The Middle | ✔️

Chapter 40

Jamie

"Don't fuck with my love, that heart is so cold!"

"J2! Shut the fuck up! That song sucks!" 

"Don't fuck with my love, I told her she knows, take aim and reload!"

"Jamie! Next!"

I sigh and extend an arm out of the shower to skip the track on my phone that's currently playing over the surround system in the house. If it'll stop Patrick moaning from next door, fine. He hates Ed Sheeran.

"Much better!" Patrick yells from my bedroom, where I'm sure he's sitting with his feet up on my bed texting his cohort of sluts. He's obviously just arrived in the past 10 minutes, whilst I've been in the shower. Thank god I locked the bathroom door (I always do, after an awkward incident where Jay walked in on me in the bath - it's fine, he didn't see anything, but still!). Get Fucked Stud by Biffy Clyro is now playing. I was enjoying that Ed Sheeran song, but I love this one so much more, so, fine. Great soundtrack to end my shower with. 

"Do you mind?" I ask Patrick as I walk into my bedroom, wearing only my robe and slippers, with my hair wrapped up in a towel.

"Not at all." He says without looking up from his phone. "You drinking Jack tonight?"

"I don't know, are you?" I reply, shaking my hair out of the towel in front of my full length mirror. 

"Probably not. I think it's a beer only kinda night." He responds, and I know what he means. Beach parties are always such a chilled vibe. It's not really the place to get shit faced on spirits. I don't wanna puke on the sand anyway, I love the beach, I'd never disrespect it like that. However...

"I am kinda in the mood for wine right now. I might do wine." I shrug my shoulders at my own reflection and smile. Patrick ignores my comment and continues scrolling through his phone with one hand and petting Benji (who's lying next to him on my bed) with the other. Lego House by Ed Sheeran starts playing, and I rush back to the bathroom to retrieve my phone from where I left it on the counter. Lego House is my all time favourite Ed Sheeran song, but I know Patrick hates it, and I can't stand him complaining about the song. It's beautiful and I love it, it maddens me that another human being could have a negative opinion on it. So I skip the song (Hands Down - Dashboard Confessional, that'll do fine), just before an incoming call comes through. Aubrey. I answer her call and head back through to my room, phone in hand. 

"Hey gurl!" I say with a laugh. She always calls me 'girl', so she appreciates this. And she still hasn't told me about her date with John last night, so I'm hoping that's why she's calling now.    

"Hey girl!" Patrick startles at Aubrey's voice coming over the surround system. My phone's still hooked up on bluetooth, but whatever. "I'm just about to head to Marley's with Kim - you wanna come with?"

"Nah, I'm just out the shower and Patrick's here. We'll probably take Benji for a walk before getting ready for the beach party." I reply, and Patrick nods his agreement. "Anything you wanna tell me though?"

"Oh my god, John told you!" She exclaims, and Patrick startles again at her high pitched, excited tone. I laugh. 

"No, Zach actually. So, how was it?" I ask. 

"Oh my god, Jamie, it was perfect! We went to the movies, then we took a walk in the park. John bought us ice cream, and we just talked, you know? We wondered around the park, I thought we were gonna get lost actually! But we found all these adorable twinkly fairy lights and tree houses and stuff, it was so romantic!" 

I know exactly the place she's referring to. Fondly known as The Fairy Woods, it's a part of the park that's been decorated with lanterns and twinkly lights, and there are little wooden fairy houses hidden around the trees, and ladders leading up to tree houses. It's a nice place, a little cheesy, but I can see how this sort of thing would appeal to Aubrey. It appeals to a lot of girls, I guess, because it looks so romantic and the lanterns strewn through the trees make it totally Instagram worthy. Not really my thing, but Erin did carve "E + J" into one of the trees when she and I got drunk on rose wine in one of the tree houses one time in High School. Yeah, Jay doesn't know about that of course, and I'll never tell him. That's up to Erin.