Thank You

“Peyton?” Austin just stood there, confused. This couldn’t be true. It had to be a joke. He’d heard many stories about Peyton’s little sister and just how crazy she was. She was definitely the punch line to some of the jokes that he had laughed at. Now that he knew her; he thought that they had to have had it wrong. He had been with her for over a month and she had yet to do anything crazy or morally wrong.

“Wait a minute,” Jessica breathed, “You guys know each other?”

Austin looked from Jessica to Peyton and then back to Jessica. This changed things.

Peyton pushed past Jessica and made her way to their mother. Austin excused himself and shot out of the room and into the hallway. Jessica sighed and followed him, knowing exactly what was wrong.

“Let me guess,” she sighed, finally catching up to him. “You heard what happened.”

“I can’t believe that out of all of the people that I could have randomly had sex with in a Piggly Wiggly two years ago, it had to be Peyton’s god damn sister.”

“Half sister,” she corrected. Austin just rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Is that such a bad thing? Do you look at me differently now?”

Austin just rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh. It was only a few more minutes when they heard footsteps nearing them and they knew who it was.

“So, mom just told me that you guys are engaged?”

Nobody said a word. It was just the sounds of three furious people breathing really hard.

“Austin, you can’t marry her,” Peyton finally spoke up.

“I’m sorry,” Jessica harshly laughed, “But isn’t this the kind of chat you have with someone when the person you are talking about isn't standing right in front of you?” She watched Austin’s jaw tick as he continued to stare at the ground. “Look,” she spoke up again. “I’ll be the first one to admit that I’ve done some shitty things. I’ve made a lot of bad decisions and hurt a lot of people, but things change. That was years ago, Peyton. I’ve grown up.”

“You lied to me and said that you had sex with John,” she basically yelled, causing Jessica to flinch.

“Right, John. A guy who was not your husband who I am ninety-nine percent sure you were having a fling with.”

“That’s not the point.”

“What is the point? That I’m morally corrupted when your moral compass hasn’t always pointed due north either.”

“Stop it,” Austin forced out, looking from one sister to the other. “Jessica, let’s get out of here.”

“You’re kidding me,” Peyton butted in again where she wasn’t needed.

“Peyton,” Austin whispered, rubbing his temples. “Go spend some time with your mom. From what I’ve heard, you guys have some catching up to do. I am going to go elsewhere and talk to my fiancé without you constantly nagging me.”

“Fiancé,” she chuckled harshly. “Just be careful, Gibbs.”

“I’m right here,” Jessica scoffed, crossing her arms.

“Shoot any heroin lately?” Peyton asked, an evil smirk etched permanently on her face.

“Where’s your husband? Where are your kids? Are you ever going to introduce them to this side of the family?”

“Go pop some pills and calm down.”

“Come on, Jess,” Austin breathed, grabbing a hold of her arm and trying to lead her away from the giant scene they were making.

“Do they even exist? Huh? Ass face!” Jessica continued, stumbling backward with the force of Austin’s constant tugging. Peyton scowled at her and then turned on her heel back towards their mother’s room. Jessica continued shouting insults until Austin covered her mouth with his hand and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“We’re in a hospital for fuck’s sake,” Austin grumbled, carefully balancing on one foot as he kicked the button for the elevator. He heard her trying to talk against his hand, but he didn’t move it. He wasn’t in the mood for this. “And really, Jessica. Ass face?” He couldn’t help but chuckle and he felt her laugh too. When the elevator doors opened, he smiled at the old couple giving him crazy looks and stepped inside.
“If I set you down, are you going to behave?” he asked. He felt her nod against his hand. He carefully set her down and then pushed the button for the ground floor.

“Ugh, this whole day is just one surprise after another. Why couldn’t she have come later?”

“Let’s not talk about Peyton right now. Let’s talk about you. How about you tell me about yourself.”

“You already know everything,” she shrugged, confused.

“I know everything from college on. You have never spoken to me about your life here.” He watched her eyes shift from him to the ground. “If I am going to marry you, I need to know,” he smiled, shoving her shoulder with his. She leaned her head back on the wall of the elevator and stared at him. He saw so many emotions flash across her eyes, but then her stare became blank. As soon as the doors opened she stepped out and started walking towards the doors that led to the parking lot. He followed closely behind her, still processing the mystery that surrounded Jessica May Clark.

“I’ve made some mistakes,” she finally spoke up when they reached the car. She leaned back against it and looked up at him, hoping that his idea of her hadn’t changed too much.

“Do you really do drugs?” he asked, leaning against the car beside her. She took a deep breath and wished she had a cigarette. Austin sensed it and pulled the carton out of his pocket. He pulled a stick from the packet and handed it to her. She placed it in her mouth and waited for him to light it, their eyes locking for a moment. She blew the smoke out around his face and then took a relaxing breath.

“I did,” she nodded. “I used to run with the wrong crowd and everything that entails. When I told Peyton that I slept with John, I literally thought that I had. We went to a party and I was… I was gone. He had to carry me to the car, I think, because I’m sure I couldn’t walk. I was still in the process of sobering up when I woke up the next morning. All I could piece together was him hovering over me and taking off some of my clothes. It was all a blur. But I just happened to be wrong and what I thought happened, didn’t happen at all. To this day Peyton thinks I did it to sabotage their relationship or our relationship, or whatever,” she trailed off, taking a long drag from the cigarette.

“Why haven’t you ever told her that you were wrong and none of that really happened?”

“I didn’t know it didn’t happen until after she had gone back to Arizona. Bits of pieces of the night resurfaced and I knew that no matter what I said, I had put a wedge between us. It’s always going to be there. Just know that it’s not something I made up just to be a bitch. I put myself in rehab after that.”

“Did that work?”

“Sure,” she nodded, finishing the cigarette and stomping it out with her boot. “Anything else you want to know?”

“Want to go have dinner with me, Miss Jessica May?”

She couldn’t help but smile and nod, grasping the hand he held out for her. “I would love to, Mr. Austin Chandler.”

“Look at us, being a cutesy couple,” he grinned.

“Aw, baby, you’re the best fiancé in the world,” she joked.

“I know.”

//\\//\\//\\//\\

“So this is where you grew up?” he asked, standing in front of the simple brick house.

“This is it. Casa de Clark.”

“Please tell me you have embarrassing posters or something in your room,” he laughed, following her into the empty house.

“I don’t, but Peyton does,” she laughed, leading him up the stairs.

“Can’t wait to see that.”

She opened the door to her room and flipped the light switch, revealing the pale teal walls and the floral bedspread.

“It’s so…” he looked around, trying to come up with the right word, “girly.”

“Woah, do I not come off as girly?”

“Considering how much whiskey I’ve seen you drink in one sitting, no. You don’t come off as girly,” he chuckled, setting his bag on the ground near her closet. “It even smells girly in here.”

“Hey, I usually smell girly. I’ve just been sitting in a van or a car with you for the past month.”

He chuckled and plopped down on the bed. She dropped her bags and followed suit, falling down next to him. They were silent for a while, but Austin eventually broke it.

“Thank you.”

She adjusted her head so that she was looking at him. “For what?”

“For telling me about who you used to be.”

She just smiled and reached over, grabbing his hand with hers and slowly lacing their fingers together.

“And thank you.”

“For what?” he asked, knitting his eyebrows together and studying her face.

“For not instantly jumping to conclusions about me.”

He just smiled and pulled her close to him. They fell asleep in the position they had both gotten used to, in each others arms.