Twenty-Nine // J.G.

twenty-three.

Day 20.

After becoming accustomed to the warm embrace of Jack's bed and Jack himself, sleeping alone in my bed was a brutal feat. I suffered through hours of restlessness, and whenever I finally managed to calm the storm in my mind, I would be jolted awake by a repeat of the kiss.

Finding my efforts to be useless at that point, I got up at the crack of dawn and hoped to God that this had all just been a bad dream. I proceeded to go through the motions of my morning routine, and before I could even think about breakfast – since, of course, I skipped dinner last night – I heard a knock on the door.

"I-I'm busy." I yelped, scrambling to sit on my bed in preparation to hide under the covers if need be.

"Busy doing what? It's five in the damn morning, Mar." I heard Nate's voice retort, and I breathed a sigh of relief, although I stayed weary of any possible side attacks. "Will you open the door? Your breakfast is gonna get cold. Or eaten by me and Sammy."

I chewed on my lip, contemplating my willingness to push my worries aside to satisfy my hunger, ultimately deciding that it wouldn't be worth it to sacrifice my routine, and I'd have to see Jack some time in the remaining days of our trip anyway.

Slowly, I crept to the door and was greeted with the usual array of smells when I revealed the entree.

"Thank you." I mumbled, keeping my eyes low as I lugged the cart into my room, but what I didn't realize was that I had also unknowingly welcomed in a guest by doing so. I didn't say anything, though, as I felt Jack's concentrated gaze tacking onto my every move and making me wish I could disappear into thin air. He didn't say anything either, even as I nestled myself back in the bed and began to eat my breakfast, which heightened my nerves. Was this his twisted version of the silent treatment? I sure as hell wasn't going to be the first to speak up.

After minutes and minutes of silence and clinking cutlery, he finally eased himself next to me on the bed, causing every muscle in my body to tense. I wasn't sure what his intentions were, but I didn't dare to look at him, for I could barely handle just being in his presence.

"Will you feed me some of that bacon, baby? It looks really good." He cooed, the surprise being so big that my jaw fell for a short moment. All other bones in my body decided to cease their functioning, however, so he was obliged to make moves on his own. His hand slid onto my thigh, and I gulped, forcing myself to be aware of the current situation as I didn't want to make an even bigger fool out of myself by not responding to him at all.

My actions were choppy as I stabbed a piece of bacon with the fork and stiffly held it out for him, using his hands as an anchor for my point of view. As inevitable as it was, it still caught me off guard when his fingers raveled around my shaky wrist and guided my hand closer to his mouth. The crunch of the bacon mimicked the sound of my heart as my gaze made a steady effort to reach his lips, a replay of yesterday's events flashing before them.

I watched as he mouthed the words, "Thank you" although no sound processed in my mind. His lips were so inviting that I got lost in admiring the look of them and it's a damn shame that I didn't spend more time appreciating what they felt like yesterday. "Marley, I gotta be honest." Jack spoke up, and on instinct, I looked into his eyes, only to curse myself for being so quick to react without thinking first.

"O-Okay..." I managed, bracing myself for the big let down of him dumping me.

"This bacon isn't as good as I thought it would be."

"I understand." was my initial response before I even knew his exact words, and it took me a while to figure out why he was giving me an odd, sort of amused look. "W-What, oh my god." His laughter bounced off the walls as I took a pillow to the face, my skin burning with a blush.