HAPPIER; jra ✓

058 | always be supportive

That same Thursday night, Adalyn and Jack had put more effort into their appearance than they had all month since their lunch with the Barlow family — and for Adalyn, she was feeling a little more confident within her body this time.

Sat across from his parents at a nice restaurant in the city of Los Angeles, Adalyn took advantage of the fact it was booth seating and sat closely to Jack with her hands placed in his lap while his hands engulfed her's.

"It was nice to see you two getting out of the house today," Kristin smiled at the couple. "I'm sure it's been a hard time for you.."

"It has.." Jack agreed, subtly nodding and glancing from his hands to his girlfriend. "but we're doing better, aren't we?"

"mh.."

"What did you two get up to today?"

"I had therapy.." Adalyn admitted.

"And I went to the mall while I waited for her."

"Did you?" she furrowed as she looked at him, watching him nod. "You didn't have anything when we got home though?"

"mh? I didn't get anything," he quickly shook his head. "Window shopped. Saved my money for all these houses you want us to get," he joked. "um, speaking of moving.. could we have the house on Saturday at about.. what time did you tell your friends?"

"About one o'clock-ish."

"We just wanna have a few people over, mainly Ads friends, hang out with them all before we go," he continued.

"If not, that's okay, we can just go to their place," Adalyn added.

"No, no," Kristin shook her head. "Have your friends over, that's fine, we'll find something to do for the day."

"Thank you"

"Of course."

".. Have you found a house in Hawaii yet?" Darrin asked after taking a sip of his drink.

"mhm, we have," Jack nodded.

"not the place I wanted though.." Adalyn mumbled slightly. "Jack said it would be a waste of money.."

"It would've been," he agreed with a comment he made a couple nights ago. "Especially if you wanna get a house in the hills in like a few months.."

"As long as you have a liveable house, that's all that matter, you don't need something fancy to be happy," Kirstin mentioned.

"Exactly," he turned to his girlfriend. "And the place we have is nice.. four rooms, decent backyard, a pool, walking distance to the beach. It'll be nice."

"yeah.."

"I think this change will be good for you two," the boy's mother smiled. "And you know, we'll always be supportive of whatever happens, and we'll be here to talk if you need advice or anything."

"thank you," Adalyn softly spoke.

"Sounds like we're going to be coming to Hawaii soon, huh?" Darrin rhetorical questioned.

"Yous can come visit," Jack nodded. "Two guest rooms, so if Isla and Ava wanna come as well, they're free to."

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Adalyn whispered to him, receiving a small kiss as she stood up.

"Hey, do you know what you want to eat?" he stopped her. "The waiter will probably come over in a bit.."

"um.." her eyes scanned over the menu, pointing at the dish of her choice. "I'll just have that.. I don't really care.."

"And do you want another water," he watched her nod. "Okay.."

"Is she okay?" Kristin asked after the girl had walked away.

"I think so," he nodded. "I think she's just tired still, she took a nap once we got home earlier.. and hasn't really been sleeping much at night."

Their waiter had soon interrupted their conversation, taking a note of their meals and extra drinks before he had walked off again to hand the order over to the kitchen and bar.

"I'm- uh- She's also a little stress about her place and like getting it ready so she can get someone to rent it out," Jack added. "We've gotten so much done in the last couple weeks.. it'll be good to finally relax when we get to Hawaii."

"It would be," his step-dad agreed. "It takes a lot to get everything packed up so quickly."

"We'll have so much to get done when we eventually move back though," he chuckled. "It probably would've been easier to work out donate, sell, keep, all that, in one go instead of just packing everything up and putting it in storage to deal with it when we get back but I don't want to push Adalyn and make her spend more time here when she doesn't want to."

"It'll all be worth it," Kristin replied. "And you'll have plenty of time to unpack and sort all your stuff out once you're back here, even if you take months to do it, so it's probably best you're putting her mental health first."

"mh, yeah.." Jack then turned his girlfriend as she sat back down at the table, and he weaved his arm around her lower back while she drunk some of her water. "The food be here in hopefully not too long.. are you okay?"

"mhm," Adalyn nodded as her head fell onto his shoulder, sending his parent's a small smile.

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A/N

i'm not ready to give these
two up yet :(