Steven Grant

23: The return of Jake Lockley

(Writers note; This is part 3 of the Jake chapters. Hope you're enjoying the chapters from his POV so far!)

Luna hadn't told anyone about me and my plan to get rid of her and her sister.

She hadn't even told Steven about it.

However, she didn't go back to her universe either.

I think she would rather die than do me the favor of leaving.

And Jo still didn't seem to have realized that she wasn't with Marc, but with me.

I wouldn't say she was too stupid to realize it. 

She was just naive enough to believe that Marc would change his mind about throwing himself into another relationship again within a day or two.

But who could blame her ?  Love drove you crazy, or so they said.

I think when you are in love, you just want to believe everything. 

It doesn't matter if it seems totally absurd and unbelievable.

You just force yourself to believe it.

At least that's what some romance novels say.

I wouldn't say I've ever been in love. 

I didn't have time for anything love related.

But I also couldn't deny that there was something about spending my time exclusively with Jo that I liked. 

Actually, I wanted to get rid of her.

But now I wasn't so sure if that was really such a good idea.

I tried to convince myself that there was nothing good about her.  Nothing to like about her.

But there were actually quite a few things to like about her. 

She was funny, totally clumsy and a good listener.

Yes, the clumsy part was also a positive trait of hers.

She had an insane perception and she seemed totally confident. 

She was just good-natured and offered her help to everything and everyone.

Something about her whole presence was reassuring.

She made you feel safe.

And I hated myself for feeling that way about her. 

Because I didn't want to like her.

The sane part of me just wanted to get rid of her.

But the other part of me was jealous of Marc and was also slowly starting to understand  why he was spending so much time with Jo.

I knew that if he came back home , he would ruin everything. 

Because he just didn't appreciate her enough.

He didn't understand that her presence and that every second he shared with her was a gift. 

I knew that he would reject her again.

And that in turn would break her heart.

I wish I could turn back time. 

Now that I knew her better, I didn't want anyone to break her heart.

I wanted to save her from that. 

It was my fault that as soon as Marc will come  home she will experience rejection from him once again.

So I saw Marc come in and before Jo had a chance to notice him being there, I kissed her. 

Right in front of him.

That way, Marc might leave again.

And he did.  Before Jo could even notice Marc's presence, he was gone.

                                        ****

In order not to blow my cover, I spent time with all of Marc's group of friends.

This group consisted of Steven, Luna, Jo and Marc himself.

No one but Luna knew that I wasn't really Marc.

But she continued to say nothing. 

I didn't really understand why she was keeping this "secret" to herself, but in a way I really appreciated it.

We had a really nice evening together until Marc suddenly entered the apartment.

He just sat down with us and didn't say anything for a while. 

He just sat there for about 10 minutes and stared at us.

But then he seemed to be wanting  to break his silence.

"What is Jake doing here?" He asked and didn't seem too happy to see me.

"It's really nice to see you too, Marc." I replied in my sarcastic way.

"Tell me, was it you or Steven who kissed Jo? And was it you or Steven who sent me on a mission that doesn't even exist?"

Jo seemed visibly confused.

Steven didn't seem to get it either and Luna was very amused because she knew exactly what was going on.

"Maybe you should ask yourself if Jo really loves you because of your personality, or if you are easy to replace after all."

And then the tension seemed to mount.  You could see how angry Marc was getting.

But instead of doing  anything, or even saying anything, he just left the apartment.