I Promise

Chapter 8

"We should do this every night," Jack says. Before I can respond he begins kissing me again. The two of us are snuggling together on the couch in the living room, and since my mother isn't home, we decided to make out. Jack's kisses are aggressive, but at the same time are soft. I am snuggling so close to him that I am sitting in his lap, holding his face in my hands. After several minutes we break apart to catch our breath, and Jack places a hand lightly on my abdomen.

"I love you," he breathes. I laugh.

"You love me or the baby?" I ask.

"I love both of you," he replies.

"This conversation is so cheesy," I say. Jack throws his head back and laughs.

"But it's true!" he says. "And what kind of word is 'cheesy'? Only adults say that."

"I am an adult," I say, chuckling. "I'm eighteen."

Jack pulls me closer to him and rests his chin on my head.

"Why did you stand up for me?" I ask.

"Hm?" Jack replies.

"This morning, at school," I say, "Why did you stand up for me? You never would have done that in any other circumstances."

"These aren't any other circumstances," Jack says. "I promised I'd protect you, that I'd help you hide this. I wasn't about to let Roger break that promise."

I move away from him and look into his eyes. I love his eyes. A light-blue color, they always seem to shine, whether in the light or the dark. I've always found them beautiful, and sometimes I'd catch myself staring into them while looking at his face. I reach up and touch his cheek, then pull his face closer to mine and kiss him again.

At the sound of the front door opening we both freeze, pulling away.

"My mum," I mutter. I scramble away from Jack to the other end of the couch and grab a throw pillow off the floor. I huddle in the corner of the couch, holding the throw pillow tight against my body. Jack turns on the television, then sits down on the opposite end of the couch just as my mother walks into the living room.

"Hey, Mum," I say casually, giving a small wave. My mother smiles and asks me how school was.

"It was fine," I answer, looking back at the television, which is playing a cooking show.

"Hello Jack!" my mother calls.

"Hey!" Jack calls back, looking over his shoulder and waving.

"Don't you both have schoolwork to do?" my mother asks. Jack makes a "pfft" sound, then says,

"I rarely do homework. They don't check it anyway so what's the point?"

"You're not making yourself sound very responsible," I say. Jack laughs, and when my mother goes upstairs, he turns to me and says,

"If she thinks that's not responsible, she's going to get a huge slap in the face when she finds out what happened."

"Yeah," I say nervously, looking away.

"Come on," Jack says, "I was just trying to make a joke."

"Ha ha ha," I say. The tone in my voice causes the two of us to start laughing, and we're still laughing when my mother walks into the living room.

"What's so funny?" she asks. Jack's and my laughter fades, and I answer my mother with a simple "Nothing."

"What do you want for dinner?" my mother asks. I shrug.

"I don't know," I say.

"I was thinking about going out to eat," my mother says. I'm not really in the mood, but I agree anyway.