Here I Am, There You Are

Jack and I were standing in front of the house that was all too familiar to us. We had flown back over to the east coast and booked a hotel for a few days, opting to go for the ‘long weekend away’ instead of the fancy romantic vacation in some nice warm area. We were holding hands, both shaking a little bit to heat up. The weather had drastically cooled down, especially in comparison to LA. We had managed to make it to seven months, and with my sister’s wedding just two months away, I thought it was best he at least met my parents before that.

I turned to him, trying to hide further into my jacket that was way too light for Baltimore’s starting winter. “Whatever happens in there, please remember that I love you and that my family is not a direct reflection of who I am.”

“Babe,” Jack laughed, giving my hand a squeeze, “you’re the one that’s freaking out the most. I should be the one saying ‘whatever happens in there, remember that I love you’. Afterall, I am the one that ruined what could have been a nice normal dinner for us tonight all those years ago.”

“You didn’t ruin anything.” I kissed him on the cheek and rang the doorbell. “You just made it slightly more uncomfortable, that’s all.”

The front door opened almost immediately, the light from indoors almost making it seem like my mom had a spotlight directed on her. She grinned brightly, excited to see me again for the first time in months. The fact that I was bringing my boyfriend made her that more thrilled. My parents didn’t know it was Jack. I didn’t want to tell them over the phone after finding out about him and my sister, so they were super intrigued. My dad even joined my mom at the door, wanting to see who I had finally let myself date.

I went in first, greeting them and giving them both a hug. Jack followed me inside, waiting until it was his turn to do something. To help him out a little and to make the transition better, I decided to ‘introduce’ him.

“Mom, dad, you know Jack.” I smiled and stepped aside so they could see him.

“Of course we do!” my mom gushed and went straight for the hug instead of the handshake, seemingly happy that I was dating him.

She was hugging him like he was one of my way younger cousins who she hadn’t seen in a while. My dad, however, just gave him a nice respectful handshake and said something along the lines of being glad to see him again. I could tell they were quite surprised how he turned out. He still had a single strand of hair bleached (and now painted red), which was way better compared to the weird blonde streaks he had all over his floppy hair. Also, he was a lot less stick-like than in high school. Still tall, but not stick-like.

“I would never have expected this,” my mom breathed out with a big smile, “but we can talk about while eating. Dinner’s ready.”

“Already?!” I exclaimed, barely getting the time to take of my jacket before we were dragged to the living-slash-dining room.

“You know how I overestimate how much time I need to cook whenever I plan out a nice meal!” My mom scoffed like I had offended her before scurrying off to the kitchen.

“At least I don’t have to help,” I whispered to Jack and shrugged, making him laugh.

The table had already been set. It was fancier than usual, which made sense. There was actually a tablecloth and the nice matching white plates were taken out. Four places also had wine glasses, the fifth only having a water glass. The salad was already out on the table and there was place for the warm dishes. Back in high school whenever I had somebody over, my parents didn’t make all too much effort. It was a bit different when I was twenty-eight, though. Maybe Alex married his high school girlfriend, but I definitely didn’t marry my high school boyfriend.

Before we got to the table, we walked past the couches where my brother had just turned off his phone and stuffed it back in his pocket. While my hair was on the darker side of blonde, almost brown, and my sister had a nice light blonde, he had a more ash blonde color. If he and my sister switched hair colors, I could have said it was like an ink cartridge running out.

“Hey, Ethan,” I greeted him as well before once again pointing at Jack, “do you remember Jack?”

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, as he thought for a while, inspecting Jack’s appearance. At first, he seemed confused and lost, but then he asked, “did we have some super awesome handshake?”

“Handshake?” Jack frowned, making it his turn to think back to the past. “Oh, yes, we did!”

“Yeah, I remember!” Ethan grinned as he nodded and got up as my mom and dad started putting everything on the table. “You were Rachel’s boyfriend, right?”

“No, nope, he wasn’t,” I quickly corrected, really hoping my little brother hadn’t seen anything between Jack and Anna and then confused it with me years later.

“Oh, okay.” Ethan shrugged and put his hands up at shoulder-level to show he didn’t mean any harm. “I was two when you guys first met. If I saw two ducks in the same pond, I thought they were together.”

