Anchor ⚓︎ Jake 'Hangman' Seresin

⚓︎ chapter twenty-two ⚓︎

Eleanor and Jake walked up to the apartment that Bradley was staying in.  Jake felt like his nerves were running all over the place as they walked up to the door. Eleanor held his hand, squeezing it every so often to reassure him that she was there.

After taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door and stood back, waiting for it to open. It took about a minute before Bradley opened up to see the couple standing there.

They all stayed frozen as they just glanced back and forth between each other before a voice from inside the apartment called out, "Who is it?" Eleanor instantly recognized the voice and pushed right by Bradley to walk in.

"V?"

From the couch, Torie looked up from her phone to see Eleanor and instantly stood up walking over to hug her. "Hey!" She exclaimed. "Are you okay? Bradley said he wasn't able to get ahold of you yesterday."

"I was with someone to get away for a minute," she told her, not wanting to reveal that she had been with Maverick. "When did you get here?"

"This morning," Torie told her. "Bradley told me what happened."

The two girls looked over at the door to where Jake and Bradley had yet to move and were just staring at each other, not really showing any emotions. The girls glanced at each other before walking over.

"Come on," Torie stated as she pulled Bradley to sit on the couch. "We are going to talk about this because you are going to be in-laws and this is for Eleanor!"

Eleanor pulled Jake to the second sofa that was just to the side as they all sat in silence for the first minute. Jake nervously fiddled with his fingers before Eleanor squeezed his knee in reassurance. He glanced at her before looking at Bradley, who was staring at the ground, his jaw clenched.

"I'm sorry," he stated firmly.

Bradley scoffed before Torie nudged his arm and sent him a stern look. He looked up at Jake. "Why should I accept your apology?" He asked. "Why would Eleanor even tell you that?"

"She told me because I asked about it," Jake told him.  "But I did make her a promise to not throw it back in your face and I recognize that I broke my promise."  He paused to look at Eleanor.  "But I don't want to lose her, so I'm sucking it up, putting my pride aside, and coming here to apologize.  Whether you accept it or not is up to you."

Bradley scoffed again, earning a sharp look from Torie.  "You might not like it, but Jake is going to be in your life now," she told Bradley.  "You guys don't have to be best friends, but if you can at least be civil for Eleanor's sake and get through this detachment, we can all be happy.  Look at her, she looks sick enough with worry."

Eleanor glanced at Jake, who glanced at her.  They both basically had a conversation with their eyes.  Should they tell them that she was pregant?  Would it cause problems with the detachment if she told Bradley?  She didn't want to distract him, so she kept silent.

A heavy sigh left Bradley before he stood up and offered his hand to Jake.  It took a second but Jake stood as well and took Bradley's hand, giving it a firm shake as they stared each other down.  It wasn't in a challenging way, but rather an understanding agreement.

"If you ever pull something like that again, I won't hesitate to punch you," Bradley told him, causing everyone to laugh, even though Bradley was completely serious.

"Yay, we're all happy!" Torie exclaimed as she stood and hugged Bradley.

Eleanor stood as well, relief flooding her senses as she hugged Jake.  "Thank you for doing that," she mumbled to him.  "I know it couldn't have been easy."