Chapter 23 Drunk Again by. Song House and Mariarose
Will
Samuel and MaryBeth James were on the top of my shitlist. We had been in their presence for less than five minutes and they were already acting entitled to Jackie and Theo, two people they hadn’t seen in over a decade.
When I first saw them, I didn’t see the resemblance between them and their kids. I realized it was their eyes that set them apart. While the James siblings are filled with life and determination, their parents' eyes were void of… well of anything.
Violet was in the kitchen playing while we stood in the living room. Theo didn’t want her near her parents, which I completely respected and understood. I stood in the doorway separating the kitchen from the living room, doing my best to shield Violet from her grandparents.
“What do you want?” Theo asked with so much venom in her voice.
“Do not speak to me that way, young lady,” Samuel said in a voice that left little to be argued with.
I began to speak up to defend Theo, when Kai beat me to it.
“You don’t speak to either of them like that. It’s a privilege that you’re even speaking to them at all, not a right. Act like it.”
I smiled at Kai, who stood next to where Theo and Jackie were sitting.
Seeing that it wasn’t worth the fight, Samuel let it go but finally answered Theo’s question. “We heard you were in town. We needed to discuss Nathaniel’s passing and what that means for us.”
I saw Jackie flinch at her father’s words.
“He died, what, six years ago?” I asked Kai, who nodded in confirmation. I turned my attention back to their father, Samuel.“Why do you care now?”
He glared at me, clearly displeased by my presence.
Good. I didn’t want to be near him either.
MaryBeth spoke up this time. “We haven’t seen either of you since he died.” She shot a look at Jackie, who seemed to cower at her mother’s look. “It’s time to prepare for the plan.”
“What plan?” Theo asked, clearly confused.
While Samuel was an imposing force, MaryBeth held an air of cruelty around her.
I wasn’t positive she had ever smiled. They were both impeccably put together.
I noticed a necklace around MaryBeth’s neck.
It seemed familiar but I wasn’t close enough to confirm.
I began to take a step forward to investigate when her words stopped me in my tracks.
“The same plan we have had since you were all born. You each have a role to fulfill. Ophelia killed Nathaniel, so we have to adjust said plan,” MaryBeth spit at Theo.
“What the hell do you mean she killed Nate?” I asked, upset that it was even insinuated. I knew how he died, Theo had told me about the accident in San Francisco and it was not Jackie’s fault.
Jackie began to shake next to Theo, who wrapped her arms around her in comfort. “It was not her fault,” Theo fought back.
Samuel scoffed. “You can all act as though she is innocent, but we know what she is. A screw up, a drunk and a murderer.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Jackie whispered.
I couldn’t tell if she was talking to us or herself.
“Shut up, Ophelia, your opinion is not necessary here. We know the truth,” MaryBeth began, but I quickly shut her down.
“Don’t you dare speak to Jackie that way,” I half yelled to Jackie’s parents. I refused to listen to any more of this. I hated seeing Jackie this way. She was the light of my life and these people were snuffing her out.
Samuel stood and was eye to eye with me. He may have been older than me, but it was obvious where Kai got his size from. I wasn’t the least bit intimated. When it came to Jackie, I would move fucking mountains for her, no matter the size.
I glared at her father, almost daring him to speak.
It was MaryBeth who continued on the tirade. “I will speak to my daughter however I please. It is my right as her mother.” She turned to Jackie and Theo. “You two went off and had your fun. It’s time you come home and fulfill your role.”
“What role?” Theo asked. “What is this plan you’re talking about?”
It wasn’t Theo’s outburst that caught their mother’s attention, it was Jackie’s whispered defiance.
“No.”
“What?” MaryBeth asked.
Jackie looked up meeting her mother’s eyes before rising to stand. “I said no. We aren’t coming back. You have no control over me anymore.”
MaryBeth looked dumbstruck by her daughter. I smiled with pride.
This was the Jackie I knew.
“You will listen to your mother,” Samuel yelled at Jackie as he began to advance towards her but I quickly held him back by his arm.
“No, I won’t,” Jackie stated with more confidence. Kai and Theo looked at her with pride. “You have no right to speak to me this way. I’m not coming back. Why do you even want me here? You didn’t even want me in the first place.”
Samuel looked at her, almost impressed?
