“Who’s Stuart?” Matt asked. “Shall we sit here?” The guys laid out a blanket and we all sat down. “So?” Matt asked again.
“Don’t be so nosey.” Bonnie scolded him.
“No, it’s ok. Stuart is my ex.” I told him. Jacob was sitting behind me and I was leaning against his legs. I felt him stiffen as I spoke. I looked around and asked; “Are you ok?”
“Um… Yeah, sure… Why is he texting you?” He asked. He didn’t sound impressed.
“Why not?” Bonnie interrupted. “It’s not like she has a boyfriend.” She looked at Jacob and he didn’t respond. That was all I needed to hear. He’d just proved that we were just having fun, he didn’t seem in a hurry to correct Bonnie. “Come on Rose… Let’s cool off.” Bonnie grabbed my hand and we both stripped out of our clothes and ran towards the sea. As we got to the water, I looked over my shoulder and saw that the guys were watching us.
“Well, I guess that tells me what’s happening between us…” I started saying as we walked into the sea.
“It doesn’t tell you anything, I was only saying that to see if he said anything… It’s early days; we only met them two days ago.”
“I guess.” I couldn’t help but feel disappointed at how he had reacted or more to the point how he didn’t react when Bonnie said that he wasn’t my boyfriend. Maybe Amelia was right. I decided to try to push it aside and enjoy my day at the beach before starting another tough week at college.
***
“Hey, what’s going on today?” Jacob asked me as we walked down the beach together. Bonnie and Matt were both having a sleep on the beach and I’d been getting restless and needed to do something.
“Nothing.” I said, looking out towards the sea.
“Rose?” He grabbed my hand so I had to stop walking and look at him. He raised his eyebrows waiting for me to answer him.
“Ok… Amelia said some things last night.” I pulled my hand away from his and began walking down the beach again.
“Like what? Stop walking away.” He paced behind me and I turned around to face him.
“She said…” I took a deep breath and blurted it all out quickly. “That you were with a different girl every night and that if I didn’t sleep with you soon you would get bored with me.”
“FUCK.” He roared. “I’m gonna be honest with you… I haven’t got a pretty past, but I’m not like that anymore… You need to trust me… Do you?”
“I don’t know you.” I told him honestly, moving away. “I’m confused; you aren’t the guy she was telling me about… Not with me anyway… I don’t know what to believe. She seemed to know an awful lot about you. And why would she say those things about you? She is my sister, she wouldn’t set out to hurt me on purpose, she was trying to look out for me, to warn me off you so I don’t get hurt.”
“Believe me… Talk to me, don’t run away… I like you Rose.” He took a step closer to me and I wanted to reach out and touch him.
“I like you too.” I said quietly. I looked up at him and he was smiling. I desperately wanted to believe him. He seemed so genuine.
“The last one back has to buy tea.” He went to run off and I said;
“Wait… I think my top is coming loose… Can you check?” He looked at me, his eyes were saying he wouldn’t mind it coming loose. He walked behind me and once he was there I took off running.
“Hey, that’s cheating.” I looked behind me and he was running full speed to catch me up. It was actually quite difficult running in dry warm sand. We both reached Bonnie and Matt at the same time. He grabbed me from behind and twirled me around so I was now behind him. We both fell onto the blanket laughing and trying to breathe.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Matt asked.
“Jacob is buying us tea.” I informed him.
“Hey…” He protested.
“I beat you back here.”
“You cheated.” I winked at him and he started tickling me. I was rolling around on the sand, giggling and shouting at him to stop.
“Rose?” Someone called out my name. I looked up and Stuart was standing beside us.
“Stuart… Oh my God, how have you been?” I stood up and hugged him. He kissed me on the cheek and I heard someone behind me clear their throat. “Sorry, this is Matt and Jacob… What are you doing here?”
“My Gran has been in hospital…”
“Oh, Granny Hall? Is she ok?” I placed my hand on his arm and I was surprised that I didn’t feel anything from it, no electricity like we once had.
