4 a.m. // Jeggy

Chapter 23

The rest of the night was a blur, listening to everyone's teasing and drunken chatter. John drove my sisters and I home, not wanting Angelica and Eliza to get behind the wheel after drinking. They could go over and pick up the car later, when they're sober.

My sisters stumbled into the house, not really caring about their noise level as our father had texted and told us that he was staying overnight in a hotel in the city so he could get some work done. Once they were inside, John and I lingered outside the door for a minute. He leaned in and left a soft kiss on my lips, which I sunk into gladly. He wrapped his arms around me for a moment before pulling away.

"You know, it's so late now that we've been together for just over 24 hours." He said to me, looking as excellent as ever but I knew deep down that he was awfully tired. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we both hadn't slept a full night since the night before the concert, two days ago. He must be exhausted.

"Please be careful heading home. Don't fall asleep behind the wheel, okay? I can't date you in the future if you're not here for me to do that." I told him, looking up to meet his eyes. He nodded.

"Pinky promise, I'll be careful. It's only like two minutes anyway." He said, linking his pinky with mine. I nodded and gave him a little kiss on the cheek before we said our final goodnights and I went inside.

I stayed at the door, watching through the windows on the side to make sure he got to his car and out of the driveway and all that. Once he was out of my sight, I locked the door and leaned against it, sighing heavily. I felt like a weight has been lifted off my chest, but I was terrified at the same time. I didn't know what would happen if I tried to end things with James. I had done it once, sure. But I wasn't being threatened by him nearly as much at that time.

I pushed thoughts of him out of my head as I headed to bed, not wanting to have to change out of my jeans but knowing that sleeping would be even more of a struggle if I didn't. I sat on my bed, feeling drained, and slowly tugged my jeans and top off. I grabbed the nearest comfortable clothes and threw them on, calling it a night. I plugged my phone in next to me and pushed away the anxiety deep inside me before drifting off.

It seemed like my eyes had been closed for two minutes before I was awoken again. I could hear my sisters groaning, stumbling around the house a little bit. I could feel the sun dancing on my face, and I checked the time. It was nearly 11am.

"Peggy!" Eliza called, and Angelica shushed her a little bit for yelling to me.

"One sec!" I answered groggily, barely able to form a coherent thought since I had just woke up. I struggled to pull myself out of bed, rubbing at my face as I carefully navigated down the stairs. I hadn't had anything to drink last night, but my head was pounding nonetheless and I felt like the world was spinning. I had definitely gotten out of bed too fast.

Once I got down the stairs, I was met with Eliza looking to me, her mascara still smudged under her eyes from last night, wearing the same outfit as she had been the day before. She must've just tumbled into bed and called it good.

"Someone's at the door for you." She said, much quieter than before. I nodded and pressed my fingertips over my eyes for a moment before walking towards the door, hoping it wasn't anyone who would think I'd be weird for opening the door looking like this at 11am.

Unfortunately, I was met with the nightmare himself.

James gave me an evil, awful smile when he saw me, motioning with his finger to come with him. I could barely register myself stepping outside, barefoot, into the early fall air.

"It's been quite a few days since you've come to see me, Peggy. I'm sure you know that." He said once we were a little further away from the house. God, it was too early to deal with this right now.