Chapter 4: Spoiler Alert
"I love this," I state aloud with a content sigh. "I feel like I've finally found peace," I tell Jay staring up at the night sky from the top of Greg's roof. I lean my head on his shoulder and close my eyes. "It feels like home again."
I'm always going to cherish every moment I have with Jay.
"I know what you mean," I hear Jay say before I feel him reach for my hand and entwine our fingers together. "Moments like these take me back to the days when we were just kids, when we were only six."
"About that..." I grin from ear to ear in nostalgia, opening my eyes in excitement. "I remember you."
Jay furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "I should hope so seeing as you're kind of marrying me and all, spoiler alert."
I swat his chest with my free hand and move my head to look up at him. "I mean, I remember you as a kid. I remember everything. I remember seeing you that day. I remember smiling at you. I remember you befriending me. I remember you defending me. You were my best friend before anyone else." I lean up and kiss is cheek before softly pinching it. "You still are."
"You're mine too," he smiles joyfully with those striking blue eyes of his. "I'm glad you remember. I didn't know if you ever would," he says, super happy about it. "Christmas came early this year."
"I think I blocked out a lot of the memories because you left. It hurt," I explain with sadness at the reminder. Not long after Jay left, so did my 'dad'. It was hard times. "You disappeared without saying goodbye. I had no idea what happened to you."
Jay squeezes my hand to convey his emotions. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault that you were taken back to the orphanage," I reassure him before he can start the whole blaming himself thing again. It's best to focus on the positive instead. "You kissed me." I wiggle my eyebrows playfully. "You stole my first kiss," I tell him accusingly, loving that he did.
"Yeah and no regrets here. I liked it." He winks down at me in jest, teasing me. "Hopefully, I'll be your last kiss too," he drops his head and places a butterfly kiss against my lips, so light that I barely feel it. Still, it immediately sends an electric spark down my spine.
Jay sat detentions for me, day after day. He defended me. He always looked out for me. There is no one on this planet that I'd rather be with.
I wrap my arms around his neck and run my hands through his soft, brown hair. "Definitely, Jay," I nod with conviction. "There's nothing that I'm more sure about than being with you."
We lapse into a moment's silence. The moon shines down around us, casting our shadows into the light. Our shadows are no longer our demons. For once, the night is warm.
"You know what," I whisper, still reminiscing on the past, "I also remember all those beautiful flowers you'd give me very single morning." I touch the collar of his shirt and the back of his neck with affection before pulling him down to me. I move up and meet him halfway in a heated kiss, feeling the bliss of my heart racing. "I also remember your promise," I announce softly, pulling away slightly.
He presses his lips back against mine and I feel him grin against my lips. "I'll love you forever," he reminds me of the promise his little blue-eyed self made to me. "And I meant it. It's a promise I've always intended on keeping."
I pull back from him to laugh, finding it humorous that it took me so long to see how crazy Jay's always been about me. "I'll love you forever too," I reply in earnest, stifling another giggle.
"Not so reassuring when you're saying that with a laugh," he remarks before laughing along with me -- we totally do have chemistry, the first thing he was ever wrong about.
"I love laughing with you," I say between fits of giggles, unable to control myself. Honestly, I don't even know why we're laughing so much but I do know that it's fun.
"I'm just glad you remembered my promise 'cause there's no way I was forgetting it," he says with a chuckle, meaning it.
"Ooh!" I point to the glittering sky as a rainbow star flickers across the black sky, momentarily distracting me. "Shooting star! Make a wish, JJ!"
"I don't have to," Jay replies confidently, gently grabbing my hips and lifting me up. He places me down in front of him and tugs me to his torso until I'm sitting in between his legs and against his chest. I smile when he slides an arm around my waist and rests his chin on my shoulder as if to keep me close and protected. "I already have you," he whispers against my ear before playfully kissing my neck.
*~*~*~**~*~*~*
"Here," Jay offers me his hand when he jumps back into our room from the roof.
I carefully take his hand into mine and climb down from the roof and through the window into the lit room. "Thanks," I say with a smile before noticing someone scavenging through our room. "Zac?" I frown when my eyes land on him.
Zac stops what he's doing and glances our way. "Hey guys," he slurs casually before he goes back to scavenging through my underwear drawer as if it's the norm.
"What's the vandal doing here?" Jay asks me as if I'm supposed to magically know.
"Let me wave my wand and find out," I reply in sarcasm before shoving Zac away from my drawer. "What are you doing? Sing you canary!" I demand, confused, that is until the stench of strong alcohol hits me. "Jeez, how much did you drink?"
"What?!" Zac whips his head to glare at me, his black hair falling just above his dark eyes. "Alright! Alright! Calm down! Stop yelling at me! Stop antagonizing me! I'm standing right here!" He shouts at me, his tone indicating aggression.
