Dissociative Psyche ✦ J. Riley | ✓ [book 2]

11~ Basis of Violence

"People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they'll react. But if you say, 'We want peace, we want stability,' we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society."

~ Nelson Mandela

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Two days had passed, and when Jenna woke up that Saturday morning, a feeling of dread had overtaken her.

Today was Freddie's funeral.

She sighed and turned over, finding the other side of the bed empty once again. Jake promised her that she'd accompany him to the funeral, he wasn't the type to bail out on her. And she was right. A few second later, he emerged from the conjoined bathroom in sweatpants while ruffling a towel through his hair.

"Good morning, sleepy bones," he smiled down at her, but Jenna didn't smile back.

"Good morning," she huffed. He threw the towel into the corner and sat on the edge, pushing some loose hair out of her face.

"Just between you and me, I prefer our shower," he said.

"I miss our bed," she said, "This one's too hard,"

"You mean it hasn't been broken in, yet," he started to smirk. Jenna scowled and pinched the inside of his elbow.

"I almost don't want to go today," she said, "Because if I go, then it becomes real," Jake's smile disappeared, and he placed a kiss on her temple. He knew what she meant; all of this drama within the passed week, it all seemed so surreal. Jenna had been on autopilot of most of it, only breaking it when she found herself to be of use to their investigation. Jenna would've likened it to a bad dream she would wake from. But going to Freddie's funeral? Seeing on the friends and relatives? That made it all real, and that was something she didn't want to confront.

"I know he was your friend, he's lucky to have had someone like you in his life," he said.

"All the guys in school would tease me because he used to brag that he was my first kiss," she rolled her eyes, "He was a brat... but he was my friend,"

"He sounds like a great guy," Jake said.

"I think you would have liked him," she replied. He looked over at the bedside clock, blinking the time in bright red: 7:03 AM. The service wasn't until ten.

"It's seven right now. What do you want to do?" he asked.

"Can we just lay here for another hour and a half?" she said. He chuckled and laid down next to her, pulling her close and giving her another kiss.

"You got it, babe," 

Jenna settled in, taking in his scent of patented leather and fresh shower soap. Her fingers lazily traces patterns of sorts across his skin, all the while she tried to blink back her tears.

"I don't care what happens in the future. I want you to promise me something," she said.

"Anything," he replied.

"No matter what happens today, or tomorrow... who cares? Don't let me run away from my problems. Because I've tried it and it never really worked in the past," she wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke. Jake felt the inclination to pull her in tighter, going back to that time almost two years ago when he asked Katie to make that same promise.

"You've got my word,"

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