Chapter 11 Jake #2
"What are you getting?" I start up a conversation.
"Steak and cheese," he mumbles, "everything on it."
"Order for me," he says, closing his menu, "Please," he adds.
"Drink?"
"Sweet tea," his eyes meet mine and I give him a little smile. I don't mind ordering for him, I like talking to new people. I think he sees that.
A waiter comes to our table. He's wearing a 'Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica' shirt and I love it with all my heart.
"Drinks?" he asks.
"Two sweet teas," I answer him and he shuffles away.
"Why're you looking at him like that?" Grey questions gruffly, his eyes unhappy for some reason.
"Did you see his shirt?" I bite my lip, keeping a laugh in, "It's funny."
He just lets out a grunt, his hands fidgeting. I take off the hair tie around my wrist and I hand it to him since he fusses with it whenever his hands do that.
He looks up at me with a cute confuzzled face.
"You mess with this when your hands do that," I tell him and his lips pull up at the edges. He almost smiles as he takes it, now messing with it.
I watch him, a small smile on my face as he peers down at the hair tie in his hands, twisting it in different ways, stretching it out into squares and triangles.
The waiter comes back shortly, sitting our drinks down on the table and taking out his notepad for our orders.
"How big are the small pizzas?" I question and the waiter whose nametag reads 'John' looks over at me.
He gives a shrug.
"I'll have one of those with just cheese," he writes that down before turning to Grey who still fidgets with my hair tie.
"He'll have the steak and cheese, with everything on it," I say for him and the waiter turns back to me, writing it down.
"I like your shi-" he begins walking away. Not before Grey grabs the back of his shirt, pulling him back.
I would have most definitely pooped my pants if I was the waiter.
"She was talking to you," he almost growls out as the now frightened waiter looks back at me.
"I like your shirt," I smile a little apologetic smile for Grey's actions.
"Thank you," he waits for a second this time before leaving.
~~~
I dip the sixth and final piece of my pizza in ranch before taking a bite of it like it's still the first piece.
Grey finished a while ago. I look up at him. His chin sits on his hand, his eyes fixed on me. I blush a little bit.
"Did you want a bite?" I question, feeling a little bit bad about eating a whole pizza by myself. A little smirk takes over his lips.
"I'm good, Lilah."
You're also fine. Stop.
I finish the whole slice, then finish the rest of the little bit of my tea. Grey slides me the rest of his tea and I drink that too.
I've got a big appetite today and I'm fully embracing it. I'm fully embracing this food baby too. At least my dress isn't tight or anything.
It's a girl and her name is Tubs.
I lean back in the booth and let out a sigh. The waiter guy comes back with the check and a pizza box for the pizza I guess he thought I wasn't going to eat.
His eyes widen once he sees the empty pizza trey. Grey's eyes narrow at the action. I was hungry, okay?
I pick up my phone to get the money out of the back of the case but before I freaking can, Grey hands over his card.
"I thought we were paying separately or something," I say as the waiter walks away and Grey just looks at me as if what I just said was a stupid idea.
"Well, thank you," I smile at him and he just nods, his fingers messing with my hair tie again.
After leaving the restaurant and getting back on the road, I give Grey a few directions to a nice lookout halfway up The Smokies. Mr. Terrip told me about the place once. He said it's where he proposed to his late wife so I figured it must be pretty there.
God rest her soul.
When we get there, it's gorgeous. It oversees the greenery down below us and the mountains around us; it's all pure nature below, no towns or houses.
Grey gets out and helps me out. We walk to the edge for a second, me staying back a little being frightened by heights. After a little while, he lifts me onto the flat hood of his Jeep before climbing on himself.
Good gosh those muscles as he climbs.
"Tell me about you and your family," I say softly. I know he has no mother but I really want to know about his dad. He pauses for a minute, leaning his back against the windshield, so I do the same.
"Mom died giving birth and dad's a deadbeat," he gives a one-shouldered shrug. A sorry in his situation wouldn't do a single thing.
"I moved out when I was seventeen," he looks out into the mountains, "been on my own ever since."
"You seem to be doing well," I murmur and he looks as if he's thinking about it. I mean, he's got to be doing well. He's got a nice Jeep and he owns a restaurant.
"Your turn."
I bite my lip nervously. I don't even know what I should tell him.
"Um," I begin, sensing his eyes on me, "y'know, I have just a normal family," I feel emotions creeping up on me.
Mr. Terrip's words begin to sink in. The ones where he said that I need to tell somebody about Jake.
Grey doesn't know Jake. His thoughts of him won't change because he never knew him. I can tell him and he won't be hurt by it.
"I lost my brother," I start and his eyes don't waver away from me. My chest constricts and I take a deep breath.
"We were in a crash, just me and him," I look down at my lap.
"Is that how you got hurt?" he questions about my knee and I nod.
"I begged him-God, I begged him to take me to see an ice cream shop that had just opened up nearby. I had heard people at school talking about all the crazy flavors that were there. He kept telling me it was raining too hard but I kept on."
"Jake. Please. Please. I want to see it so, so bad. It's all I want," I beg him. I want to try the pumpkin ice cream everyone has been talking about.
