VOLKO

Chapter Eight

Last night couldn't have been more awkward. Even if the scene before dinner hadn't occurred, Jake was still fuming at me for my earlier outburst.

I wanted to yell at him! Why couldn't he see it was out of character for me? Never had I snapped at him. And Jake has done some pretty annoying shit. If this had been the Cotton's, Mr C would have sat on my bed until we were laughing, and Chase would have promised to kill anyone who hurt me.

One thing I did know, I'd need to smooth things over with Jake that was for sure. Perhaps I could facetime with Gemma and Jay or something, yeah, that would cheer me up. They always knew the right thing to say. Jay no doubt would have his opinions on everything, but he might have some good suggestions on how to make good. He was the peacekeeper of the Cotton's, a hard task.

The ping from my phone broke me from my thoughts.

Jay - What about a spa day? Women love those right? Please help, I suck at this shit. If you want to do a joint present I'm down, as everyone else already has something.

Laying on my bed, I smiled as I replied to Jay. Finally an interaction with someone who wasn't annoyed at me. Until Jake rolled on into the room that was. I'd been dreading this conversation all morning. I'd practiced what I'd say about ten times in the mirror. Worse still, I hadn't gotten around to calling Gemma or Jay yet. Looks like I'll be doing this solo.

The thing with Jake, he was very self focused. Often seeing everything from his own single perspective, which made apologizing hard. Most people understand that saying sorry isn't always easy and help by easing the tension with a 'thank you for your apology'. Jake was more of a 'glad you can see how wrong you were' kind of person.

For these reasons I thought he'd have been pissed off when he came in. Yet his face gave nothing away. Unsure of how to react, I stared up at him from the bed. Deciding on this one occasion to let his lack of knocking slide.

"So I have an idea."

"Right, hit me with it." So far so good, maybe this was going to go easier than planned.

"A few of my people are in town, and I thought you'd like to meet them?" Jake spoke with a casualness, though his face showed his discomfort.

"Your people?"

"You know, friends and such. It'll mean you can show me what England's nightlife is all about." Could this be his olive branch?

"I thought you'd been out in London lots of times?"

"Well... yeah. But not with you." The idea Jake wanted me to meet his friend pushed away all the anxiety I'd built. I hadn't ever met any of his friends before. Talking frankly, I didn't actually think he had any. However, I kept my surprise to myself.

"Okay, I'm game. Just tell me the time and place and I'll be there." I said smoothly, not showing the inner panic of having nothing to wear.

Yesterday had been shit, so I guess I was due some good right?

"Cool, meet you downstairs at say... 7?" I nodded enthusiastically. Jake smiled back at me before turning to leave.

I got back to the task in hand, what to get Mrs C for her birthday. She loved her charities, a donation? Maybe we could volunteer for the day.

"Who are you messaging?"

"Just Jay." Shrugging, I looked up to see Jake staring at me with a puzzled look on his face.

"About what? Are you two like a thing or something?" The question didn't come as a surprise, most people thought I was dating one of the Cotton's seeing how close we were. Normally Jay came up as their best guess seeing as we went to school together. A few guessed Chase and one or two believed it to be Gemma. Nobody ever guessed Roy or Samuel though.