"We need to go out while we're here. I don't care if you dads want to focus on the garage, we won't be working at night!" Alex announced when they arrived at the apartment.
"He has a point. I could do with a night out or two." Aaron smirked as he, Alex and Zaiden then looked hopefully to Jack.
"I'm up for it. Work and play can be mixed together." Jack grinned, slightly excited to be spending some time away with the guys.
He would of course miss his family like crazy but these two weeks were going to be like a backtrack to his teen years, before he started his family. It would just be him and his friends, kind of on a lad's holiday and he most definitely wasn't complaining.
He had his fifth baby on the way and had just found out he had another son; things were going to be extremely hectic when he got home. Therefore, he was most definitely going to make the most of the freedom he had and would not be holding back from the countless nights out.
"So we should start as we mean to go on!" Zaiden clapped his hands. "Let's go out tonight!"
The group of them looked among themselves as if trying to judge one another's reactions. They had all just had a seriously long drive so they were shattered.
"Or we could just have drinks here?" Zaiden laughed when no one matched his previous excitement.
"Better idea." Jack mirrored his laughter, rooting through the fridge to see what alcohol they had already been supplied with.
They had rented an apartment in the city instead of booking hotel rooms each and it meant they could spend the whole 2 weeks in one another's company and try not to drive each other crazy. They hadn't done something like this since they were back at school so it most definitely was going to be a huge test.
"We're going to need this to get us through tomorrow. How the fuck are we going to put a garage together alone?" Alex laughed, with very little faith in their abilities.
When they had done up the garage in Brighton, it had taken every single employee and it had taken weeks. This time around, they had a week and four of them; it was most definitely going to be a task.
"I think we're going to do a fucking amazing job." Aaron laughed as he took the beer that was passed his way.
"No you and Lawrence are just happy to have a break from your hormonal, pregnant girls." Alex mocked and speaking of which, Jack's laptop begun buzzing from the corner of the room signalling a Skype call.
"It's Jess. I've got to take this." Jack instantly grabbed hold of his laptop and began making his way out of the room.
"Nah Lawrence! This is a lad's night. No wives included." Zaiden called out causing them to laugh.
"Two minutes. I'll be back." He smirked proving that he knew he would be much longer than just 2 minutes.
"Hey baby." Jack said the moment he accepted the call and Jess' face appeared on his screen.
"Hey." She smiled back yet her voice was quiet and unsure, something Jack picked up on immediately.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yeah!." She nodded, trying to hide what was obvious. "How is the apartment?"
"What's wrong Jess?" Jack ignored her question and got right to the point.
He could see it in her eyes and hear it in the way she spoke. Something was seriously off.
"Nothing. Why?" She began to shake her head but she knew she couldn't hide it. It was the reason she had called but she had very quickly chickened out from speaking up.
"Okay... something is wrong." She sighed, already feeling sick with nerves over having to do this.
Her head was still a mess. She didn't know how to feel or what to think but she knew she had to tell Jack before it got back to him some other way.
"Babe, what's up?"
He looked genuinely concerned as not only was it gone 1am in the morning, he hadn't been expecting a call from her either tonight.
"Um..." She began, looking away from him and across the room.
She was tucked up in their bed and seeing her look so comfortable in the sheets made Jack suddenly miss home. He hadn't even been away for a day and he already wanted to be back with his family and this uncertainty was not helping either.
"Jay came over earlier..." She began, making it seem like he had been gone hours when in actual fact it had been less than an hour since he left.
"Oh yeah?"
Jess could hear the distaste in Jack's voice as he tried to act calm and unfazed, causing even more nerves to run through her.
"And well... fuck Jack." She breathed, ready to just end the call and escape from saying anything. She wasn't ready to see his reaction. "Things were just... we talked and well... it got a bit... fuck."
She couldn't make sense of her own words so she knew Jack would have trouble following too. His confusion even showed in his face.
"We kissed Jack." She finally let out and even though it made her feel sick saying it aloud to him, she was partly relieved to have finally got it out.
Jack didn't say anything for a moment as he just sat there in silence. The eeriness was painful as Jess didn't want to catch his gaze but also wanted to judge his reaction.
"I'm so sorry Jack. I don't know how it happened, it just did and-"
"Fuck." He spoke over her as his hands ran across his face. "Fuck."
