Lost And Loved

3. Jackson

"Your buttons are wrong." Marley tells me as she pulls her work shirt back over her head, her eyes judging the way I buttoned up the few little nubs on my own shirt.

"Oh," I responded, my fingers finding the mistake she pointed out quickly. "Thank you."

This was a first for Marley and I. We've never had sex in public, it was either her place after her parents went to sleep or mine when I was home alone.

She reaches her hand under her long flowing hair, bringing it over the collar of her shirt she pulled over. She straightened the material out as I watched her.

"Make sure to clock in and then talk to Martin. You're almost an half hour late to start." She tells me before walking over to the door of the back office.

"Yeah." Was all I could say. I was confused as to why she was going to leave me like this. Normally we stay with each other, like we felt closer to one another after we share ourselves but now it's like we didn't do a thing. "Marley?"

"Yes, Edward?" She asks, turning just her head in my direction.

"This was... different."

"Yeah, it was." She answers.

"Why?"

"'Why', what?"

"Why did we do this? I mean, why like this?" I wanted her to tell me the truth, because I know what it was. I know why she had taken me in here, I know why we did what we did so suddenly.

"I felt like it." Marley answered with a shrug.

As the door opens, I tried to ask her another question of the same topic but a voice interupted before I could even begin.

"Marley, there you are."

I knew that voice. It irritated me, it got under my skin, it made my body feel like there were bugs crawling up my neck. He's so gross, and yet he's here.

"Jackson," Marley says happily, her arms being thrown around his neck in excitement. "Hey. I didn't know you were back."

"I wanted to surprise you." He says, his words muffled by her shoulder, and it upset me more. His lips against her, even if it were just because of a hug.

"How was New York?" Marley's voice fades away as they both walk out of the office without a backward glance at me.

I sneered and fixed my buttons on my shirt, stroming out of the office door just a minute after they were gone, nearly bumping into Kena.

"Woe, where's the fire?" She jokes as I recollect myself, straightening up and taking a deep breath. But as she continues to watch me, she answers her own question. "In your eyes, damn. What happened?"

"Jackson showed up just a minute ago." I answer. "When the hell did they get so close?"

I stormed away from the office, wanting to leave it and the memory of the way Marley hugged Jackson out of my head.

"I don't know when, but they always hung out around school when summer ended last year." Kena answers, keeping up quite well for someone with shorter legs than mine.

At her answer, my walking slowed immensely and I turned to face her. "All year? Why didn't you tell me it was that serious?"

"It didn't seem that serious when we all hung out at Marley's place. I didn't-"

"He goes over to her house?" I ask in disbelief. "I still thought we all hated him from his nasty remark that got him kicked in with Donnie."

"Look, Edward, if you calm down, I'll explain how we all became friends again."

"Fine." I sigh quietly, trying to calm myself down. I looked at the watch strapped around my wrist and motioned to Kena with a tilt of my head. "You can help me feed the seals while we talk. Fuck checking in, I've got witnesses."

* * *

It turns out that as soon as Marley had returned home from England, Jackson had apologized for his irrational behavior at her going away party.

Of course Marley didn't forgive him right away, but one day, they had both shown up to school with each other, looking even more friendly than before.

I almost vomited thinking that they might have slept together.

Kena doesn't know what made them so close again, so she couldn't tell me the details of that, but she did go on about how close they had gotten and how tore up she was when Jackson had to go to New York for ten days because his grandmothers brother had passed away. He went as help and support for his grandmother, and I had to make sure that Kena was still talking about Jackson.

"I get that you're jealous," Kena says as we stand outside of the baby seal enclosure, leaning against the black pegged gates. "But I don't think there's anything to worry about. I mean, look at the way she reacted toward how you and I were laughing with each other. She literally stormed away with you."

"We had sex." I admitted just a heartbeat later, and the silence following was awkward.

"Well, I guess I should've seen that coming. I mean, you walked out a mess. Doesn't your mom usually iron your work shirts?" We both look down at the material I wear and laugh, the crumpled lines indicating that the work my mother really did do was wasted.

"She won't notice." I say, sighing a moment later.

"She still thinks Marley is cheating on you?" Kena asks, leaning away from the gates and tapping my shoulder, motioning me along.

My mother has always thought that Marley and I were together, even before England, and now that she sees how Marley has changed around everyone- including myself- she thinks there might be someone else catching her eye.

"Yeah, it kind of sucks. I tell her it's not like that, but she still worries."

"Why do you insist on letting her think you two are together?"

"I don't. Even if I tell her that Marley and I are just friends, she just shakes her head and insists, herself, on calling Marley my girlfriend." I shoved my hands into my pants pockets. "My mom knows I still have feelings for Marley, and I guess that's why she isn't giving this up."

"She isn't giving it up because you aren't." Kena bumps her shoulder against my arm to move me out of the way of a small group of people. "Have you ever thought that Marley is just.... a lost cause? What if it's not you that brings her back? You said you'd do anything to make her okay again, that doesn't just entale you to be the one to do it."

"I don't get what you mean." But I do.

"Call the Malik's, Edward. Before Jackson takes a step in and you can never get her back."