✓ | 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐓? ( jack grealish! )

CHAPTER 04.

THE MUSIC BLARED loudly in FREYA's ears as she shuffled the songs on her Spotify playlist to play out of her headphones. The Five Guys soundtrack wasn't really doing it for her, so just as she'd got her food she'd pulled out her headphones and had begun to play some Catfish & the Bottlemen track briefly on her own, while typing a quick message to one of her friends.

There were lots of pros and cons for Freya towards living in Birmingham ( many of them related to men ) but the choice of food outlets was definitely a pro, especially for Freya who spent half of her time when she wasn't studying exploring the restaurants and fast food places in the city.

It was one of the only times in her busy life she had time to herself, with the combination of a rough final year at university taking place and male problems, she really struggled to find time to gather her thoughts recently, with sitting down to eat with headphones in the only real option.

But obviously today wasn't going to be one of those days.

"Hey." A very familiar accent scared Freya from behind, as she opened her eyes to reveal the man who had caused all these problems to start sitting down beside her; a coffee in his hand.

"Shit you terrified me." She responded, laughing slowly in a kind of annoyed, kind of relieved way - she really couldn't decide which one.

JACK winked slowly at her as he observed her trying to take her headphones out and stop the music without seeming too obvious. Freya had really wanted to tell him to leave her to eat and spend some time alone, but she really couldn't bring herself to as she looked at him with eyes she fell so deeply for and the hair that could make her go crazy in seconds.

"Be careful. Someone might spot you." She slowly laughed as he leant back against the chair, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked around the surrounding train station.

"Nah doubt it, there's hundreds of people here with most in a rush, I'll blend it in pretty fine." He replied, leaning back in towards Freya as he caressed the edge of her clothed leg with the side of his shoe.

Since Freya had confessed to him about the fact he made her feel safe and mentally okay finally, the two seemed to have become more comfortable and closer to each other. Despite the fact two days ago Freya had had to rush out quickly in a bid to cover everything up to her brother, everything had come out in a voice message that evening. They hadn't seen each other since - and something felt different about Jack now, like she was suddenly more confident around him.

"I might talk to Ben tonight, ease him in slowly, I think I'm ready to finally tell him." Freya eventually managed to gasp out as she took a small bite out of the cheeseburger in front of her. Without any words being said for a moment, Jack quickly grabbed her hand above the table and intertwined their fingers together, with Freya giving in and smiling directly towards him without caring what was going on around her and who could see.

"Do you want me to come with you?" He questioned, tapping his thumb slowly against the back of her hand, a smile evidently appearing across his face. But, before Freya could answer his query, she was swiftly interrupted by a flurry of messages pinging off her phone from MAJA.

The word 'Ben' was all it read in capital letters, however before Freya could think or consider what it meant and why she'd sent her that, it was all revealed.

"What the fuck?" Was spat over the table as BEN's yelling caught up to the man stood over the two. Maja was behind him, placing her phone slowly in her pocket as she gave Freya a slow, sympathetic shake of the head whilst mouthing 'I'm sorry', hanging a bit behind to avoid what was undoubtedly about to happen.

And although Freya had previously had the confidence to tell Ben everything that was going on, instead no words came out and she felt as though she would start crying no matter what was said in this conversation.

"I said, what the fuck is going here?" He repeated himself in annoyance, however a hint of emotion cracking through in his words. Jack cleared his throat slowly before looking towards Freya, who simply dragged her hand away from his and towards her lap, not wanting to do anything else in that moment except simply, not being there.

"Ben, I think we should go, DREW and LEIJLA are expecting us in London in a few hours, we can't miss the train, we have to leave." Maja quickly interrupted, placing her hand lovingly onto her fiancé's shoulder, to which he shook off without hesitation. And in that moment, everyone in that room looked as though they could burst into tears at any second: it was just the question of who would crack first.

"How long?" Ben managed to choke out, the anger leaving his voice to be replaced with pure disappointment, he'd been broken by the two people he thought were closest to him, it was impossible for Freya not to feel incredibly bad and guilty for what she'd done and she wasn't even sure why.

"Six months, nearly." Jack quickly answered as he noticed Freya's eyes beginning to gloss over with tears as she covered her mouth quickly with her hand, presumably to stop a sob seeping out.

"Six months, six fucking months, what?" Ben huffed as he struggled to stay still with either anger or emotion, Freya couldn't tell. Jack grabbed her hand under the table quickly and started moving his thumb across her palm again, and although he made her feel so safe in that moment, she knew it would only get worse if she carried on.

"I'm sorry." Freya managed to whisper out before pulling her hand back to herself and closing her eyes tightly. She hated it, she hated everything that was currently going on and really really didn't exist in that exact moment.

"What about Kai?" Ben quickly questioned to which Freya's whole body froze, her blood felt as though it was no longer there and she simply couldn't move. She was absolutely fucked and she knew it.

"What?" Was all Jack could say as he looked towards the girl opposite him, Maja stood over them; this time her sympathetic smile turned into anger directed towards her fiancé and her eyebrows moved down, while he simply stood with his arms crossed, looking as though he was about to cry or break something any second now.

"We're going Ben, now." Maja quickly broke the silence, grabbing Ben's arm and dragging him away from the two sat at the table, this time however Ben did not argue and instead allowed himself to be walked out by his fiancé without a second glance at the two people he thought were closest two him.

Once they were eventually out of sight, Freya finally opened her eyes and grabbed her denim tote bag off the floor, and without a word simply walked out the restaurant: leaving a very confused Jack sat all on his own to question what had just happened.