I found myself in Jess’s bed sometime later. She had told me to go lie down and honestly I was too drained to argue or claim that I was fine. I wasn’t fine. I knew that and I would be stupid to think Jess wouldn’t see through a lie like that. So I laid there curled up under the covers while I stared blankly at the wall.
I didn’t know what Jess was doing but I knew she was still in the house. I could hear her walking around downstairs while talking to someone. She was obviously talking on the phone but I wasn’t really paying attention enough to try to hear what she was saying. I was way too hung up on what happened just over a half hour ago.
I had just turned over onto my back to stare at the ceiling when I heard Jess enter the room. I felt the bed shift and turned my head to look up at her as she leaned against the headboard. I noticed she had her laptop with her and she was looking a bit tense. Not that it was surprising all things considering.
“What are you doing?” I asked quietly as she turned on her laptop. I scooted closer to her so my head rested slightly against her hip. I heard her sigh softly as she moved her hand over to play with my hair idly.
“My twitter has been blowing up today with people asking who you are. I was gonna see what kind of news story must have popped up today,” she explained.
I stayed quiet as I watched her browse a few different websites. I wasn’t even surprised when she came across a photo of us from today. It was when we left the hospital earlier and Jess clearly had her arm protectively around my waist. It’s not like we could deny anything anymore.
“You can tell them, you know,” I said out of the blue. Jess looked down at me in confusion then, not quite understanding what I was saying.
“What?”
“You don’t have to keep me a secret anymore. I mean unless you want to but everything’s really starting to add up, you know?”
“I know what you mean,” she agreed. “Still. Is that what you want?”
“Is that what you want?” I countered. I sat up and mimicked Jess’s position with my back rested against the headboard so that I could see her face clearly. I saw a small smile cross her lips as she thought about her answer.
“It would be nice to be able to hold your hand in public,” she said as she moved her hand to grasp mine. “Plus I could take you out more often without having to worry so much. But then you’ll start getting harassed by the press as well, you know. They’ll want to find out things about you and it can be overwhelming…”
She trailed off and I pondered over her words for a few moments. I knew it would be overwhelming to have myself looked into by the public. But then again I’m not the one who’s famous. In the end, all they’re interested in is Jess.
“I’m sure all that would blow over with time though,” I stated calmly. “I love you and that’s all that really matters to me. Fuck what anyone else thinks, right?”
“Right,” she smiled before leaning over and kissing me gently just for a moment. She shut her laptop and set it on the floor next to the bed before getting underneath the covers with me. I laid back down on my back while Jess scooted over to me, resting her head on my shoulder with her arm draped over my stomach. I sighed in content as I was once again in my happy place. Everything that happened from earlier seemed to almost dissipate and I felt much more at ease now. We laid in silence for a long time and if it wasn’t for Jess’s fingers idly tracing patterns around my waist I would have thought she’d have fallen asleep.
“Elena?” Jess said quietly into the silence.
“Yes?”
“Can we talk about what happened earlier?” she asked cautiously. I felt my body automatically tense up as I immediately registered what she was referring to. It was obvious what she was referring to.
