Manage Me

I let the smile slip off of my face as Jack rounded the corner of the staircase and disappeared from sight. I knew when I called last night and the phone had been answered by someone that wasn’t Jack that something bad had happened. The person who answered was none other than the Matt that I had met the other day. By that point I had realized Matt was the band’s manager. He had sounded so distressed when he answered.



“Kaite?” I frowned at the unfamiliar voice. Lily quickly grabbed the phone and put it on speaker.

“Who is this?” I asked.

“It’s Matt. We met the other day.” His words were rushed and he sounded upset.

“Matt? Where’s Jack?”

“He’s…not doing well…” I just stared at the phone in shock until Lily nudged me.

“U-uh what does that mean? Is everything okay?”

“No.” He sighed and I could picture him running a hand through his hair tiredly. “Look, I don’t know what happened with you and Jack yesterday, but he’s really fucked up right now.”

I stayed silent. Lily looked at me, frowning. I could feel the disappointment radiating off of her. But she also wrapped a supporting arm around my shoulder. I heard a feminine voice in the background and tensed. Lily looked at me with wide eyes. What was a girl doing in Jack’s house this late?

“Hey, Katie…?” Matt asked quietly.

“Yes?” I breathed out.

“Can you come over to Jack’s tomorrow morning?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Thank you.” His voice, which had previously sounded so defeated, now had a spark of hope in it.

“I’ll be there at 9:00, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you so much, Katie.”

There was a slight pause and then the call ended. I slumped into Lily’s side. I knew this was my fault. Whatever had happened with Jack was all my fault. Lily squeezed me tight and then pulled me to the bed. She set and alarm and pulled me into her arms.



I lifted my head off of the counter when I heard someone enter the kitchen. My eyes met Alex’s and I attempted a half smile. He cleared his throat awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck. I was pretty sure I knew what he was going to say, so instead of waiting for him to spit it out, I spoke up.

“We need to talk.” He nodded.

I stood and began walking to the backyard again. I heard him following me. I made my way into the pool house, pulling out the window cleaner. Of course Jack had decided to mess with these windows. He had seen me cleaning them yesterday. I began to spray one down and Alex dropped onto the bed. It was silent and I sighed. Obviously he wasn’t going to be the one starting the conversation.

“Look, Alex, I like you. You’re sweet and funny and I like talking to you.” I took a deep breath. “But, I can’t do this. We can’t do this. I have a lot going on right now, and I just can’t. I’m sorry.”

I bit my lip as I waited for his response. He nodded his head and breathed deeply for a while before looking up at me from his position on the bed.

“You’re right. I like you too, but I think that we would be better off just being friends.” I smiled and he returned it.

“So, friends?”

“Friends.” He agreed.

“I’m gonna head out now that Jack is awake.” He stood and hugged me quickly.

“Bye, Alex.” I waved as he jogged back into the house.

I returned to my work. It was just a few seconds later that I faintly heard the door slide open again. I looked up, smiling. I was pretty sure it was Jack, but the I caught sight of Cassadee. She looked loads happier than she had when I first came over. She skipped into the pool house.

“We’re all gonna head out, okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I can take care of the rest of this. No worries.” I smiled at her.

“Bye, Katie! You’ll definitely be seeing me again.” She hugged me tightly.

I watched her run off back towards the house. I noticed Rian was waiting for her at the door and my smile faltered slightly as I watched his smile down at her before placing a tender kiss on her lips. I chewed on the inside of my cheek and forced my attention back to the windows. This time I didn’t notice the back door opening. I did, however, notice when someone suddenly pinched my sides. I squeaked and whirled around.

Jack stood in front of me, smiling. He smelled really good and was dressed in clothing that I knew I had washed. I smiled back up at him. I couldn’t fight it anymore. I didn’t care anymore if Jack was freaked out because he found out we slept together. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if he hadn’t realized it. He hadn’t really been acting that differently after all. He noticed what I was doing and frowned, snapping me out of my trace.

“I’m really sorry about acting like a 3-year-old, Katie.”

“You are nowhere near as bad as a 3-year-old.” I giggled. “You just lost it for a moment.” I shrugged. “It could have been a lot worse.”

“Still.”

“Here, Mr. Grumpy Gills.” I tossed him a rag. “If you feel so bad, you can help me clean it.” He nodded quickly, the smile reappearing, and came to stand next to me. “You just spray the Windex a few times and then wipe it down, okay?” He nodded again.

For a few minutes we stood there in a comfortable silence. I couldn’t help but smile every once in a while when Jack’s arm would brush mine or when I would catch a glimpse of the concentrated look on his face. Jack had just handed me the bottle back, and for some unknown reason, I decided to spray it on something that wasn’t the window. Jack looked over at me in complete shock as he stared at the wet spot on shoulder. I burst into giggles. Jack shot me a playful glare and then grabbed the bottle out of my hands.

I shrieked and ran away from him. He let out a laugh and I heard his footsteps behind me. Unfortunately for me, he had almost a foot on me and most of that was in his legs. He caught up with me quickly. I screamed again as I felt him spray the top of my head. He swept my feet off of the ground and stared at me with a serious face. My laugh caught in my throat at his gaze. Then he broke out into a sinister smile. He began walking towards the pool.

“No, Jack!” I cried. “No! No!”

He began laughing manically. I kicked my feet out, but his grip was too strong. Suddenly, I was thrown into the air. I had enough time to let out a small screech before I splashed into the water. I came up sputtering. Jack was rolling around on the grass, laughing so hard there were tears running down his face. I pouted at him.

“Here.” He stood up and walked towards me.

He held his hand out for me to grab. I smirked as I grasped onto it. I saw realization flash in his eyes before I yanked on his arm and he came tumbling into the water next to me. He glared at me when he finally resurfaced. This time, I was the one who was giggling uncontrollably. A huge wave suddenly crashed over me and I looked over to catch Jack grinning at me smugly.

From that moment on it was a full on war. It wasn’t until almost two hours later that we finally stopped splashing each other. I was out of breath and my ribs hurt from laughing so much. I shivered as I realized the sun was starting to dip below the horizon. We had been out here for longer than I realized.

“Are you cold?” Jack asked, coming up behind me. I nodded.

“C’mon.” He smiled.

I watched him climb out first and go to a little locker off to the side. He opened it up and pulled out two towels. I quickly clamored out of the water. He wrapped one around my shoulders and I sighed in happiness.

“Let’s go inside.” I nodded and followed him.

The warmth that greeted us just inside the door was so delicious I almost moaned. Jack noticed my expression and chuckled quietly. I slapped his arm playfully.

“I’m tiny. I get cold easily.”

“Whatever you say, Mini.”

“Hey! That’s not my name.” I pretended to be hurt. He tousled my hair and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Do you want to shower?” He asked. I stared at him and he blushed deeply. “I – I didn’t mean it like that.” He choked out. “I meant…well you said you’re cold so I figured you could shower and uh…put your clothes in the dryer? I have something you could borrow until they’re dry, if you want.”

“Sure.” I said with a smile.

He followed me upstairs. I was glad his bathroom didn’t smell like puke, even if his room did have a slight stench to it. He left me a towel and a pile of clothing. I smiled my thanks. He left and I cranked the shower to warm. It was absolute Heaven to not have to worry about the temperature suddenly changing up on me.

I thought a lot as I stood under the warm water. I had decided that I was thinking about this whole situation with Jack too much. I was just going to let it go. What happened would happen. I wasn’t going to spend any more time thinking about this. I smiled as the last of the bubbles slipped down the drain. Everything was going to be okay, I could feel it.