"I'm sorry." Jess continued to plead as she didn't know what else to do. "I-"
"Why?" Was all Jack asked, his voice steady but covering an extreme amount of emotions. "Why did it happen Jess?"
Biting down on her lip, she just shrugged her shoulders at first, unable to say anything. She couldn't defend herself, she knew that wasn't possible or the right thing to do but she needed to say something.
"We were just talking about shit in the past and one thing lead to another. We just got so caught up in everything and it happened."
Firstly running a hand over his mouth, both hands then trailed up and over his cap as Jack brought his head down to rest on the table. He was trying to hold back his watering eyes from turning into anything else yet he was currently failing.
"Who kissed who?" He asked as he briefly looked up at the screen and the look on Jess' face was enough to cause his heart to tear in two.
"I'm sorry Jack... it was mutual." Jess virtually whispered, as though she couldn't even bear saying it out loud.
"So you wanted to do it? You wanted to kiss him as much as he's wanted to kiss you for so fucking long?" Jack asked and it was clear the anger was now seeping through.
"No... I just, I don't know." She answered honestly because what else could she do?
She couldn't sit here and lie to his face. That wasn't fair on him or either of them.
"I didn't mean to cause this Jack. I didn't want to hurt you."
"It just happened right?" Jack mocked, as though deflated from the words he was hearing.
He couldn't bring himself to believe this was real. How did this all happen so quickly? He had only been gone half a day.
He knew Jay being back was going to cause some grief, it always did. He and Jess had a long past, that of which Jay clung onto so tightly, of course it wasn't going to be a smooth ride.
However, he hadn't expected things to happen like this. He expected it from Jay but not from Jess and now Jack was beginning to doubt that it was only Jay still holding those intimate and loving feelings in his heart.
"Tell me the truth." Jack spoke sternly, wanting to get this over and done with. "Did you want it to happen?"
Running her hands under her eyes to wipe away the tears falling from her eyes, Jess didn't want to share this answer as much as Jack didn't want to hear it. It was painful but she had to be honest for the sake of their relationship and everyone involved.
"At the time, yeah... It just felt right and I don't know why. I'm so fucking sorry."
As she spoke, a tear fell from Jack's eyes, that he quickly tried to hide, causing so much heartbreak to consume them both. It felt like they had just lost a person, as though they were mourning a life, the emotions were that painful.
There was more silence as Jack leaned back in the chair and covered his face. He was covering the tears that were soaking his skin, as the pain consumed him and Jess just watched while feeling and experiencing that same hurt.
"Jack." She mumbled, trying to get his attention and for him to look at her. She couldn't stand the silence and she couldn't stand the fact that he wouldn't give her any eye contact.
"Are you unhappy?" He asked, taking Jess a little by surprise.
"What?"
"Are you unhappy Jess?" Jack asked the question once again. "Are you unhappy in this relationship? This marriage? 10 years is a long fucking time to be with someone, I get that. So are you unhappy? Have you reached that point?"
Although he was asking the questions with such a determination to get an answer you could sense the heartbreak in his voice.
He didn't want to hear that she didn't feel the same anymore. He didn't want to know if she was slowly falling out of love after all of these years but Jack had to know.
"Because I love you so fucking much, more than anything and I just want you to be happy. So if I can't give you that anymore Jess, I want you to tell me."
He didn't want to lose her but he didn't want her to feel stuck in something that she didn't feel anymore. It wasn't fair. No one should be made to feel like that.
"Don't stay with me just because we're married and have kids. You should be with me because you still love me as much as you did 10 years ago."
There was more silence between them as Jess physically couldn't speak. She knew if she said something she would just burst into uncontrollable tears.
Watching Jack sit before her in this vulnerable state hurt so bad and she wished she could reach out and hug him but she couldn't.
"You need to choose Jess. You need to tell me what you want." Jack insisted, leaving Jess in a hopeless state as she crumbled right before him into a mess she just couldn't control.
This wasn't a situation she expected to find herself in. She never wanted to cause anyone this much hurt or herself. When Jay had come over earlier that night, something had instantly felt different when they began speaking but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.
He was back to the being the sensitive guy she knew still existed and he was giving her some sort of comfort and protection that she had experienced from him countless of times before. It just felt right.
However, she didn't expect things to progress the way they had. She didn't expect to be sat here having this conversation with her husband and she didn't know how to deal with it.
**
:)):((
team jess/jack or team jess/jay is the question?!???!