Did You Miss Me?

Chapter 7

The shopping trip, the kisses, the unexpected 'I love you's randomly turning up in the middle and the amount of random hugs I'd got from behind that day never confused me. I knew Jake loved me more than he could ever say, and that was half of the beauty - that he didn't have to come up with words because I knew already. But this was strange, he was being clingy, like he was almost scared to leave me in a room on my own in case I left.

"What's wrong?" I finally plucked up the courage to ask after a day of this clingy un-Jake behaviour. He shook his head smiling and simply said:

"Nothing. I'm just happy you're in my life" which in itself told me that something was definitely wrong.

"Would you like a story?" I giggled. I felt like I was asking a little child whether they would like me to read them a bed time story. Jake's face visibly sunk as I pulled out my diary, but I wasn't going to read about Sam. This was going to be one of the more embarrassing entries from when I'd become a little less infatuated, and when my entries weren't all about how loved up I was.

Jake saw the pink writing come and go as I flicked through the pages and his face started to light up again. I knew he loved me reading through my diary, maybe not the whole Sam thing, not when he'd recently popped up again.

"Right. You'll enjoy this one"

I giggled as I looked up briefly at Jake who was gazing at me with the look that seemed like he was afraid to lose me again, I chose not to question it. Instead I started to read.

"Today was the most embarrassing day of my life." I immediately regretted choosing this one, today it remained to be the most embarrassing moment of my life. Luckily it had nothing to do with Sam, and Sam didn't even know about it, that's how embarrassed I was. I peeked up at Jake who looked excited, like he was about to get some exclusive knowledge on my life, embarrassment and shame, the two ingredients to a good secret; a secret that was kept between me and my diary, until now.

"So you know how mum has always had a crush on Mr Fisher the biology teacher at school? Well parents evening came last night and obviously mum wanted to see Mr Fisher" I closed my eyes in a cringe as the memory replied vividly in my imagination.

"We got to the table and sat down, mum had purposefully chosen to wear her favourite black top that showed way too much cleavage for a parents evening, but at least she wasn't wearing a full ball gown, although an LBD was one of her options."

Jake started chuckling quietly, only when I stopped reading did I hear it though. I glared at him as I knew exactly what he was imagining, probably less shameful than it actually was.

"I take it your mum was single at this point?"

"Jake when is my mum ever single?" Jake raised his eyebrows and made a 'hmm' noise as if saying 'You have a good point' but obviously was too polite to say it.

"Keep reading, this is good" he beamed as he fidgeted around on the bed trying to get comfortable.

I rolled my eyes and looked back at the diary.

"We eventually got to the school and mum was just constantly adjusting her top and flicking her hair behind her shoulders, but then putting it back over as if she couldn't quite decide how to have it" I turned the page, this was one of those entries that I would have gone into way too much description so that when I read it back in the future I didn't spare any details. Like I was convincing my future self that this actually happened.

"We eventually found Mr Fisher and as we sat down, mum was sat upright, practically thrusting her chest in his face and all he could do was stare. This man was married and my biology teacher! And all he was doing was staring at my mother's chest" I had drawn an angry face underneath that paragraph, I must have been pretty angry, the pen had been pressed quite hard and there was even steam coming out of the ears that I hadn't drawn on.