Living With Why Don't We

Chapter 20

When Jessa got home she made her way up to the door with only the light of the moon guiding her. She wiggles her house key until she finds the key hole, slowly and quietly, she opens the door. All the lights are off besides over the island table.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up." The voice startled her.

"You guys knew where I was." Jessa turns to him.

"You were with him, weren't you." He asks.

"With who?"

"You know, Jake."

Jessa puts down her keys on the table. "Yes, and?"

"I thought you guys-" he starts.

"You thought wrong."

"He posted that picture."

Jessa turns around, "it's just a picture."

"He-"

"Why do you care?" Jessa meets eyes with Jack.

"Because I care about you and I don't think it's a good idea to keep hanging out with him."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I wasn't allowed to make my own friends." Jessa frowns angrily.

"Well it seems the people you hang out with lead you down the wrong path." Jack spits.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She scoffs.

"First all the Tristan drama then London and Jake drama, not to mention the Jonah Drama. These last couple of weeks you've changed so much, like you just keep getting caught up in all the drama and the posts from tonight are the last straw. This isn't you."

The silence rang in their ears.

"Forget I said anything." Jack got up with a squeak of his chair. He walked off out of the light and up the stairs.

Jessa sits down under the light, staring at the crumbs left on the counter. It was quiet, she only heard the pounding of her heart and the ticking of the clock while time passes minute by second.

After getting a cup of water, she headed back to her room and fumbled around in her bed, trying to sleep. After giving up on that, she flips her legs over the side of the bed and gazes out of the window. She stood up, getting a better look. She watches the waves in the pool as the water glows from the lights inside.

She makes her way back downstairs and out to the yard. She dips her feet in the water and sloshes them around watching the water ripple away. Kick after kick, ripple after ripple, over and over until the sun began to come up. She leaned back on the cement and watched the sky change colors from deep blue, to orange, pink, blue.

"Hey, is she ok out there?" Zach sits next to Jonah on the couch, who was watching her.

"I don't know," Jonah says. "She's been out there all morning."

"I'm going to talk to her." Zach gets up.

He opens the sliding door out to the back and Jessa looks back at him. "Hey," he says. "How'd you sleep?"

"I didn't."

Zach sits down next to her. "Jess, what's going on?" He asks softly.

"I went too far this time." She states.

"What do you mean?" He rubs her back.

"I'm assuming you haven't seen the pictures from last night."

Zach shakes his head.

Jessa sighs. "After you guys texted me last night, stuff escalated. Someone brought alcohol, and well, we broke it open. I don't normally drink, but I did. Not a lot, but enough. We ended up braking into the pool at London's apartment building. We all stripped to our underwear and started swimming. Everyone kinda pressured Jake and I together and we may have gone further than I want to admit. I didn't mean it I swear, I just think I'm still upset about Tristan and I needed to let it out you know? But while I was making out with Jake they took our clothes and ran. We were too drunk to care too much so we waited a while before going back up to London's apartment and when we got there, they took a bunch of pictures, and threw us in the spare bedroom. People may have different versions of what happened but when we were in there we drank more, and that was the last thing I remember."

"Have you talked to Jake about it yet?" Zach asks.

"No, I had to process it all first."

"You had all night. I think you should clear this up as soon as you can before more rumors come up."

"Ya, you're right," Jessa gets up and holds out a hand to help Zach up.

When they get inside Jonah asks, "hey, you ok?"

"Let's hope." Jessa says and walks over to her phone and sends a text to Jake.

Jessa composes herself as much as she can before the doorbell rings.
She runs downstairs, to see that Jack already answered the door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He snaps.

"Jessa invited me." Jake says confused.

"Of course she did," Jack mumbles. "Jessa! Your man-whore is here." He walks away from the door, leaving Jake by himself.

"What's your problem, Jack. He didn't do anything to you." Jessa comes down the stairs.

"I told you my problem last night, not that it means anything to you. Go ahead, go get naked again, I'm sure everyone will be thrilled go know about it." Jack says.

"Oh my god, I'm not doing this with you right now." Jessa closes the door behind her and walks out with Jake.

"I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. I'll fix that later, but I have to talk to you." Jessa says, getting into his car.

"Did you sleep last night?" Jake looked over to her. "You look so, tired."

"Well," Jessa looks down.

"Jess," he exclaims.

"I'm sorry! I had a lot to think about."

"Look, if it was about last night, that will all be over in a few days. People will forget and you'll go back to your normal life."

Jessa sighs. "It's not just last night, it's everything that I've been doing. It's not me."

"I don't think that's entirely true." Jake starts. "Sure last night was a little overboard, but other than that I just don't think you've expressed yourself. That night on the beach was one of the best nights of my life. Not just because we were partying or whatever. It was because I met you and I watched you brakes out of your shell. The way you smiled was so different. I didn't know before then, but everyone noticed. You have a light in you, Jessa. You just have to let yourself open up. Now, I'm not saying to keep doing what happened last night, but don't go back to what you were before I met you."

"But the guys," she starts.

Jake cuts her off, "This isn't about them, this is about you. It's ok to act different around different people, as long as you aren't lying to them or to yourself."

"You're right." She admits. "But I have to ask, how far did we go last night? You know, in the bedroom."

"Nothing more than some touching and kissing. I wouldn't take advantage of you, especially in the state you were in last night. I promise that as long as I'm there that stuff won't happen to you again, ok?" He smiles at her.

"Thank you. I really needed that." She says. "How do you know me so well, anyways?"

"I honestly don't know. I guess I just clicked with you. Lucky, huh?" He chuckles.

"Ya."

"Let's get some coffee, you never told me where we were going so I've just been taking some random turns." He laughs.

"Really? I'm so dumb. Sorry." Jessa laughs with him.

"It's ok, a little exploration is good for ya."