"I'm not yelling," I say calmly. He's barely keeping his balance. He's barely pronouncing his words correctly. In fact, he's putting BoyBand to shame, and that's saying a lot.
"Who's yelling then?!" Zac snaps at me, clearly not in the right frame of mind.
"You are, crackhead," Jay clarifies with a scary look to his eyes, unimpressed by his shouting. "Look at you," he shakes his head in disapproval, "you're so wasted, you can't even articulate proper sentences."
"Preconceived notions are hurtful," Zac retorts in arrogance. "I'm not drunk, well, I'm not only drunk," he explains, watching our facial expressions as we put two and two together -- well as Jay puts two and two together.
"You're high?" Jay asks him outright, unbelieving. "That's not cool, man," he says with a sigh, restraining himself from lashing out at the idiot.
I immediately understand where Jay's coming from. He used to be hooked on drugs as a teen. Ever since, he stays clear and goes out of his way to avoid the temptation of falling back into old habits. As once said, you're never a recovered addict, you're always recovering. It's so easy to slip back into that dark world and Jay is smart enough to know that. It's why he got so angry when Troy drugged him at the football game.
"It's just your conscious talking, brother," Zac replies, uncaring. "Let it pass."
Clearly, that's what he's been doing. He's scraping at the bottom of the barrel again.
"What are you looking for anyway, Zac Attack?" I ask him, a part of me already knowing -- I hope I'm wrong.
"These," he holds up one of my white bras with a condescending smirk. "So pretty and innocent for such a rebel."
I can always tell when Zac is lying because his lips move. The Zac in front of me is not the Zac I know. He's insulting me, not joking with me. There's a difference and this Zac isn't my Zac. I don't recognize this person. He's a stranger, the stranger who blamed me for his crimes.
"I hate your backhanded compliments," I say and snatch my bra from his hands before angrily stuffing it back into my drawer. I scan his face, taking in his red eyes, messy hair and the sweet smell of some drug lingering around him. "Does Mia know about this?"
He immediately shakes his head, a glimmer of worry forming in those black eyes of his.
"We don't keep cash lying around the house," Jay tells Zac firmly, aware of what Zac's up to. "Sorry that we can't pay for your next fix, pinhead," Jay says through gritted teeth, curling his hands into fists. "Who's your dealer?"
"I can't concentrate. Stop dancing, Jay," he says with a frown, rubbing at his eyes in bewilderment.
"Who's your dealer?" Jay repeats. Still, there's no response from Zac -- he's slower than usual. Jay sighs and glances over at me. "This is the reason why I'm trying so hard not to connect with people." Once again, he repeats his question. "The dealer, Zac?"
Zac chuckles menacingly as if this is all hilarious, not realizing the seriousness of the situation. "An old friend of yours, Taylor."
Jay rubs his temples in fury before turning his back on Zac, having had enough.
Disheartened, I look up at Zac in concern. "Who are you?" I ask him softly. "You're not this person. You're better than this, Zac."
That's when he detonates:
"I'm really not," he argues, glowering down at me before heading for the exit. He slams our bedroom door shut after him, infuriated that we're refusing to help him pay for his drugs.
I spin back around to face Jay, only to see him on the phone. I watch him for a while until he hangs up with a frustrated grunt. "Grey's still not answering any of my calls," he tells me, taking offence to Grey's sudden wall of hatred.
"I thought Brody and his gang are behind bars now," I state, aware of what Zac meant when he said an 'old friend'. I really don't feel like touching on a gray subject, that being the 'Grey' subject. I honestly don't know what to think anymore.
"So did I," Jay replies before sitting down on the edge of our bed. "He must still have people on the outside. His dad is a deeply disturbed individual, he'll do anything to get even. This is because Grey, your uncle and I put him and his crew behind bars. I know how they function and right now, they're playing Zac."
What's happening to all my friends lately?
"Why Zac though?" I ask aloud. "Because he's stupid and susceptible to these kind of things?" I nod to myself. "That makes sense."
"Because he saw Kyle, Grey and I defend him and you," Jay answers in thought, still trying to work it all out. "It's gotta be Raiden. He's always had a hold over Zac and he was working with Brody for a while. Plus, he's not one of those that got arrested. He's still around town somewhere."
Raiden has probably been lurking in the shadows like some creep. I can just imagine him waiting in darkness for nightfall to come. The mere thought gives me the shivers.
I nod in agreement. "I'm marrying a smart man," I step up to him with a mischievous grin -- I got to distract him from this Zac, Brody, Grey situation going on because I can see that it's killing him. I sit down beside him. "You're so handsome too," I compliment him, running my fingers along his jaw.
Jay sends me a flat stare. "I'm insulted that you think I don't know what you're doing right now, but at the same time, I don't really feel like stopping you." He spares me a devious grin, enjoying this.