“Broke her hip, she will be ok… She is going to have to move in with Mum and Dad.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that…”
“Babe, we getting some food?” Jacob asked me, as he placed his hands on my hips and stood behind me. I could see what he was doing, he was letting Stuart know that I was no longer his. Not that I was Jacob’s either.
“Yeah, in a minute… I’m…”
“It’s ok, I gotta get going anyway… Maybe we can catch up before I go back?” He asked looking at me and then at Jacob.
“Yeah, definitely… Send my love to your family. Will text you.” I told him. He smiled at me, kissed me on the cheek and walked away. “Come on, let’s get some food.” I told them all as I put my clothes back on over my bikini.
“Do you see all of your ex boyfriends?” Matt asked me. I got the feeling he was digging for Jacob.
“He is my only ex, we were together from the age of fourteen… We only split up because he decided to go away to college.” I didn’t know why I was explaining this to Matt. If Jacob wanted to know, he could have asked me himself.
“So what you’re saying is, if he didn’t go away you would still be together?” Matt was prying.
“I’m not having this conversation with you, Matt.”
“Yeah leave her alone, idiot.” Bonnie scolded. I noticed that Jacob had gone very quiet and I wanted to know what he was thinking but I wasn’t going to ask him with our friends around. We walked to the pizza place that was beside the beach and got a takeaway. We sat down on the wall above the sand and ate in silence.
After we had finished eating Jacob said; “Rose, let me give you a lift home.”
“It’s ok… Bonnie will take me.” He was still being quiet and I didn’t want him asking loads of questions about Stuart. I hadn’t done anything wrong and he had a lot to prove to me at that moment. Getting stroppy about an ex wasn’t the proof I wanted from him.
“Bonnie can you give Matt a lift, please?” Jacob asked her. I looked towards Bonnie and she shrugged her shoulders at me. “Rose, please let me give you a lift?” He pleaded with me and I knew going with him was the right thing to do.
“Yeah, ok… Bye Bon.” I hugged her and she told me she would pick me up for college like she did every morning.
We drove in silence to my house and once we got there Jacob turned off the engine and turned towards me.
“I had fun today…”
“Me too…I’d best get inside… Need to get this sand off of me.” He nodded and pulled me towards him for a kiss. He immediately nibbled on my bottom lip, asking for entrance. I opened my mouth and as soon as our tongues touched I felt dizzy. He angled my head to deepen the kiss and I moaned in the back of my throat. It almost felt as if he was marking me, telling me that I was his. After a few more seconds we pulled apart. I was hot again and he smirked at me.
“See you tomorrow babe.” He kissed me once more and I got out of the car. I felt happy and couldn’t stop smiling.
Chapter 6
“What was up with Jacob yesterday?” Bonnie asked me as we left our photography class. I was looking around to see if I could see him. I remembered him mentioning he was doing media studies and I was hoping to run into him as our classrooms were quite close to each other.
“You noticed that too? He got funny and quiet after seeing Stuart. I…”
“Do you think he was jealous? Matt said…”
“Matt? You have been talking t
o Matt about us? I thought you didn’t want anything to do with him?” We had stopped walking and I was listening intently on what Bonnie had to say.
“I didn’t have a choice but to talk to him. Considering I had to give him a ride home yesterday! Anyway he was saying that Jacob has never had a long term girlfriend…” Bonnie must have noticed the look on my face when she continued with; “He also said that he has never seen him look at or treat another girl like he does you… That’s gotta be good, right?”
“Yeah I guess… Come on let’s get something to eat.” I looped my arm through hers and we walked outside. We both froze at what we saw in front of us. It looked like Jacob, although he was a little distance away and I could only see the back of his head, but he was kissing a girl. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and he had her pressed up against a tree. I felt sick and embarrassed and I wanted to get the hell out of there. I turned around and began walking in the opposite direction.
“Rose… Rose… Wait.” Bonnie caught up with me. She pulled on my arm to stop me from walking away. I turned to look at her. “Are you not gonna confront him? That was Jacob? Right?”
