Haly's Circus ~ Jerome x reader

3: A day at work

When I woke up my alarm clock had already gone off. I jumped from my bed and chose some standard, but decent enough clothing. Rushed the breakfast when my sister stopped me. "Hey Barbara, I'm kind of in a hurry right now, can we talk about it later?" "Y/n. You said you were gonna teach me some 'defenses' right?" "Today? Now? I have work!" this time that wasn't a lie. She did her casual puppy face. "Later, today." Even though I wouldn't help her now she doesn't have a sad look on her face. "Okay!" Stepped out of the door, ran downstairs out of the apartment, and took my bike.

I thought I forgot my cap but it has always been on my bike ever since the first day at my new internship. Started working out of myself, cleaning some of the attractions in the area. I secretly kept an eye on the trailers in hopes that I would see Jerome. But the only things I heard and saw were the yelling and running children. I should probably just take a look at his van.

I knocked a few times on the door with no response. Almost wanted to just step inside, but that's not something I could just do. The door opened and a woman with dark hair and a tired face asked me why I was here. She must be his mother, the snake dancer. But why did she look so unhappy? "I'm here for Jerome." Her eyes started glowing, in a bad way. "He will come soon." She closed the door right in my face and I waited. Weird sounds came out of the trailer and the snake didn't look up from it. 'Sheba' I read in my head. The door opened again and Jerome stepped out of it. "Hey, Jerome!" "I told you that I would search you up, not the other way around." He said it in an unfriendly way. "I'm sorry I didn't know you required the privacy." I meant what I said there. Jerome looked at me and what immediately struck me was that he had a bruise on his cheek. "Jerome are you okay?" I placed my hand on his face but he turned. "Yes, I am. Shouldn't you be working already?" A fake smile appeared on his face. I know that his mother did that. I feel it.

For a few hours, we did some basic work things like cleaning up the circus from the inside, throwing away people their trash. "Jerome if you want to talk about some-" "That whore? Yes, that is my mom." I know that it's not a good first step to get your nose into someone's business but I needed to know what was going on inside his head. Maybe he needed a little push to spit it out. "Your mother, she's hitting you?"

"You can call it to abuse, I'm not allowed to talk about it but rules are there to break, right?" We've talked for another hour till we got our daily break again and he told me to come to his place. Finished up everything and then came after him. "Jerome! Wait for me!" I had to run if I wanted to keep up with him. He opened to door and lead me into his house. He asked me if I wanted some tea. "Jerome you have to do something about it. You have to stop her from hurting you." "What, like fighting back? She's seldom alone here, she always got her weekly hookup with her." I understood him, he probably didn't know how to stop them. I mean what is an 18 year old boy supposed to do against two adults?

He stood up from his chair and so did I. He looked me in the eyes. I felt butterflies in places I didn't even know you could have. "Thank you for the tea."

Did I just really say that.

Usually, when I'm a little stressed I start to wiggle my leg. Only now I was doing this unconsciously, for no reason I thought. Jerome places a hand on my knee, which calms my leg. He brings his head closer to mine and a tuft of hair tickles my cheek.

I started laughing because of how stupid I was. "Your laugh is amazing." Jerome came closer to me and grabbed my waist with his left hand. It didn't take us long and our lips connected. He placed his other hand on my neck and we got lost into each other. It was my first time. I've never kissed a boy before. I wouldn't dare ask him if this was his first time too. He kissed me on my neck and his body was now rubbed against mine. Everything happened so fast. We didn't say a word and it felt like heaven for a few seconds till my phone went off.

A message from my friends, and from- Shit. I totally forgot I promised Barbara to have our first little training.

"Oh I am so sorry Jerome, I promised my sister to be home at 6." He smiled. "You go. I didn't know you had a sister?" That's right, he told me a lot about himself but I didn't even say that I had a sister. Just right after the moment we had a few minutes ago this was so embarrassing. "I should go, see you tomorrow!" He waved at me and I felt so bad. I just left him alone in that hell hole again but on the other side, I was not responsible for that.

Coming home knowing Barbara would be disappointed in me. "You are lateee!" "Yes sorry, but I am here now." She smiled.

~

"No sis, not like that. You put your right arm around my waist." I didn't know a lot about teaching this type of stuff, but if I had to I would do it this way. "I'm tired." I giggled and our mother came into the living room. "I see you guys are busy?" "Hey mom, yes. We were practicing some 'fighting', right sis?" Barbara nodded. "Oh that's great, how was work y/n?" Thinking of that, I should leave Jerome a message since we have each other's number now. "It was great." "Is my daughter a star yet?" I was not sure how I had to respond to that. "Sort of..." After we ate dinner without dad I ran to my room to send a message to Jerome.

Y/n: Hey J, how you doin'?

I didn't get an instant reply so I decided to put my phone away and write about my day in my diary. For the first time in my life, it felt like I was in love. I wrote everything down and filled up at least a few pages with my thoughts. Every single detail...