Love & Lies

Chapter Sixteen

"Holl, I'm not kidding!  You have to promise because I seriously don't know what to do," Jessie pleaded in a near hushed whisper despite being home alone with Jackson.  "I...I don't know what to do."

Despite decent weather for her outing with Lauren earlier, Jessie couldn't help but jump every time the wind rattled her bedroom windows making the upcoming storm known to all the occupants in her building.   "Jess, calm down," she commanded her friend on the other side of the phone sympathetically.  "You have security and you have been keeping to yourself, right?  I'm sure it is not as bad as you think."

Jessie sighed.  "Yes, but I haven't been fully honest with everybody here and I think I may somehow gotten myself into trouble without meaning to," she admitted.

"Please tell me," Holly insisted eagerly and with a lick of worry in her tone.

For a moment, Jessie thought she heard knocking at her front door but realized it was a small rumble of thunder in the distance.  Now I'm going crazy, she thought to herself.  I have to think clearly.

For a moment, she debated exactly how much to tell Holly.  The problem was she could not tell her about the anonymous letter without admitting her relationship with Jordan.  It wasn't because Holly would make a huge deal out of it, especially since the relationship was over.  Jessie just felt guilty for becoming so secretive and for the fact that the people who really should know and perhaps could help were being left in the dark.

"It all started not long after I moved in this flat or co-op or whatever they call it," she began before spilling every last detail from giving Jordan a second chance after a disastrous "first date" to today.  

"Why didn't you tell anybody about Jordan?" Holly asked softly after Jessie finally came up for air.

"I'm sorry for my secrecy, but I honestly don't know why I was being so stupid.  For everybody back home, I guess I didn't want anybody making a big deal out of it especially since I wasn't sure what would come out of the relationship and as I told you, Jenny warned me nothing good would come out of it.  I only told Brendan."

Jessie squeezed the pillow she was cradling on her side even harder as she anticipated her friend's response.  "You haven't noticed anything peculiar?  I know you didn't see anybody snap that Twitter picture, but have you noticed anybody familiar you keep seeing no matter where you go?" she asked.

Although she knew what her answer was going to be, she thought really hard anyway.  "Truthfully, no," she replied hopelessly a moment later.  "Nothing eventful has happened minus that subway incident with the fighting couple I told you about some time ago, but those people didn't know us.  The only thing that bothered me initially was...."

As soon as the image of Rob came to mind, Jessie nearly huffed in disgust.  The fact that her first image of him was seeing him in a heated discussion with Jordan really revealed his personality well.  The question that came to her mind, though, was why would he be following her when he didn't know her?   Whoever the writer of the letter was knew she was Jessie J.  Could he have known who she was and didn't say anything?

"What?!" Holly nearly shrieked in Jessie's ear.  

Snapping back into reality, Jessie now sat up in her bed leaning against the headboard.  "Sorry, Holl.  I was just thinking that maybe it was Jordan's friend, especially since this person cares too much about us being together," she told her and explained the scenario. 

As Holly was beginning to answer, she could envision her red curls shaking with her head as she answered.  "That doesn't make sense, Jess.  If he knew who you were, he would have told Jordan.  Besides, wouldn't your American accent have thrown him off?"