Eclipse {Ravi Singh}

47

disclaimers: I don't own ggbb and if I'm not updating I'm probably writing far future chapters or nice reading books

"okay, before we get into the questions, joanna, could you introduce yourself and jamie a little?" pip asks
"of course, my name is-" amaris winces as joanna voice comes loudly through the headphones she had on.
"sorry, joanna, you don’t need to speak directly into the microphone. It picks you up just fine if you sit normally." amaris says with a polite smile.
"sorry. my name is joanna reynolds, i’m jamie’s mom. i have three children, jamie is the oldest, my first. he just turned twenty-four, his birthday was last week. we celebrated here, had chinese take-away and a colin the caterpillar birthday cake. connor just managed to fit twenty-four candles on it. oh, sorry, my other children: my daughter zoe, she’s twenty-one, at university. and connor, he’s my baby, eighteen and in his last year of school. sorry, that was terrible, should i try it again?"
"no, that’s ok, it was perfect. This is just a raw interview; i’ll edit all of this with sections of me and mari talking and explaining in between so you don’t need to worry about consistency or sounding polished or anything." pip says.
"ok." joanna nods
"and some things, we obviously already know the answer to, but have to ask so we can present all the information in the episode. like for example, I’m going to ask you: does jamie still live at home with you?" pip continues explaining.
"i understand. ok. Yes, Jamie still lives at home with me and my husband, arthur, and my youngest son, connor."
"and does he have a job currently?"
"yes, you guys know he works with your mom."
"we know, we just need you to say –" amaris begins but is cut off
"oh, sorry, i forgot. let me try again. yes, jamie is currently working part-time as a receptionist at a local estate agency, proctor and radcliffe Homes. he’s been there for almost three months now. it was very kind of your mim to give him the job i’m very grateful. since dropping out of collage in first year, jamie’s been struggling to find a job, or stay in the ones he does get. he’s been a bit lost the last couple of years, can’t decide what he wants to do or what he’s good at. we’ve tried helping him but, with jamie, the more you push him towards something, the more he pulls away from it. that’s why arthur gets so frustrated with him. but im glad jamie seems to be enjoying his job, at least for now."
"and would you say jamie struggles to commit to things? is that why he dropped out of collage?"
"yes, i think that’s part of the problem. he tried, he really did, but he found the pressure too much and just shut down, had a panic attack during one of his exams. i think some people just aren’t made for that sort of academic environment. jamie . . . he’s a very sensitive boy . . . man. i mean, you guys know him. arthur worries that he’s over-sensitive, but he’s been like this since he was a child. a very sweet little boy, all the other mothers used to say so." joanna explains and amaris smiles some.
"yeah, he’s only ever been nice to me and mari, was never connor’s scary older brother or anything. and everyone else seems to like him. speaking of, who are jamie’s closest friends? any in fairview?
"he still occasionally talks to one guy from university and i think he might have some internet friends too, he’s always on that computer. jamie’s never been too good at friends; he makes fierce one-on-one friendships and falls in deep, so he’s always devastated when they don’t work out. i’d say his closest friend, at the moment, is nat da silva."
"i know nat."
"yes, of course. there’s not many from their school year still living here in fairview, apart from naomi ward and m-max hastings. sorry, shouldn’t bring him up. but nat and jamie seem to have a lot in common. she also had issues at collahe and left early, and she’s struggling to find a job she really wants because she’s got a criminal record. i think they both feel left behind in this town, and it’s nicer to be left behind with someone else. everything that happened last year sort of brought them together too. nat had been friendly with sal singh, and jamie was friends with andie bell; he spent a lot of time with andie during rehearsals for school plays. jamie and nat were on the periphery of everything that happened, and I think they bonded over it. they’ve become really close since last year, talk all the time. she’s probably his only real friend at the moment. though, truth be told, i think jamie sees her in a different way than she sees him."
"what do you mean?" pip asks but amaris already knew what she meant.
"well, oh God, jamie is going to be furious I’m saying this. but I did agree nothing was off-record . . . i know my son very well and he’s never been good at hiding his feelings. i could always tell, by the way he talked about her, how he kept finding ways to bring nat up into every single conversation that he was quite enamoured with her. smitten. they spoke on the phone almost every day, always texting. but, of course, things were different after nat turned up with a new boyfriend a couple of months ago. i don’t think jamie ever mentioned his name but he was devastated. i found him crying in his room; he said it was because he had a stomach-ache, but i knew. it wasn’t the first time i’d seen him like that. i knew it was because his heart was broken, and it was probably about
nat." amaris frowns at joannas words.
"how long ago was this?"
"must have been early March. There were a couple of weeks without much contact, i think. but they’re still friends now; in fact jamie’s always on his phone texting and it must be her because he jumps up so none of us can see. i can hear him up late sometimes too, on the phone. by his voice, i can tell it’s nat he’s talking to."
"ok, thank you, we’ll certainly talk to nat as soon as we can. so, connor said to me that he’s more worried about jamie this time because he’s been acting strangely in the last few weeks. distant and short-tempered. have you noticed the same?"
