Where I Found You

Chapter 31 - Alyssa.

Chapter 31 - Alyssa.

Jack seems to have cooled down slightly when we get back to his house, but I can see his jaw is still flexing and his posture is tense and rigid. We just hang around, lie around, and I talk and kiss the anger out of him. By the time Dan, Stella and Jess get home from school he's grinning and sitting Jess on the counter, giving her Smarties and looking at the pictures she painted at school.

Dan comes and sits down beside me, still in his slightly scruffy uniform. "Do your parents know you're here?" He nudges my side with a smile.

"Not really, but I don't care." I smile and look down at Jack's hoodie that I'm wearing - far too big for me, but warm and soft. I pull the sleeves down over my hands.

"Ah, I didn't think so," Dan laughs to himself and shakes his head. "You aren't as goody-goody as you look."

"Hey!" I swat at his arm. "I think I look like a very rebellious, dramatic, independent-"

"Don't be traumatising my girlfriend," Jack calls over to us with a smirk, as Jess hops down from the counter and then runs up the stairs with her pile of paintings. I feel my cheeks blush, still not used to being called his girlfriend.

"You want a drink?" Stella asks me with a sweet smile. Dan rolls his eyes with a smirk, then stands up and wanders off upstairs, probably to get changed.

"Oh, I'm alright at the moment thanks," I tell her.

Jack makes his way towards us, then sits down on the sofa beside me. Stella sits down on my other side and flicks on the television.

I love Jack's family. Every one of them, and even though I've only met his dad once, he seemed like a polite, genuine person. As I talk for ages to Stella and Jack, I find myself wishing I could have met his mother. That's how much I love the whole family.

Mr Hart does get back at six, like Jack told me he would. Apparently this is the earliest on any day of the week he ever gets back and they all seem to make the most of it. He looks surprised when he sees me, but a big grin lights up his face and he hugs me again like he did the last time - it's as if I'm one of the family.

When I greet him as Mr Hart, he frowns and smiles at the same time, and then says in a booming voice, "Please, call me Michael!"

He announces that he's going to order a pizza delivery, which is fine with the rest of us. Dan sits at the kitchen table on Skype with his girlfriend, and his dad lingers in the background calling out things to embarrass him. Jess goes and starts talking to her too, and from what I hear, his girlfriend sounds as embarrassed as Dan looks.

"Dad," Jack calls out. Mr Hart is just piling plates into the oven to warm, and after he closes the door he nods and walks over to sit down on the sofa beside us. "Alyssa's stayin' over tonight."

I feel my colour rise, my palms become sweaty, trying to work out what his dad must be thinking. My house is just up the road, so even if I was bunking off classes I would stay there. I bet he's going to think I'm a real slut.

"Oh, that's fine." Michael nods encouragingly at me. I gawp. "Well then, Jack, you'll be on the couch."

I bite my lip. "I can sleep there-"

He shakes his head vigorously. "No, don't worry." He smiles and pats my knee. "Jack knows how to treat a girl properly, and that's what he's going to do."

I glance back at Jack to see him smirking at me as he strokes his hand slowly up my side. "I already told her, it'll be fine."

The pizza arrives soon after that, and the six of us all gather around the table with bottles of Coke and Sprite. Pizza is good after hardly eating anything all day, and all the trauma not only made me hungry, but made me not realise it until now too. Jess comes to sit on my knee and she begins to plait my unruly hair as I still eat slowly, insisting that it cannot be plaited. But she gets it eventually into something resembling a braid.