bad expectations | jfg

53

September 10th

I bite down on my bottom lip hard before I press the accept on Jack's call. I actually intended on flying out to Omaha along with Jack J last night, but I couldn't. Something at the last minute about signing dates being released came up, there was no way I could.

Jack's smile is vague and soft as he pops up, I put it full screen like I always do just so I can see his face better.

"Guess what today is." Is the first thing he says.

"I texted you this morning, I know." I raise an eyebrow.

His mouth falls open, "you're going to be sassy with me on my twentieth birthday?"

I laugh, "no. Happy birthday, again."

He moves around in his seat with a cheeky smile on his face, "I wanna spoon with you." He rests his chin in the palm of his hand.

My cheeks heat up and my grin widens, "that's such a soft thing to say."

He smiles but bites the inside of his cheek and looks down at the table in front of him. He finally cut his hair, even though it's still really long. He said he hated it last week but I think he only kept saying that so I could keep complimenting him, he looks cleaned up and handsome, like a twenty year old.

It's weird that he's twenty. I mean, I met him when he was eighteen, which is only two years ago, but it seems way longer. He looks so different compared to when I first saw him, definitely not the same incoherent asshole and definitely not the same short hair cut.

"Did your dad fly in?" I ask him.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." His eyes flick back to his screen, obviously looking at my picture instead of his own in the corner.

He looks tired, I wonder what he did all day while I was at meetings, I'll ask him later.

"What?" I click my phone to check if my dad texted me at all about my signing dates, he said that he would.

"My sisters came today." He mumbles.

My eyebrows pull together and I stare at his picture, what? His sisters? I don't even remember their names. I don't even know anything about them besides that they left Jack alone after his mom died, leaving him with no siblings or any care of love.

Jack's past life has always been really hard for me to understand. His mom died due to sickness and his dad no being able to pay, his sisters were reckless and left after she died, and his dad left him alone in the house when he was fifteen which was the part that always confused me.

Jack has never worked, so it was always a mystery his the house was paid off. Jack was too young and stupid to realize that the bills needed paying, so I assumed David just paid for it from LA, without Jack knowing.

I wonder if when Jack reached a certain age, he was curious on how he wasn't getting kicked out of his house. I think he knew that his dad was somehow paying it off for him, but he didn't want to admit it.

"Huh?" I ask.

He nods and shrugs his shoulders, "my dad walked in with them. I barely even recognized them, they're so..." He looks for a word, "pretty, and put together. They were never like that, they've changed so-"

"Where have they been? How did they show up all of a sudden? I thought your dad didn't know anything about them anymore, just like you?" My blood begins to pump with excitement at this new news. This is a great feeling, what the heck. I pick my laptop off my bed and walk to my kitchen counter, just to get better light and sit in a better seat.