Nothing in my life had prepared me to deal with situations like this. Up until now, my life consisted of sitting at home with Milo, shopping/partying/hating myself with Jane, and that’s about it.
I’d barely even kissed a boy, I’d never driven a car, or been out of the tri-state area. My father left before I was two, and my mother spent my whole life working continuously so we’d have just enough to survive.
I knew nothing about life, and here I was, preparing to give it up in exchange for something I didn’t truly understand.
Jack pulled up in front of me within six minutes of me making the phone call, and I didn’t understand how he could possibly get around that fast. But here he was, grinning at me tiredly behind gigantic sunglasses. I hopped in the car and decided that I was too tired to question anything. I just wanted to get to his house and take a nice, long sleep.
When we got to his house, Jack showed me to my room. It was the guest room at the end of the hall upstairs, the bedroom in the turret. I felt like Juliet or Rapunzel.
The walls were rounded and there was a balcony in the back. It’d been painted a soft lilac that eerily matched the walls of my own room, and the four-post bed had been made in all white, luxurious comforters. Mae had even left satin pajamas on the bed.
“Wow, this is really perfect.” I touched the blankets and admired the room. “It’s exactly like me.”
“It should be.” Jack stood in the doorway, leaning on the frame to make sure that I had everything, and he yawned. “Mae did it for you.”
“Like just now? I called and she painted the room?” I furrowed my brow in confusion and disbelief.
“No,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Originally, she kind of thought you’d just be staying in Peter’s room, but when that started seeming like less of an option, she did up this room for you. You were gonna end up here eventually, right?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, but it felt weird knowing that someone had been preparing for me before I even knew I’d be here.
“Mae likes to nest.” Jack noticed my unease and smiled to settle me down. “It’s her thing. This was just her way of nesting. She doesn’t get to decorate for girls very often, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess not.”
“Alright, well, I’m gonna get some sleep. But I’ll be right next door if you need me.” He took a step backwards and grinned mischievously. “But don’t you get any ideas.”
“Yeah, I’ll try not to.” I was being sarcastic, but I knew that I’d really have to try not to.
Jack laughed and walked into his room, which was just one thin wall away from mine. Peter was gone, and Mae was downstairs. It would be almost too easy to just go next door and finished what we started earlier…
But thankfully, my body decided to remember exactly how tired it was. I shut the bedroom door, put on my borrowed pajamas, and almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.
When I picked up clothes from home the next day, Milo hugged me like a hundred times, and his eyes welled with tears. Jack waited in the kitchen for me while I packed my things. I’d thought that his presence would somehow cheer Milo up, but it had the opposite effect. It reminded him that not only would he be seeing less of me, he’d be seeing less of Jack as well.
When I finally convinced Milo that I would see him again, he hugged me tightly once more for good measure, and then I escaped.
“We could’ve just bought you new clothes,” Jack pointed out on the car ride back to his house. “That probably would’ve been easier and less painful.”
“I know, but Milo needed to see me. I needed to prove that I wasn’t just gonna forget about him.” I looked over at Jack to see if he understood my sentiments, but he just stared ahead and didn’t say anything. “I will see him again.”
“I’m not arguing with you.” He wasn’t, exactly, but his tone wanted to contradict my claim.
“You don’t think I will.” Just saying it aloud hurt. “Why would you let me promise Milo anything if you knew it wasn’t true?”
“I don’t know anything,” Jack said. “But I do think that Ezra will be home when we get back. And it might be good for you to talk to him.”
“You always know more then you let on,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and sinking low in the seat. “You pretend to be dumber than you actually are.”
“Have you considered that I really might just be that dumb?” he asked playfully.
“I have. Many times.”
He laughed at that but didn’t say anymore until we got to his place. There would be very little he could say that would comfort me anyway. I was beginning to realize that I might have underestimated the cost of being with him.