How It Continued

Never Stopped

"Leaving without a goodbye? Again? I shouldn't be surprised." Jake jumped as he recognized the voice directly behind him. Honestly he didn't know why he thought he'd get away with it in the first place.

Jake was packed and walking to his departure area when he heard her. So, he inhaled, turned around and said, "Jess."

The woman shook her head sadly as she said, "Jess, no one has called me that in eight years."

"Jessamine," was all Jake said. He didn't know what to say.

"That's it?" She asked, "No, how have you been, Jessamine? No, I'm sorry for leaving without a word, Jess?"

"I never meant to hurt you," he whispered.

"Well, you did," she stated.

Jake sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. His last bit of energy was used to convince his parents to let Pearce come with him back to Auradon. It took a while, but they finally agreed to let him go. Jake had no energy for this, but he knew that she deserved more than what he could give her now.

"I'm sorry." He winced, knowing that those words won't fix the damage between them.

"Sorry?" She laughed incredulously. "That's all you have to say? We were supposed to be friends, Jake."

"I know, and I'm really sorry for how I handled things. I wasn't thinking, I was in bad place."

She looked him up and down, "Seems like whatever you were dealing with, you are over it now, so what kept you from talking to me for eight years?"

"I'm a terrible friend," He said, and yeah, he knew he was.

"You leaving and then shutting me out, hurt more than you'll ever know," a tear slid down her face and she quickly wiped it away.

"If it means anything, I did miss you while I was gone," he tried.

"Not enough to ask how I've been or talk to me before you left," she scoffed.

"What needs to be said between you and me cannot be said with the little time I have left here," Jake replied. A terrible excuse but sadly a true one.

"And So what? When would there have been time to talk about it? Did you expect things to just solve themselves?" She asked incredulously.

Before Jake could say anything, they heard Pearce yell, "Jake! We have to go!"

Jessamine knew this would be her last chance to ask before he left. So she looked him dead in the eyes and asked him the one thing she's been dying to know, "Then tell me, Jake, you know I like you, don't say you don't know because you are many things Jake, but unobservant isn't one of them," she interrupted him before he could say anything, "did you ever have feelings for me?"

His face turned red, "Uhh," he stuttered. Was now really the time to blurt out his feelings, he asked himself. "This doesn't seem the time or the place to talk about something this deep," he tried to avoid answering.

"I need to know, Jake. I can't keep living like this," she begged.

So he exhaled and said, "Honestly, I don't know, I never let myself think that far because I knew I was leaving."

"What does you leaving have to do with anything?" She said tilting her head in confusion.

"I didn't want you to feel like you had to leave because you were with me."

Jess just looked at him for a second, blinked and then blinked again. Now it was her turn to exhale, but hers was in anger. "You chose not to let yourself feel anything for me because you didn't want me to have to choose between you and Neverland?"