Cheated (Phan)

Chapter 8

I'd found something about Jack that annoyed me. It was pretty minor, but I'd literally never had this happen before - I found all of his little habits cute really, and until The Breakup the only thing we'd ever disagreed on was music. So when I realised I had found something about him that could drive me absolutely insane at times it took me a while to fully accept it.

He was possessive and got jealous far too easily. It actually led to our first fight as a remade couple. He'd been a bit possessive before, but it had just never bothered me - he'd never been jealous before which to me meant that he trusted me but simply didn't trust other people as much or that he disliked being away from me. Both meant he loved me, so I didn't mind if he came along and slipped his arm around my waist or into my hand when I was talking to someone. Now however, he'd taken the possessiveness and jealousy to a whole new scale.

Whenever I was talking to anyone, boy or girl, as long as they were our age he would be there. He seemed to have developed a sixth sense for when I was interacting with any human being and always appeared by my side to show that I was his and that no-one else could say the same. It was with Dan that he was the worst.

He never said anything really, just tried to get my attention so I would ignore Dan. He would come up behind me and wrap both arms around me waist, resting his head on my shoulder. If Dan made me laugh he would alternate between shooting him ice cold looks and distracting me with little butterfly kisses from behind - on my shoulder, my neck, just under my jaw, anywhere he could reach. It depended on my mood, but lately that pissed me off more than it pleased me. Every time I tried to have a normal conversation with Dan, Jack would appear again and try to divert my attention away from Dan, and it would keep grating on my nerves until I told Dan I'd text or call him later.

Naturally however, whenever I said that to Dan, Jack would find an excuse to be at my house that same day, or invite me round to his. Of course I always said yes - annoying distraction habit aside I still loved being with him and talking to him, so whenever I had the chance to spend time with him I took it, it just bothered me a little sometimes.

Then one time Jack really took it too far.

*****

"I don't care if you think Pikachu is a crappy pokemon - he's still fantastic ok?"

Jack just laughed and elbowed me gently in the side. It was our break time and we were standing outside the art block and leaning against the wall next to the doors as we waited for the bell to ring for the next lesson. Jack didn't even do art, he'd just come to keep me company so I wouldn't be waiting alone.

It was just as Jack opened his mouth to retort that Emma appeared in front of me with a nervous looking expression.

"Um, Phil can I... Borrow you for a bit?"

Her voice broke on the word 'borrow' and I instantly felt worried, letting go of Jack's hand to step forward and hug her.

"Yeah of course, come on."

I gently guided her away from Jack a bit and shot him an apologetic look over my shoulder, and surprised myself by already half expecting the scowl on Jack's face, clearly aimed at Emma. When he saw me looking he smoothed his face out into a half smile that didn't reach his eyes, so I twitched my nose at him and turned back to Emma.

"What's up?"

She looked up at me for a minute with really big eyes and every time she opened her mouth they filled with tears that she blinked away before trying again. Eventually she choked out what she wanted to say, and I just couldn't think of anything to do other than wrapping my arms around her again.