I shrugged my shoulders as I said; “It looked like him…”
“Well?”
“Well what Bonnie? We are not in a relationship…” I shouted at her. I looked around and noticed that people were looking at us. I calmed down and continued; “We had a couple of dates, a couple of kisses… It was fun… Like you and Matt…”
“This is not like me and Matt… We had sex, it was fun… We didn’t have dates.”
“Well, he’s moved on to his next conquest.” Bonnie put her arm around me and we began walking along the corridor slowly. “Can you believe I was thinking about sleeping with him? Thank God I didn’t, I would feel even more stupid now.” I was not going to let him get to me, I was feeling hurt that he didn’t just tell me he was seeing other people. If he had told me, I wouldn’t have dated him. Unless he thought I wouldn’t see him. I wondered how many other girls he was seeing at the same time.
“Do you wanna get out of here? Skip the rest of the day?” Bonnie asked me. I shook my head.
“You’ve got biology this afternoon and you can’t miss it… I’m gonna go to the dark room and sort out my photos. I’ll meet you at the car later?” She nodded in agreement and we went our separate ways after a hug goodbye.
Ping. I reached into my bag and pulled out my phone.
Hey babe, how’s your day going? I’m stuck at the church doing an interview for our media project. Do you wanna come over tonight? x
I couldn’t believe he had just lied to me. I had no intention of texting back. He would soon get the picture that I wasn’t interested in being one of the many girls he was dating or hooking up with. I put my phone back in my bag and made my way to the media department. I was hoping that I wouldn’t run into him, I was still mad and upset and didn’t want to get into a shouting match with him in the middle of the college.
***
The afternoon was going by slowly. I still had an hour to wait for Bonnie to finish her classes. I could have started walking home but I felt drained of energy. I wanted to go and sit in the sun at the picnic benches but that was where I’d seen Jacob kissing another girl this morning and I couldn’t face it. I decided to walk to the nearest coffee shop. I would send a text to Bonnie and tell her to meet me here. I went inside and got an iced coffee and sat at an outside table. I wanted to enjoy the sun while it was still warm.
“Rose?” I looked up and saw Stuart was standing in front of me.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked, as I stood up to give him a hug.
“You know this is my favourite coffee shop… We use to come here all the time.” I nodded and smiled at him.
“Join me if you want?” I motioned towards the empty chair and he nodded. He went inside to get his coffee and he came back with a muffin for each of us. He held it out in front of me and I thanked him as I set it down next to my coffee.
“You ok?” He asked, rubbing my arm. I shrugged my shoulders but didn’t say anymore. I looked down at the muffin and picked a few tiny bits off to eat, I wasn’t hungry but I didn’t want to be rude either.
“Talk to me.” He said again. I snapped out of my daze and said to him;
“What do you wanna talk about? Oh, how is your Gran?”
“Yeah, she seems to be doing better today… I’m heading back to college tomorrow… You seem down, what’s happened? Is it the guy you’re seeing?” He asked, as he took a sip of his coffee.
“Yeah.” I sighed. “We’re not really seeing each other…”
“Really? Cuz he is headed this way and he doesn’t look happy.” I looked up at Stuart, his words sinking in and I started looking frantically around. It didn’t take me long to spot an angry looking Jacob storming over towards us. He stopped at the table and we both looked up at him, waiting for him to speak. He sat down into the chair next to me.
“Hey babe.” He leant over and kissed me. “What’s going on here?”
“Don’t babe me… And don’t kiss me.” I shouted at him as I stood up and began to walk away. I stopped, looked over my shoulder and said; “Stu, I will call you later.” He nodded and I carried on walking down the street. Jacob was hot on my heels, trying to get me to stop. Once he was close enough he grabbed me by my waist from behind and picked me up. I screamed at him to let me go but I knew he wouldn’t until I told him what was wrong.
