Broken

Chapter XII

CHERISE'S POV

I wake up before Jay and gather my bra and pants. I don't want anyone to walk in and see us laying there together. They would automatically assume that we had slept together and to be honest they weren't far off. Although we hadn't seen each other naked, we had gotten pretty intimate.

Before leaving the room, I bend down and place a kiss on the top of Jay's forehead. I am tempted to kiss his chiselled jawline and slightly still swollen lips, but I restrain myself. I smile to myself and wonder how I got so lucky.

Closing the door as quietly as I can behind me, I slip into the corridor and walk the short distance to my room. I throw my underwear into the laundry basket and look to my bed. Same as yesterday the shoebox still has its contents spilled across my bed. I guess I was a bit pre-occupied.

I sigh deeply and begin to pack everything away. I try not to stare at everything and over analyse because I will just be put back into the state of mind again. I put the lid on the box and push it back under my bed. Glancing at the clock on the wall I climb under my covers. My bed feels cold and neglected, I kick my feet around and try to warm it up but to no prevail.

It's 06:23 on a Saturday. I guess there really is no correct time to wake up on the weekend. I roll of my bed landing on my feet and walk towards my en-suite. I grab my towel and my toiletries bag.

Drying myself and walking into my room at the same time I look at the time now. I had decided on having a bubble bath. The time now read 07:09. Just over 45 minutes that wasn't too bad for a bubble bath. I could spend hours in there on some days.

Looking through my closet for something relatively comfortable but still cute enough to impress Jay my eyes land on a shirt. It's an emerald green colour and has a deep neck. It is very fitted and shows off my bust and flat stomach. I grab a pair of my many bicycle shorts and pull them on underneath. Tucking the shirt inside I grab my phone of my bedside table and check the battery percentage.

Great, it's on 25%. I walk over to the power outlet by the windowsill and unplug my charging power bank. Taking the wire with me I plug in my phone and slip them both into the back pocket of my shorts.

I walk down the stairs quietly trying not to wake anyone. It's only on rare occasions that I get the house to myself on Saturday's. Grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl I write a quick note to everyone telling them I went for a walk. I sign at the bottom adding a kiss for everyone, even Jay.

. . .

I just lay there with my eyes closed for a while telling Asher all about Jay, how much I genuinely liked him and Zain and Jazzmyne, how they had been acting strange recently. I knew that Asher would not have like Jazzmyne if they had ever met. That was a big part of the reason I had never told her about him.

As I said before only Kimberli knew seeing as we had been friends for years and she grew up with all of us. I knew if I told Zain he would tell Jazzmyne and she would be hurt that I hadn't told her first, so as a solution I just kept it in close circles.

I heard heavy footsteps beside me, and I sat up opening my eyes. They widened in shock as I saw an equally surprised Darion walking towards me and Asher.

"Hey Cherise," he says awkwardly. "I didn't realise you were here." He rubs his neck sheepishly and looks slightly embarrassed. "Don't worry I was just passing by anyway. Don't want to interrupt or anything." He begins to walk away hurriedly.

"Come on D," I yell after him. He stops momentarily and turns around to face me. "He was your brother too," I add in a quieter voice. Even after all this while it still hurts to talk about him in past tense. I see Darion wince as well. He walks over to us slowly and sits down next to me.