“How old are you now?” Jack asked casually to make small talk.

“Sixteen,” Ethan answered simply as he went to the one place without the wine glasses, which was at the head of the table.

“So you were…” Jack did the math in his head. “Six when we graduated.”

“Five, actually, but we don’t like to think about those dark times.” Ethan looked into the distance and shuddered as if he could still remember any horrifying details of events that never happened.

“The worst that could have happened to you was that somebody stole your grape eraser.” I rolled my eyes and sat down next to him, Jack in turn sitting next to me

“I know!” he gasped and put a hand over his heart. “I am still traumatized!”

Not much later, my parents brought all the food to the table and my dad poured us some wine--white for me, red for Jack. Once we all had food on our plates, I nearly wanted to dig in almost immediately. It had been a while since I had had my mom’s home cooked meals, so I was excited. But I couldn’t just start eating whenever I was back home. It worked differently here than at my house in LA. Luckily Jack noticed my hesitation and wouldn’t dare touch his own food. If he hadn’t, we might have had an awkward situation.

“Rachel, do you want to say Grace?” My mom asked, already holding out her hands for my dad and brother to take (she was sitting directly across from me, my dad next to her and across from Jack).

“Oh, umm…” I looked around, trying to find a way to politely decline. “I’d rather not…”

“Alright,” she nodded and looked at my brother instead, “Ethan?”

“Sure.” He shrugged in response, feeling indifferent towards it.

You see, technically I grew up religious. Or, at least, my parents were religious. They took me and my sister to church when we were kids, but they never pushed anything on us. We got to decide whether or not we believed and whether or not we wanted to go to church. I made the decision of not going to church and also not believing, which my parents knew and were supportive about. They occasionally did ask me if I wanted to say Grace, and I did do it a few times, but sometimes I also declined. My sister, on the other hand, was just as religious as my parents. She was as open and as accepting, but she regularly went to church and didn’t eat dinner without saying grace. It kind of contradicted the person she was back in high school and a little after, but even back then she would go to our neighborhood church every Sunday.

Usually, however, back when I was still at high school and when I had a couple of friends over, my parents wouldn’t make us kids say Grace. They knew all teenagers wanted to do after a busy day was stuff their faces, and they didn’t want to force it on other people’s children. However, this dinner was family, Jack now getting the chance to join as well. So, he was a little surprised by the gesture. At least my mom hadn’t asked him. I didn’t think Jack minded, though. He was also like me; grew up religiously but didn’t really follow it himself.

We all held hands--yes, even my dad and Jack--and my parents and brother closed their eyes. I, however, made eye contact with Jack and gestured that it was okay if he wanted to keep his eyes open, I was going to do so as well. He gave me a small smile and I squeezed his hand in return.

“So, first of all, I would like to express my gratitude for something else that happened today,” Ethan started, a mischievous smile creeping on his face. “I am very thankful for that awesome kill I got on Call of Duty. My prayers were answered. I managed to get the best kill I’ve ever done. It was a real moment to be proud of. You should have seen--”

“Ethan!” My mom scolded, giving him a nudge.

“Oh, right. Sorry, homie, I’ll tell you about that later,” he apologized, but not to my mom, he was ‘apologizing’ to God. Jack and I shared a look, holding back our chuckles. Ethan continued saying Grace, taking it seriously for my mom this time. It was obvious he didn’t think it was all that serious. “Anyway, I guess it’s great that I’m able to share a meal with my parents, my eldest sister, and her boyfriend. Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, whoever eats fastest gets the most. Amen.”

“Every single time.” My dad shook his head after they all opened their eyes and we let go of each other’s hands. He wasn’t disappointed, however. It was more like he knew he had to get mad, but was too amused to do so.

We ate some of our food, surrounded by casual conversation, before my parents started asking the serious questions. Although they knew who Jack was back in high school, they still had to make sure he was right for me now. That’s a mother’s and father’s job. My dad needed to know if he could take good care of me while my mom wanted to see if we really did love each other and one of us wasn’t using the other. Even if I had been the one with bad intentions--neither of us were--my mom would have disapproved. I would never get past her with a fake boyfriend. She would know in no time.