“Fine, put me down.” He did as I asked and I took a step away from him. I could see that he was watching me, waiting for me to run. “What’s wrong is the fact that I saw you kissing someone else. Today. So, I don’t want you calling me babe and kissing me… I’m not interested in being one of many… So, goodbye.” I turned and walked away. I looked over my shoulder and sighed with relief when I noticed that he wasn’t following me. I was glad I’d found out what he was really like this early on and not in a few months when I knew my heart would have already been his. I rounded the corner and saw Bonnie stood by her car; she was looking at her phone. I had forgotten to text her to tell her where I was. I picked up my pace and called out her name.
“Bonnie…” I waved my arms and she saw me heading towards her. As I got closer I said; “Sorry, I was having coffee with Stuart and then Jacob turned up…”
“Wow, what did he say? Did you tell him you saw him?” We climbed in her car and she started the engine.
“Yeah… He said nothing… So I walked away.” I shrugged my shoulders, trying to put on a brave face. I didn’t want to show anyone that he had hurt me; I had only known him for a few days. People would think I was being silly, Amelia was going to love it, now she could get her claws into him. She wouldn’t mind being one of many.
“Wow, I’m sorry hun… Are you ok?” She asked, as she looked at me briefly whilst driving.
“I will be… Now how was the rest of your day?” Bonnie began telling me about her day and I listened the best I could but my mind kept wandering back to Jacob. A couple of minutes later she pulled up outside of my house.
“So, yeah? Shall we do that?” Bonnie asked as I opened the car door.
“Sorry? What?” I asked her, confused as I didn’t know what she was talking about. She looked at me like she knew I hadn’t been listening.
“Never mind, I will talk to you later.” She hugged me and I got out and waved to her as she drove off down the road.
***
I was lying on my bed in my PJs doing some of my project work for photography when my phone pinged. I looked at it and was surprised to see it was Stuart. Shit, I’d forgotten to call him like I’d promised I would;
Hi, are you ok? x
Yeah, just boy trouble... Which you don’t want to hear about x
Try me… I’m a good listener x
What was I going to tell him? That I was stupid enough to fall for someone who was seeing lots of other girls at the same time. No way, I would feel like an idiot.
&nbs
p; It’s all your fault really… If you didn’t leave we would still be together x
My phone didn’t go off straight away, so I placed it beside my books and carried on working. A few seconds later it pinged. I was surprised to see the name ‘JACOB’ on the screen. I hesitated before opening it; I was wondering if deleting it would have been a better idea. What could he possibly have to say to me? Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked to open the message;
I will be at your in 10 mins. Meet me outside x
I’ll send Amelia out, she would love that
I didn’t know why I’d even bothered to reply, that’s what he’d wanted me to do.
Ping.
I want you, not your sister. 10 mins x
I wasn’t interested in going outside to meet him. I threw my phone on the floor and turned on my ipod docking station. That way I wouldn’t hear if my phone went off. I carried on working and about ten minutes later there was a knock on my bedroom door.
“Come in.” I called out. When I heard the door open I looked up and saw Jacob walking in. I jumped off my bed. “What are you doing here? My parents won’t be happy if they find you in here.”
“Calm down, your Dad let me come up.” I noticed he looked me up and down and that’s when I remembered I was in my PJs and my hair was still wet from my shower. I placed my hands on my hips and asked him what he wanted. I was past caring about my scruffy appearance, it wasn’t like I needed to impress him, he had made it perfectly clear I wasn’t enough for him.
“I was waiting and you didn’t come out, so I knocked on your door… Your Dad called up for you, but you didn’t answer so he told me to come on up.”
I sighed. “What do you want Jacob?” I sat on the edge of my bed, I felt very aware of the fact that I was dressed in tiny shorts and a vest top, with no bra. I knew that if he looked at me in a certain way that he would see my nipples harden as despite being furious with him the temperature in the room had risen several degrees when he walked in. I grabbed a light zip up jumper and threw it on. He grabbed the chair that was at my desk and sat on it back to front, his arms resting on the top.
Taking A Chance Page 4