The Life of Justice Jay

Finally Home

We got off the plane and Jake continued to carry me in his arms. I told him they invented crutches for a reason, but he insisted on carrying me.

"Carrying you gives me an excuse to cuddle with you." He said kissing me on the cheek.

I could tell my mom was loving every minute of this. She just kept smiling at us and saying things like, "You two make me wish I was back in College again with Jensen." 

Harold followed us with our luggage, and walked us over to our limo. Jake set me on the seat carefully and sat next to me wrapping his arms around me. My mom was on the other side of the limo messing on her phone.

Jake pulled me up onto his lap and started with a simple conversation. "So the doctor said you'd be out for 3-6 months. What are you going to do about Cheerleading?" 

Thinking about cheer made me want to cry. I knew I wouldn't get to cheer at all during football, and I'd be lucky to get to cheer during basketball. "I'm not sure," I said looking up at him. "They'll probably still let me be on the team, but I'll have to man the tshirt gun in my wheel chair." I said laughing just about to cry. I rested my head in the crook of his neck.

We sat there for a minute until I started again, "So, did you really mean what you said to my mom? The part about me being your queen."

He didn't even give it a second of thought. "Of course! There's nothing I care more about than you."

"Even more than your own mother."

"Definitely more than my mother."

I was shocked to hear his response. "When am I ever going to get to meet your mother?" 

He struggled for a second. "Not for a while."

"Why not?" I asked curious.

"Because I said no." He said uneasy.

I was so scared at that moment. He had never snapped at me like that. My mom looked up at us but didn't say anything. Jake realized what he had done and started, "I'm sorry for snapping at you like that beautiful. Do you really want to know about my mom?"

I nodded and held his hand looking at him.

"Well, remember when I said my parents are divorced? And that I live with my mom."

"Yeah. You told me about it the night we met at Hallies."

"I may have told a little white lie. My parents were divorced when I was five. So I was going back and forth between houses every week. Then my Dad decided to move to New York to become a partner in his new firm. My mom had me stay with her so I could stay home where everything was familiar. When I was in the seventh grade," he paused, and I could tell it was really hard for him, "my mom took all of my grandpas retirement money and gambled with it in Vegas. She lost all of it and my grandpa pressed charges. She ended up getting 20 years in prison because she was caught drunk driving that night and lost all of my grandpas savings. I moved to San Antonio to live with my Aunt who lives just down the road from Hallie. I just told people she was my mom to make it easier to cope. She's actually my Dads little sister, and she treats me more like a little brother. That's why she was so cool when I asked to go out this weekend."

I just looked at him in amazement. "I thought you understood me, but I'm the one who needs to learn to understand you. You've lived the past five years without your mom and still have fifteen more to go."

"So now you can understand why I don't want you to meet my mother." He said looking at me and bringing me in to a tighter hug. 

"I understand." I said cuddling up with him. "Can I meet your Aunt though?"