𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐲

VI. My Girl.

     

     THE NEXT morning, Jake woke up to Evie crying so he quickly sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Evie... oh, Evie, my girl," he sighs, lifting up the girl from her crib by her bed. "Dadda's here, you're okay, you're okay." He whispers to her, caressing her back before getting out of bed, heading over to his dresser.

He grabs a bottle with a cap, along with a change of her clothes and a diaper. He quickly gets her changed and then carried her to the kitchen where he made her a bottle for the morning. In the livingroom, he held her in his arms and held her bottle for her. She's nearly a year old, she can hold her own bottle but Jake always holds it for her anyway.

"I have the day off, I can take care of her, Jake." His mom said, walking in as she rubs her hands together before sitting down next to her son. "Really? Thanks, I-I have to go meet my friends today, they had plans to do some stuff." He explains and she nods softly, before looking down at Evie and smiling.

"I can take her now," she held out her hands and he looks at her. "No, I-I got her for now... I'll head to John B's later." He says and looked down at Evie who is staring up at them both. "Come on, you're tired, Jake, I can tell, you know. From one single parent to another, you should be glad I'm here to watch Evie whenever you need a break. For me, it was your grandma and now that you're a dad, you have both of us." She said and held out her hands.

She had a point. Her mother had her when she was eighteen, then she had Jake when she was eighteen and now Jake had a daughter when he was 15. His grandma would take care of him when he was a baby, so she's right. "Yeah, okay. I gotta shower before I head over to John B's anyway." He sighs, standing up before putting Evie into his mother's arms.

At John B's, Jake sat across Kie who's patting her hands onto some bongos at the surf shack. Pope sat to his right as JJ was sitting onto a table, throwing rocks to the water. "Look, I'm calling it off. Alright?" Their friend suddenly says making them all look over to him. "Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS." He tells them as JJ looks over. "And you believed her?" He asked.

"Yes, I believe her, JJ."

"An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop." He said, sounding amused before throwing another rock. "All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days, and she'll help me out. And it doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun." John B said and Jake looked over at him. "Yeah, what the fuck was that, JJ?" He says and the blond looks at them.

"You know what I should have done? I should have just let Topper drown his ass." He pointed at John B and Jake rolls his eyes, looking away. "Topper was gonna drown me?" John B asked. "Sure looked like it." JJ says, standing up. "Really funny." John B says, turning around and Jake sighs, looking at Kie who's rolling her eyes. "Have you looked in a mirror?" The two keep bickering as JJ approached them. "They always win, don't they, man? Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always win!"

"Look, it's okay!" Kie tries to settle them down. "No, it's not okay!" JJ turns around right away, looking at her. "It is not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it, man." He says, pointing at John B. "I know you do. And I understand why you don't wanna go." He says, looking at Pope.

"You're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk. And you--" He looked at Kie now. "I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother?" He said before looking at Jake. "But you, me and you, man. We got nothing to lose!" He says and Jake shrugs.

"My girl..." He says making Kie look at him right away, and JJ shook his head. "But besides that, I mean, we really don't, right?" He says and Jake sighs. "JJ." John B says and JJ looks at him. "And I know it didn't use to be that way for you." He says and Jake looks down.

"I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to talk about it." John B says, standing up and walking past JJ. "So that's it?" JJ says and he shoves him. "Just get out of my way, bro." He said and JJ looks at him. "John B, Jake, both of you, just listen to me. I have a plan." He said and Jake sighed, standing up. "You got the key to Cameron's big boat, right?" JJ asked John B and Jake furrows his brows.

"No, JJ." John B says and JJ looks at him. "There's scuba gear inside, man." He said, looking back at John B. "We burrow that, and then we go down to the wreck this afternoon, and that is what's gonna save you, man." JJ says, his arm around John B's shoulder. "You don't see rich kids going into foster care, do you?" He said then looked over at Jake.

"And you'll get money for you and Evie." He says, pointing at him and Jake sighs, turning around. "I'll see you guys this afternoon." He said before walking away. "Going to see your girl?" Kie asked him and he just picks up his backpack. "No." He simply tells her.

He had errands to run for his grandma, doing chores for her was always the payment he gave her for watching after Evie. Today, it was a grocery store run which he did pretty quickly, grabbing bread, some eggs, milk and others on her list. He paid and went over to his grandma's where she was making a blanket, sitting at her couch. "Does this look nice, Jake? It's for Evie." She sounds pretty proud.

"Yeah. It looks amazing." He said as he put away the groceries for her. "I'm all done. I'll see you tomorrow, alright, Gran?" He says and walked over to her, giving her a small peck on her cheek and she just smiled. "Thank you, dear boy. You're always so good to me. And I'm always free to watch Evie again, just let me know ahead of time!" She tells the boy who nods. "Bye grandma," he says, leaving.

A.N.
jake's grandma making evie a blanket <3