From Beginning to End

Chapter 7

I woke up the next morning to the sound of rain pitter-pattering against my window. My eyelids felt heavy and I wondered if I had woken up too early because as far as I could tell, it was still dark in my room. I opened my eyes, stretching and yawning. The sound of the rain was so calming and peaceful and I smiled to myself about how it always seemed to be the sounds associated with water that put me in a peaceful state. Yesterday, it had been the ocean and now it was the drizzle that must have started at some point during the night.

Glancing at my bedside clock, I was surprised to see that it was actually almost eleven in the morning. I rolled over onto my back and simply laid there staring at the ceiling. After a few moments, I could feel the rain lulling me back to sleep and I took a deep breath to try and stave off the instinct to close my eyes. Instantly, the smell of the ocean assaulted my nose. Even though I had showered the second I got back in the house last night, the day was still on my skin. I could see it in my noticeable tan and I could smell it in my hair.

I held my hand up in front of my face, eyeing it speculatively. The sun had definitely done its work on me. Where I had been awfully pale before, golden-brown skin now gave me a nice, alive look. It was funny; Jake had been adamant about using sunscreen and even though he forced me to wear SPF 50 or something like that, I still managed to tan perfectly. Not counting my tan lines, of course. I pulled the collar of my t-shirt down to inspect the damage. With a sigh, I saw that my bikini had definitely left its mark in the spaghetti thin tan lines on my shoulders. 

I supposed they weren't terribly noticeable. I had helped a little bit. I ran a finger down the line with a frown and then readjusted my t-shirt, deciding not to care anymore. Tan lines were the least of my worries anyway.

From the corner of my eye, I could see my cell phone on the dresser where I had carelessly thrown it before going to bed. I wanted to go and get it now, in case anything had happened or someone had texted me. In case Jake had told me news about his mother. I didn't know when her appointment was; he didn't say anything about that yesterday. 

Just the thought of his mother having to go to a doctor's appointment made me anxious for him. It was amazing how little time we had spent together in comparison to others who were as close as we already were. Jen and I had known each other for years, but even our relationship didn't happen as quickly and as thoroughly as mine and Jacob's did. Of course, whenever there was another person's life at stake you were naturally inclined to feel something for that person, but it truly did make me nervous for him to know that there could be something wrong with his mother.

He hadn't told me much about her. In fact, I hadn't known that she was sick until he told me the day when we were talking about New York. After that, he never said anything else. I always wondered and I always wanted to ask, but I could tell that it was a tender subject. For anything to be a tender subject to a guy like Jake, I knew better than to try and probe him about her. Still, I couldn't help but be curious about exactly what was going on. What kind of cancer was it? How advanced was it? Was she in remission all this time? How long had she had it? Was there anything that could be done?

As soon as I thought of those questions I mentally admonished myself with a hard shake of my head. I knew better than to be so nosy. If he wanted to tell me, he would have. Or he will. It wasn't my business in the first place; I was lucky he was telling me anything at all. I was lucky that I knew anything past what his name was. It was me who had the incredibly large mouth and talked about myself all the time. He probably knew more about me than I would ever know about him. But that was just something that I was going to be okay with. It just wasn't my place to ask him hard questions like that. No matter how much I was dying to know, I wouldn't do that to him.

Still, just hearing the careful way he had told me about her doctor's appointment showed how hard it was. I got the feeling that this had happened before and he was prepared for rough news. As a matter of fact, I almost wanted to offer to go with him even though I knew how awkward it would have been for him. I don't know much about his dad either, but from the way Jake has turned out I can only assume that his father is also another very strong man. I wondered if they both put up a front when they were with other people and waited until they were in private to let the events of the day hit them. I wondered how they would deal with hearing bad news.