A little too late

Chapter 44

Jack and I sit in the car in front of my house. Jack turns to face me as I continue to stare in to my house.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asks me. I look at him nervously. His face is full of concern and I guess I understand why. I don’t know what he is thinking, but I hope he knows that I will choose him over Sam.

“I don’t have a choice” I reply to Jack. He shakes his head in disagreement.

“Tell me to take you back to mine and I will Stella. You don’t have to see him. He broke up with you like two weeks ago” He reminds me. A tear suddenly comes to my eye as I think of our break up. Jack immediately goes to comfort me by putting his hand on mine. I wipe away some of my tears and he uses his other hand to help me out.

Eventually, I nod and proceed to exit his car. Jack does the same and follows me to the front door. I’m about to open the door and walk in when Jack stops me by putting his hand on mine.

“Uhm... Do you want me to... wait outside?” He asks awkwardly. I look in his eyes and try to read him but he’s so damn good at hiding his feelings that it’s hard to tell. I decide to go for whats best for me considering that I have no idea how he feels about all of this.

“Please come with me?” I ask him. He lets out a little sigh and nods his head. I try to figure out whether that was a sigh of relief or frustration but I just can’t tell.

The moment I walk in the door I can see Sam sitting on my couch all alone. My family are in another room all talking to themselves. As soon as they see Jack next to me their faces light up. They just love Jack and hate Sam. I don’t know why they do but it just seems to be the case.

As my family comes to greet Jack, I see Sam come to greet me. He tries to come and hug me but I immediately step back. I don’t realise that our floor is slippery and I manage to trip over a little. Luckily for me, Jacks hands find my back and stabilise me.

Sam looks hurt as I avoid his touch. The moment he then sees Jacks hands on me, his face just immediately turns bright red in ager.

“What the hell is this Stella?” Sam asks me as he looks me up and down.

I shake my head in disgust, “you have no right to judge me Sam”.

“I fly over all this way to find out that you’re just whoring it up with another guy” He spits out in spite. His words hurt me and I immediately look down. I’m about to reply when Jack beats me to it.

“Don’t fucking call her that” He replies protectively. He moves me back so that he is now standing in front of me. I look around and my family just stand and observe me from the sidelines. They do nothing to stop the commotion. My mum is in fact smiling at Jack proudly, loving how he is standing up for me.  

Sam gets even more angry, “I’ll call her whatever the fuck I want, she’s my girlfriend!”

This time I’m the one to talk, “Girlfriend? You broke up with me over the phone! Or don’t you remember that because you were too busy fucking another girl?”

He bites his lip, “I wasn’t with another girl”. I look at him and try to figure out if he’s lying. It’s obviously that what he said was far from the truth. Unlike Jack, I can read this guy like a book. He can’t act for shit.

“Oh what, so you were with a guy? Great, I turned you gay!” I say sarcastically. This causes Jack to snicker. He doesn’t move from his protective stance over me and I thank him mentally for that.

He finally takes a deep breath and calms down, “Stella, it’s not like that. I promise. Just let me explain to you”.

Jack chirps in quickly, “No. You’ve had your chance. Now leave.” Jack uses his hands to point to the door. I now shift my anger over to Jack. How dare he tell me what to do? If theres anything I hate, it’s being told what to do.

“You really think I’m going to listen to you? Who the fuck are you?” Sam asks him. I can see Jacks hands curl up into a fist and I grab it quickly so that it doesn’t end up in Sams face. Jack’s over reacting already and it’s starting to piss me off. But even more, I hate the fact that Sam doesn’t know that we are together.

“He’s my boyfriend” I quickly chirp in. Sam looks at me shocked but then shakes his head sadly.

“So, what you’re just going to give up on us so fast?” He asks me.

I roll my eyes and say, “you’re such a hypocrite”.

He looks down and takes a step towards me. Jack moves in front of me more to stop him. This makes Sam step back a couple of steps.

“You know Stella, I really cared about you. All I want is a chance to explain” He says to me sadly, trying to convince me to talk to him. I look at him and suddenly feel sorry for him. I mean, he did travel all the way up to Australia and I should probably give him the chance to say what he wants. For all I know he might actually have a decent explanation.

I’m about to agree with him when Jack beats me to it, “no way in hell. Now fuck off before I make you”.

I look at Jack in shock. I’ve never seen him so pissed and I don’t think I’ve ever been so pissed at him. How dare he make my decisions? I look away from Jack to stop myself from hitting him or something and instead I look at Sam. He doesn’t look that scared of Jack. I’m sure that deep inside he is shitting his pants, but on the outside he seems calm and collected. I, on the other hand, am freaking out. So much is happening. On the one hand I want to hear what Sam says, but on the other hand if I agree to do so, then Jack will probably kill him. Well, it looks that way at the moment anyway.

I look to the ground and finally say, “Please go. I can’t do this right now Sam”. I tell him. I’m about to add in that we can talk later but then I look at how pissed off Jack looks and I hesitate. I don’t think Jack could use any more assault charges to be honest.

Sam looks at me sadly and mutters, “you know how to contact me”. I give him a nod and he walks out. Thankfully, Jack is so focused on Sam that he doesn’t even see me nod.

Sam slowly walks out of the house and down the street to God knows where. Jack immediately turns to me when he’s gone.

“Are you alright?” Jack asks.

“Are you?” I fire straight back. He looks at me confused and then realises that I’m kinda pissed off at him for his behaviour.

He squints his eyes in anger back at me. Oh, shits about to go down.