"Azzy, it's torrential downpouring right now," he shakes his head but I continue with my pleas.
My eyes go blurry with tears.
"Eventually he gave in."
"Jake, please. Jake, please. Jake, please. Jake, please. Jake-" he cuts me off by standing from the couch.
"Let's go," he sighs and I squeal happily jumping onto his back, hugging the daylights out of him.
"Thank you so much," I squeeze him.
"On the road, we could hardly see anything in front of us. He was going slow, there was no music or anything. Then I heard screeching tires. The initial impact was on his side. The car hit us and we rolled. We rolled off the road."
Only the sound of the rain fills up the car. Jake watches the road extremely carefully. Then I hear screeching tires. A car slams into the side of us and my shouts fill my ears and the car.
I feel us roll once and a shattering pain splits in my leg. I scream in pain as I feel the car continue on what feels like the scariest coaster ride of my life.
The window on my side shatters and I see and single glance out of it. A scream bubbles out of my throat upon seeing the huge hill we're about to go down.
"Azzy-" Jake shouts just before we tilt and then fall completely down.
"There was a hill. A huge hill that we rolled down off the side of the road. Steep, it was so steep," a tear rolls down my cheek.
"I don't remember how long it took us to get to the bottom of the hill, the doctors said I went unconscious," I feel my face scrunch up as I try to keep my crying silent.
"But I woke up when we got done rolling and were just sitting there. I don't know how long I was out for. But I woke up and we were upside down."
My eyes peel open and the excruciating pain all over the right side of my body makes me want to go back away. I try to take a breath but the pain in my rib makes me almost unable to. I start wheezing.
Jake.
I turn my head over to Jake. He's going to be okay. He's so tough.
His eyes are open, they look right at me. Blood covers him, glass is stuck in his arm, his face is mostly covered in blood.
But he's okay. He's looking right at me. He's probably waiting for me to wake up already.
"Jake," I croak out, wheezing and trying my hardest to take breaths. He doesn't respond. He doesn't blink.
He lays at the roof, his neck bent in an odd direction as he looks at me. Why isn't he responding?
"Jake?" I wheeze out for a final time as it hurts too bad to breathe.
I let my eyes close knowing that he'll be here later to tell me that everything is okay.
"I thought he was alive," I choke on a sob, "he was looking right at me, his eyes opened. He had blood all over him but he was looking at me."
I finally let the cry leave my lips. I put my face in my hands, hating to cry so hard in front of him.
I thought he was okay.
I finally control myself for a bit before taking my hands away.
"He was DOA. His neck was broken, he severed his spinal cord. He was gone before they even got there."
And what do I get? Broken ribs, collapsed lung, dislocated shoulder, shattered patella, torn ACL, broken tibia and fibula, and grade three concussion? It should've been me. It was all my fault it should've been me with the broken neck.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, realizing that he probably didn't really want to hear any of that. I wipe the tears from my face and for the first time, I turn to him.
His eyes look right back at me. His face sits in a calm rest. He looks at me as if he's trying to read me.
"You blame yourself, don't you?" my heart holts at his words.
My eyes fall to the tatted hand that rests lazily on the hood beside me. A new round of tears fills my eyes at hearing him ask me.
I roll my lips into my mouth to keep them from wiggling. I look back up at him, my eyes begging to let the tears fall. His eyes soften as he looks at me.
Just looking at me, he can already tell the answer.
His strong arms wrap themselves around me. I'm lifted onto his lap like I weigh no more than a slice of pizza.
With my legs on either side of him, he pulls me close to him, his hand coming to rest on the side of my face. At the moment, it doesn't register to me how unfriendly we're sitting but neither of us cares.
Whenever I'm upset, I turn to ice cream. It makes me feel better. He's starting to give me the same feeling. He's the ice cream, my Sugar. He best learn to deal with me calling him that.
He pulls me further to him and his forehead comes to rest on mine. He gives me his silent support. His actions speak louder than any words could. He's here for me.
He smells like my greatest dreams that have been dipped in heaven's pure waters.
I let my eyes close, basking in the feeling of him. Then I get confused. Why is he comforting me when it's my fault? Why am I letting?
I pull away. I don't deserve to be comforted. Or to be happy. I deserve to take Jake's place.
"Please don't cry," he uses his manners and I almost hold my heart. His hands find my cheeks and he wipes the tears away.
"I don't like it when you cry," he says, looking one-hundred percent truthful.
"I deserve to feel sad."
"You don't," he says in a final tone, gripping my chin so that I'm looking right at him.
That's not what my father tells me.
"But I killed hi-"
"Don't. Say that," he says sternly, his eyebrows furrowed unhappily, "you didn't kill Jake."
How did he..? I must've mentioned his name without realizing.
"No more of that," his hands come to rest on the sides of my torso, "no more crying either."
He jerks me flush against him, wrapping his strong arms all the way around me. He's hugging me.
"Good?" he questions about the hug. I feel a little smile creeping up on my lips.
"Good."
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There's the insight into what happened during the wreck. It hurt my heart to write it. Next chapter coming soon! Thank you for reading!
P.S: I'm sorry for the cliche eye color part :)
*Not edited*
Word count: 4243
-Ashlyn Montgomery