Love & Lies

Chapter Thirteen

Jessie stared at her phone for a moment after ending her call with her sister, Hannah, directly after talking to Rachel before placing it on the coffee table. She absolutely hated the way she felt no matter how cheery she presented herself on the phone and was glad after a couple of weeks of contemplating, tonight was going to be a done deal. That would also mean she could stop hiding things from everybody back home.

"But I wanted glittery folders!" a small voice cried from outside.

Completely having forgotten she opened her window by her dining table a couple of hours ago, Jessie finally realized that she still needed her air conditioner despite the cooling September weather.

Jessie began to close the window and spotted the backs of a tall, skinny woman with a little girl dragging her feet against the pavement. "I am not going to five different stores just for folders for school that are going to fall apart anyway," presumably the mother responded sternly.

Jessie quickly adjusted the thermostat, but her mind kept racing once it went back to not being busy as she sank back down on her couch. She was running out of ideas to keep herself busy as she already got the mail from yesterday, paid a few bills, fulfilled Jackson's needs, answered her e-mails, spoke with both sisters by phone, and made breakfast. She really had a feeling she was going to regret tonight and what made her feel even worse was even though she intended on paying for dinner, Jordan was not going to expect what she was going to do at all.

Knowing she was going to go mad or maybe even change her mind, she quickly dialed Brendan. It seemed so instinctual being that he did spend six days with her having to hear about her worries. She was expecting it to go to voicemail when she heard Brendan pick up in a raspy voice asking, "Hello?"

"Brendan? Are you alright?" Jessie asked with concern.

She heard him breathe into the phone. "Yeah. What time is it?" he asked, still sounding a little out of it.

"About a quarter to eight in the morning," she answered.

Nothing was said at first, but all of a sudden Brendan's voice seemed tense. "Oh, my God! Jessie! What happened? Did somebody find you? Are you safe?" he demanded all in one breath.

"I'm fine, Brendan. Don't worry. Nothing has happened since the Twitter thing weeks ago," she responded.

Again, Brendan stayed quiet at first. "Oh, shit. Was I supposed to escort you somewhere?" he questioned, his tone apologetic.

Jessie was a bit perplexed by Brendan's reasoning, but realized right away it was a bit early for her to be calling him just to chat. No wonder he thought something was wrong. "I guess I woke you. I'm so sorry. Please go back to sleep," she told him kindly.

He cleared his throat. "No, it's fine," he replied with absolutely no hint of annoyance in his voice. "You didn't sleep much, did you? You're worried about today."

"I've been up since yesterday morning," Jessie admitted with disgust. "This decision has been plaguing me for the past week and a half. Every time I have been with Jordan lately, I fall harder for him, but yet in the back of my mind I knew that I was contemplating exactly when I intended on breaking up with him. Now 'break-up day' is here and I feel like complete shit."

"Jess, I don't want you to feel I pressured you into doing this. I was just trying to help save you from a load of hurt in the end. If you really don't want to do this, please don't," Brendan insisted.

Jessie allowed her head to hit the armrest. "Don't think that at all. It's me who came to my senses on this matter," she explained. "Breaking things off now saves me from the inevitable reveal by Christmas. I just am unsure of how I am going to do this."