Hooked on love

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

“I’m sorry, Ava” Jackson mumbles sitting next to me in a begging position while I lie wrapped in the quilt, naked. I expected his first time to be a bit rocky and over pretty quickly, but not this quick. It was supposed to be special. “Stop apologising, I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t make you enjoy it more being your first time and everything…” I feel stupid for getting angry over this, I know what it’s like having your first time. He flops over me so his face is facing mine, grinning like a kid on Christmas day. “What?” Pouting, it’s not funny. “It ended so fast because I enjoyed myself that much, silly. It’ll take time for me to get used to all of this, we have plenty of time to explore.” He opens the quilt exposing my body, I quickly close my eyes and when nothing happens I take a peek and he’s just sat there, staring. I blush, I wasn’t prepared to have my whole body stared at, I hope I look okay.
 I keep staring at him as he looks so content, like it’s the first time he’s ever seeing a naked body. I open my arms inviting him in. He climbs in, wrapping his arms around me. “Let’s make use of the time we have then,” I push my body against his and kiss him, and we finally let ourselves go, again.

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I’m falling – all I see are big hazelnut, green eyes looking down at me with no remorse, then they suddenly widen and turn to panic. I can feel panic rising in me as I see who it is, “Jackson?” Just as I hit the floor, I wake up.

I jerk awake, panting and sweating. I look to my left and see Jackson lay on his front in deep sleep. It’s been a while since I’ve had a nightmare, especially since Jackson was in it. It felt so real, thinking of it makes my skin crawl. I wipe the sweat from my face and check the time - its 9:15 in the morning. There’s no point in me going back to sleep, once I’m awake I can never drift back off - plus I’m parched.
 I throw on some of Jackson’s clothes and quietly tip toe downstairs to the kitchen, I feel so secretive as if someone could tell what we did last night, and this morning. I hope not anyway. The kitchen is empty, I see our tea from last night still on the table, I feel bad looking at it so I dispose of the food and place the dishes into the dishwasher. “There we go, all clean.” I finish wiping all the surfaces down, I like a clean kitchen it gives me some form of peace.
“You didn’t have to do that, I could have done it.” I jump while letting out a yelp like someone’s just stepped on a dogs paw. “Daniel, you scared me.” I put my hand over my heart, I feel like it’ll leap out if I don’t. “Sorry dear, how did last night go?”
“Uh,” my face feels hot, even though I know he’s talking about the food. “Not too well, actually. I don’t like barbecue sauce and because the meal mainly consisted of it, it went to waste.” I’m playing with the hem of my shirt, I feel nervous telling his dad about it. “What? Then where’s Jackson? I hope nothing bad happened! The worry I see before me is something new, I think he knows Jackson has some form of temper, if that was it is. “Everything is fine, we talked it out.” I can’t tell him about Jackson’s outburst and the stuff he said, it’ll make him worry more. “Really?” He looks so relieved, is Jackson that bad?
“Yeah, I was coming down for a drink and thought I’d clean up our mess.” He gives me a warm smile and hugs me. “Thank you, I really think you’re good for him.” I’ve gone stiff, should I hug back? Why is he thanking me? “Umm, it’s okay. He told me about his past last night, so things should be alright now.” He pushes me to arm’s length studying my face, “he told you everything?” I slowly nod and he pulls me into a hug again, then walks off. Something nagging me in the back of my mind that his everything is different from mine.

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“I’ll text you once I’m home, okay?” I lightly kiss Jackson on the cheek, careful not to wake him. I obviously failed because he’s holding out his hand and started to stroke mine, it feels nice.
“Do you really have to go?” God his morning voice is so deep, it does things to me. “Yeah, I need to see Cassie.” He stops stroking my hand, I hope he doesn’t stop me from seeing her, she needs to know the truth. “Okay, I hope she’s alright, and be careful.” I’m glad that we’re back to normal, I hate arguing. “I will, see you later.” I lean in and give him a kiss to last me until next time.

Just as I leave Jackson’s, my phone rings. I look and see Nick’s name and my heart starts to accelerate, Stop it. I’m just happy because I haven’t seen him in a while.I answer, “Hey Nick, how are you-“
“How come you didn’t tell me about Cassie?” Cutting me off. My heart sinks, this is the last thing I wanted to happen.