Did You Miss Me?

Chapter 8

Well I totally meant to leave this chapter this long, I mean the last chapter ended on such a cliffhanger... Do you believe me? Please do because it's better than admitting I actually had writers block all this time, I really made a challenge for myself in the last chapter and I'm really struggling to come up with how Jake would react, how Jess would react and how the story would progress from that bombshell! 

--

I had no idea how to react, and neither did Jake apparently. He looked at me with the same look he always did, like I was the last thing on Earth, or he had just won the lottery, maybe a bit of both, except this time there was a hint of sadness in there, like someone had just told him that the lottery he had won was a fraud and he'd have to give the money back to it's original owner.

I thought about that for a while, and instead of pretending I never said it, or covering it up with a smooth recovery sort of joke, I just said

"You're not going to give me back to Sam"

Jake smiled and looked at my phone, he looked back at me and nodded towards it.

"You going to get that?"

I hadn't even noticed my phone buzzing quietly on the bed next to me. I looked at it. It was mum.

"Mum you have the worst timing!" she was silent on the other end and eventually I heard a frustrated sigh. I looked up at Jake again to tell him to wait a second, but he'd already gone. I closed my eyes praying that he'd want to talk about this when I got off the phone, but on the other hand I hoped that he'd just sweep it under the rug like we both seemed to do with silly little mistakes we made.

"Sorry, Jj. It's just that Sam dropped by, at least I think it was Sam... Has he cut his hair short?"

"Mum, I haven't seen him, I wouldn't know" I flopped down onto my back and closed my eyes mentally preparing myself for the story and interrogation I was about to receive.

It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, much to my surprise mum told me she told him that I had moved on and that I wasn't home. I imagined it didn't go down quite like that though, mum always liked Sam, so she probably invited him in for a cup of tea and told him about how heartbroken I was after he left, and probably every single little detail about me and Jake that she knew as well, and for the first time I was actually grateful mum couldn't keep a secret, if she had done that it might make Sam think twice about trying to contact me again.

"Okay, sweetie, I better go now. George is giving me his 'come hither' look" I scrunched my eyes up and hung up before mum forgot to. That was just too much information to share with your daughter - whatever happened to 'I have to go, bye!' why do I need an explanation?

I trudged down stairs, attempting to make it obvious what I was doing, although I was very much aware that it could sound like I was angry. I wasn't angry, I just wanted to subtly warn Jake that we were about to have the discussion we were probably both dreading. He was sitting on the counter top in the kitchen, with a small tumbler or whisky. I sighed internally as he pushed the glass to the side and took a swig out of the bottle.

"How long have you had that hidden away?" He put his finger to his lips, and shushed me. I raised my eyebrows in an 'excuse me' gesture. He was drunk, it wasn't even midday and he was drunk on whisky that had somehow got it's way back into the house. "What happened to the no drinking unless it's a special occasion?" I got the same reaction, this time he let out a small burp and giggled.

"My name is Jake" he said rather loudly, like I was in the next room.... Or next town.

"I know baby" when Jake was drunk, the only way he could understand anything was if you spoke to him like you were talking to a baby, smiling and speaking in a patronising tone was the only way he knew he hadn't said something offensive, which didn't often happen but when it did he would just shut himself away and apologise with way too many hugs and drunk kisses which were soggy and stunk of booze.