𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐒 | Jake Peralta

two.

T W O

"raining outside"

—

Jake's POV

THEY ARRIVED HOME. Jake tossed his bag on the ground, turned the lights on and threw himself at the couch, groaning in exhaustion. He felt somewhat bad because he'd been avoiding Sarah the whole day, and she clearly noticed, which made the ride home awkward. They had never shared an awkward silence. Never.

Jake did not want their relationship to crumble down little by little, he wanted it to grow stronger. He wanted that, when the time came and he finally gathered enough courage to propose to her, she would say yes...

Sarah sat next to him, studying his expression. "Won't you tell me what's wrong?"

"Please let that go," he said, gulping, "I swear I won't avoid you anymore. Sorry if I'm an idiot sometimes." 

"You've apologized for that before," Sarah laughed. "But you're not playing by the rules. What happened to not keeping things from each other? Did you forget it?"

"No..." Jake exhaled deeply, looking into Sarah's eyes. It was time for her to know. She was not exaggerated or immature, sure she wouldn't get jealous or make things uncomfortable. "Look, I know this is going to sound weird, but... I got a message from an ex."

Sarah's eyebrows shot up, but then she laughed. "Oh, it's that. Good, I was worried because you weren't being yourself."

"So you're not mad?"

"Why should I be?"

"Oh, not, it's great that you reacted this way," Jake smiled with relief. "It's just that you didn't know her. If I told somebody else at the precinct about her, they would remember horrible things."

"Why?" Sarah frowned. 

"Because according to them, she was controlling and manipulative."

"Oh... and what did her text say?"

Jake once more got his phone out and showed Sarah the message from Iris. He was still glad for the way she reacted, but he felt weird. A few years ago he would enter his apartment and be sitting in front of Iris, looking at her with a blindfold covering his eyes as she prepared a surprise for him, a special dinner. Then they would eat, laugh, talk, talk, talk... nothing seemed wrong with her. 

"What do you want to do?" asked Sarah, arching an eyebrow.

"I really don't know," he said.

"Do you wanna see her again? I wouldn't mind. Maybe we can go all to some restaurant together. Whatever you feel comfortable with. Besides, she wants to catch up with you."

"But what if it's awkward?"

"It will only be awkward if you make it awkward. If you tell her that you're dating somebody and she still wants to go, then there will be no problem." 

"Yeah... it's just that we didn't end in the best of terms. She kind of dumped me before I could clean up the mess I made."

Sarah gasped. "Did you do something bad to her?"

Jake did not know if he would consider listening to his friends something bad. In fact, he'd made himself a favor. 

"Well, in her opinion, maybe," he muttered. 

"You take your time to think, don't feel pressured if you don't wanna see her. I mean, if Lewis asked me to go get dinner again maybe I would do it, you know? He wasn't a bad person. If Iris wasn't either, she's gonna understand that you moved on."