G O L D E N | why don't we |

| T H I R T Y - S I X |

"you've got all of me, I belong to you" - brett young

Jessie lay facing Jack in their hotel bed, he was fast asleep in the wee morning hours and she knew she had to wake him because they were leaving for Tennessee soon but he looked so peaceful, how could she?

She reached over to him running her fingers gently through his curls, her eyes studying the bruising still evident around his eye and the cheekbone. As her fingers brushed over the bruise, Jack began stirring in his sleep. Jessie went back to running her fingers through his hair and eventually, his eyes fluttered open looking at her.

They laid there staring at each other for a few moments, soaking in one another both just woken from sleep. Jack moved his arm from being under his pillows and brushed hair behind Jessie's ear, letting him see her face better.

"Hi." she whispered, her voice still heavy with sleep, Jack chuckled softly, his bruised eye squinting at her now.

"Hi." he replied letting his fingers slip down her cheek to her lips, he traced the shape of them before grabbing her chin and pulling her closer for a kiss.

"We have to leave soon." Jessie said making Jack pout, "No, I don't want to, I just want to lay here with you." he whined burying is face into her neck, Jessie giggled wrapping herself around him so they were a tangle of limbs.

"I don't want to either, but come on we gotta get up my love." Jessie pressed a kiss to his head and unwrapped herself from him and tried to get out of the bed but he pulled her back kissing her passionately leaving her breathless, "You sure you still want to get up?"

"We-we can lay here a little longer." Jessie responded as Jack's hand was already slipping into the band of her sweatpants.

✧

"Come on you two, you're going to be the reason we're behind on schedule!" Leylah yelled as Jessie and Jack took their time walking out of the hotel, everyone else were already in the van waiting on them.

"Sorry, we got a little...caught up." Jack said biting back a smirk as he stuffed their bags in the trunk, Leylah squinted her eyes at him and then rolled her eyes.

"Just get in the van, you could've waited until the next state if you wanted to make babies."

Leylah was designated driver to Tennessee, bouncing in the driver's seat as she drove. It had been almost three years since she had been back in Tennessee, it was where she used to spend her winters growing up, it was where her father resided. Leylah was excited but couldn't shake the nerves of being able to see her father again. Though he loved his daughter as he did the rest of his children, he was especially harder on her. She was the youngest of his three daughters and the most ambitious, and in his eyes, he only wanted the best for her, even if it meant stomping on every dream she had as a child because he didn't see they fit for what he imagined for her.

She loved her father though, she admired him in certain things he did, but the fear of him meeting Zach when she didn't exactly mention that he was included in her visiting him, she just knew it was going to tick him off, not that she really minded of course.

Leylah was playing her country playlist, In Case You Didn't Know by Brett Young playing through the speakers. The windows were down and she was blasting her country music, back home it was such a crime to blast your country music but in the state of Tennessee, it was a proud thing and it comforted her.

The group was quiet during the beginning of the drive, the sun had barely risen yet and most of them had fallen back asleep, Zach had his head on Leylah's lap fast asleep, and every now and then she'd run her fingers through his hair whenever he looked in discomfort.