There's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate

There's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate (40)

"You know you can tell Lexi your secrets," I whispered, staring down at the ground once again now that he had released me. "She'd love you no matter what. Just because you have a mark on your back or you made some mistakes doesn't mean that she'd judge you."

Alex chuckled a little, shoving his hands into his pockets as he stared at the ground along with me. "You know, that was exactly what Jesse was afraid of a few months ago. Before you guys got together, he told me everything. He really thought you were going to judge him if you knew everything about him."

"Well, I did hate him for almost four years," I defended, crossing my arms over my chest as I looked up to stare at him now. "So I guess he had a reason to be afraid that I was going to judge him. I'd been judging him for the past three and a half years."  

Alex shrugged. "Well, he loved you since the moment he saw you. It's almost funny how whipped he was when it came to you. He was willing to do anything for you, Jordan. Hah, I wouldn't be surprised if he ran off and faked his death just to keep you safe!"

I forced out a laugh, and I really hoped that he didn't notice how nervous it sounded. Now would have been the perfect time to tell him how Jesse wasn't dead, but... it just wasn't a good idea. Alex would have done something stupid if he found out that Jesse wasn't really dead.

I hope you're safe, Jesse, I thought to myself morosely, letting out a sigh of relief as Alex wrapped his arm around my shoulder as he walked me back to my cabin.

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I wasn't looking forward to this whole funeral thing. I hadn't ever met Jesse's family before, not even his mother, so I knew it was going to be awkward. If Alex wasn't there with me, I wouldn't have known what to do.

"He has a huge family," I blinked when we had entered the room that the rest of his family was in. Jesse never even mentioned anyone in his family except for Marnie, his dad, and his sister Camilla. I wonder if his sister was here as well... "I can't believe he never told me."

"This is only the kids," Alex grinned at me, as if that wasn't obvious by the little kids running around playing tag in black clothes. They couldn't have been older than seven, so I highly doubted that they really knew what was going on. "I guess they're sending us to the kids' room before the funeral starts."

"But I'm eighteen," I deadpanned, as if it totally wasn't obvious.

"And so am I," Alex grinned, but that didn't stop my eyebrows from furrowing.

"There are so many little kids," I whispered to him harshly, afraid that they would hear me. Not that it really would have mattered or anything. What were they going to do, kick me in the shin? Well, there were a lot of them... "Are they sticking us in here to babysit or something?"

"He has a lot of cousins," Alex informed me, passing me by and greeting one of the little kids that stood before us.

"Are all of them little kids?" I asked when he came back over to me. "Because there are a lot of little kids here. Marnie's his cousin. Where's she?"

"I'm not sure where Marnie is, but most of his cousins are kids," he shrugged, leading me away from the door and over to two seats. I sat down after he did. "There are a few that are around our age somewhere, Marnie being one of them."

As if on cue, two boys slid out in front of us. One of them had reddish brown hair with hazel eyes and the other had brown hair with hazel eyes as well. They both had a cheeky grin as they stared at the two of us.

Well this wasn't creepy...

"Um, hi," I greeted slowly, not knowing what else I was supposed to say to them. It wasn't like I could just ignore them, right? They were blocking the way toward the exit...