Love & Lies

Chapter Thirty

Everything was so dark that Jessie realized that the hype about the winds cutting out their electricity tonight were true.  That poor kid's birthday, she thought.  I should text Jordan to see if he is alright and if we wants me to come.  Did I call Linda yet?  Is that my phone ringing?

Jordan carefully propped a pillow behind Jessie's head as she lay blocking his doorway.  Rob flicked on the overhead light.  "What the hell did you do to her?" Jordan demanded as he lightly slapped Jessie's cheeks.

Rob grunted as he made a beeline for the kitchen sick.  "All I did was pull her inside and she passed out," he explained coolly while running a paper towel under the cold water.  He walked towards Jessie's body and slapped the wet towel into Jordan's hands not caring about the mess he made.  "Here.  This should get her up."

Is it raining now?  Am I outside? Jessie thought to herself and slowly began to feel a pulsing sensation in her head.  

"I don't think this is working," Jordan remarked in annoyance turning towards Rob.  

Jessie let out a soft moan and began to open her eyes completely confused.  "My head really hurts," she announced in a somewhat garbled American accent as her eyes slowly focused on the overhead light.  

Jordan leaned over Jessie's wakening form.  "Jess?  Are you alright?" he asked removing the damp paper towel from her face.

Blinking a few times, she raised her two hands to her head.  "Yeah, I think so," she replied, her American accent becoming stronger.  "So I did come here afterall.  I'm extremely confused."

Helping her at least sit up, Jordan was sure the wall would support her body.  "Jordan, what happ-" she began when her eyes finally found Rob's face and the memories came flooding back.

"Jess, don't be afraid of him," Jordan assured her as he squatted in front of her gently touching the sides of her arms. "He shouldn't have been rough with you like that."

Although Rob continued to stand there appearing completely heartless, he shrugged.  "I'm not going to murder you or anything.  I don't feel like going to jail," he chimed in.

Rolling his eyes, Jordan continued to stare into Jessie's eyes to make sure she was alright.  "I know you want to know what's going on, but I want you to feel okay first," he told her.  "I didn't text you to come down for a reason or else this whole situation could have been avoided.

Jordan stood up, but stretched out his hand to help Jessie up.  With the pain shooting around in her head, Jessie began to rise on her own refusing to take his hand.  However, she began to topple to her left causing Jordan to catch her.  "Let's get you sitting down on the couch," Jordan urged.

His one-bedroom co-op also had an open layout, but his small living room was in front of the kitchen making the walk to the brown suede-like couch a rather fast trip.  Jessie plopped allowing her aching head to take comfort in the soft cushioning.  She thought hard and realized the last memories she could gather were talking to Linda on the phone and cleaning up after dinner.  She recalled grabbing her purse sometime afterwards but everything was fuzzy.

"So you really don't remember me answering the door?" Rob finally asked, his brown eyes searching her agonized face.

Jessie shook her head not at all liking his nasty tone.  With him here and the fact that something horrible obviously had happened involving her, her fear sharply heightened and although Jordan helped her to her feet, her suspicions were re-increasing.  "Maybe I don't want to know," she nearly whispered not meeting anybody's eyes.  With the room nearly spinning, Jessie fell down almost as fast as she got up.