A Stormy Love

Chapter 16

*Jacob's point of view*

"Mr Hoggard? Jacob? Are you awake sir?"

The bright sunlight streamed through the curtain-less window. The only difference about this place and a jail was the fact that the walls weren't metal bars and there wasn't a lock on the door. But the feelings were the exact same. For half a year I've been surviving a living hell. After I awoke in the hospital I was shipped off to a facility in Los Angeles; I didn't even get to see my family... Were they even at the hospital after the crash? Why haven't they been looking for me? Do they even miss me?

Rolling over in the firm bed onto his side, he faces the small empty space in the middle of the room. Jake squints his green eyes at the woman in white scrubs standing at the door.

"You awake Mr Hoggard?"

"Fuck," he lets out a long breath of exhaustion and slams the pillow over his face showing his morning grumpiness.

"You get to go home today, remember?" the nurse said in a soft tone.

Home. That sounded like the most magical place on earth, even though it was only a 2 bedroom apartment in Vancouver. Anything is better than this place

*At the LAX airport later that day*

"Please have your boarding passes and photo ID out as you reach the desk. Flight 181 to Vancouver is now boarding." a woman's voice over the intercom echoed through the airport.

Standing up and joining the long line of people, the only thought going through Jake's mind was you. He missed your voice, your smell, your kiss. Every single day was physically painful being away from his true love. But that's all the past now; hopefully everything will be back to normal in a few hours. Or better than normal, it'd be great to have all the childish fighting behind you...

That's why he's going to ask you to marry him. He's been wanting to do this for quite some time now, but never found the right moment.

Every time he thought about purposing he heart jumped out of his chest and his palms started to sweat; but there's no one he'd rather spend his life with. Especially since you can never know when your last day is...live life like every day is the last. 'What a fuckin cheesy saying' Jake though, but it's true.

"Boarding pass please," the woman in the black business skirt said hardly even looking up at Jake.

Handing it to her, she looked at the name. "Jacob Hoggard?" she questioned quietly.

'Why is she so shocked...'

A few seconds pass as she stood there staring at him in complete awe.

Felling slightly creeped out Jake tried to fake a smile and grab his ID back from the flight attendant.

Making his way down the ramp and onto the plane, Jake started to realize many people have been giving him the same type of looks that the woman scanning plane tickets gave him.

'What in the fuck,' he thought to himself.

"Maybe I'm going crazy," he said under his breath as he found his seat in the middle of the plane.

The flight was obviously fully booked as people kept cramming into every available seat. A black haired girl, about 18, was the last one on the plane. She stuffed her backpack under the seat and quickly sat down beside Jacob. "Don't you just hate when you're running late for a flight," she laughed breathlessly trying to make small talk.

"I know what you mean," Jake chuckled.

"Do you fly a lot?" she asked, still not looking up from settling her belongings in her bag.

"More than you'll ever know," he laughed even though he was being completely serious.

Looking up from her magazines and other objects in her bag, she finally realized who she was talking to.

"Are you Jacob Hoggard?"

"Yeah," he said plainly.

"Oh my god..." she said under her breath, "but i thought you were dea--"

"You thought what?" he frantically responded.

"Nothing."

"No, wait what were you saying? What'd you think happened to me?"

"Nothing." She said looking down at her lap and quickly started blasting music in her headphones, avoiding contact with him for the rest of the flight.

'Strange....' he frowned. 'What's going on?'

"Please take your seat and prepare for arrival. We are now departing into the Vancouver area." A flight attendant said over the announcements.

After landing and retrieving all of the luggage, the cab ride through the city was painfully long. It was night by now and oddly, the city lights were refreshing. Everything about this place was amazing...great to be back.

 "That's 50 bucks." The cab driver said pulling up to the curb in front of Dave's house.

Giving him the money and hopping out of the taxi, Jake eagerly walks up the driveway to his best friends house. He decided to pay Dave a visit first so you and him could have the rest of the night to yourselves.

With a deep inhale and a quick knock on the door, a few seconds pass before someone opened it.

"(Y/N)???" he said so shocked that his voice cracked after seeing you opening the door...since you were basically living with Dave now.

There was complete silence after that. The look on your face was mixed with wide eyes and absolute awe and confusion.

"Who's at the door?" Dave said coming from the kitchen to thr front entrance.

Stopping in the middle of the hallway at the sight of Jake he almost fell to the wall trying to stabilize himself.

Jacob swallowed hard and tried to make sense of the situation.

Without blinking even once, tears started to well up in your eyes and your brow started to frown and wrinkle in confusion.

A few more minutes -that felt like hours- passed and suddenly you leap from inside the house into a giant hug into Jake's arm. He felt so warm and lovely in my arms. Oh god, how I missed this. 

Who knows how much time passed standing in that hug, but I wish we could stay like this forever.

"Jake?" Dave finally accumulated words and interrupted the moment. "How-- What--"

"It's nice to see you too man," Jake smiled entering the house, still holing hands with you.

"Yeah, but-- how are you alive?"

Stopping in his tracks, Jake stopped almost breathing in astonishment at what Dave just said. "Wha...what???"

"Jake, they announced you dead six months ago." My heart completely stopped when Dave "dead". It's unbearable just thinking about it.

The room went silent.

"Where were you Jacob?" you say trying to break the tension, but still very astounded.

Grabbing both of your hands and looking straight into your baby blues he starts to explain, "I need to tell you something... I was in rehab."

"Rehab for what," you ask trying not to expect the worst.

"You have every right to be mad at me..."

"Just say Jacob!" Dave shouted getting tired of all this 'beating around the bush' nonsense.

Jake swallowed and took a deep breath preparing for what he was about to say, "A while before the car accident, I started doing," there was a long pause and a break in his voice, "...cocaine..."