joanna nodded, "he’s not been quite himself the last couple of weeks. up late, coming in at all hours, over-sleeping and almost missing work. snapping at his brother when they normally get on so well. i think it’s partly everything with nat, but also, like I said before, feeling like he’s been left behind, watching all the people he went to school and collage with starting successful careers, settling down with partners, moving out of their parents’ houses. jamie’s very self-conscious; he’s told me before he often feels worthless, never quite good enough."--- amaris' frown deepens, she knew from her own problems how nagging that feeling felt and almost nobody could really make the feling go away. almost.--"he’s been struggling with his weight too over the last six months or so. i told him it doesn’t matter as long as he is healthy and comfortable in his skin, but . . . well, you know how the world tries to make anyone over a certain size feel ashamed of that. i think jamie’s been unhappy the last few weeks because he’s comparing himself to everyone else, feeling like he’ll never catch up. but I know he will."
"sorry, joanna, i don’t want to ask this, but you don’t think . . . you don’t think he could be at risk of harming himself?" pip asks gently.
"no, absolutely not. jamie wouldn’t do that to me, to his family. he wouldn’t. that’s not what this is, pip. he’s missing. he’s not dead. and we will find him, wherever he is."
"no ofcourse joanna, we just- you understand we have to ask certain question. why don't we move on?" amaris cuts in aiming the last sentence at her sister.
"jamie went missing yesterday, friday evening, but can you talk me through what happened during the day?"
"yes. i woke up around nine; my hours on a friday are late, i don’t start till eleven. arthur was already at work – he commutes in – and connor had already walked into school. but jamie was still fast asleep, so I told him he was going to be late for work and he left the house around twenty past nine, said he would grab breakfast from the café on the way. then I went to work. arthur left work early, to get home in time for the memorial. he texted around five that he was home. i left work soon after, stopping by the supermarket and got home maybe six or six thirty. did a quick turnaround and then the four of us left for the memorial."
amaris nods and pip asks, "what was jamie wearing that evening? i can’t remember."
"he was wearing jeans and his favourite shirt: it’s burgundy and collarless. like the peaky blinders, jamie always says."
"shoes?" amaris asks
"oh, um, his tennis shoes. white."
"brand?" amaris questions further.
"puma, i think."
"okay thank you. did you drive to the memorial?"
"yes."
"and was jamie acting strangely before the memorial at all?" pip asks
"no, not really. he was quiet, but he was probably just thinking about andie and sal. everyone was being quiet, in fact. i think we had an almost silent car journey. and when arrived at the pavilion, around seven, connor went to find his friends, you guys. and jamie left too, said he was going to stand with nat during the memorial. That was when I last saw him."
"we saw him after that. he did find nat, he was with her and naomi. and then after that he came over to talk to connor briefly. he seemed fine to me, both those times." amaris says.
"and then during the memorial, before ravi’s"-- his name brought a smile to her face instantly-- "dad spoke, jamie walked past, knocked into us from behind. he seemed distracted, maybe even nervous. i don’t know what he saw that made him want to struggle through the crowd right in the middle of the ceremony. but it had to be something." pip adds
"when was that?" joanna asks
"had to be around eight, maybe 8:10." amaris answers
"so now you guys are the last person to see him."
"I didn't actually see him cause when he numbed into me it made josh, who I was holding, drop my phone so I more focussed on that then who bumped me, which means it's actually pip."
"yea i guess i am, for now. do you know if jamie had any plans for after the memorial?"
"no, I thought he’d go home. but today connor told me that Jamie mentioned seeing nat, or something."
"ok, we’ll get that from connor first-hand. and where did you go after the memorial?"
"arthur and i went out for dinner, to the bar. with some friends: the lowes – ant’s parents – and the davises and the morgans, you know, mrs morgan and her husband. the date had been in the diary for ages."
"and when did you both get home?"
"well, we actually came back separately. i was driving so i didn’t drink, but some of our party who weren’t supposed to be drinking said they needed one after the memorial. i said i'd drop the lowes and the morgans home, so they could drink. of course, that meant the car was full, but arthur didn’t mind walking home; it isn’t far."
"what time did you leave the bar?" amaris asks at the same time pip asks.
"was this the king’s jead?"
"yes." joanna nods at pip, "i think we all left just before eleven. everyone was tired and it felt wrong staying out too late enjoying ourselves, after the memorial. the lowes live in prestwood, as you know, but the morgans are out in beaconsfield and, as arthur says, I’m terrible for chatting, so I didn’t get back until quarter past twelve at least. connor and arthur were there, in bed. but no jamie. i texted him before j went to sleep. look, I’ll read out what I said. going to bed now, sweetie, will you be home soon? xx That was at 12:36. look. it never delivered. it hasn’t gone through."
"it still hasn’t gone through?" amaris asks
"no. that’s bad isn’t it? his phone is still off and it must have already been off before 12:36 . . . or something, something bad . . ." amaris could hear the shakiness of her voice.
"please don’t get upset, joanna. ok, let’s stop there." pip says before clicking the stop recording button, amaris takes the headphones off.
"could I use the restroom for a minute?" amaris asks and joanna nods.
"ofcourse, sweetie. you know the way."

amaris passed the living room on the way to the bathroom, the tv was on and arthur sat in front of it listening at a loud volume, she had just closed the bathroom door when her phones buzzed. she smiled at the notification as she read ravis text before responding, the smile still on her face the entire time. it stayed there as she walked out of the bathroom and to the kitchen where it died down into just a ghost of one.

oh God she was definitely in love if one text is making her smile this much.

a/n
a kitten(not one of the mauraders ones.) got stuck between metal shit and was like starving to death and hurt it's paw so now we have a kitten, she's a calico named reeses (like the candy)