“So, Jack,” my dad changed the subject, “I remember your band being quite your thing in high school, is it still?”

Jack nodded quite enthusiastically while trying to quickly swallow the bite of food in his mouth. He seemed quite happy that my dad had remembered. “We actually managed to make a living out of it. We have seven albums out right now. It’s so surreal to play shows and having the entire crowd singing along to songs we wrote.”

“Oh, so you tour a lot?” My dad derived.

“Umm, yeah…” Jack carefully nodded, feeling like he was getting led into a trap. I felt the same way. It was like my dad was going down the interrogation path. Yet, Jack still answered, he couldn’t just not say anything. “We used to be gone almost the entire year, only have, like, thirty days at home spread out over the year, but it’s calming down a little with Alex getting married.”

“That sounds awesome,” my dad contradicted the idea of him trying to crack Jack by showing excitement. “What’s your favorite place you’ve ever been?”

“Oh, that’s a difficult one. The crowd oversees is always very pumped. We do only come there occasionally, so when we finally come it’s quite special. Australia’s pretty cool, but so is the UK, and we also really like Japan.”

“Okay, that’s it. Ethan, you’re going to be in a successful band as well,” my dad instructed my brother.

Ethan seemed caught off guard. His chewing stopped and his eyes were wide as he looked at my dad. “Say what now? And live an unorthodox way of life?”

“Hey,” Jack interrupted jokingly, “I’m dating your sister, my way of life isn’t that unorthodox.”

Out of nowhere, Ethan suddenly hit the table loudly. “I remember! You were Anna’s boyfriend, not Rachel’s! Bro…”

Well, there it was. If my parents couldn’t remember before, this sure as hell was going to jumpstart their memories. Lisa could recall it all just after hearing my sister’s name, there was no way my parents could just forget walking in on Anna and Jack doing ‘unspeakable things’. It was like my heart sunk. There was no way they were going to be cool with us dating anymore, no matter how much my dad liked Jack.

I slid down my chair a little while everybody just stared at Ethan and didn’t say a word. He was looked back at all of us, not seeing what was wrong with what he had stated. With the way my parents were glaring at him to behave for once and the occasional worrisome glance towards me, I knew that my parents remembered what had happened between Jack and Anna since we walked through that front door, but were just afraid that I didn’t know. If that were the case, staying silent wasn’t the way to keep it hidden from me.

“Complicated stuff.” I forced a smile, trying to start up a conversation again to end the awkward silence.

“Anyway, so what type of venues do you play?” My dad continued his questions about Jack’s job like nothing had interrupted him before.

Jack, also preferring boasting about his band over talking about his time with my sister, answered the question quickly, “just the usual, but we recently did get to play arenas in the UK. Some of those shows sold out, which is pretty amazing.”

“Oh, wow! I remember buying twenty tickets from Rachel one time just so you guys could play a show.”

Jack looked at me with accusation. “Twenty tickets! When did this happen?!”

I shrugged and drunk some of my wine. “You needed to sell one hundred tickets. I sold thirty, twenty of them went to my dad.”

“And here we were, thinking you had some secret talent!” He shook his head at me and reached for his back pocket. “I can’t believe you did that!” He proceeded to pull out his wallet and take out a one-hundred dollar bill, sliding it over to my dad “This should cover that.”

“Oh, no, I don’t need your money,” my dad refused and pushed it back to Jack. “I was happy to pay for you kids to work towards your dreams, even if you’re not my own blood.”

“I insist, though,” Jack countered and handed it back yet again. “And if you really don’t want it, give it to charity.”

“You’re not going to give up, are you?”

“I will not.”

The dinner continued without another interruption from my brother bringing up the past. Of course, the conversation was not just centralized around Jack’s job the entire time. Slowly it went over to my job and then it shifted to my puppy. Then we also talked a bit about how school was going for my brother and how my parents were doing. It was the perfect dinner to me, excusing the small hiccup and awkward silence around it.

Although this dinner was technically Jack and my parents meeting again, Ethan was also quite excited to have me around again. So, my parents excused us after dinner ended and let us go up to Ethan’s room so I could catch up with him as well, this included Jack. It was kind of a weird situation, but they understood as well. Jack could have stayed with my parents, but I didn’t want to do that to him and invited him to come along with us.

