I Am Not Uptight!

Daniel part 5

They were all made different—but call it his intuition or his tendency as a writer to romanticize—but Daniel had a feeling that they were all pieces of the same puzzle.

“Alright, alright, settle down, boys!” Daniel loudly clapped his hands, which made Gary and Dustin make their last attempts to annoy each other before taking their seats—the younger one went for the chair beside Daniel, while Gary chose the one across from him. Meanwhile, Wells quietly sat by Dustin's right without having to be told, and Jane set down the large plate of vegetables in the middle of the table before taking her place beside Gary.

It was only Josh who had yet to take his seat, as he was too busy scooping fried rice into bowls. Seeing as how the man who should be the main focus of the event was the one not present, Daniel hurried to the kitchen and just took the plate and scooper from Josh.

“Let me get that and you go have a seat,” Daniel told Josh, who seemed to be surprised and confused as to why things were suddenly being taken from him.

“What’s this about?” he asked, watching with a hint of horror when Daniel began to carelessly scoop rice into the bowl, not minding if some stuck to the sides. Josh fought the urge to grab the utensil back, wanting to do the job himself since Daniel was clearly messing it up.

Seeing the look on his face, Daniel moved faster until all bowls were finally filled. “Go and sit down, Josh. I got this,” he said with confidence, which Josh looked unsure about as he saw the state of the man's job. Nevertheless, he kept his judgments to himself and took off his apron. Daniel followed him out of the kitchen with the tray of rice bowls, and just as Josh was sitting down, Daniel discretely nodded at Jane. She widely smiled and winked at him, clearly understanding the signal.

Daniel placed the tray on the table and hurriedly took his place beside his cousin, while Jane reached under the table and took out the paper bag that Wells had arrived home with.

“Here,” she said with a pleasant smile as she offered it to Josh. He looked down at the bag curiously then up at the people around him, only to see that they were all looking at him. “It’s just a little something we all pitched in for. We know we didn’t exactly give you the best first day here, but we’re happy to have you here,” Jane continued.

“Oh,” Josh muttered, taking the bag from her. It was obvious that he didn’t know what to say or what to do, but with everyone still looking at him expectantly, he decided to open the bag. He reached in and pulled out soft, navy blue bath towels. “Thank you,” he said in a small voice with his eyebrows slightly meeting towards the middle. He looked up at all of them and repeated loudly this time, “Thank you,” with a look on his face that he really meant it.

“Those are nice towels, mind you,” Gary proudly said before glancing at Daniel. “Keep them locked up or else that guy just might steal them.”

Daniel sat up straight and pointed a finger at Gary. “That is not true,” he was quick to defend himself.

“He has a habit of being too lazy to do his own laundry yet he loves fresh towels,” Dustin let Josh know, clearly not minding that the person he was talking about was just beside him.

Daniel was about to argue once more when Wells reached over the table towards Josh. There was a fraction of a second when Josh—who still had yet to get used to the larger guy's intimidating presence—had a flash of panic written across his face, until he realized that Wells was only placing a bottle of wine in front of him.

“Here,” Wells said with a flat tone, “someone just gave it to me.” Despite the look of disinterest, everyone still looked at him as if he had just given Josh a suitcase of cash—which couldn’t be helped since this was the most he had contributed to a “house event.” The only time he actively tried to be part of the team was during the welcoming night thrown for him where he brought over a large box of expensive chocolate truffles. After that, it was either he wasn’t home or he would just answer them with one-word replies or a grunt.

“This s**t is expensive!” Gary exclaimed when he read the label on the bottle. “I want to be friends with your friends,” he told Wells, but the man only ignored him.

“Thank you,” Josh said in a small voice, looking slightly guilty because he initially panicked and thought that Wells was going to do something violent.

“That’s so nice of you, Wells,” Jane complimented the man with a touched expression, before turning to whisper not-so-discretely to Josh beside her. “He's usually very uncaring.”

Josh’s eyes widened a little at how loud and frank Jane was being, but then he glanced at Wells and saw that he—as the woman had just said—did not care. “Oh,” Josh whispered back uncomfortably, “I see.”

With no one offering up gifts anymore, Daniel decided that it was his turn. So, he pulled something out of his back pocket and handed it over to Josh.

“And here's one from me,” Daniel said with a smile as Josh held a small set of keys with a J Keychain attached to it. “Well, it's technically not a gift, and just something I forgot to give you,” Daniel continued sheepishly, “but it’s nice and symbolic, isn’t it? Welcome to the family, Josh.”