Jake tapped his fingers against his thigh as he waited for a response. Several minutes ticked by.
Why did he even care?
He didn't.
Except maybe he did.
Somewhere between the inexplicable amounts of texts (despite his better judgement) he had maybe started to consider the wrong number a friend?
[12:32 I don't know]
[12:34 Do you ever meet those people that you think 'they could do with a punch to the face'?]
Jake hesitated.
[12:36 Some guy was heckling my friend today and I feel like crap becuase I didn't do anything]
[12:37 I just kind of froze, you know?]
[12:39 I just wished I had walked up to the dickhead and given him a black eye or something]
[12:40 And now I'm pissed off and I feel like a bad friend and idk it's shit]
[youre not a bad friend]
[12:42 Thanks]
Jake knew the 'thanks' was born from politeness rather than actual greatfulness.
He heaved a sigh.
[im serious, you dont need to punch someone just to be a good friend]
[12:45 I know I don't need to, but I wanted to]
[maybe violence isnt the best answer to all your problems?]
[12:48 Gee thanks mum, got any more useless generic advice?]
Jake's jaw tightened he typed a swift 'forget it' before closing the conversation.
He ignored more texts coming through.
He'd take his own advice and forget it soon enough, becuase it didn't matter.
When his phone finally stopped buzzing with more messages he picked up his phone again scrolling through his contacts until he reached J.
Jayden was the second contact.
Jake's thumb hovered over his name, already constructing a message in his mind.
'hey, how do you manage to give advice without sounding like a generic asshole?'
Or
'how do you help someone who's feeling down about themselves, becuase apparently im shit'
He never wrote either message. He never even clicked on Jayden's name. Instead he just watched as his phone locked itself, and the screen became blank.
"Fuck it." Tossing his phone to the side Jake got up to his feet.
Slipping on his most worn pair of trainers, he left his apartment complex, ignoring everyone he passed.
He went for a run.
He used to run all the time. Becuase he never used to be stronger, but he was sure as fuck faster than all his troubles.
He ran for nearly twenty minutes before he slowed to a stop, limbs exhausted from the effort.
And this time when he told himself he didn't care, he was just about tired enough to believe it.
_ _ _
"Jake Parker never gives up."
"Have I ever told you how much it concerns me when you speak about yourself in third person." As they both walked through the isles of Tesco Kayleigh brushed her red hair from her eyes so that Jake could get the full effect of the snarky look she was throwing his way.
"I'm sorry, who texted who asking for help today?" Jake threw back, raising one eyebrow perfectly.
Kayleigh rolled her eyes, but didn't offer any argument.
"Just shut up and help me find the lamb."
Jake pulled a face. "Are you sure you want to cook something with meat in? I mean if you accidentally undercook it..."
Kayleigh went slightly red.
"You're in charge of making sure I don't do that." She said not looking at Jake as she spoke but rather at the sparsely filled trolley in front of her.
"Me? You're asking me for help to make sure you don't accidentally poison my cousin?"
"Marcy's away visiting family."
Jake didnt say anything further. He didn't need to.
He could see the look on her face. He knew the look on her face. He'd seen that exact look on his mother's face too many times to count.
He knew the end to the sentence.
'Marcy's away visiting family ... and I don't want to be alone.'
Jake heaved an invisible sigh.
"If I'm helping cook we better make enough for my mum, she loves bolognese."
Kayleigh's shoulders loosened, and her lips curved the slightest amount - which was as good as a beam coming from Kayleigh.
"Sure." She agreed easily, a wariness then took over her eyes. "You can cook right?"
"Better than you can... Though that isn't really something difficult."
"I'm getting better."
"I wouldn't trust you with an easy bake oven."
"Hey!"
Jake ignored her protest, and sped his walk slightly, knowing she'd struggle to keep up.
Cooking with Kayleigh ended up not being a complete disaster. Sure they both came out with a few more injuries than they had entered with, somehow Jake had gotten tomato in his hair, and it near looked like a bomb had gone off in the kitchen - but the food smelled at least half way edible (much to both of their surpise).
"Holy crap I think we did it." Kayleigh said in a half dazed voice as she turned the cooker off.
Aa she slowly processed the thought aloud she went from dazed to pracitcally jittering with excitment and her face said it all: 'Jayden's going to love this'.
Jake refrained from rolling his eyes. Just barely. But even he was impressed with the outcome.
"Shame about the rest of the kitchen." He said letting his eyes roll around the room.
Kayleigh waved him off. "Forget that - we made dinner!"
"You realise I've made dinner before right?"
Kayleigh gave him a look that suggested she really didn't care.
Jake ended up staying another half an hour after they finished cooking, neither of them pointed it out.
When Jake did leave he checked his phone. He winced when he saw he had four more messages from the contact 'billy'.
He didn't read them. But he didnt delete them either.
He hated that he was so unsure.
He sighed, and pocketed his phone.
He'd figure it out later.
_ _ _
'Later' he still had no fucking clue.
_ _ _
AN warning: next chapter is super duper short :)
YOU ARE READING
Scattered Pieces
Romance@bubble12 Jake Parker keeps getting messages from unknown numbers, and if there's one that he keeps responding to that's his own goddamn business. ** [11:07 Are you still there?] [no] [11:07 Rude] [why are you even still textin...