Not long after, Jack and Ethan were playing video games on the small TV he had in his room--it used to be my room in high school, then my sister’s, and then his--and I was casually snooping around, not trying to hide that I was literally going through random drawers. It was mainly full of school stuff or random clutter, nothing juicy. However, bedside drawers always have some mischievous things in it.

Still, when I opened my brother’s bedside drawer and found a box of condoms, my heart skipped a beat. A normal sister would throw them back and shut the drawer, trying to do her best to act like she never saw anything. But I wasn’t a normal sister. My family and I were very close… strangely close. My brother would literally tell me anything, so this came as a surprise.

“Nice to know you’re being safe.” I threw the box at his head, more annoyed that he didn’t tell me than the fact that he had them in his possession.

“Ouch!” He rubbed his head briefly, quickly returning his hand to the controller to duck before briefly glancing in the direction of what I threw at him, all while Jack was snickering, seeing it all from the corner of his eye. “Oh, that. Yeah, I never used them.”

“Never used them, huh?” I nodded, walking up to the box and picking it up, stuffing back the few condoms that had fallen out. “Then why’s the box open?”

“I give them to my friends.” He shrugged, sticking his tongue out a little to concentrate better on the video game.

“Do you sell them, because that’s a great way to make money,” Jack nudged, his own eyes glued to the TV screen.

“Nope. They’re wussies and are too embarrassed to buy their own. I don’t care if it takes a couple of bucks from my pocket money, I don’t want them screwing up their lives. I have yet to… loose… my own…” he took brief pauses while trying to kill an enemy, “virginity.”

“Awe, following my footsteps!” I gushed and climbed on the bed after closing the drawer again and calling it a day on snooping around.

“Of course, you’re my favorite sister!”

“So cute!” I ruffled his hair and grinned at him even though he wasn’t looking in my direction.

“Okay, nope, Anna’s my favorite sister,” Ethan corrected, jerking his head to try and fix his hair without his hands, but to no avail. So, he quickly fixed it with his hands, which caused him to fail covering Jack and made his character die.

“Goddammit!” Jack sighed. Instead of reviving himself, though, he threw his controller down. “Okay, I gotta use the bathroom.”

“Use the one in the hallway, mine’s full of laundry,” Ethan told him so Jack wouldn’t try using the bathroom connected to this bedroom.

As Jack started getting up I double checked, “do you know where it is?”

“Yeah,” he nodded and started leaving the room, “I’ve been here before.”

That left just me and Ethan in the room. Ethan was still focused on the game and Jack’s side of the screen was still asking to be revived. So, I slipped off the bed and sat where Jack was sitting before on the floor, and grabbed the remote, doing as the screen wanted me to do. Although I wasn’t an avid gamer, I could still casually play video games with my brother. As soon as things got too competitive, though, I had to bail.

“Am I really not your favorite sister?” I joked and pushed him softly with my foot.

“No, you definitely are my favorite sister,” Ethan stressed, ignoring my push completely.

“You probably tell Anna that as well when she’s over,” I laughed and rolled my eyes a little. It was what parents always did as well--although, they often would say they didn’t have a favorite--deep down they really did have one child they preferred.

“Nope, I really don’t.” He shook his head. “You’re way cooler.”

“You wouldn’t think that with the teenager she used to be. Aren’t you supposed to think she’s the cool one because she got into parties while underage and would spend nights out doing god knows what?”

“Nah. You had fun with friends without going overboard crazy. I’d take a roadtrip and a theme park over a club and drinking any day. Also, if I call you at ungodly hours of the night, you will always answer and listen, even when all I want to talk about is fruit loops. Anna doesn’t do that. You’re cool because you can be as bitchy as a motherfucker and still get what you want, but you don’t do that at all. You care more about other people’s problems, including mine.”

“Anna cares about your problems too,” I told him seriously. I couldn’t have him thinking that his other sister didn’t care about him. I knew she did as well.

