{If you're feeling up to it, I would suggest going back to chapter 22, second page, and reading the first like maybe five paragraphs after the bar that separates sections. There's a key hint that I'm almost possitive 99% of you guys missed. HeHeHe. Happy reading!}
“Jessi!” Avery waves as I walk out of class and pushes multiple people to the side to get to me. “Party. Tonight. Kira’s driving.”
“Avery,” I whine as she continues walking with me through campus.
“No excuses. You never go to parties.”
“Maybe because I don’t like them.”
“Maybe because you like Will more.”
“That’s a legitimate reason.”
She laughs and purposely bumps into me.
“It’s no lie that you two are adorable. Nobody thought Will would ever find one girl. But we all miss you at the campus parties.”
“Miss me, or miss Will?”
“I miss you,” she says and then pauses before adding, “But a lot of people miss Will too. You’ve really got him locked up wherever you keep him.”
“I don’t keep him anywhere!” I defend with mock surprise because I know she’s joking. “If he’s not going to parties, that’s his choice. I never told him he can’t.”
“I just meant he’s so in love with you that he’d rather spend time with you than at a party.”
“You talk like you two are best friends.”
“I don’t have to know him. All I have to do is look at him to see he basically melts into a puddle at your feet.”
“That’s not true.”
Will really hasn’t changed that much since I’ve met him. I mean, sure he’s nicer to Leah, and doesn’t sleep around, and isn’t an asshole all the time. But he’s still the tenacious, heart-stoppingly gorgeous but very intimidating man he’s always been.
“I didn’t think I would be saying it when I first met Will, but I wouldn’t say it now if it wasn’t true. How about both of you come to the party? Then everyone wins.”
I sigh and readjust the books in my hands.
“Will and I have to work a few things out first.”
“Ooo, are you guys fighting?”
That’s not what we are, are we? I don’t know what we’re doing. Our disagreements normally don’t last more than a few hours. It’s becoming harder and harder to pull off this angry act. I was genuinely mad at him at a bunch of different point, but he always managed to distract me or say something to make me forget why I was so mad.
First there was his endearing drunk state last night. I couldn’t possibly be mad at him then. And his nightmare this morning. I didn’t have the heart to yell at him right after he woke up. Then he came downstairs with messy wet hair and a cautious shy smile. Even during my rant, he was so focused on me, like I was the only thing that mattered. Like he wanted to memorize every word out of my mouth. I’m the one melting.
He was sincerely sorry. He always is. But I felt like I had to put my foot down so he’ll finally learn from his mistake and realize there are consequences. I’m still trying to be mad at him, but I just want to run to him and jump into his arms and say everything is okay. I am weak when it comes to him.
“We’re not fighting, not really,” I answer. “We had a slight disagreement which we’ll work out by the end of the day.” Then we can keep to our unspoken rule of only being upset with one another for less than twelve hours.
“Then come to the party once you’ve worked it out. It can be your reward.”
“Not to knock your fun, but it’s not exactly an award for me.”
“Fine, fine, fine. But you need to be at the room more often so you can catch me up on everything before your boyfriend whisks you off to Europe again.”
I guess I don’t have to tell her about moving out. It’ll be into next semester before I’m going to have to give up my dorm life to live with Will. But I can still tell her our plan for the future. I’m sure she’ll either screech or yell a few swear words before demanding all the details, so I’ll tell her later.
“I can come to the dorms now,” I suggest.
“Kira!” she yells and waves her hand in the air. “Sorry, I see Kira. What’d you say?”
“Just that I’m free for a while.” I could use a little time away from Will. I know the next time I see him, I’m not going to be able to stay mad at him for much longer. He deserves a little prolonged agony. I should go to the dorms more often anyway.
“Kira and I are going to Kira’s boyfriend’s house. He’s got a really hot brother. Wanna come with us?” I grind my teeth as I try to think of the best way to say no. Thankfully, Kira walks over to us and buys me more time.
“Jessi! Are you coming too?”
Okay, maybe not that much more time.
“I do actually have some studying to do.” Stupid excuse, but I can’t think of anything else on the spot.
“She has things to work out with Will,” Avery says for me.
Kira doesn’t give a chance to respond. “I’m super surprised you two are still together. Nothing against you, but Will’s just so unpredictable.”
“Remember when you used to date him?” Avery asks laughing at Kira.
“We didn’t date, just hooked up,” Kira says quickly defending herself. It does slightly bother me that Kira and Will were together. The fact that I saw them together at one point doesn’t help the nausea either. But I do a pretty good job of not letting it get to me. I like Kira, and I don’t want that to be a problem in our relationship.
“But you did date his friend,” Avery says still laughing. “The one Will hooked you up with. That didn’t last too long.”
