Looking After You

(22) Ages: 20 & 17

Ages: 20 & 17

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Jenny, happy birthday to you!” Jenny laughed as her parents sang to her, the phone sitting on her shoulder as she placed bookmarks in each of her school books so she wouldn't lose her place.

“Aw!” She cooed into the phone and leaned over her desk, suddenly getting a feeling in the pit of her stomach; a feeling of being unbearably homesick. “Thank you! I miss both of you.”

“We miss you too, honey.” Alison replied as they crowded around their speakerphone. “I can’t believe you’ve been gone for three months, it feels like years.”

“When are you coming home?!” Denise piped up from her place on the couch and Jenny automatically smiled at the sound of her voice.

“Aunt Denise! I miss you!”

She laughed her familiar, wholehearted laugh and answered through nothing but sincerity. “Oh, I miss you too.”

“How is everyone?” She swallowed the lump her throat and listened as the line went silent. There were only two people Jenny could have been asking about, two other people she cared about in the Jenson family, but Denise knew. Denise knew Jenny’s heart better than Jenny sometimes.

“Everyone is good.” Denise finally answered and her voice was softer and more complex somehow. “Everyone misses you.” Everyone was Jameson. It had been this unspoken understanding between her and Denise for the last three months. They never brought him up in any of their conversations but somehow she made sure to let Jenny know that he was okay, that he missed her and somehow things just weren’t the same without her.

“I miss everyone too.” Jenny responded and looked down at her desk to find she had a few envelopes sitting in front of her. She must have unconsciously pulled opened her desk drawer in the last three minutes she had been on the phone. That happened a lot since she left home, her mind would drift and within seconds she had done something she didn’t even remember doing or found herself someplace strange because her feet had wandered without her heads permission.

“So, what’s there to do in England for a girl's seventeenth birthday?” Keith asked from his position on the arm of the sofa. “And is it wrong to say I hope it’s staying in your room and playing pretend tea party?”

Jenny chuckled softly and found herself still staring aimlessly down at the letters on her desk. They were all addressed to her, all from one boy whom she made herself promise to forget. She should have known better than to make such a stupid promise. A lot happened in the last three months and a lot had changed since that day in his apartment nearly four months ago. She was right, that was the day everything changed but not necessarily for the reasons she thought. Trying to forget that day was as hard as trying to remember something that never happened. As much as she wanted to pretend that day never happened, it did and some things you can’t take back no matter how much you want to. Those are the things you don’t forget. “I was planning on going to dinner with a friend. We’re going to some super sophisticated English restaurant with fish and chips.” Jenny tried out her best British accent and failed miserably. She laughed at herself and her family joined in.

“What’s her name?” Alison questioned her daughter, feeling excitement for her. “The next time we do a video chat you should make sure she’s in the room so we can meet her properly. You girls have fun but not too much fun.”

“Your chariot of birthday fun awaits, my fair lady!” Jenny’s eyes widened at the loud outburst coming from the door of her dorm room. She quickly covered the mouthpiece of her phone and used her other hand to place a finger over her lips with a smile. “Shhh,” she said softly to the boy who had just barged in with a single red rose in his right hand. She snickered at his apologetic expression as he slowly moved back out of the door. Turning back to her phone conversation, she closed her eyes in hopes the boys outburst had gone unheard.

“What was that?” Her father asked almost immediately.

“Just some guys down the hall making a fuss. Look, I will call all of you later in the week. Maybe we can do a video chat, alright?” She spoke quickly, hoping to avoid any more questions.

“Guys?!” Her father exclaimed once more, practically yelling directly into the speakerphone. “Why are there guys in your hall?! Girls in one hall, boys in another, it was in the pamphlet!”

“Sorry, you’re breaking up. I’ll talk to you later! Love you!” She hung up the phone immediately after her last word and took a breath of fresh air. Fighting with her dad was a little different when she was halfway around the world. She always wanted to end their arguments with a simple push of a button. Quickly stuffing her letters back into the drawer in her desk, she stood up from her chair and flipped off the lamp. She had homework that needed to be done, but she had been cooped up for days and a seventeenth birthday seemed like one of the best excuses. Grabbing her jacket from the back of the door, she stepped out into the hallway and found the boy who had barged in earlier slumped up against the wall. She kneeled down in front of him and he held out the rose.

“Happy birthday.”

Smiling, she leaned forward and pecked him tenderly on the lips. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”

The boy was smiling back at her, but she sensed something was wrong. “Who was that on the phone?” Jenny found she was still adjusting to the British accents and she had to remind herself it wasn’t appropriate to ask him to keep talking just to hear him speak. She could just listen to his voice like a song on her iPod for possibly the rest of her life.

“Just my parents and my aunt.” Jenny’s looked off and shook her head. “Well, actually, she’s not really my aunt but I’ve just known her basically my whole life so aunt seemed appropriate when I was little.” She rambled out of excitement.

“So, it wasn’t Jameson?”

Jenny felt her heart jump slightly in her chest. It had been three months. Three months and her heart still did silly things just at the mention of his name. “No,” her smile turned into a frown as she looked down at the carpeted hallway floor.

“He’s going to call, you know he will.” His voice was sure but Jenny was quite sure of the opposite. He had written letter after letter, nearly one every week but three months and he never called. Maybe if she bothered to read his letters they would explain why but she never did, not one and he still never called.

She shook her head and a small smile slowly began to reappear. “No, he won’t.”

“It’s your birthday. I know if it was me, I would.”

He smiled sweetly back at her and she stood to her feet, pulling him along with her. “Alec, I don’t want to talk about Jameson. It’s my birthday and I want to be here, with you.” She met Alec her first week in England. He was a student at the school she was attending for the next six weeks. They talked a lot the first couple of weeks and he even showed her around the city. He learned a lot about her family and she confided in him about James. She learned that he lived in America for the first five years of his life and liked to hang out in pubs with his friends almost every weekend. England was an entirely different world with ten times more rain. She loved the experience but lately she had been feeling more and more homesick. Alec was the only person who made that feeling less noticeable.

He held out his hand and she gladly took it. As they began walking down the hall, she heard her phone ringing from inside her room. She looked back for just a moment but she didn’t stop and neither did Alec. The sound grew softer and softer until finally, it stopped and there was nothing to do but keep moving.  

~

Cue the Macaulay Culkin face in Home Alone!

What has happened? Find out in the next chapter ;) Something big, ladies and gentleman...something big...and possibly heartbreaking :/

Please leave a comment and I will upload the next chapter, which is actually going to backtrack and explain the craziness!! :D