Soulmates: Writing on Skin [Seaycee AU]

Seventeen

Laura noticed him right away, perking up in her seat. "Jack, how are you sweetie?" She asked, adjusting herself to face him.

Kaycee sat down on the couch adjacent to where her parents were seated, patting the spot next to her for Jack to sit.

He obliged, sliding down next to her, keeping a respectable distance. "I'm good, how are you both?" He asked politely.

Kaycee cringed internally while Laura and Jack kept up their forced conversation. Nothing about it was natural, you could cut the tension in the room with a knife. She couldn't help but feel as though bringing him home was a mistake, maybe she should've went to his place.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Laura directed a question at her. "Kaycee? Did you hear me?"

"Mmm?" She hummed, moving her gaze from her lap to the woman in front of her. "Sorry, I was zoned out. What did you say?"

Laura smiled meekly. "I asked what you two were up to tonight?"

Kaycee looked to Jack, who shrugged. She sighed, "I'm not sure. This was kind of a last minute thing."

"If you want, we can leave you two the tv out here and we'll go to our bedroom." Laura offered, nudging Brad with her elbow to get his attention.

"We will?" Brad whispered, making no move to stand up with Laura.

"Yes," Laura spoke, snapping her fingers. "We will. That way they can watch something in peace."

Brad finally stood, following Laura down the hall toward their bedroom. Kaycee heard him mumble something along the lines of how he wouldn't be a distraction to the kids, and that he didn't want them in there alone; which was met with more of Laura's snapping to get him to keep quiet.

There were several seconds of awkward silence after Kaycee heard her parents' door close, neither her or Jack knowing what to do or say next. She finally clambered up from her seat to snatch the remote that rested on the couch where Brad had sat. She stood in front of the television while she navigated to the Netflix application, only returning to her seat when it was up and running.

Jack broke the silence first. "Your dad doesn't seem to like me all that much." He joked lightly, his hands wringing in his lap.

Kaycee shook her head, flipping through various movies to find something interesting. "He's always like that. I can never get a read on him." She finally settled on some thriller movie that she remembers Jack saying he wanted to watch and set the remote down.

Jack scooted himself closer. "What do you mean?"

"It sounds stupid, but I feel like lately, he's been almost disappointed in me and my choices." She paused, using the remote to turn the volume up more. "He's been more distant from me, it's not something I particularly enjoy."

"You're probably just imagining things." Jack said, using this as an excuse to drape his arm over Kaycee's shoulders. "You're growing up, things are going to be different sometimes."

"Mhm," She hummed, nuzzling herself into Jack's side. She rested her head in the crook of his neck and brought her legs over his, her arms hooking around his neck to keep herself in place.

Jack tensed, shaking his legs to get Kaycee to untangle herself from him. He pulled his upper body backward to look at her, leaning back on his hands.

"As much as I want to just brush things under the rug and pretend like we didn't have a major blowout a few weeks ago," he started, using his fingers to tilt her chin up, "we have to talk about it."