three years later

16

jacob returned home the next morning after some delightful pancakes, courtesy of meggie mcgregor.
he slips through the front door and after taking off his shoes, he walked to the kitchen. he flicks the kettle on and checks his phone as he waits for it to boil, scrolling through his twitter timeline.

"jacob! you're back! where were you?" willow asked, her appearance sudden.

jacob visibly jumped and looked down to his sister as she opened the fridge, "at sam's house?" jacob replied, a white lie in attempt to protect his new relationship. jacob feared the more people that knew, the more pressure there was.

however, it was a useless effort, "i'm not thick, jacob, you're literally wearing jude's university hoodie!" jacob looked at her and then to the hoodie he'd stolen from jude. he'd try and lie, but remembered that it quite literally had his initials written on it somewhere. he gave an embarrassed smile to his sister and went to start his coffee as she poured lemonade into her glass, "so.. are you two together then?" she asked, plopping her straw into her drink and taking a sip. jacob smiled and looked to her.

"yeah we are. it's still pretty new, so we've not told many people."

"it's about time, who else knows?" willow questioned, walking towards him to lean on the counters opposite him.

"just jude's mum, she accidentally saw us," he said to her as he stired the coffee, milk and boiling water.

"i bet she was happy," willow smiled and jacob nodded and smiled in agreement.

"very," he gave a slight laugh.

jacob's phone then gave a ding, and he picked it up from the counter.

[new email: bright lettings]
[subject: change in tenancy]

jacob gave a confused look to his phone, placing his mug on the counter as he checked it.

dear mr. gold,

we regret to inform you that due to a tenant's cancellation of their contract your tenancy for number 16 baxter street will be terminated unless another tenant can be found within 14 days from the date of this email. if you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to reply to this email or call the letting agency.

kind regards,
anna foster.

"you alright?" willow asked, noticing her brother's frown. jacob didn't reply, his eyes scanned the email. minute later, he replied.

"my roommate dropped out from the contract. if i don't find someone else to fill it, i'll need to look for another place," jacob said, his voice filled with worry. willow quickly placed her drink on the side and rushed to her brother. she hugged him from the side to show support as he reread the email a fourth time, not believing it.

"shit, jacob, i'm so sorry," she said, reading the email over his shoulder, "it'll be fine, just post it over some groups on facebook, you'll be fine," she added, trying to reassure him. he just looked at the email, hoping he'd somehow misread it, but the email remained the same and so did his situation. willow broke from her hug and gave him a gentle look,"it'll be fine, jacob, i promise," she said and he looked at her and gave a doubtful nod.

---

"so.. what are you gonna do?" jude asked, his voice concerned through the phone.

"i'm not sure. willow said to plaster it on the uni facebook group so probably that and then hope for the best," jacob replied. he'd called jude almost instantly after finding out, currently wrapped up in a blanket on his bed with the email open on his laptop.