Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
JACK
“Hey.” Her sweet tone welcomes me like the wings of an angel as I fight against sleep in my office. Morning came quicker than I thought, the sun peeking out from the blinds and shooting straight into my eyes. What I’d give for a few minutes of rest.
“S-sorry to call you this soon, I j-just needed to, to check if you were alright,” I tell her, carrying my phone between my shoulder and ear while pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Everything’s fine, but, um, a tree kinda fell in my driveway.”
“Really?” I stand. “I’ll be right there.”
“No, Jack, you need to rest. I hear it in your voice,” she hurries, and tiny creases appear near my eyes.
“But-”
“It’s no big deal. My dad is coming this morning to help me, don’t worry, really.”
“You should have t-t-told me, I would have come immediately.”
“I know,” she says, and I’m almost sure she’s blushing, “but it wasn’t urgent, really, it’s okay.
” I try to calm myself and sit back down on my chair, my nerves and eyelids throbbing with the lack of sleep.
She’s alright. She’s okay. It’s just a freaking tree.
Her dad is going to help her. I can calm down.
She’s right, I desperately need to sleep.
Normally, a night without sleeping would be fine by me, but it has been more than forty-eight hours of almost non-stop rescuing and helping out folks, and I don’t have anything to give anymore.
My eyes aren’t seeing straight, and the last thing I need is to ditch my car into a tree while driving to her.
“I-I need to see you.” It comes out of me like the most primal need I have right now. Sleep and Alaska. That’s what the raw version of me needs to sustain.
“Tomorrow?” she tells me with no hesitation. Tomorrow’s comparable to forever, but okay.
“I’ll be at my shop to clean everything from the storm. I’ll, um, I’ll be waiting for you,” she says, her voice faltering like she’s not sure of herself.
“I’ll be there,” I promise her.
“Goodnight, Jack,” she says, chuckling softly, and I grin in response, cause it’s six a.m., but she’s right, I’m probably going to sleep all day to recover.
“See you tomorrow, Alaska,” I tell her, her name rolling on my tongue with ease and comfort.
The call ends, but I must still have a stupid grin on my face because Jared enters, lifting his brow.
I slept for an hour at the station and woke up around six a.m., my radio vibrating again.
It didn’t stop all night. Jared and I got back together around four in the morning to help a guy who got stuck in his car.
Then we parted again to help more folks.
Thank God I changed clothes before falling asleep, because they’d be damp and freaking icy cold.
At least the storm cleared out by the end of the night.
It’s only rain and strong wind now, which I’m grateful for since I’m not sure how long Lakeside would have managed to exist if it didn’t stop.
Can’t even imagine the disaster the streets will be this morning.
At least there weren’t any casualties. I guess that’s the most important thing, especially in such a small town with so many families with kids.
“Wow, someone looks happy,” Jared chants with a smug face, putting a cup of coffee on my desk as I open my eyes, my back stiff from the wood of the chair. One hour isn’t enough. I’ll need to go home and crash for a bit if I want to feel alive again.
“Thanks,” I growl, taking the warm cup of coffee and hoping it’ll wake me up enough to keep going.
“Any, uh, news?” I ask, secretly crossing my fingers that the name of Alaska won’t be brought up.
Guess that’s why I stayed up all night, too.
Even when backup arrived, I could have gone sooner to the station to get a bit more sleep, but what if anything happened to her while I was away?
Nah. I couldn’t take the chance. Jared takes a slow sip of his coffee, his brown eyes harboring blue pouches underneath them.
He was a hell of a good partner yesterday.
Glad I got him. Efficient and cool under pressure.
Yesterday was a disaster, but in a way, it could have gone even worse.
“Couple more cars stuck in ditches. Power’s back. Dispatch is dealing with a flooded basement situation over at the Wilsons’. Also, some poor guy got a tree through his garage,” he exhales, shaking his head.
“Could’ve been worse.” I say, rubbing a hand over my face.
“Your girl okay?” Jared asks casually. I tense, grip tightening around my cup.
“She’s not my—” I stop myself, jaw clenching.
He’s on my side. There’s no need to fight it.
He knows I like Alaska. “She’s f-fine,” I assure him, then take a sip of coffee, letting the bitter heat drag me back to the present.