“You’re right. We didn’t, we still don’t. But you were necessary.”
I saw Jackie’s heartbreak at her father’s admission. “Why not? Why did you have me if you didn’t want me? Why couldn’t you just love me?”
MaryBeth rolled her eyes at Jackie. “Ophelia, enough of the dramatics. We had to have you, had to have four. But you weren’t worth our love.”
Jackie recoiled back as if she had been slapped. Kai mentioned that Nate experienced the worst of the physical abuse, but it was obvious that Jackie experienced the most mental and emotional abuse.
“Stop,” Jackie whispered to her mother, but it didn’t stop MaryBeth’s tirade.
“You should have fulfilled your purpose, instead you killed Nathaniel and took him away from us. Away from the family. It would have been easier if it was you. We could have replaced you.”
I let go of Samuel and started toward MaryBeth when Kai stopped me.
“They’re not worth it,” he whispered.
“But she is,” I responded.
We stared at one another for a moment before we were distracted by Jackie.
“I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for either of you to be my parents.
I get it, okay! You don’t love me! I was too hard to love, too hard to care for.
But I didn’t ask for it,” she yelled while tears began to flow down her cheeks.
“I’m supposed to be your daughter. You’re supposed to love me.
But you never did. Want to know who did?
” She asked, obviously not wanting an answer.
She turned to Theo and Kai and pointed at her siblings.
“They did! Nate did! They loved me, raised me, when you two failed miserably.”
“Ophelia, stop!” Samuel stated, trying to get her to stop.
She turned to him and screamed, “Fuck you, dad! You say I wasn’t worth it? Well, neither are you!”
She marched towards the front door and grabbed a pair of keys off the entryway before turning back towards her parents.
“It wasn’t my fucking fault! If it wasn’t for your complete and utter failure at being decent parents, he wouldn’t have been put in that situation.
So guess what? That means it’s your fucking fault Nate died! ”
And with that, she stomped out the front door and started one of the cars and drove away.
We all stood silently, the tension heavy in the air. Samuel and MaryBeth were obviously affected by Jackie’s words. How? I wasn’t sure.
I watched as Kai turned to his parents. “You need to leave, but I think she took your car.”
I chuckled. Of course she did.
Theo grabbed my hand and pulled me into the kitchen away from her parents. “Pack your stuff, I’ll grab ours. I know where she went.”
I nodded in agreement and headed towards our room.
We both knew it was time to leave. While I knew Jackie would miss Kai, she needed to go home.
The place where she built her new family.
After ten minutes of frantic packing, I made my way outside with our stuff, where Kai was loading Violet’s and Theo’s bags in our rental car.
Violet and Theo were loaded in the car when Kai stopped me. “Take care of them, okay?” I nodded in response. We stood for a moment before he pulled me into a hug. He pulled back slowly and entered the house without another word.
I sat down in the driver's seat and turned to Theo. “Where is she?”
“Turn left. I’ll direct you.”
We proceeded to drive down what felt like a never-ending road. I just needed to see Jackie and make sure she was okay. Her parents were monsters and took out all of their anger on Jackie. It broke my heart knowing the pain she must have suffered growing up.
After fifteen minutes we pulled over on a dirt road behind Samuel's truck. We were in the most unusual place. The ground was salt on either side of the road. It was beautiful yet empty. I turned to Theo, to see her staring out her window to where Jackie was kneeling on the salt.
“She always loved it out here. Nate would bring her here when things got bad at home.” Theo paused for a moment before turning to me.
“The two of them, they were hurt the most by our parents. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t good to Kai or I.
But for some reason, Nate and Jackie were always on the receiving end of their cruelty. ”
I nodded to her in understanding and slipped out the driver's side. Jackie was on her knees shaking from the sobs that broke my heart.
I couldn’t stand it.
“Jackie! What in the world are you doing out here?” I yelled as I ran towards her.
“I couldn’t be in that house anymore, I couldn’t listen to them blame me for everything. It wasn’t my fucking fault that Nate died! It wasn’t! It couldn’t have been…” she sobbed back to me. As I finally got to her I gathered her into my arms and held her as sobs racked through her body.
“I know. I know, Jackie,” I soothed and we collapsed onto the salty ground. “I know.”