I remember them talking about that. Will set Kira up with one of his business friends a while back. It meant virtually nothing to me when it was brought up months ago, but now I know so much more about his life. I didn’t even recognize the name at the time, but it must have been Vinny.
“I didn’t realize that you dated Vinny,” I say to Kira. Her smile falters.
“No,” Avery says. “It wasn’t Vinny. It was some really successful guy who’s out of college. What was his name, Kira?”
“Uhh, Jack.”
I choke on thin air.
“Whoa, you okay there?” Avery asks me.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“His name was Jack. But we didn’t really date.”
She seems very dismissive about the whole thing but my heart rate has significantly accelerated.
“Jack as in the president of World of Art? That Jack?”
Kira’s face turns white.
“You know him?” Avery asks.
“Did Will introduce him to you?” Kira asks before Avery can finish speaking.
“Yeah, but not to date.”
“We didn’t. We just…” she trails off as my mind goes off the rails.
“But, but,” I don’t know what question to ask. But he’s old. But he’s cruel. But he’s not Will’s friend. But why in the world would Will do that? But that really doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
Avery looks back and forth between Kira’s nervous face and my shocked one.
“Can we not talk about it anymore? Hey, look! Avery, it’s our ride. We have to go. We’ll see you later though, Jessi. You can use my car if you want.”
She pulls Avery away and into a car where two guys are waiting. One of them I recognize from my government class, and he smiles at me. I give him a little wave back, but I can’t manage a smile.
Why didn’t Will tell me about that? I mean, not that he needed to, it just seems like something he would have mentioned. I wonder what his motive could have possibly been to introduce Kira to Jack in a romantic way. Will was very clear to say away from Jack whenever possible when he reluctantly introduced us. Why would he want Kira near such a twisted man? I’ll have to ask him when he gets back from work.
Wait, I’m supposed to be mad at him.
Screw that.
We’ll have another formal chat when he gets back, in which I’m sure he’ll constantly say he’s sorry and ask what he could do to make everything okay, and then I’ll forgive him and move on. I hope he’s learned this time, because I really don’t want there to be a next time.
The dorms sounded appealing until Avery and Kira weren’t going to be there. Now it’s just an empty room and I much prefer an empty room that reminds me of Will.
I think about exactly how I want to approach the subject with Will as I drive to his house. I come up with virtually nothing because thoughts of us moving in together pull my attention from anything currently more important. Now that I’m completely set with the moving idea, it does kind of stink that it got pushed back. But Will’s smart, and I’m sure he can figure something out by the end of the summer. If he wasn’t so damn stubborn, we could just get a loan. But Lord knows that’s not happening. I know why he wants to do everything by himself, but I don’t agree. Since he’s insisting on paying for most of it, I don’t have much of a choice. I’ll go along with whatever he wants on the issue.
I pull up to his house and take in its magnitude as if it were my first time visiting. It’s one of the most impressive mansions I’ve ever seen, let alone been inside. But it doesn’t fit Will. Will doesn’t drive a really fancy car or wear really expensive clothes like Leah and Ethan. He doesn’t even tell anyone that he lives in such a nice house or has access to so much money, though he refuses to take it. No, this house doesn’t fit him at all. But that doesn’t stop me from thinking of him when I look at it.
I lay out my textbooks on our usual table and put myself in the mindset to work. If I can get all of my homework out of the way, I’ll be able to focus on Will when he gets home. I do my best to put my thoughts of him aside as I finish my government paper and get most of the way through my English paper. Then I hear Will’s car pull up outside.
Okay, here we go. I don’t want to be mean, and I can’t stay mad at him, so he just needs to know he can’t pull another stunt like he did last night. I take a deep breath and shuffle around my notes as I wait for him to come inside.
I don’t have to wait too long. He comes sprinting through the side door in the next couple of seconds and skids to a stop when he sees me. He looks surprised to see me, more like shocked. Was I really that unkind to him this morning? I didn’t mean to be. I just wanted to prove a point. Will looks like he completely beat himself up about it. His hair is a total mess from his anxious fingers. His face is flushed and his eyes are wild. I thought I remember him putting on a coat this morning, but now he only wears his crinkled dress shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows.
“Oh my God,” he says looking at me. I turn around to see what he’s talking about, but there’s nothing there. It’s only me and my books. Is it really so outrageous for me to come back? I didn’t want to imply I was leaving for good. I didn’t think I made that kind of impression when I left this morning.
“You’re here. Oh, thank God. Thank God you’re here.” He comes running over to me before I can ask why he’s reacting like this. His eyes are slightly red like he’s about to start crying. No, Will never cries. Why would he now?
“Will, I wasn’t going to leave you.”
He runs right into me, wrapping his arms around my body, and causing me to fall to the other side of the couch. He lays on top of me with his knees supporting most of his weight as he lifts his head up to kiss me. It’s not one of his normal kisses that’s tender but filled with passion, this one is so intense that it’s staggering.
