The Boy in the Woods (2014 Wattys Winner, Wattpad Version)

Chapter 43 - It's Now or Never

Jess felt someone shaking her shoulder gently and she moved it away, too tired to want to wake up. 

"Come on, Jess.  You have to get up," Annie said, and she blinked her eyes open.  Annie straightened and put her hands on her hips.  "You've been sleeping in so late these last few days, I was afraid this might happen.  I suppose you were reading when you should have been sleeping last night."

"Yes, ma'am," Jess lied, not wanting to tell Annie she'd tossed and turned most of the night.

"You know that wasn't a good idea when today's the first day of school.  Well, what's done is done," she added with a sigh.  "You'd better hurry up and get ready.  You don't want to keep your uncle waiting."

"Oh, right," Jess said with a sinking stomach. 

This would be the first time she'd be eating with Uncle Jonathon since they'd dropped Doug off at college.  She'd expected he was going to miss Doug, just like she and Annie would, but it was obvious he was having a much more difficult time coping.  She'd barely seen him at all.  He left for work early in the morning, before she got up, and returned home late in the evening, long after she and Annie ate dinner. 

After dressing, she went in the bathroom to brush her hair.  Looking in the mirror, she was dismayed by the dark circles under her eyes, the evidence of her sleepless nights.  With nothing she could do about it, she left the bathroom.  Gathering her purse and notebook off her desk, she went down the stairs and after leaving them by the front door, she nervously entered the dining room. 

"Good morning, Uncle Jonathon."

"Jessica," he said, not bothering to look up from the newspaper he was reading. 

Taking her place, she studied him out of the corner of her eye while she put her napkin in her lap.  He looked more tired than usual.  Was he having trouble sleeping too?  Annie entered with a tray and set their breakfasts in front of them.

"Do you need more coffee?" she asked Uncle Jonathon when she set down his plate.  

"What?" he asked distractedly then looked at his coffee cup.  "No."

"Alright, but if you do, I have a second pot on the burner." He grunted, already back to his reading and Jess dropped her head as she cut into her egg, not wanting to see Annie's face. 

In the quiet minutes that followed, she ate her breakfast while occasionally glancing at Doug's chair.  She missed his presence terribly.  Was this what it was going to be like for the next two years?  Silent meals while her uncle ignored her?   When Uncle Jonathon refolded his newspaper, he peered over at her.

"Hurry up, Jessica!" he said with exasperation.  "We're leaving in five minutes!"

"Yes, sir," she said, leaning over her plate while her stomach lurched.  She'd known she would be taken back and forth to school by James, but until that moment, she hadn't realized she'd be riding with Uncle Jonathon every morning.

When he rose, she set down her cutlery and stood.  He started for the hallway and as she passed him on the way to the kitchen, he frowned down at her.

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

"I need to get my lunch."

"Oh," he said.  There was a flicker of recognition in his eyes, and she wondered if he'd just remembered she needed one.  "Well, be quick about it."

"I will, sir."

When she entered the kitchen, Annie turned from the sink where she was washing the frying pan.