Vacation Stay // Jack White

Chapter 16: Everything You've Ever Learned

Time tiptoeing,

bit by bit to

seconds by seconds.

Passing by.

How long has time passed?

Have you ever felt this way? After waking up from the state of dreams, that was not so intended to be a slumberland. When you have lost track of time and cannot see things straight. Not immediately recalling what you were supposed to be doing in the first place. With no grasp of the current situation that you were in, a lost little lamb.

It was that exact feeling.

For her.

Megan gradually regained her vision as she struggled to fully open her eyes. It was still blurry, everything was not clear enough for her at the moment. But she recognised the man sitting right opposite. Everything about him, was too distinctive for her. It was the man who had been haunting her dreams.

Occupying all. From mind, body, to basically her whole being. A wrap with no out.

While she tried to get herself sitting upright and completely conscious, he was there in sight with a keen eye.

For the entire time since Megan's eyes opened, Jack had his own fixated on her. There was a towel hanging around his neck. They were clearly used and worn out. His sweat was less visible compared to an hour ago, but his hair was still a definite mess. He neither made a move nor a sound, with worries about how it could potentially alarm her too greatly. As soon as he noticed that she was awake, he quickly lunged forward and sat up in an upright posture, like he was agitated by something. He seemed to be in a much more uptight mood for some unknown reason. Only to her.

Megan naturally helped herself up to a proper sitting position, getting ready to face the impending doom of a conversation that she had been not exactly looking forward to complete.

"You are awake..." He uttered a hazy rasp softly, as he continued to keep his eyes fixated on her.

The first sound she heard since her awakening. It finally caught up to her that the Jack White was right in front of her. This was not a hallucination. Not a pigment of the malnourished woman's imagination. Gradually recalling why they were together in the first place.

The man was never the most patient. He often acts on impulse in stressful situations, a stimulus that pushes his buttons. All it takes is just one phrase from another that implies a form of stain on the Detriot-grown rockstar...Would lead to an unleash of snarky remarks that may sometimes lead to brawls.

Yet, for once in his life, he held it all back.

In waiting for who knows for how long. And it was just all for her.

"Y-yeah. So what do you wanna talk about?" She gulped in fear, announcing each word slowly.

When she finally locked eyes with his, the eye contact sent shivers down her spine. The anxiety in her had gotten a bit out of hand. Although it is a well-known fact by now that Jack always had an effect on her (closer to the end of being vexing enough), this time it was too much. Yet he did nothing but stay stern, the one that was unsettling her core the most. For when the man was quiet, he's more unnerving than his mouth opened.

"I'm thinking."

Huh? You gotta be kidding me?

"I'm fucking leaving, you pass the card to Ben. I better have it by tomorrow morning."

Guess she's going to need to crash in Ben's room for the night.

What a waste of time.

Each second that she continued to be there in his presence, made her more uncomfortable than ever. The creeping thought of a certain awkward memory was the icing on the cake. Shifting her into a headspace of unholy thoughts that she was not supposed to even think of.