The rest of the day was ALMOST completely uneventful. I didn't have to work until later and my shift was short because Marie was supposed to meet her kids for dinner, so for a few hours i had some time to myself. James had left in his car a few minutes after i saw him in the kitchen, and honestly the house was so big i didn't know if anybody else was home or not.
I finished making my omelette and ate it quickly, thinking about the events that had happened over the past few days. I didn't know what to think or do, so i decided the best course of action would be to completely avoid everything all together, and to just pray that nothing bad came out of it. After i finished cleaning my dishes i made my way up to my bedroom and laid on my bed. Across the room, on my dresser, i could see that white porcelain vase that was a keepsake from my parents wedding. Its kind of ironic, how that was supposed to symbolize their promise of eternal love and commitment, but my father had broken that promise and betrayed us. And now the representation of that was embodied into a unused vase that sat collecting dust on my dresser.
I tossed and turned in my bed. I wanted to sleep a bit longer but i couldn't stop thinking about everything, about James, about my mother, my fathers actions and Skips odd behavior yesterday. That especially irked me, i wanted to know what was going on, what had James so upset that he had to send skip to pick up some secret possession i wasn't allowed to know about.
In the midst of all my endless jumbled thoughts i heard a knock on my door. I honestly expected it to be Sam or Mary, but to my shock and utter horror it was James.
"Hey" he said. He was leaning against the doorway and was looking at the ground.
"Hi" i said back. I could feel my own dread growing inside of me.
"I just wanted to tell you that I'm leaving, tonight" he said
That shocked me "leaving, why?"
"Theres something... Urgent that i have to deal with" he said.
"Where are you going? How long will you be gone?" I asked. That dread mentioned earlier turned into panic, for some unknown reason.
"Im going back home, to Australia. Ill be gone for about a week or two"
"James" i said "whats going on?"
He pushed himself off the doorway in an attempt to leave, but i grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He looked at me like he was annoyed, but i didn't care.
"What was that phone call yesterday? And what did you have skip get? Whats going on, and why aren't you telling me?" A million questions flooded my brain and they spilled out like a storm. James just looked at me and sighed, i knew he wouldn't tell me anything.
"Like i said, it has nothing to do with you, thats why I'm not telling you"
"So Skip has something to do with it?" I asked. "Because he obviously knows something about it"
He didn't answer me, instead he just leaned in and kissed me gently against my forehead.
"Ill see you later, Emma"
And with that, he was gone.
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I had already gotten ready for work and was now on my way there. Everything with James was still bothering me, and the fact that i had no clue as to what was happening kept pecking away at the back of my mind that i was starting to go insane from it.
I pulled into the bakery parking lot and got out of my truck. Marie had already opened and there was a steady stream of customers coming in and out, so i was put to work immediately. It was a lot of preparation, mixed with some baking, organizing, restocking, and cleaning, but the customers had slowly died down, and we were in a forty minute customer plateau, so when everything was finally finished all that was left was for me and Marie to gossip. We had been talking about her family, her children, her grandchildren, her granddaughter especially, and then i remembered that she was connected to James.
"I don't mean to pry, but what happened with James and your granddaughter?" I asked.
"Its quite a long story" she said "you might want to get prepared"
I sat down on a stool opposite of the counter and eagerly waited for her to start.
"As you might have guessed, James's father is from Australia, and he was raised there for the earlier years of his life, but his mother is from this area, so she would often bring James here for vacations and visits. Mary's first husband had done business with my son in law in the past, so Mary and my daughter had known each other for quite some time before James was even born. My granddaughter, her name is Veronica, had grown up with James, in a way. He was always attached to her, right at the hip, but Veronica was always free spirited and independent, so her attachment was never as deep as his"
She stopped for a moment to collect her breath, and i waited for her to continue.
"As time went on they got older, and when they were around thirteen they had started dating. Right off the bat James was serious about the relationship, and insisted that they spend all of their free time together. Veronica started feeling suffocated, and she broke it off with him a year later."
I was shocked at hearing this, i could never imagine the moody and irritable James that i know to be as clingy and emotional as the James she was describing.
"He was devastated" she continued "for months he would do nothing but stay alone in his room, and he would contact her constantly, begging her to take him back. It got to the point where he would be texting and calling her at three in the morning. He completely withdrew from everyone, and he was already a shy and moody kid as it was, so this only added fuel to the fire."
She stopped again. The atmosphere had changed, and i could tell that there was heavy news ahead.
"After about a year of them not being together is when everything reached a disastrous point. James's mother has always gone through more husbands than any natural human, so he was in rebellion against his new step dad, along with everything that had happened with Veronica, i guess James just hit his mental limit"
She paused once again, and i could see tears building up in her eyes. I was expecting her to tell me that James had done something horribly wrong to Veronica, but the new i received was much, much darker than that.
"What happened, Marie?" I asked gently, not wanting to cause her more grief. "Did James... Do something to Veronica?"
"No Dear" she answered "He tried to kill himself"
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DUN DUN DUN
hey guys, i know its been forever, like a year, since ive updated, and i wanted to thank everyone who read this and commented on this because you have inspired me to start writing again. Things have been crazy for me the past year, but i wont get into detail because thats boring. But yeah, i just edited all of the spelling errors in all of the chapters because holy fuck I never did that before i would publish so fuck my cringe worthy spelling lol. But thanks to anyone reading this right now, you really have made me happy, and i would love for you to leave a comment telling me your thoughts about this chapter and anything crazy that has happened to you in the past year :)
- Stevie
YOU ARE READING
First (James Yammouni)
FanfictionEmma Bates is from a small town in Louisiana where she had lived with her mother for sixteen years, and when her mother passes she's forced to move to California with her estranged dad and his new family.
