A Spotlight Summer (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter Forty-Four

A/N: ok, I'm titling this the 'A Spotlight Summer Spectacular'

Enjoy(;

Jack POV

It is incredibly hard to deal with a screaming Fiona, a panicky Johnson, and thinking of something other than Kelsey all while trying to be a best man, a best friend, and a good guy seeking redemption.

All of this would be a little easier to handle if Kelsey wasn't ignoring me.

I knew she freaked out after our kiss. Hell, it wouldn't be Kelsey if she wasn't freaking out about something. But the way she looked physically ill as she demanded to be taken home that night and the urgency at which she declined all my calls and deleted my texts without reading them annoyed me more than Fiona yelling that my tie was crooked every five seconds.

I eyed Kelsey from the front of the ceremony as the crowd anxiously awaited Fiona walking down the aisle. She was talking to Jessa, twirling her earing in her left hand and wetting her red lips with her tongue.

She looked flawless.

I love her.

I have never physically needed someone more than I realized I needed her in this moment—I longed to call her mine again, to trace circles on the small of her back and to kiss her temple when I saw her mouth dip into a worried grimace. To have her in my life again, to hear her laugh again, to just talk to her again without the tension that has been plaguing us recently.

I never felt more whole than when I had Kelsey slinging her arms around my waist or teasing me about random shit with that addicting mischievous gleam in her eye.

I fucked up three years ago. I knew that. I knew that as soon as she slammed the door in my face. I've known it every day since.

Maybe if she hadn't come here this week. Maybe if we had kept our distance, I would be fine. I would've been able to keep going on without her. I had gotten so used to the empty feeling that blazed in my chest I barely noticed it anymore.

Her coming back into my life was like getting rear ended by my freight train; it's completely unexpected and the crushing impact that threatened left me with two options—lie back and let it come, or jump out of the fucking way and avoid the damage. If I let Kelsey leave without running after her this time, the only fatality from the crash would be me. Kelsey was always much stronger than I was; she would be able to go back to her life.

I feared the effects on me would be irreversible.

I need her in my life. Not for a moment, not for a summer, forever.

I just hoped I could show her that the asshole who treated her undeservedly was long gone.

Jessa POV

I felt solely responsible for my best friend's shaking hands as we waited for Fiona to appear. I'm the one that encouraged us to come here when we received the wedding invitation in the mail. At the time, I was just excited to spend time with Kelsey like we used to. I was excited to go on another adventure with her, and what better excuse than to watch our two friends get married. I was now realizing it had been incredibly selfish of me.

This trip has been miserable for Kelsey. I could tell as soon as we stepped on the plane that it ripped her from the comfortable bubble she had escaped to for the past three years. One look at Jack and the bubble was completely annihilated, never to be reconstructed again.