"Here's To Us" {Sequel to Fall For You}

Chapter 12: You are the only exception

Jacklyne's POV

"I hate my life," I mumbled. Me, Austin and my mom were watching Say Yes to the Dress and my poutine was gone and I wanted to say yes to a dress.

"You know, Jacklyne, I remember when you were going to therapy for anxiety and depression, your therapist gave you a sheet of paper with a bunch of thinking traps on them. Maybe both of you should put those in mind," my mom explained.

Now that I thought of it, this did kind of relate to that. "Austin, we're fortune tellers!" I yelled.

"I'm sorry?" He asked, sounding confused.

"The fortune teller is a person who thinks they know what's going to happen when we talk to that person. We're predicting that they're going to hate us forever but that's the anxiety talking!" I yelled, proud of my revelation.

"Great, you going to call first?" Austin murmured.

"You're taller, you should call first," I countered.

"My vote is that Austin calls first because he's a boy," my mom said, handing the phone to Austin.

"She's not going to answer," he mumbled.

"YOU'RE NOT A FORTUNE TELLER, AUSTIN!" I shouted.

"For fuck's sake, Jacklyne." He dialled a familiar number and put the phone up to his ear. He waited for a few rings, and then, "see? I told you- Lydia? Lydia, oh my god," Austin's eyes went wide as he stood up and walked into the other room.

"If I ever hear that language come out of your mouth..." my mom scolded, obviously talking about Austin's f bomb.

"Mom, I don't swear," I lied.

We waited for what seemed like hours, until Austin finally came back in and threw the phone to me. "Your turn, Majestic Medusa," he teased.

I immediately felt my anxiety build up I stared at the phone. "What happened? Is she mad at you? Were you right? Wrong?" I asked.

"Jacklyne," my mom and Austin said at the same time.

I sighed, immediately going into the other room. I sat down and stared at the phone. What was I supposed to say? Hi, I ran away to Canada because I think you're cheating on me. Goddammit, I'm so stupid!

I slowly started typing the numbers and put the phone up to my ear. Maybe I would get lucky and he wouldn't answer.

"Jacklyne?" His voice immediately brought me to tears. I really needed to learn how to control my tears. "Baby, please don't cry."

"I'm sorry," I managed through sobs.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I'm coming to see you with Lydia and we're going to talk about all of this. I don't care if you hate me, we need to talk this through because there are a lot of things that you're missing," Mike explained, his voice sounding weak as well.

"But-"

"I'm coming, Jacklyne. I love you and I'll see you in a few hours."

___

I was biting my nails so much. They were practically bitten down to the bone. My nerves were going crazy. Mike said we didn't need to pick them up, but what if he was mad?

"You two look like you're about to go into war," my mom commented.

We both glared at her and she put her hands up in defence before running upstairs, out of combat.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. It felt like Austin and I had been waiting for this for years, but it had only been several hours.

"Who's answering it?" I asked.

"Your house, plus I had to call first," Austin quickly answered.

I took a deep breath and stood up, slowly making my way over to the door. I opened it and there stood Mike and Lydia. They looked horrible.

I felt Austin behind me but we were all silent. We didn't really know what to do from here.

"Mike I... I need to talk to you," I said, turning around and making my way to the basement. I felt Mike behind me.

We both sat down and I started crying again. I could see that Mike looked guilty, but he didn't say anything.

"You deserve so much better than me," he muttered.

"It doesn't get any better than you," I replied. It was the truth. He was perfect and perfect for me.

"I wasn't cheating on you, Jacklyne. Alysha and I used to date and she wanted me back, but all I want is you. She's part of a different part of my life and it's over. I love you."

I sniffled and nodded. "I think what bothered me the most was your smile. You barely ever smile like that unless you're truly happy. You seemed so happy when you were with her."

"It was because I was thinking about you. We were talking about the engagement when she decided to take the picture."

I wiped my eyes, frantically trying to stop crying. "I'm such a fucking idiot," I murmured.

"You're not. You're perfect. There's nothing I would change about your paranoid, insanely cute personality," he said, finally wrapping his arms around me. "I love you so much."

"Do you love me enough to be engaged with me again?"

"Of course."