Jacob Who?

five | home and school visits

It had been two days and you could tell that Alex and I were exhausted.

We were sitting in his car, parked down the road from my house. Since I wasn't ready for my parents to meet anyone new we were plotting to sneak into the house.

"So Dave is your... Best friend?"

"Yeah... You could tell he was confused that I didn't tell him about you."

"You're not going to tell him about the lie are you?"

"No, I'll make something up. It will be okay."

"Okay." I sighed.
I was pretty sure I was getting a headache.

"Chill Jess. It was fine."

"It was a disaster. He said your name at least four times-"

"-but never my full name. And Freya and Meg didn't even notice. Calm down."

"I know. Thank you. It went okay didn't it? Do you think Dave liked me? And Becky, she seemed nice but then you never know with quiet people, she could have been judging me terribly. And Dave, he's so tall. Like what is he 6"3? And he seems like a really cool guy. Cool guys never like me. Oh my god. He's going to hate me and it's going to cause a rift between you two and we're going to have to break up and then-"

"Jesus Jess." Alex raised his hands in a surrender, "calm down. Yes Dave is tall- he's 6"4. And yes Becky is genuinely really sweet and they're both very cool but you did a fantastic job now stop freaking out. I can get us out of this party don't worry."

"You can?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I let out a breath.

"Now, I've got some chemistry notes in the back of my car, are you sure you're ready for this?"

"Oh sure yeah. Working gets my mind back on track."

"You're sure?"

"Totally."

"Because if you don't want to."

"Come on Alex, we're doing this."

I undid my seat belt.

He fetched his things from the boot then we headed down the road to the apartment block I lived in.

I put my key into the door lock slowly and as controlled as I could.

"Hello?" I called quietly into the seemingly empty apartment.
No one replied, bonus.

I turned back to Alex and gestured him in.

"Maybe we can just slip you in-"

"Jess?" I heard Connor call from his spot in the lounge.

Every Saturday after football practice he comes home to rest for an hour before going back out for afternoon drinks.

"Hi Connor." I said gently, sticking my head into the lounge, "Take off your shoes." I whispered back to Alex- it looked like mum had just cleaned, "And hold them."

"Do you have someone there?" Connor called back to me.

"Um."

Connor, too lazy to actually get up, craned his neck to look behind me into the hallway, "Is that a boy? You weren't kidding yesterday-"

I lowered my voice, stepping further into the lounge. "Shhh. I don't want him to meet my mum and your dad yet."

"Fair enough. Can I meet him-"