In the attic of Jade's childhood was an old trunk, locked. And even though she couldn't pry it open, nor did she have the key, the muffled sobs coming from inside told her more than she wanted to remember.
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I was absentmindedly nodding my head to the beat of a song blasting through my headphones while I removed our clean clothes from the dryer. It was normally Ashton's turn to do the laundry but I hadn't seen him in two days and I was running out of clean t-shirts so I figured why not do it myself. I started folding the clothes and sorted them into different piles while I sat on the cold basement floor.
The volume of the song momentarily lowered when I received an incoming message. I put down Jordan's jeans and got up on my knees so I could fetch my phone out of my back pocket. The song resumed and I started singing along softly to the chorus as I opened the message. No caller ID? Who could that possibly be?
'Can we meet up someday? How about you come over at my house.'
My voice caught in my throat, the song slowly disappeared into the background until I could hear nothing but my own thoughts.
How the hell did he get my number?
The first time my dad contacted me was through Messenger, I figured he typed my name into the search bar and clicked on the picture that fit my profile. I had blocked him a week ago and I hadn't heard of him ever since until now ...
Why couldn't he catch a hint? I didn't want to see him. I didn't want to talk to him. It had been almost a month since my father reached out to me and even though I was clearly ignoring him, he wouldn't give up. I had to give it to him, he wasn't a quitter.
I remembered my conversation with Lauren - she had told me to let him work hard, to make him pay for what he did and not to give in so easily. I should've asked her how long I was supposed to lead him on exactly.
'You can even bring Noah over if you want.'
I inched closer to the screen of my phone, reading the text again. Noah? He never once asked for Noah before, it seemed strange to me that he would want to see him all of a sudden but then again, Noah was his son. It made me wonder if maybe he truly was showing remorse. He stated numerous times that he wanted to fix his mistakes and start things over but I always brushed it off, passing it off as lies. But now that he wanted my brother involved, I had a feeling that maybe he was telling the truth after all ...
I jumped up when my headphones suddenly slid from my head. I looked up at Jordan holding them up, my phone dangling from the cord. My hand flew to my chest where I could feel my heart beat rapidly against my palm.
"Make some noise next time," I grumbled, annoyed, and scrambled to my feet.
"I've been calling you for five minutes straight, sweetheart," he said as he gave me my phone and headphones back. "Stop playing your music so damn loud, you're gonna turn deaf before you're twenty."
"Mhmm," I hummed carelessly. "What's up?"
"Go get dressed, I got some errands to run and I have to pick up Noah from work."
