Trapped Together (Complete)

~ Chapter 15 - 5:26pm -

Jake's eyes were watching the flickering flames, but he felt her the moment she stepped into the living room, and he refrained from looking back at her. He had to keep to his mindset, no matter how hard it would be. And he knew himself, that it was going to be hard. Especially if she looked at him with those eyes and their raging emotions; see, he was already setting himself up for failure.

"It dropped in temps being later, huh?" Jake finally turned and risked a glance over his shoulder at her. She had walked to the window and was watching the snow closest to the window falling down. Not that one could see much of it anyway, but it had gotten so dark.

"Yeah, which is why I thought it best to get the fire going." Jake knew he should say anything to feel the void, but he didn't know what. She pretty much summed up everything up before leaving the room. And as he thought about it, his eyes glanced back at the couch, and he cursed himself.

"How long do you think this will last?" Jake stood up and walked next to her, resting his arm on the frame of the window as he looked out. His eyes glanced upward at the clouds, unable to even distinguish anymore between the sky or the clouds at this point.

"Hard to say. But seeing as it's barely 5:30 and it's that damn dark, I'm going to say it's going to be a long while. I'll have to see how low the clouds are in the morning and maybe try to figure it out." She sighed and he felt that run through him. Given what they just did and how it shouldn't make them feel bad, they sure as hell did and it was going to make things difficult for the night. But he couldn't let it. "Well, watching TV is out with the power down. But the flames are bright enough, we could play cards?" Rachel turned and looked at him, a brow raised.

"What card game do you want to play?" Rachel asked him.

"Poker? There are a couple of drinks in the fridge I saw. We could play and drink and just kick it," he told her. She shrugged and walked over to the end table, pulling the cards out of the drawer while he went to the fridge and grabbed the drinks he saw. He grabbed some blankets and pillows and layered them up before the fire and then sat down, getting as comfortable as he can. "What do you know how to play?"

"Got cash on you?" Jake gave her a pointed look as he pulled the cards out of the box and started to shuffle them. "Okay, I'm going to take that as a no. Fine, we can play poker for the hell of it. My dad has some chips, shall I grab those?"

"Go ahead," he told her and waved her off. She jumped back up and walked back to her parent's room, grabbing the bins of chips. And he watched her the whole time, shaking his head at himself. Once more, putting himself here wasn't smart. Watching her wasn't smart either because it was leading to him wanting her all over again and he had to stray far, far away from those thoughts.

"Okay," she said, giving him some chips and then placing some before herself, "this might be boring you know?" He dealt the cards and shook his head.

"No, I don't think it will." Strip poker wouldn't work given the situation they were in but lying truth and lies on the table wouldn't be so bad. "How about the winner of the round gets to ask a question and the loser either lies or tells the truth?"

"I think that might be fun. What are you playing?" she asked.

"I'll make it easy, five card draw, 6's wild." She rolled her eyes at his answer but looked at her cards in hand, already selecting the ones to toss. He watched her, smirking to himself at the simple smile she sported, and then made his bet. When she raised it, he knew he was in trouble but made the same bet. "Full house," she said, laying her cards down.

"Three of a kind. What's your question?" He watched her, saw her lips twitch, and he couldn't figure out if he was nervous, or excited.

"What's the worst trouble you ever got in with Jay?" He laughed as he handed her the cards for her to shuffle. Over the course of their friendship, they had done some stupid shit, like normal teen boys were supposed to do.

"We didn't do anything like steal or something. But I think the stupidest crap we had ever pulled would have been a stunt in college. I know there was this one chick he was interested in, but she had some football player boyfriend. We were all at the library and I had to distract the player so Jay could talk to her. Not our finest moment, but he did cheat with her. That only lasted for a couple of months." Jake shook his head at the memory and Rachel just lifted a brow. "Hey, if you don't want to know about your brother, don't ask."

"Now why would I want to be in this game if I can't ask the fun questions?" She finished shuffling and dealt the cards, and once more he caught the smirk. She had a point. This game could take any direction, which is what made it fun. "Game is 5 card stud, one-eyed Jacks wild." He couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course, she would pick the hardest game with the less freakin' wilds. He pulled his cards up and looked them over, rather surprised to see them. A three-of-a-kind wasn't bad when one was playing stud. He placed his bet and grinned to himself as she debated her own before taking up his bet.

"Show me what you got, princess." She laid her cards down and he could see she was proud of the two pairs. "Yeah, sorry, three of a kind." He laid his cards down and chuckled as he picked up her cards to start shuffling them. "Tell me about the worst sexual experience you had." She let out a breath before laughing.

"Okay, so, I've had some doozies, and this was way more recent than I'd like to admit. But this guy, who shall remain nameless, was all hands and tongue and no finesse. He was also quick to finish. When we even started, I was far from ready and it was so uncomfortable, I vowed it would be a bit before I had sex again. It was the worst time I ever had." Jake stopped shuffling to listen to that and couldn't help just raise his brows. In all of his times, he always made sure a woman was ready to go because he couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it would be not to be.

"Yeah, that sounds like a pretty shitty time to me." He dealt the cards, watching her as he did so. "5 card draw, threes wild." He sat the cards down and looked at his hand. Off the bat, he had four of a kind and that was pretty fucking high. He looked at her and she twisted her lip as she eyed her cards before exchanging two. She placed her bet and he countered, letting it be known he wasn't bad and she sighed as she tossed her cards down.

"What the hell do you have?" she asked.

"Four of a kind," he laughed, laying his cards down and collecting the chips. "Okay, so what stupid stunts did you ever pull?" She leaned back on her hands, and he glanced at her, noticing the redness in her cheeks. "What is it?"

"Do you remember Mr. Malcom, the senior math teacher?"

"The one damn fucking teacher who had it out for everyone to fail them?"

"Yeah, him. Well, there was a group of four of us, we were the smarter kids in the class, and we were barely above average in his class. No matter how many times we fought him, we'd lose, and I swear our grades would go down. Well, we might have hacked his computer system to get the answers to the file. Roger, one of the guys, was a programming nerd and was able to cover his tracks. Mr. Malcom couldn't figure out how the hell we passed but I felt so guilty afterward. Everyone was so proud of me for passing."

"And you didn't say anything?"

"Nope," she answered as she moved and started gathering the cards. "I hated the praise, but we needed to do that. I also vowed never to cheat again."

"Psh, I knew of many people trying to cheat in his class; I think it was pretty common."

"Maybe, but I still hated it. Game is follow the queen." Jake rolled his eyes at it. It wasn't a bad game, but it was one that ate up a lot of chips. After 14 chips, and Rachel taking the pot, he realized he hated the game even more. Sure, poker was built upon luck, but in that case, you were betting every flip of the card and chances were, you were going through all seven cards and never having a good card or a pair. "Aw, sad you lost?"

"No, just don't like that game. Jay loves it though."

"Yeah, he taught it to me. So, we talked about my worst time, share with me your best time." Jake paused in gathering up the cards. He could lie, which would suck. Or he could be honest but that could open a door he was trying to close; and in some ways, that was a losing battle.

"Well, it's a tossup."

"Yeah," she asked, "between what?"

"This time on the couch or the night we had quite a while back."