Find Me

7. Marks

Hero POV:

After leaving Jo's bedroom, I head straight to her grandfather in hopes that I can get some answers from him. When I arrive I see both of her grandparents inhabiting the kitchen, I clear my throat, "um, Mrs. and Mr. Langford." I address them.

They look over to me with small smiles, "yes?" They answer in unison with interested looks.

"Um, well, uh-" I stutter, confused on how to approach this.

"Just spit it out, boy." Jo's grandfather chuckles as he sets down the newspaper that he was reading along with his glasses.

"Alright, Jo's hiding something and I was wanting to know if you guys knew what it was." I spit out quickly, they both visibly pale at my statement.

They look to each other and start to look like they are communicating with their eyes. Finally Jo's grandmother looks back over to me, "well it really is none of our business to tell you. So what I'll just say is, give her time. She'll tell you when she's ready. God knows what happens when you force information out of her." She goes back to cutting up the fruit that she was previously working on.

I mumble a small, 'alright' and go to sit at the kitchen island and wait for Jo to be ready. Minutes later she emerges from her bedroom dressed in a white turtleneck with a dark blue baby doll dress that has miniature yellow flowers all over it. I look down to see her legs covered in knee high white socks paired with black Mary-Jane shoes. Her golden locks are also pulled back it two loose Dutch braids with little daisies sticking out from them.

She looks... adorable.

"Hey," she breathes and stops right in front of me. Instead of replying I just continue to stare at her in awe and grip her waist, bringing her closer to me so that she stands in between my legs.

"Hello, gorgeous." I breathe both quietly and huskily. Her cheeks flush a bright pink and she quickly burrows her face in my neck. I pull her back to arms length removing her from me, "no, no, let me get a good look at you." I take her hand and make her do a little twirl and she giggles loudly. I then pull her back to me, "now let me get a good feel of you," I whisper into her ear as I caress her hips.

She pushes away, "not here," she blushes hard and nods her head towards her grandparents that are both looking at us in amusement.

I roll my eyes dramatically, "fine, then let's go back to the bedroom." I try to grab her hand but she yanks it back and let's put a loud laugh.

"No, come on we have things to do." I follow her out of the house like a lost puppy. We go straight over to a black Jeep and she hops in the drivers seat while I go to the passenger side. "Alright," she huffs, "off to the bar!" She exclaims.

"What?! Are fucking insane?" I say back. "We are both alcoholics, we can't go there." I shake my head back and forth in disagreement.

"Don't be so uptight." She nonchalantly shrugs her shoulders.

"No, Jo. We are not going there." I emphasize the word 'not'. She throws her keys at the dashboard and crosses her arms mad.

"Why not?" She snaps now really upset.

"I just told you why." I try to calmly explain to her.

"But-but I n-need it." She tries to tell me with a quivering lip.

I take her face in my hands, "no you don't, baby. Your strong enough not to have it, right?" I try to soothe her.

"Please, just one drink." She holds up her index finger signaling a '1'.

"No, honey." I deny her. She squeezes her eyes shut as tears stream out.

"Please," she sobs as she messily wipes her face with the back of her hand to get rid of the tears. It's so hard seeing her like this and denying her of something that she wants so badly.

I pick her up by her armpits and bring her over the center console so that I can cradle her on my lap. She continues to sob as she whispers 'please' over and over again as I soothingly shush her and rub her back and hold her tight to me. Gripping my shirt in her fists she straddles me and buries her face into my chest. "I need it, I really do." She tells me sincerely.

"Why, baby? Why do you need it so bad?" I ask.

"I have to forget." She simply says.

"Why?" My voice is practically begging.

"I-I can't tell y-you," she hiccups. "You'll be really really mad at me," she sobs harder into me.

"Does this have anything to do with what's in the closet?" I quietly ask and she nods in response. "I can't promise that I won't be mad, but we can work through whatever your keeping, honey." I hold onto her tighter, as her cries become more noisy.

She pulls back slightly and looks at me with her red eyes then slowly reaches for the hem of her dress, steadily she pulls it up to her bra line. "What?" I ask confused as I look at her tanned stomach.

"Look closely," she whispers almost inaudibly. Looking closer, I see some faint stretch marks that I didn't notice last night.

I run my fingers over them, "I don't get it." I tell her honestly.

"How do you get stretch marks?" She asks me this, why?

"By skin stretching." I tell her almost in a 'duh' way. But hold off cause I know she's trying to explain something important.

"And why do you think I have these?"

"Uh because people grow up and grow. Most of everyone has them." Now I'm really confused, I feel like I'm missing something big.

"But I mainly have them on my stomach, more than before, Hero. Really think about this. 2 years ago, I had something very important to tell you when everything happened.... I was pregnant, Hero."

Note from author ❤️:

I know this took a while to get out, I was just confused on how I should approach this whole thing. So ya.

But anyways, thoughts or theories?

You know you love me xoxo,
Zoë