Love Finds You

Love Finds You - Part 14

Chapter 14

            Jen woke up early Sunday morning. The last couple days had been filled with fitful sleep and agonizing days. As Jen opened her eyes she felt, once again, the rock that had settled in the pit of her stomach; the gnawing, dreaded, sinking feeling this whole affair had become. She couldn't believe her life had come to this; manipulating people to get money in order to keep making money. Jen had grown up well off. She hadn't known it when she was little, but once high school starts everyone knows whose parents have money and whose do not. Life had been a money game from the time she was a teenager and she was getting sick of playing.

Jen had spent most of the day before on the phone with Roger, who all but commanded her to stick out the rest of the summer. She hadn't done anything wrong, he had told her. She just got put in an awkward situation. Jen had listened but resented every word. Of course, he could say that, he wasn't the one that was here, dealing with everything. The more she talked to her father the more she realized he had no sympathy for what she was going through, and that made her angry.

After lying in bed for almost two hours Jen decided to get up. She couldn't lie there and think about how twisted her life had become any longer. She made her way down the stairs in her pajamas and sat down at the kitchen table, not even attempting to hide her gloom. Carmen meowed loudly outside the screen door. Normally, Jen would give her a little something to eat, but this morning she just stared aimlessly at her until the orange cat got bored and walked away.

"Rough night?" Aunt Gabby asked as she came in through the sliding screen door. She had her sun hat on and was taking off her garden gloves.

"Yeah, I'm just not feeling very well," Jen told her. At least that wasn't a lie.

"Well cheer up girl!" Aunt Gabby sang. She put a hand on Jen's shoulder. "It's a beautiful day outside. Would you like to go on a morning walk?"

"No thank you, not today. I don't really have the energy."

"Well, that's the best time to go! But we don't have to today," she added quickly. She moved to the cupboard and began pulling things out. "I hardly saw ya yesterday," she went on, "how was your date?"

"It was fine," Jen remarked, not wanting to get into it but knowing she didn't really have a choice. If there was one thing Aunt Gabby loved, it was a good, juicy story.

"Oh, come on now," Aunt Gabby said as she cracked a couple eggs in the mixer, "give me more than that. I'm old. I need to live vicariously through you."

Jen smiled. "He took me camping. Well, not actually camping, but there was a fire and logs and dirt. And we roasted our dinner over the fire."

"That sounds so much like him." Aunt Gabby's voice always took on a different tone when talking about Zack. Now that Jen knew more of their history together, she understood why.

"It was really quite nice. I'll admit I had a better time than I thought I would."

"Well then, why the long face?"

If only I could tell you. If only I could let it all out without you hating me forever. If only... if only.

"It will never work between us. I live in New York and I don't do long distance relationships. I can't even make them work under normal circumstances." Jen could feel her frustration rising to the surface. She should be mad at Zack for putting her in the situation in the first place. What was he thinking? What was she thinking?

"You can make anything work if you feel there is something to work for," Aunt Gabby said, a wise tone in her voice.

"It doesn't matter because I don't even like him."