Lovers

Ch. 10: Roll Call

A/N: I feel like people may be confused, and I'm sorry for the miscommunication. For now, I'm in the process of editing Benefits, and I finally was able to muster up the money (shits expensive as hell) and the courage to contact a professional editor. I'm hoping Benefits is published by the end of this year... The first 50 chapters are going to be the first book. The second book will be the last 50 chapters of Benefits. Please help me figure out a title because I'm struggling hella. Meantime, I will be finishing Lovers for all my die-hard fans who've been craving a new chapter. 

Roll Call- The Neighbourhood

They've got control of you, soldier. Put you in the field with a gun to shoot and kill 'em all. Just play your part, little solider. Marchin' left, right, left, right

The closer we ride towards our hometown, the more I miss everything, including my mother. I should visit her since I'm down here. It's the least I can do.

Alice and Casper. Even Reese. I miss them all so much, and the memories, whether they were good or bad, they formed who I am today. Jake has been silent thus far since our compromise, only giving me some directions that I've forgotten.

I've tried to forget those parts of my life. The fight. The interrogation where it ended with the police being summoned. Everything in between, but life's funny like that. Even during the bad times, there are still those days where Jake and I would just be in bed, touching finger tips, laughing in the sheets. And I wouldn't regret living through those horrid moments in my life if it meant that I would see the good ones. No matter how insignificant those moments might have been for someone else, they were everything to me.

The roads begin to grow darker, and every once in a while, Jake veers me in the right direction as I've forgotten some turns on the way. I didn't realize how nervous I was until I was wiping sweat on my leggings every few minutes. I wonder what Jake is feeling right now? Since I've known Jake, I could read him like a book, now he's so shut off, like when I met him before. It's like there's a barricade around him, but the times he does begin to speak, I just want to scream at his empty words.

When we are about a mile away, I begin to remember. It's like clockwork flashing through my mind. So many different times I've driven down this same road-- Out of curiosity, love, fear, all at the same time in the end. It's familiar, like a touch. So simple and warm. Like the weather now. But I don't feel warm, and this isn't a touch I yearn.

"Turn this corner." Jake directs me down an alley across the Underground sewers. I like to call now, the long walk of doom. I don't know how I want to go about this; I've been winging it since we left this morning.

"So, how do we go about this?" I ask.

He turns to me but says nothing. He only pops his seatbelt off and gets out of the car. I follow suit. "For the most part, you're safe. On our way here, I notified my men of your arrival. They're more loyal to me than JC."

"Does JC know?" I try to speed my walk.

"No. Element of surprise." He answers dryly. "I didn't know how to tell him over the phone. Oh, hey, man. You know Dawn, yes her... she's here, and well she wants to be friends with me again. That doesn't sound usual."

"How can you be certain your men haven't told him yet?"

"Because they're loyal. Dawn, I'm the leader now," he stops his pace, and turns to me, "Which means they look to me for authority. And somehow I'm doing the right calls, or they'd follow JC instead. They yearn for my approval, and though you see me as a fuck up, I didn't fuck up being a leader."

"I didn't call you a fuck up." I furrow my brows. "I never would." He doesn't say anything but turns his heel away from me. I follow once more down the deep sewers. The smell of this place will never be unsettling. Once the amass door is in full view, memories of Alice and I flood in. I was here that day to make sure Jake didn't overwork himself. He was doing it out of distraction because he couldn't get a hold of me.