Through sickness and in health

60

"Jason!" Jessica waves her hand to us as we walk over to them standing outside the restaurant gathered together. He plasters a small smile on his face but I can see his eyes drifting over to the other car, u can see the head of someone from the side of the car which I can already tell is jack. But Jason isn't looking at jack. He's looking in the car and the chaos that it contains.

"Babe?" I say quietly
"Hm" he hums looking at me
"Are you nervous?" I ask
"Other than the fact that there's a 5 and 7 year old in that car that I haven't met that are supposed to be my half siblings as well as a step mom I also haven't met yet here, I'm fine" he says sarcastically with a smile.
"You made it!" Jessica smiles walking over to us. She gives me a tight hug before hugging Jason. I watch as she whispers something in his ear making Jason roll his eyes but nods, mumbling something as he does. Just as he finally gets out of Jessica's grip a car door opens. A tall red head walks out and opens the back door. Her purse is on her arm and she's wearing skinny jeans and a black shirt. I hear her briefly say something to the kids before she's taking a small hand and helping them out of their booster seat.

A little blonde stumbles quickly to catch up to his moms footsteps. Another kid climbs out, she's a red head like her mom but has the face of her father. She runs to Tyler and hugs his waist. Jason turns around to look when he hears the door alarm, I notice how Jason's spine straightens and he suddenly stills when he looks at Lucy. Then he turns to look at me. Next thing I know he's quickly walking towards me and grabbing my arm.
"That's mrs andrews" he whispers hoarsely
"Who-"
"My 6th grade teacher!" He whisper shouts
"What?" My head snaps towards her. I wasn't in Jason's class in 6th grade. I didn't meet him until sophomore year or I didn't talk to him until then.
"Put it together" he says looking at me with a straight face.

"My dad left when I was 11. My mom and him had been arguing for months though, and he always acted so weird. My mom came home one night crying and told me he was staying at a friends house. When she told me about their divorce she said his friend was more than a friend" Jason explains
"He was fucking my 6th grade teacher" Jason says shaking his head. He looks so confused, emotions are rubbing all over his face and through his eyes I can barely keep up. Confusion, anger, sadness, disappointment.
"Jason" I say softly placing my hands on his cheeks
"Breathe" I whisper looking into his eyes. He can't seem to hold eye contact though, his breathing isn't steady and his hands are shaking.
"Breathe my love"
"Follow my breathing. Breathe with me" I whisper softly. I sneak a glance over to where everyone else is standing. Completely oblivious to Jason's miniature panic attack and realisation happening.

I hold his hands and breathe more loudly so he can follow my breathing. His chest starts to rise and fall more steady as he continues to follow my breathing. But I'm just as confused as he is right now. How had Jason never known? Surely Jessica or Melissa would've known? Melissa surely. But she's so hooked up in burying herself in work and hiding from her problems she probably just buried herself in more work to ignore the fact that her husband was fucking her sons teacher.

"Let's go back. I don't want to bring attention to myself before I've even met them" Jason sighs shakily.
"Jason, let's take a minute" I whisper. But he just shakes his head and brushes me off as he starts walking back to the group with his head down. I notice the minute he gets over there Tyler waves at him with a smile, his sister still standing next to him with a confused look on her face.

*~*

"Jason. This is my wife Lucy, Lucy this is Jason" jack says finally. I've been standing next to Jason for the past 10 minutes whilst he talked to Tyler and all the adults talk about random shit.
"It's nice to finally meet you" Lucy smiles, but her smile is clearly plastered on. And that's all it took for me to realise she does remember him. And Jason must realise too when he stills beside me but smiles.