Page 27 of Diluted Truths
I was suddenly very aware of just how close I was to her. In my haste to close the doors, I had stopped less than a foot in front of Jackie. She smelled like vanilla. I couldn’t tell if it was her shampoo or perfume. For some reason I really wanted to know.
If I really wanted to, I could lean down and I would be able to kiss her without….
“Will?” Jackie snapped me out of my daydream that began bordering on dangerous territories.
“Sorry, yeah, I am okay. I promise.” Okay, we are back to stuttering teenager, no longer suave doctor.Great.“The sigil just freaked me out. I can’t explain it, but it makes me anxious. Did you get the pictures you needed?”
Jackie chuckled as she patted my chest, the motion warming my body. “Yeah, I mostly wanted pictures. Did you ask Joey everything you wanted?”
I nodded in response and grabbed her hand. “Let’s head out, I think we have interrupted their day enough.”
We said our goodbyes to the little family and made our way outside to the waiting car. During the entire time, I held onto Jackie’s hand, refusing to let go.
Did I need to have her connected to me? No.
But I preferred it, and she didn’t fight me on it either.
There was an unspoken attraction between us. We knew it wouldn't go anywhere because of Fai. She was Fai’s family and I was the most hated person in his life.
I never knew where the hatred came from. It was nearly immediate from the moment he met me. Sarah and I had been friends for a couple of years when she introduced me to Fai, her new boyfriend. He was cordial and kind for a time. However, suddenly a switched flip. He became standoffish towards me.
At one time he gave Sarah an ultimatum, me or him. She promptly yelled at him for being ridiculous, and when he realized he was fighting a losing battle he gave up on trying to get rid of me. However, the hatred remained. I could never figure out what had caused it and it didn’t bother me.
Until now. The hatred he held towards me meant I couldn’t even entertain the idea of Jackie and I being anything more. I looked at her as she sat in the car next to me.
She was radiant.
She was almost able to breathe light into me.
Maybe I was using Fai as an excuse as well. It was easier to say that he was the reason for my lack of action in regards to my interest in Jackie.
A part of me knew it was fear. Fear she would peel back the layers of myself and break down the wall I had built around my true self. Around the darkness that lived in my soul.
A darkness that could destroy her.
Chapter 9When We Were Young by. Adele
Jackie
Ilooked over to Will as he looked straight ahead as we drove to Theo’s, my sister’s, house.
Our time at Janice’s had been successful. I was able to take the pictures I had hoped for of the sigil and was even able to chat with Nancy for a bit about Joey’s disappearance. She had said that she turned away to pick up a toy for Toby (their imaginary friend, apparently) and when she turned back Joey was gone. No one had entered, there wasn’t a struggle, he was just gone. I assumed that she had blocked it out. It is hard for anyone to process traumatic moments, and at times it was easier to just block it out. It made the most sense.
Following our conversation and being able to see Joey for a bit, I made my way to the room to take pictures where I saw Will and Janice.
I had no place to feel jealous. I had no claim over Will. But when I saw them sitting next to each other so peacefully and comfortably holding hands, I felt just a twinge of jealousy. It was ridiculous. There was no reason to feel that way. I made a note to talk to Theo about it when we had a moment. She was always known as the more emotionally attuned out of the two of us.
I smiled to myself thinking of my sister.
She was just two years older than me, but had a lifetime more of responsibility. When Nate, our older brother, got us out of our parents’house, she was sixteen but immediately took on a maternal role in my life. We fled to San Francisco, to the very house she still lived in. She had immediately began being the one responsible for ensuring I was doing my necessary schoolwork and eating healthy. Nate was busy working and going to school. He kept the roof over our head while Theo made it our home.
She still lived in that house with her five-year-old daughter, Violet. I made it a goal to visit them as many times as I could. I was lucky to have Fai as a boss for that as well because he always gave me the time I needed to visit.
Because of my frequent visits, I was deemed Violet’s best friend. It was just last year that Violet insisted I give her a nickname after learning that my name wasn’t Jackie and Theo’s was also shortened from Theodora.
Thus, Violet became Vi for all intents and purposes. She may have been only five years old, but that girl was mighty and powerful. Theo really had her work cut out for her to raise Violet. Theo was a single mother. Vi’s dad was never around and essentially had walked out when Theo gave birth and never looked back.
We slowly pulled up to the house I still considered home. It was a smaller Victorian house. Theo had kept the horrible yellow paint job Nate had done when I was sixteen. The house consisted of two bedrooms and one bathroom. It may have been small, but Theo had decorated it beautifully and we had knocked down some of the back walls and replaced them with large windows that looked over the pacific ocean in the distance. The house was absolutely beautiful and was so full of memories it at times felt suffocating.