"You two kids might want to break it up," Boss Man says, stepping into the room, neither of us having noticed that he opened the door. "There's people at the door so stop getting lost in each other's eyes."
"I'd love to help you out, bud. Which way did you come in?" Jay asks him jokingly. "As you can see, we're kind of busy," he pushes Greg toward the door. "I want to see how far Aqueela's willing to take this." He grins cheekily at Greg before winking at me. "I'm having a lot of fun."
"I'm not," Boss Man disagrees with him. "And I really don't want to see just how far this goes," he gestures to the small space between us before pulling a face. "Now, seriously, get to the door. There's strange people asking for you." He winks at Jay as if he knows something that we don't.
"Strange people?" Jay asks as we follow Greg to the front door. "I don't feel like adding more weirdos to our group. We have enough."
Greg turns around to face us. "Not my problem. They were specifically asking for you." He glances at Jay and then swings open the door. He smirks at us before leaving us to deal with the three strangers staring at us.
In a split second, I take in the appearances of the three.
The guy standing in front of the other two is short with blonde hair and pale, blue eyes. He's dressed casually, almost messily, but there's some kind of warmth about him. His smile seems so genuine and his eyes convey humility. I automatically trust him.
The second guy is younger and taller than the first. He has a clean-shaven face, no trace of stubble, with a mop of brown hair and aqua-colored eyes. He gives off the impression that he's carefree yet still somewhat important. The way he's dressed almost reminds me of the way Jay dresses -- the v-neck, jeans, jacket and all. He's got that racer look about him.
My eyes fall to the girl. I'm blown away by her natural beauty. She has long black hair cascading around her shoulders with bright green eyes and sunglasses atop her head. Her skin is flawless and her features stand out. She's tall and could easily pass Bell, Jezel and AJ with her stunning looks and natural radiance. At the same time, she's got a beachy, laid-back look about her, that is judging by her jean shorts and white crop top that outlines her perfect figure.
I smile happily and open my mouth to greet the three but before I can get a word out, the beautiful girl pushes past me and eagerly throws her arms around my fiancé's neck.
"Jay!" The girl shouts into his shoulder with excitement pouring from through her voice. "It's so good to see you alive." She leans up and kisses his cheek.
Okay then.... Why does it suddenly feel like there's a rip in the space-time continuum?
My smile fades behind a frown when Jay chuckles and embraces her back. "Good to see you too, Ava," he tells her, genuinely meaning it. "It's been a while." He smiles down at her before hugging her again. "I should have probably told you guys that I didn't get on the plane."
I don't like what's happening here. I really don't like what's happening here.
I stay frozen in place and quirk an eyebrow at the two, taken aback by the immediate chemistry I see between them. A sudden wave of insecurity washes over me. It catches me off guard, so much so that I don't even comprehend Jay greeting the other two guys.
"Enough with the almost dying scares, Jay," the blonde guy remarks with a relieved laugh but I'm honestly not paying much attention to him.
Before I know it, Jay wraps an arm around my waist. I hear his comforting voice once again. "This is my soon-to-be wife, Aqueela," he says in pride but I'm barely hearing him. "'Queela," he looks down at me, missing the glint of fear behind my eyes, "these are some of my friends that I met in South Africa," he introduces us to each other.
"Hey," I greet them, trying to pull off a smile but failing miserably. It feels like my face is going to split in half. I don't get to dwell on it much longer because Boss Man reappears with a devastated look on his face and his cell phone in hand. I immediately sense it. "What happened?" I ask him, matching his face to the faces of those around me when I was told Jay's plane went down.
"You weren't answering your phone," Boss Man drawls, careful with his words, almost as if afraid to tell me what's going on, afraid of the way I may react. "Your friends have just been in a serious car accident. You need to get to the hospital right now."
Everything blurs and my heart begins to pound in my chest.
Jay grabs my hands, just as frantic as me. "I'll take her," he tells Greg, motioning over to our guests expectantly, hoping that Greg will catch the hint.
"You'll definitely get her there faster," Greg replies quickly. "I'll keep your friends company," he adds, unsurprisingly catching on. "I'm sure they remember me." He smiles at them, having obviously met them before.
"Thanks my man, I appreciate it." Jay shrugs on his jacket and gets his keys off the rack before pulling me out of the house.
*~**~*
Hey guys :)
I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for supporting this book and reading this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.
1. What are your thoughts on Zac and the way he's acting?
2. What was your favorite part of this chapter?
3. What do you think will happen in the next chapter?
4. Who do you think was in the car crash?
5. Who do you think is behind Zac's sudden addiction?
6. Do you think Ava poses a threat to Aqueela?
7. Do you think Zac can ever get clean?
8. Which characters are not experiencing as much change as others?
9. What is going on with Grey?
10. If you had to choose, which character would you prefer to have die?
Thanks again. Have an awesome weekend! :D
~ CJ