Crawling Back To You {Student X Teacher}

Chapter Seventeen - Marriage

A loud bang and the slam of his front door caused Jack to abruptly awake from his shallow sleep. In a blind panic, his first instinct was that someone had broken in. His second was that Alex may have returned for some bizarre reason. After the two ridiculous thoughts pulsing through him as he caught his breath, he soon recognised the footsteps that echoed throughout the house. It was Charlotte.

Why was she back so early?

"Jack! Are you awake?" She called up the stairs. Just hearing that voice made the man shudder.

"Well, I am now!" He called back, his voice still low and gruff from waking up. "Why are you home so early?"

"What?" Charlotte continued to call.

"I said; 'why are you home so early?!'" He began to lose his patience. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at his phone; it was three o'clock in the morning. "Bloody hell," he muttered.

"Evelyn sent us home early because of Arielle's wedding - she's helping with the planning." Charlotte replied, her voice getting fainter as she walked into their kitchen. Jack rolled his eyes and fell back into his bed again, hoping to get those three more hours of sleep before he'd have to wake up again. Just as he was drifting off into a sleep again, he was disturbed by the bedroom lights flicking on.

"What the hell, Charlotte?" He hissed, burying his head into his pillow.

"Jack, why has my mug been used?" Charlotte asked, flatly. Jack was too exhausted to conjure up a response; although he did mentally face-palm himself for forgetting to clean Alex's drink.

"Uhh... I don't know. Turn the light off, would you?" He muttered into his pillow.

"Don't drink out of my mug, Jack. You have your own." She uttered, exiting the room.

"Whatever," he responded, in an undertone. He didn't recall having this problem back when they shared a flat at University. Jack was thankful that Charlotte didn't assume someone else had used her mug, at least. After a while, he finally found himself drifting back into his sleep... until he felt the bed shift. He almost rolled into Charlotte, as she joined him under the dovet.

"Come here." Charlotte draped her arm around his waist. He protested, shifting away from her. "What's wrong?" The girl frowned.

"Too warm," he lied. Jack was already irritated by Charlotte and he wanted to get away from her. He rolled out of bed and stumbled out of the room into their bathroom.

He leaned against his sink and crept into a deep thought of what he could do about Charlotte. Jack knew for sure that his feelings had indeed deteriorated for her yet he didn't have the heart to upset her. He knows how upset she can get as last time they had a serious argument, she ended up living back with her mother and was prescribed antidepressants. He couldn't be responsible for that to happen again.

A spark of hope flashed in his thoughts; at least he'll be going on a trip with his sixth form class soon. Despite it only lasting three nights. Charlotte's schedule would be busier around this time of year as well, so thankfully she should be away more.

After ten minutes of getting lost in his mind, he remembered he'd have to get back into bed sooner or later. How he dreaded the idea. With a heavy and fed up sigh, he dragged himself back into his bedroom, where unsurprisingly Charlotte was already asleep. With an opportunity occurring, he decided to quietly creep back out of his bedroom and trek downstairs, where he'd spend the rest of the night on his couch. It was uncomfortable but once he was under a blanket with enough cushions, he was finally able to return to his dreams.

-

Jack's phone vibrated on his mahogany table, followed by his obstreperous alarm. With a load and inhuman groan, he rolled over and sat up on the couch. With his eyes still closed, he reached over to his phone where he turned off the blaring alarm.