speak now | jack hughes DISCONTINUED

chapter eleven

Bailey Cameron

I was now confident that I had little bugs crawling all over me from the corn maze. From the time I had put Paddington in the back seat, then sat down in the drivers seat, I had seen at least five on my arms.

"This is horrible. God, I'm gonna have to get my car cleaned after this!" I complained, smashing yet another small bug that had crawled from my hands onto the steering wheel.

"If you want, you can shower at my place so you don't have to wait so long," Jack offered, as he too killed a bug that was on him.

"Really? That'd be amazing," I sighed, shaking my hands to rid them of at least a few bugs so I could drive without freaking out. I looked over at Jack, barely noticing a bit of face paint that was running down the side of his face. We had probably been sweating so much from running through the corn maze that it had been smearing and dripping.

"Wait. C'mere, your face paint is dripping," I said, opening up my console to grab a makeup wipe, which I always kept in the car. Jack leaned in towards me. He closed his eyes as I brushed some stray hair out of his face so I could clean up the paint better. "Sorry, this might be a little wet," I apologized as I dabbed his face with it. He flinched away at first, just like he had done with the face paint earlier that day.

"That's cold," He mumbled, his eyes still closed. I didn't say anything, just rubbed his face gently with the wipe. The paint came off gradually, but it took a bit. Once I had gotten the majority off, I pulled away and stuffed the now dirty wipe into an old water bottle I found off the floor.

"There," I said, and Jack opened his eyes, blinking a bit to adjust to the lighting. I looked in my own mirror, pleased to see that mine only smeared, not dripping. I'd clean it up in the shower at Jack's place.

"Thanks," He said, sitting back in his seat normally. I hummed in response and I started the car so we could go.

I probably was driving a bit over the speed limit on the way to Jack's place, but to be fair, I felt like I was being eaten alive, so I thought that justified it plenty. When I parked, both Jack and I immediately jumped out of the car, and he led me towards his place. I had never actually seen Jack's apartment yet, but I assumed it was nice. He was a millionaire, after all.

My suspicions were confirmed when he opened up the door to his place. It was very clean and neat, which was both half surprising and half expected.

"You can use my shower, I'll use the guest one," Jack said as he walked down the hall to somewhere. I stood awkwardly in the foyer area, unsure of what to do. When he seemed to realize I wasn't following him, he came back. "C'mon. Do you need other clothes, too?"

"Yeah, I think mine have been taken over by bugs," I chuckled. He led me into his room, and I looked around curiously. It was nice. Cozy.

"Uhm," He said, flipping through some hangers in his closet before pulling out an off-white t-shirt. It would definitely be too big on me, but that was fine. At least it wasn't bug-infested. He grabbed some of his old pajama pants from another drawer before handing them both to me. "That should work. You'll probably need to roll the pants up a bit, but they should fit well enough."

"Okay, great. Thank you. And I can use the guest shower, it's no big deal," I said as I toyed with the fabric of the clothing he had given me. But Jack shook his head.

"You can use my shower. It's fine, Bails," He said as he nudged me over towards his bathroom. I was about to protest, but he pushed me through the doorway and closed the door behind me. I sighed.

As much as I think Jack should've let me use the guest shower, I don't think I ever wanted to leave. The water felt amazing on the few bites I had gotten, and all the tiny bugs just came right off as soon as I stepped under the hot water.