Finding Jemima

Thirteen

MATTY

The next day, my head was pounding, I guess I ended up having one too many beers last night after all.  I dragged myself from my bed and staggered to the shower where I let the cold water wake me up.  I walked back past Jem's room where she was again still sleeping, I had not heard her in the night, but then again I was pretty out of it, but I hoped that she had had a better night.  I threw on some clothes and pottered downstairs where I found similarly weary looking boys plus Peter sat around the kitchen counter.

"Morning sunshine, you have a good birthday?" max grinned at me, he was far too chirpy for someone who had had the same amount of beers that I had had last night. I grunted at him and peter handed me a strong black coffee. I gladly accepted it and took a seat opposite him.

"Matty, Peter spoke to Jem yesterday" Tom began.

"Oh...and?" I asked hopefull but cautiously.

"What do you want to know" peter spoke up but his expression was now blank and hard to read.

"Jem, she said this was ok?" I sounded surprised, Peter nodded. We all sat in silence before peter spoke up first.

"She can't face you Matty, she saw your face, how deverstated you were when she first came here, She feels guilty for making you upset, she just can't face telling you anymore than she has, maybe she will one day but...." he stopped and looked behind me a confused look on his face. "Em!"

I spun round on my stool, Jem was stood there, her now pink hair was still as stunning as yesterday, she was wearing a band T-shirt of Tom's, looking still slightly sleepy from our late night.  She walked over to me and hugged me gently resting her head on me, I pulled her on to my lap and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Ok, let's do this" she said plainly

"You don't have to Jem, I'm sorry I pushed it" I rubbed her arms to reassure her.

She stood up and got her self some water, my thoughts flashed back to the second day she was here when she had dropped the glass on the floor.  I never had phoned Steve, and he had not been in contact once to check on Jem, I'm not sure if I'm surprised by that or not, I'm not sure what I'd say to him, I wonder if he's contacted Jem, she hasn't said anything, would she say anything? I was snapped out of my rambling thoughts by Milo clicking his fingers in my face, when I looked up everyone was smirking at me.

"This is awkward huh?" Jem was now sitting on Peters lap.

"Just a bit, I can't imagine how awkward this is for you Jem, I'm sorry" I agreed with her

"Hmmm" Jem nodded "sooooo?"

"Oh right I ummm" I stuttered before max spoke up

"Peter said you told your mum about Steve." max stated calmly

"Yeah I did"

"Keep going" peter encouraged Jem, as she shifted awkwardly on his lap and started playing with her hair. "Do you want me to?" Peter whispered to her but loud enough for us to hear, she nodded shyly. "Yeah so she told her a few times actually, so did I" peter continued on Jem's behalf occasionally looking down at her reassuringly or stroking her hair. "Once when we were really young right? Just after he...he..you know the first time he forced her to..."

"Oh right right Yeah I get what you mean" I guess it wasn't just me that was awkward about this topic and didn't want to say the words out loud, maybe that was the problem, we weren't being open with Jem, so how could we expect her to be comfortable. "So when was that?"