𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏 • 𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒆

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟏

J   A   K   E

When Jake Phillips was in seventh grade, he heard a bang from the downstairs of his house. It was two in the morning on a Sunday night ( Monday morning, actually, his best friend Heidi would have told him with a dorky smile, pushing up her glasses. Jake would have punched her lightly on the arm and laughed). He sat up, looking around his dimly lit up room. He's always had a problem with the dark, never wanting to be alone where he couldn't see his own hand in the air.

He pushes himself off of his mattress and opens the door slowly, trying not to let it creak. He can hear his father yelling, and the faint sounds of someone crying. He looks to his left and sees his younger sister, Jenna, hugging herself around the stomach and looking up at him with wide eyes. He shakes his head, motioning for her to go back into her room. When she's disappeared behind the door, he steps halfway down the steps until he can hear more clearly what his father is saying.

"Are you a fucking idiot ?" Jake flinches back at the loudness of his father's voice.

He strains to hear what comes next, but his mother is speaking so quietly he doesn't hear anything for a few seconds. A loud smacking sound can be heard.

"You will not speak to me like that," his father growls, his voice quieter but loud enough that Jake can still hear him, and fierce enough his mother seems to shut her mouth.

Jake just goes back up to his room and ignores the look Jenna gives him.

This goes on for a month before Jake is simply too confused to not ask.

"Dad?" He approaches his father quietly, not wanting to anger him.

He looks away from the TV, his eyes landing on Jake.

Jake shifts from foot to foot. He doesn't really know how to word it, but he can't find anything. He decides you just ask bluntly: "Why do you hurt Mom?"

His father looks unfazed by the question. He shrugs. "She messes up," he says, looking back at the TV. "Sometimes I have to teach her a lesson."

Jake figures the conversation is over, but there's one more thing he needs to know. "Do you love her?"
The look he gets in return makes something deep in his stomach churn. "Yeah," he says after a pregnant pause. "Of course I love her."

And that, Jake decides as his father trains his eyes back to the television, is a good enough answer.

"Your parents are nice to each other," Jack points out to Heidi after school one day during their freshman year of highschool. They're sitting in her room, Jake on the floor and Heidi on the bed.

Heidi is laying on her back, her head touching the floor and her glasses slipping down her nose. She looks at him with her her eyebrows pulled together. "Yeah," she says. "Yeah, they are."

In their senior year of highschool, Heidi confessed her feelings towards Jake and they started dating. A few months in, he ended up waiting outside of the school for an extra hour while Heidi sat in detention. He doesn't even want to know what she did - all he can focus on is the anger boiling in his stomach.

When he sees her figure stepping down the school steps, he stubs out his cigarette and gets into the front seat of his truck. She gets in with this big, dorky smile, immediately reaching forward to turn up the volume on the radio. Jake clenches his jaw.