The Jack Gilinsky

Chapter 9 - Going Home

I randomly woke up at 7am. Far too early to wake up naturally. I saw Jack slumped down in the chair, his head resting on his hand. 

“Hey…” I whispered to him, and reached over to nudge him. He jolted awake, saw me and smiled slightly.

“Morning.” He mumbled in a raspy morning voice. He was so sexy dammit.

“Morning sleepy head.” I smiled softly. “You should go home and get ready for school.”

He woke up properly and stood up. “I don’t want to leave you though…” He frowned. 

“Go and get good grades.” I smirked and he came over to me to kiss me on the cheek before leaving.

I’d been in the hospital for exactly 3 days now and it was time to go. I had been feeling fine since yesterday and I was practically ready to go home but the nurse insisted that I had to stay one more night and now at last I was free. Jack was still sat beside me which I liked because I felt we’d really grown closer with our deep talks. We were still talking when my dad walked in.

“Oh, hello Jack. My wife told me you had been here a lot.” He smiled warmly.

Jack stood up and shook his hand. They hadn’t really met properly before, just knew of each other, however he too did not know of our little ’thing’ that went on. Only Aleena and Kayla knew about that. “Nice to meet you Sir.” He smiled back. I couldn’t believe Jack was being so polite around Dad. The Jack Gilinsky being polite? 

They continued to small talk about school, Dad’s work and the Omaha Nighthawks game before moving to talk about me. I felt extremely uncomfortable as they were talking as if I wasn’t even in the room. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

“Excuse me?” I raised my eyebrows, enabling them both to stop talking. “Hi yeah, I am here. Can we go now?” I smiled, getting my own way. Jack shook his head laughing. Two nurses escorted me out of the hospital including Dad and Jack, but really, I was fine. 

Dad offered Jack a ride home and instead of getting into the passenger seat, he surprisingly sat next to me in the back, holding my hand. I liked it when he held my hand but honestly I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. Did he really mean it? It happened in the middle of the night so he probably was very tired, but a part of me wanted it to be genuine. Jack looked down to me.

“You okay?” I nodded and smiled at him. He gave me the kind of look he’d given before he kissed me in the hospital but he changed to looking at Dad and then looked away again. I have to admit I was marginally disappointed. He was right, Nash didn’t kiss me like he used to.

“Jack, where do you live?” My dad asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

He opened his mouth to answered but I butted in.

“Number twenty-seven, Westside Avenue.” I smirked, “Not too far from the beach.” I remembered going there once when Jack and I weren’t official. He looked down to me, confused at how I remembered it.

“How do you know that Regan?” My dad asked, slightly bewildered.

“Oh you know, Cam told me.” I lied and smiled up at Jack.

When we reached number twenty-seven on Westside Avenue Jack got out, holding the door open. “I really appreciate the ride home Mr. Stirling, thank you.” He smiled generously to Dad, leaning down to speak to him.

“Please, call me John.” Dad insisted. “Come over more and we’ll plan our defeat for the other Omaha team.” They both laughed in unison.

I stared at them, confused by what was so funny. It must have been some kind of sports joke. Well, it wasn’t funny. “Thanks Jack.” I said honestly, “Thank’s for everything.”

He laughed in shock. “Why are you thanking me?” He asked, still talking through the door. “I was the one that got you there.”

“And the one that stayed by my side the whole way through.” I smiled brightly and he returned the smile. Jack said bye once more and jogged to his front door. Wow he had a big house, he lived on a wealthy estate and his parents were solicitors or something like that. Dad worked as an estate agent and as I already mentioned, Mom worked as carer.