The station is buzzing with early morning activity: phones ringing, boots scuffing the floor, the murmur of tired officers catching up after a hellish night.
“I’m gonna go home to rest. You should do the same. You look like hell.”
“Yeah, maybe, but they p-probably need help—”
“Nah. Lots of backup came from the county, we’re good. You did great last night, by the way. Gotta admit, I was stoked having you as a teammate,” he confesses.
“Right back at you,” I admit with a half-smile, repressing a yawn.
“Come on, let’s go before you fall asleep on your chair.
” He chuckles, and I follow him outside.
My car is parked out front, somehow undamaged.
As I make my way to it, all I can remember from the events of the night is how she looked at me before I left.
When we were that close. It was like time stopped, and all I could think of was her cherry lips begging to be kissed until the damn radio snapped me back to reality.
“Fletcher told me he didn’t want to see our faces until tomorrow morning,” Jared shouts before sliding into his car. Good to know.
“See ya,” I get in my car and turn on the heater and the radio.
As I drive back home, I hum an old song, evaluating the disasters along the road.
Houses flooded, others with only a few scratches, broken trees, and a rain that never seems to stop.
I never knew I’d end up liking Lakeside that much.
Only I do. I really do. Yesterday I worked my ass off more than I ever did.
I felt needed here, and the folks rewarded me with their blessings, thanking us as if I had always belonged here.
It’s hard to picture myself going back to the buzz of the city in just a few months.
Is it really where I should be? Couldn’t there be another way?
Nah, I need rest. Can’t have a decent thought without sleep right now.
Tomorrow will be a new day.
Tomorrow, I’ll see Alaska.
Alaska
“So you guys are a thing now?” Matthew asks, scanning me from head to toe, like I’m wearing the evidence of a betrayal, of having connected with someone other than him. He always does that. Like being twins makes me unable to break apart from our original womb.
I bite my lips, “If you came to be hard on me, you… You better leave then. I thought you were here to help Dad with the tree,” I say, pointing at the tree in my driveway, rain pouring on us softly, the three of us in our raincoats.
Dad can’t hear us, thank God. He’s looking at the tree, considering how to clear it from the road.
He wouldn’t like hearing how Matthew talks to me sometimes.
I never said anything because I don’t want to stir trouble, but I hate how he looks down on me. As if he always knows better.
“Whatever. I don’t like him. There’s word in town he got in trouble in his city and got sent here because of it,” Matthew says, putting his black hood on.
“Trust me, Laska, stay away from the guy. I don’t want you near him.
” Usually, I would let it roll, but for some reason, I’m defensive about Jack.
I nibble on my lower lip. “Just…just drop it, Matt. I told you I wanted to try to—” I sigh, stupid tears welling in my eyes just like each time I try to stand up to him since the accident.
“I want to try to…to have a life again,” I state, the words said out loud sounding like a massive step for me.
“I’ll never recover if you keep on pushing me down again.
Being a victim, it’s,” I clench my fists, “it’s no way to live,” I say through gritted teeth, the words I’ve been told in therapy again and again for a year, even if they didn’t stick at the time.
Six years later, I finally start to hear them again.
Matthew scoffs. “You’re not a victim,” he says coldly. I blink, the words hitting hard, my fingers turning icy with shame as I hold his gaze.
“Just-” I pause, fighting back the tears, “stop, okay? Go help Dad. I’ll be there in a second.”
“Why, you need to call your boyfriend?” he sneers at me.
“Matt!” I spit out, wiping a tear away. “Stop it, okay? Just let me live my life. I told you last time, I’m telling you again, drop it.”
“Whatever,” he huffs, then saunters to my dad, hands in his pockets.
Matthew has always been this way as far as I can remember.
Usually, I always let it slide. He’s my twin, my other half.
Isn’t it normal for twins to be close? To share everything?
People would always say we look so alike, and so I was brought into this world thinking he was the person I should aim to become.
My mentor, my best friend. Only, we’re not what I think twins should be like.
Close, but it isn’t by choice; it’s because he wants us to be close.
We used to share dreams because he chose the dreams that were okay for me to have.
Which explains why I had almost no friends, since he had none.
And from the look he gives me each time he sees Bella, I know he doesn’t approve of our friendship.
As a matter of fact, even if she didn’t tell me so, I know she doesn’t like him either.