“Yeah, I know. But if Anna had found those condoms, she would have interrogated me. She wouldn’t have believed that I give them to my friends and haven’t lost my own virginity yet. It’s cause she’s Anna, she can’t imagine being a teenager and doing that. You, however, understand everything even though you haven’t experienced something in the same way. You also talk to me about everything like I can help you. Anna still acts more like I’m a child who isn’t adult enough to hear about her shit. You’re like the cool mom, you will be a cool mom someday,” he confessed. “I honestly thought you would be the first one to get married.”

I chuckled and shook my head, unfazed by the fact that I had already managed to let my character die and had to revive yet again. “I’m sure many people thought that. Anna just found the person she wants to spend the rest of her life with before me. I’ll get married someday, though.”

“Can I be your maid of honor?” Ethan asked, both joking and completely serious.

“You know what? Yes.” I nodded and held out my hand. “Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise,” he replied and let his hand leave the controller yet again to hook his pinky onto mine. It caused his screen to go black as well, but he didn’t seem to care. “Are you going to take Jack to Anna’s wedding?”

“Maybe,” I nodded, making eye contact with him for the first time again since he turned on the console, “I’ll have to check with Anna first, though.”

“Why do you have to check with her? She can’t control who you’re dating.”

“I know, and she won’t. She and Jack had a thing back in high school. I don’t want to take him to her wedding and ruin her day.”

“Wait, so I was right?!” Ethan gasped, his eyes widening. “He was Anna’s boyfriend!?”

“Not exactly…” I sucked in a breath. Although Ethan told me he loved it that I trusted him with all my secrets and troubles, I was unsure if I could give the exact details this time. It wasn’t that he was too young to know about sex--that was obvious--but it was the fact that it was his sister and my boyfriend we were talking about.

“Oh, what--” he frowned before his face relaxed and realization washed over him. “Oh… Oh, no. That-- That’s no good.”

I raised my shoulders slightly and pursed my lips briefly. “Yeah, well, I can’t do anything about the past. I only found out about it a couple of months ago, but it doesn’t really bother me.”

“It doesn’t bother you?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Nope, it doesn’t.”

“Are you sure it doesn’t bother you?”

“One-hundred-percent sure.”

“One-hundred-percent?”

“Okay… maybe just a little bit.” I held up my thumb and forefinger, showing a small distance between the tips. “Of course it’s a little weird. The idea of Anna sleeping with a guy I dated was quite a realistic one. Me dating a guy she used to sleep with, however…”

“Ugh, that sucks,” he sighed, feeling for me.

“I got over it. Well, as long as I don’t think about it when Jack and I… you know…”

“Oh my god, just say it: ‘having sex’. It’s not that difficult,” Ethan groaned, throwing his head back in frustration.

“Okay, fine!” I chuckled and held up my hands in defense. “As long as I don’t think about it when we’re ‘having sex’. Anyway, I just need to make sure that Anna is okay with it as well. She has no idea that I’m dating Jack.”

“No idea?! Aha! I am your favorite sibling too!” he exclaimed triumphantly.

I snorted and nudged him to stop being so ridiculous. “Look, Anna and I are only two years apart, we got into a buttload of fights as kids. You and I, however, and twelve years apart. The only time we got in fights was when you wanted to play and I was overwhelmed with school. You’re my baby brother.”

“I was going to say I’m not a baby anymore… but I literally have a teddy bear sitting on my bed,” Ethan remarked and looked back at the brown bear nestled in between his pillows.

“So what? I have a teddy bear in my bed as well and I’m twenty-eight.”

“That’s different!”

“How is that different?!”

He thought for awhile before mumbling, “I don’t know.”

I just shook my head and smirked at him, before pointing out, “where the hell is Jack, what’s taking him so long?”

“I don’t know. What do people do in the bathroom?” Ethan laughed.

I rolled my eyes and got up before climbing over my brother’s legs so I could leave the room as well. “I’m going to check on him.”

“He’s probably dropping a deuce!” he grunted and picked up his controller again, restarting his game.