“I’m not a bad person. I promise. It’s not my fault,” she continued as her sobs continued. “I would do anything to bring him back. It was a fucking accident that he died! It’s not my fault. It’s not.”
I couldn’t handle her tears. It was one of the most painful experiences watching this woman hurt. I needed it to stop, I needed my sunshine back.
“Jacqueline, look at me,” I urged as I lifted her chin so her eyes met mine. They were sparkling with unshed tears. “I know you’re not a bad person. Fuck, you are the best person I have ever known.”
She continued to look at me as her sobs began to slowly die down. “But they hate me. The people who are supposed to love me no matter what, hate me. I was never good enough for them, Will. I tried so hard. Why couldn’t I be good enough?”
I didn’t know how to answer, how could I?
Jackie’s parents had spent years tearing her down, saying she was worthless. Words couldn’t undo the hurt, undo the damage. All I could do was hold her while she let it out. I would hold her forever if it helped.
“I just wish I was enough for them, Will. I just wish I was enough for someone,” she whispered, almost to herself.
“Well, fuck them.” Jackie let out a teary laugh at my statement.
“I’m serious. They should love you unconditionally, and you are enough.
They aren’t enough for you. You deserve more, Jackie.
I promise you’re enough. You’re everything to me.
I love you, Jackie. I think I know you better than anyone else, and I know you are exactly enough for me. ”
“You love me?” she asked.
That wasn’t meant to slip out. On the bright side, my accidental confession stopped her tears.
“Without a doubt.” I grabbed her jaw and cradled her head in my hands to be sure she would look me in the eyes and see I was telling her the truth. “You’re it for me, Sunshine, you are my everything. How could I not be head over heels in love with you?” It was true.
Every morning when I woke up she was my first thought. Whenever I thought of a funny joke, or story, I wanted to tell her. Every decision I have needed to make, I wanted to run it by her.
She was my world, my soul, my sunshine.
“Say it?” Jackie stated as her tears finally stopped.
“Say what?”
“That you love me.”
I smiled as I looked at my beautiful stubborn woman. “Ophelia Jacqueline James, I love you. More than you will ever know.”
Her response was to crush her lips into mine. I had kissed this woman countless times now, and it only ever got better. It was as if there were actual sparks flying. As I cradled her jaw in my hands, I knew if I died in that moment, I would die a happy man.
I had never believed in love, I never had an example of love, but this woman, especially when she was kissing me, could make me believe in anything.
Slowly she pulled away, and mirrored my stance with framing my face in her hands. “I love you, Will. Probably too much.”
“Impossible.” With that, I picked her up and kissed her with all my might. With her lips attached to mine she wrapped her legs around my waist and we got lost in each other’s touch. I would have stayed out there for the entire night if I could, but the sounds of Violet cut us off.
“Mama says to knock it off! Little eyes are watching,” Violet yelled as she peered her head out of the back of the car window.
Jackie laughed when she saw her sister and niece in the car as I set her down, very begrudgingly I might add.
“You brought Theo and Vi? I was so distracted I didn’t even notice.”
“Theo and I decided it was time to head home. There is nothing left for us here. We grabbed your stuff, it’s in the car,” I responded as I grabbed her hand and guided her back to the car just as Theo jumped out.
“I’ll drive Dad’s truck back if y’all can follow me. I plan on dropping it off and immediately leaving,” Theo stated as she grabbed the keys from Jackie. “You really made quite the exit there, Jack. I am thoroughly impressed. I think Dad’s face is still red right now.”
Jackie laughed as she walked with Theo to their Dad’s truck.
We were going to get out of here as soon as possible.
Something about Grantsville was… off. I couldn’t tell if it was the town or the James parents, but it didn’t feel right.
I was more than happy to get Jackie out of here as soon as possible, and far from her parents.
Those thoughts continued as we drove to drop off the truck. Kai was outside waiting and the remaining James siblings embraced each other with everything they had. Each promised to call more and show up more. After a few more tearful goodbyes we were on the road back to Eugene, back to home.
I looked at Jackie sitting in the passenger seat next to me.
She had drifted off to sleep somewhere in Idaho, which was good because she desperately needed it.
She also hadn’t let go of my hand since we started the drive.
I gave it a slight squeeze, promising to her and myself that I would do everything in my power to keep her.
She was my lifeline.