What She Needs //Jake Kiszka

Chapter 6

Months passed. Molly and Sarah went back to live with their dad. Jake gave up the poetry courses, but still applied to the conservatory, getting in. he got another little job to help Jennifer with her girls, and went to live at campus, coming back every weekend to Jennifer's house.

Her lawyer tried to make everything change in their life, taking everyone to court again, proving how Sebastian was violent and Jennifer had a job and enough money for the girls to go live with her.

Eventually, he succeeded. (Guess lawyers are actually important, but you get the point of the previous chapter).

Molly and Sarah went to live full time with Jennifer, and she couldn't be happier. Actually, she could be. Jake was staying at campus every week night, getting home only on the weekends. She wished he would always be there with her.

One Friday afternoon, Jennifer worked past her finishing time and she didn't even realize. They had some trouble at her office and were trying to resolve everything before the weekend. When she finally looked at her watch to see what time it was, she realized she was incredibly late to go pick up the girls from school. Before calling both the schools to let know she was late, she called Susan, asking if she could pick them up, but she was out of town.

While looking for the schools' numbers, one person came in her mind. Jake.

It was Friday, Jake only had classes in the morning and usually was home right after lunch. Hoping to catch him in time, she called him.

"hey, love". Just the sound of his voice made her feel good.

"hey, are you home?"

"I'm at my parents', I'm gonna be home in a couple of hours, I think. Everything okay?". Even better. Jake's parents' house was near the schools.

"I need a favor. I'm running late, can you pick up the girls from school today?"

"yeah, sure. What time?"

Jake first got to Sarah's school, and everything went fine. Kindergarten was easy, the adults were too focused on their little children to notice him. But then he got to Molly's school.

Sarah went to play with some other kids in a little park near the building, and he waited for Molly where all the other parents stood. Well, he was not a parent, but kind of at that point.

He looked around, feeling a little out of place. There were a lot of mums waiting for their children. They all seemed to know each other very well, Jake thought that was kind of what happened when they talked every day.

A few dads were there too, all of them wearing nice clothes, a little work case in their hands. Most of them were bald, or with very short hair.

Jake looked at himself. He felt exposed. His tight jeans, Chelsea boots and unbuttoned shirt made him feel too different. He even felt self conscious about his long hair. There was a group of maybe six or seven mums who were looking at him whispering.

It was his first time there and they must have noticed. They needed to gossip about him, trying to figure out who he was.

Feeling now a little too exposed, Jake buttoned up his shirt. Just one button, though.

And then he checked on Sarah, just to find her in the same place as before. Doing that, he crossed sight with another woman, who was standing a little to the side, not with that group he noticed before.

She smiled and walked to him. "feeling out of place?", she asked in a kind voice.

"yeah, I'm actually new to all of this".