Remember Me (Jack Maynard)

Chapter 13

I looked around the living room to see everyone else passed out sleeping. Oli had his head resting in a bowl of popcorn next to Mikey, Conor was laying sprawled out on top of Josh, Joe was halfway off the couch, and Caspar was resting peacefully on the floor.

I decided to start tidying up Joe's parents' living room quietly, picking up loose pieces of popcorn here and there and throwing away everybody's plastic cups. We hadn't been drinking anything alcoholic, only sodas, but they still managed to make a mess.

I was just about to grab my blankets and head downstairs to my room when Jack came back from the bathroom.

"Where ya off to?" Jack whispered quietly, trying not to wake the other boys up.

"Well I just thought I'd sleep downstairs," I told him with a soft shrug. "It's a bit cold up here. My room's warmer."

"You've got a little sofa in your room, correct?" he asked, and I nodded. "Mind if I join you down there? It is quite chilly and they're hogging all the blankets.

"No problem," I told him, "just no funny business, alright?"

"No ma'am," he said. "just crashing on a futon."

"All right," I said, leading him downstairs and helping him pull the futon out into a bed before giving him some of the blankets and grabbing another movie from the cabinet.

"So I thought you and Joe were neighbors?" Jack asked.

"We used to be," I explained. "before we were born, our parents had been really good friends. Since their houses were next to each other, Joe and I grew up together. His family's like family to me. When I was about sixteen, my parents were in a car crash coming home late one night from an event..." I trailed off.

"Mel..." he said, "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

"No, no, it's alright." I assured him. "After it all happened, I didn't really have any other family to go to. Dad was an only child with both parents gone, and Mum was from the States and didn't speak to her family anymore. I've never even met them. So the Suggs took me in, and I've been here ever since."

"Well, if you ever want to talk about anything, I'm always here," he said, taking a seat on the futon, and I sat next to him then.

"Thank you, Jack," I told him, "I appreciate that. You know... you're not a bad guy, after all."

"Thank you," he said, his eyes meeting mine as he gave me a friendly smile.

His eyes flickered down towards my lips, then back up to my eyes. I knew he was leaning in, and felt like I should've stopped him... but I also knew I didn't want to stop him.

So I didn't.

My eyes shooting open, I quickly sat up, forgetting I had been nestled in Jack's arms when I had fallen asleep. I was met with a soft groan, and looked down to see him slowly opening his eyes.

"Mel?" he asked in a groggy voice, looking up at me from where he was still laying down.

"Sorry," I said. "Sorry. Just woke up from a... memory?"

"What happened?" he asked, and I laid back down in his arms, quickly recounting the events from my dream.

"We were in my room back in Brighton, at Graham and Tracey's." I explained. "We had been having a movie night with all of the guys, but they had fallen asleep. You and I went downstairs to my room because it was warmer, and that way we could talk. You asked me why I was living with them, and I told you about.. my parents. We kissed, and that was when I woke up."

"That was our first date," he said with a tired smile, and I could tell he was about to fall back asleep any minute now.

"I thought our first date was with the park and Nando's?" I asked.

"That was our first proper date," he said, "but our anniversary date is that day because it was the day I confessed that I fancied you."

"Really?" I asked, and he nodded.

"Mhm," he said, "I did it right before I kissed you. You tried to pull away, thinking you were going to be just another girl I was hooking up with, but I assured you that you weren't. I knew you were special from the moment that I'd met you... I knew then that I..."

With a yawn, Jack had fallen back asleep mid-sentence, his arms relaxing back around me. I knew then that I should try to get back to sleep as well, but try as I might, I just couldn't see to do it.

After about twenty minutes or so of tossing and turning, I carefully got out of bed, going to use the bathroom and then get a glass of water after. I headed for my library then, hoping that maybe after reading for a bit, it'd tire me out more so that then I'd be able to fall asleep.

Opening the door and turning on the light, it took me a moment to figure out that it wasn't the library at all, but instead I had accidentally wandered into what Jack had said was Josh's office, also known as the "forbidden room" of the house.

Except, looking around... it wasn't an office.

It looked like a baby nursery, with purple walls, a crib against one wall, a changing table against another wall, and other baby things around the room.

But that didn't make any sense.

It didn't look like it'd be Josh's office, anyways.

And besides, none of the three guys had kids.

Maybe I'd just been sleep deprived and I was hallucinating. For all I knew, this probably actually was Josh's office and I was just seeing things.

Finally shutting the light back off and closing the door, I made my way back to Jack's room, climbing into his bed and finally succeeding in shutting my eyes and going back to sleep.