders shake and Nina looks at me smiling, “They’re a handful aren’t they?”

“Oh you have no idea!”

Carson walks back to the basement door and raises his voice so they can hear him, “Okay I’m back. Dillon your mom and dad are here.”

“Hey mom, hey dad.”

Nina finally seems to notice Carson’s eye.

“What happened to your eye son?”

“Jax hit me. It’s a long story but it’s why I haven’t let him out of the basement yet.” Brett laughs harder.

“Are you going to hit me again Jax?”

“I will if you don’t open this damn door.”

“You going to tell me why you hit me?”

“You already know why, asshole. Now open the damn door.”

“If you would have just talked to me you would have realized you were being a dumb ass, and it would have saved me a black eye, and you from the twins locking you in the basement. You’re wrong about what you think is going on.”

Jax is quiet for a minute. “Okay fine we’ll talk but can you let me out of the fucking basement first?” Carson opens the door and Jax and Dillon walk out. Dillon has a huge grin on his face, but Jax is glaring at everyone. The boys jump down and run behind Carson.