Wicked Game

Chapter 7

   Jemima had met Jack the second week of a new writing course she was taking. She had seen him in class the week before, noticed that he was really good looking and he seemed like a really smart person, every time he answered a question or made a point about a text they were reading, to the class.

The first day of the second week, he came into the classroom a little late. The place beside Jemima was the only one left. They were such a small group that the classroom they were given wasn't much bigger than a closet.

She didn't dare to look at him for the first hour, because she was so nervous about him sitting so close to her. She was almost twenty-one years old, a virgin and still quite shy around boys in general.

After that awful hour, sitting completely still, so she didn't accidentally touch Jack, they had to do a discussion in pairs. Of course she was with him, because they were sat beside each other. Jemima's hands were sweaty and she constantly stumbled over her words, got a beet root kind of red all over her face and neck and generally made herself look like an absolute loser. That was only the story of her life and the reason she had neither lost her virginity nor had had an actual relationship in her entire life. She knew it was pathetic, but she rarely told anyone and she tried her best not to get too hung up about it.

Jemima was relieved once the discussion and the class was over for the day. She was going to make sure she never sat beside Jack again and that she had as little to do with him as possible during the following six months. That was the way she had always kept a safe distance between herself and complete humiliation and she wasn't going to stop now.

Somehow, during the following week, those plans took a complete turn. She had, after a little begging on their part, decided to go to a pub with some of her new classmates. Jack was there, which she thought was fine, because she could just talk to the others and pretend he wasn't there. For some reason, he had the exact opposite plan about her. She had a little too much to drink that night, and was more relaxed and felt more brave than she'd ever done before in her life. Somehow the night ended with her and Jack making out in the alley behind the pub. She didn't want to go further that night and thought that he might have lost interest when she said she didn't want to go to his place, but just home to North Harrow, where she still lived with her parents.

It turned out he had very much not lost interest and they started hanging out, pretty much all the time. They weren't exactly boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a long while, which she would have liked, but also a lot more than just friends. Eventually, he asked her if she wanted to be his girlfriend. He had planned it all out, to make it really special. They had a lovely dinner at a restaurant, where he nervously asked her the question, even though it was kind of obvious he had nothing to be nervous about, and then they went home to his and that was the night she lost her virginity.

Jemima really loved him. He was so smart, both as in book-smart and also the other kind, the one you can't really learn. He was funny and gorgeous, with short, dark blonde hair that curled a little at the ends and what she thought was the most beautiful hazel eyes she had ever seen. He dressed in the way so that it looked like he didn't care what he wore, but where every piece of clothing was well thought through. He wrote the most amazing stories, a lot of them about his parent's divorce and how that kind of thing could affect an only child, like himself. A lot of his work also told her that there were endless layers to him; layers that she wanted and needed to peel away, so that she could see the next one, which would always be more interesting and beautiful than the last.

She told him she loved him, maybe a little sooner than you were supposed to, according to The Relationship Rulebook. The one that didn't actually exist, but everyone knew you should follow. When she said it, he was quiet for a little while. She could feel her heart drop and realize that she might have done the most stupid mistake of her life, before he looked at her, smiled the amazing smile he reserved just for her, and told her he loved her too.