The Connection (House Of Anubis)

[Chapter Twenty-Six]

Amelia slid into the seat next to Alfie, once they had all gotten back to the school, since Jerome was still missing. "So, what are you going to do about the whole Amber situation," she asked him. "I guess just roll with it. I mean this is the girl I've been obsessed with for years; it was my life goal to date her. I just don't like that she's trying to control everything about me. I feel like it's not me dating her, it's some robot she built." 

"Well then tell her that! It may be hard but try and sit her down and talk it out with her," Amelia encouraged him. "You want to talk to her about this for me," Alfie asked her, raising his voice to a slightly higher pitch to try and persuade her. "No way Alfie! Your girl, your break-up, your problem." Alfie sighed and laid his head down on his desk. "I'm going to kill Jerome if he decided to have a day off without us," Amelia spoke up, hoping that was all his absence was about today. Alfie laughed, agreeing with her as they readied themselves for their next class. 

****

Jerome and Mara showed up for the last few classes of the day. Neither of them were talking about where they had been, or if they had been together, but that last part was pretty obvious. Alfie had tried to get Jerome to tell him where he had been, but Jerome wasn't budging. 

It was currently dinner time, and there was still a lot of tension in the air, but they all decided to try and push it to the back burner for the night and have a decent dinner. 

After dinner, Amelia went to Jerome and Alfie's room, to see if she could get Jerome to tell her where he had been all day. When she walked in, Jerome was messing with his Game-Boy. Amelia grabbed a random soccer ball that was lying around the room and laid down on her back. "So, you ever gonna tell Alfie and I where you disappeared to today," she asked while she threw the ball up into the air and caught it. 

"You and Mara go on some secret date," she joked. Jerome stayed silent. "Wait did you," Amelia asked again, now worrying that her joke was the truth. "No, Mara and I didn't go out on a date." Amelia slightly sighed in relief, but covered it up with a cough, continuing to throw the ball up and down. 

"I was visiting my father," he finally told her. Amelia was so surprised, that she forgot to catch the ball, causing it to fall back down and hit her in the face. "Ow, son of a-," she started to say, but stopped herself and sat up, rubbing her cheek. 

"You visited your father? How was it?" "It was strange. I almost walked out when I first got in there and he started to talk. But Mara convinced me to go back in." "Wait, why was Mara there with you," Amelia asked, slightly jealous that he asked Mara to go and not her. "She ran into me when I was leaving to go to the prison. She asked if she could come and I said yes." 

Jerome paused for a second, trying to figure out what he wanted to say next, knowing that Amelia was feeling left out or replaced at the moment. "I would've asked you, but I wasn't sure if I was actually going to go through with it. Plus, I know you; you would have bit his head off right away, especially after what happened this morning with Joy." Amelia laughed, slightly feeling better, "Yeah probably; Alfie had to hold me back at school today because I almost went off on her again."

Jerome laughed and shook his head at her, not surprised. "Anyway, I sat back down with him and we talked. He mostly asked how I was doing and how Poppy was. He apologized for being gone all those years." "Did he tell you what landed him in jail?" Jerome shook his head sadly, "No, but I think that's because Mara was there. He asked me to come back for another visit, alone."

"Do you want to go back?" Jerome looked down at his hands, not sure what to say. "I don't know, I think so. I mean I want to hear what he has to say." Amelia smiled and stood up, wrapping her arms around Jerome, giving him a small hug. "I'm so proud of you Jerome."