“Will,” I whimper as he moves his lips down my neck and then right back to find mine again.
“Just kiss me. Please,” he says before devouring me again. I can give him that much. I don’t know why he’s so desperate, but he is, and he needs me. I wrap my arms and legs around him to bring him closer to me. I don’t remember why I was mad at him. All he would’ve had to do this morning was kiss me and I’d of been done for.
It must be at least a minute or two later before he pulls away just enough to speak and look into my eyes.
“Has anyone been here?” His breathing is ragged and I can feel his racing heartbeat against mine.
“No, like who?”
“I promise to explain everything to you in the car, but we need to go right now.”
“Whoa, hold on a second. Go where?”
He stands up and pulls me with him. “I’ll figure that out. But we need to go.”
He’s already started pulling me towards the door. I grab my phone and stick it in my pocket just in case he’s serious about whatever he’s talking about. He sounds pretty serious.
“This isn’t about last night, is it?” I ask very skeptical of this whole situation.
“Not specifically. But I’ll tell you what’s going on in- Shit, they’re here.”
Will pulls me away, more forcefully this time, but not before I get a glance of two sleek black vans pulling up into Will’s drive. They both have an odd red stripe all around the car that says something I don’t have time to read. Everything is happening too fast for me to comprehend.
Will bends down and pulls out a key from underneath one of the cabinets.
“Squat down!” he says and I immediately obey.
“You’ve got to give me a little bit of an idea what the hell is going on here,” I exclaim and he fits the key into the top drawer.
“I’ll explain later. I tried to explain it to you this morning.”
“This is about Jack?” I ask before he can say anymore.
He pulls on the drawer handle. From the outside, it looks like a bunch of little drawers, but it’s actually one big compartment that looks about three feet tall. It’s about half way full with big old fashion looking books that are stacked up on top of one another.
“Open that closet,” he says without acknowledging my request for information. The raw urgency in his voice stops me from defying and waiting for him to explain himself. He picks up half the books and puts them on the floor of the closet and then goes back for the other half.
“Get in the drawer,” he commands.
“What?”
There’s a pounding on the side door.
“Get in the fucking drawer, Jessi. Please.”
There’s an even louder pounding and I quickly decided now is not the time for me to argue.
“What about you?” I ask as he helps me step in. If I’m judging my Will’s terrified face and the way those people in the vans knocked on the door, I would say they’re out for blood. “I’m not going to hide in a drawer while you get killed.”
“They don’t want me.” And why the hell would they want me? “Pull your knees into your chest. You’ll be more comfortable.”
“I’m not staying in here long, am I?”
“No,” he assures me. “Just until I get them to leave. I’ll keep it unlocked in case I have to leave with them. There’s no way they’re going to look in here because of the way it appears from the outside.”
“But I don’t understand-“ I’m cut off my a loud man’s voice from behind the door.
“If you don’t let us in the house, we’ll break down the door!”
“Listen, Jess. Three things,” he says almost out of breath. “One, I’m so unbelievably sorry this is happening and I’m going to do absolutely anything to make it alright.”
“But who-“
“Two, I love you more than anything in the entire world and I want you to always remember that.”
He’s talking like this is the end. The end for him or the end of me, but either way, it would be the end of us. None of it adds up and it’s driving me crazy. He can’t be talking like this. It makes my stomach turn.
“Three, I need you to be very quiet the whole time they’re here. Try not to move at all and I’ll try to get them out as soon as possible.”
He cups both of my cheeks and leans down to kiss me.
I hear the hinges on the door in the other room break.
He hurriedly whispers against my lips before closing the drawer.
“I’m sorry, I love you, and Don’t Say Anything.”
---- end of book one ----
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Why did the peanut call 911?
Because he was a salted.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
ahhhhhhh that was the end! What a fun six months this has been:)
I did a little calculation and found out there are 211,424 words in this book. So it's safe to say you just finished reading two books and I just finished writing two books. I think we all deserve a piece of cake.
I'm going to do one more update on this book with a little longer authors note that will include a Question and Answer and some more info on the sequel. Don't delete this from your library just yet!
SOOO PLEASE comment questions (or pm me) about the plot, my writing, ideas, the sequel, specific characters, or just stupid personal stuff. My favorite color is purple, so no need to ask that one. I've already had people pm me some questions, so I will include those in the q/ a as well.
The final authors note and q/a will be up on Monday! I would suggest reading, or at least skimming it, to find out when the first chapter of Please Say Something will be up ;)
If you don't get your question in my Monday night, I'll still answer it personally.
Please Vote and COMMENT questions and how you've liked the book!!
Thank you so so so so so so much! I love you forever. xxx