JEALOUSY.

* ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ Chapter 5˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

I wrapped myself in my towel as I stepped out of the shower and slid my slippers on. I didn't know what to wear considering I was just going to Jackson's house. I've been there before when we were younger, but not recently.

After 30 minutes of throwing clothes out of almost every single one of my drawers, I settled on a Cream sweatshirt and some light blue jeans. I tied a decorative bandana around my head to add some color. Pretty anticlimactic outfit for someone who just destroyed their entire wardrobe. I folded up my outfit for later and put it in my bag. Not even 5 seconds after sipping up the bag I heard a loud honk from in front of my house.

Jackson's here.

I lugged my bag over my shoulder and closed my bedroom door on my way out. I'll deal with that mess later. I ran down the stairs and out of the house to see Jackson leaning on the hood of his silver Ford Fusion. He looked over at me and I saw how tired he looked. Maybe I shouldn't have kept him up all night. Just as I started feeling bad, he gave me that goofy smile he always has on.

"Hey, Froggy!" He screamed so loud I'm surprised the neighbors didn't come outside.

"Froggy?" My eyebrow hitched up.

"Like...Princess Tiana?" He said in a defeated tone. I nodded my head and giggled a little bit. "Anyways, you ready to go?"

"Yeah let's go." I hopped in the passenger seat and adjusted it to how I liked it. "Who's been sitting in my seat?!" I joked.

"My mom, stupid." I looked at him, but he wasn't looking back at me. He turned up the radio and kept focus on the road in front of him. A couple of minutes later we passed his mom's house and before I could question him he spoke.

"Renovations. We're staying at the beach house." By beach house, he meant his dad's family summer home. His great-grandad built it with some of his college friends and passed it down to Jackson's dad. It was passed down to Jackson, but clearly, he hasn't gotten much use of it since his mom is there with him.

I've never been to the sacred Hendricks Beach House since Mr.Hendricks said everyone who goes there has to be 18 and doing something with their life, a family rule I guess. Mr.Hendricks said his granddad didn't care if you went to college or not, but he didn't want anyone to just be partying or hanging around in this house with nothing going on for them.

While I was lost in thought Jackson pulled up to his family's beach home. He flicked my cheek and signaled for me to get out of the car.

"Let's go you have a lot of bags to pack." I grabbed my seatbelt to undo it and almost ignored the part about him saying I'm packing for him.

"Yeah okay."

After I collected my bag from the backseat we walked into the comfy beach house. It was completely different from the way it looked years ago. Jackson's dad used to send him pictures of the house along with a countdown to his 18th birthday to get Jackson not only excited about the house but adulthood.

The old pictures I'd seen years ago and what was sitting in front of me were almost like 2 different houses. The homey old kitchen was now a cool gray & modern. The 2 light blue couches that were awkwardly positioned in the living room were replaced with cream couches that were so square I knew no one had ever sat on them.

My eyes wandered from one area to the next until Jackson leaned in and was 2 inches from my face. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't crazy and he was there but after seconds of him not budging I felt my cheeks getting warm. I couldn't hide behind a poker face, but I also couldn't give in to those hazel eyes.

"You know... I could just.." I felt the space between us getting smaller. His eyes were closed and it looked like he was talking in his sleep, but I knew he wasn't. I closed my eyes in anticipation, just waiting for him to do something, anything. A few seconds later I could feel his arm reaching around and behind me. Shivers ran down my spine at him suddenly touching me.

"Calm down fright fest." He started laughing. I could feel my eyebrow twitching before my eyes opened.

"And what was that?" I asked.

"You had something on your forehead." He shrugged his shoulders.

"And you had to close your eyes because?" I wasn't buying it. If I had something on my forehead why did he have to close his eyes and touch my back?

"Your forehead is big and blinding." He pretended to shield himself from the imaginary light coming off my forehead.

Of course, I wasn't buying that caca, but we had more important things to do. 

While Jackson guided me through the house I continued to take several looks around the house. It didn't look homey at all and just overall gave off a cold feeling. Sooner or later Jackson stopped in front of a white door and looked like he was doing some type of prayer to himself before he turned the doorknob and walked in.

As soon as the door swung open I understood why he did a prayer before walking in. There were suitcases turned upside down and clothes sprawled all around the room. What the hell even happened here?

"Ja-"

"Shush. I tried to pack without you so you wouldn't get annoyed with me..." I could tell he felt defeated just by the tone of his voice.

I took a step forward and placed my hand on his back. "It's fine, I'm here to help remember? You don't have to do everything yourself." He nodded and we both found our spots on the floor to start cleaning.

A Few Hours Later

After hours of cleaning and packing, I finally closed the last suitcase and smiled. "Finally!" I plopped down on his bean bag chair in exhaustion.

"Took you long enough!" Jackson was already done lugging the other suitcases we finished to the living room.

"Why're you even taking that much stuff anyway?" I handed him the last suitcase.

"I'll be gone for 10 months, not 10 days." He took the suitcase and started to walk off. "I have to look pretty for the gir-"

"Please shut up." I did a mouth-closing motion with my hand. "Speaking of girls though, what happened with you and Aaliyah?" I said it like I was ripping off a band-aid.

Jackson's face didn't even twitch when I said Aaliyah's name.
"Nothing. The last time I talked to her was like 3 days ago." He flatly said.

"She said y'all were talking." I avoided eye contact with him.

"Oh." That is all he said.

"What do you mean oh?" I turned around to look him straight in the eyes, but he was already turned around and was about to walk out of the room. He didn't respond and just continued on his way to the living room, leaving me on his bedroom floor.

I sat there blinking and confused until I came back to my senses. "Um...HELLO?!" I got up and ran towards him. I swung his room door open just to see his back. His shoulders were twitching and I saw one of his arms lifted to his face. He was crying.

The feeling that came over me when we were in front of his father all those years ago, to comfort him, came over me again. My body moved on its own and I wrapped my arms around his torso. We both stood there in silence while I waited for him to calm down.

A few minutes later he tapped my hands and sniffled. "You're such a baby." He laughed. I slowly let go and looked up. He still hadn't turned around yet.

"I'm sorry I can't hear you over your puffy red face." I scoffed.

He wiped his face and turned around. "You know it's allergy season!" He hollered.

"Sure it is." I turned on my heel to get my clothes out of my bag. "I'm going to get ready."

Jackson nodded and I closed his door to get dressed.