I hit the back of his head, causing him to flinch away. Maybe he was right, but I didn’t know. It was possible that Jack went back downstairs and was waiting for me to join him and my parents. Then again, something bad couldn’t have happened in the bathroom. I don’t know why, but he could have passed out and hit his head. However, it was probably most likely that Ethan was completely correct and I was just going to make this awkward for Jack. Although I didn’t care one bit, Jack and I hadn’t exactly reached the point yet where we acknowledged what we both did in the bathroom. Maybe this was the point where we crossed that line.

The door to the bathroom was closed, so I assumed he was still inside and knocked softly. “Jack, are you okay in there?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” his muffled voice said back.

So, I decided to leave him alone and not press any further to prevent making him feel rushed if it was indeed what Ethan said. “Okay, I’m going to be downstairs with my parents. Just take your time.”

“Okay.”

I slowly stepped away from the door just in case something was actually wrong and Jack decided to say something. When nothing came, I made my way to the stairs and went down them. My parents were still sitting at the dinner table, two glasses of wine and mine and Jack’s empty along with a partially empty bottle. I took the seat across from my mom again, pulling out my phone from my back pocket and placing it on the table so I could sit comfortably.

“Jack’s still upstairs,” I told them before they asked, and didn’t give any more detail to spare him any embarrassment.

They nodded and I poured myself a glass of wine so I had something to sip on while waiting for Jack to make an appearance again. My parents shared a look, obviously having a telepathic conversation that was about me but did not include me. They were disagreeing about something, debating about the thing surrounding me.

Eventually, my mom spoke up. “I just need to ask… you do know about Jack and Anna, right?”

My dad gave her a glare, but I nodded and decided to take a big gulp of the red wine. “Yeah. Well, not back then. But I’ve known for a little while.”

“Okay, because I was going to warn you if you were going to take Jack to her wedding.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t ruin her big day,” I breathed out a laugh and fondled with the stem of my glass. “I was going to ask her. It’s one of the reasons why I haven’t directly asked him to come yet and I haven’t given any name for my plus one yet, which I’m being forced to take.”

“One of the reasons?” My dad frowned, interrupting the serious conversation I was going to have yet again with another person. “I like the guy, why so unsure?”

“I like him too!” I defended with a gasp. “But I got that wedding invitation when Jack and I had been dating for around four months. The wedding was still five months into the future then! Now I just need to ask Anna since the wedding’s in two months.”

“So, why haven’t you asked her yet?” my dad continued to interrogate. It was like he liked Jack more than me. Most fathers would tell their daughter to stay away from band dudes, my dad was doing the opposite.

“Because I still wanted to give my relationship with Jack some more time.”

My mom reached out and took hold of my hand so I could no longer clink my nails against the glass. “Seems to me like you’re stalling.”

“Oh my god,” I groaned and pulled my hand away, briefly hiding my head in my arms on the table. “Why does everybody keep thinking that the fact Jack and Anna used to be together is such a big deal to me? It really isn’t! Like, I even dated his best friend for a short while, how is it any different?”

“Hey, I didn’t say that was the reason you’re stalling,” my mom pointed out. “You’re the one that decided that was the reason, that says something.”

“No,” I shook my head and crossed my arms, “I was completely fine with it. But now you guys are making me doubt myself! Am I wrong in thinking it’s okay?”

“It’s not wrong,” my dad assured me and turned to my mom, “you stop making her change her mind!”

“I just want what’s best for her,” my mom argued.

“Look, I love Jack and that’s all that matters,” I insisted.

“You love him and that’s all that matters?”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Okay,” my mom said softly and nodded, accepting my answer. Just like I said, she was happy if I was happy.

Just then, before the conversation topic could be changed to something more neutral, my phone buzzed. Although I usually never checked my phone at the dinner table, having it just lay there prompted me to just quickly check what the notification was from. Strangely enough, it was a text from Alex. I quickly read over it and didn’t reply, knowing it wasn’t needed.

I made up an excuse that was partially true so I wouldn’t be lying, “Jack and I should be going soon, I’m going to go fetch him.”

And so, I went upstairs yet again. I went straight to my brother’s room, but not to see him. Instead, I entered his bathroom. Just like he had warned, it was a big mess. The hamper was full of laundry, some more strewn across the floor, and there was a pile of clean clothes yet to go back in his closet that had fallen over, obviously hidden in here instead of neatly put away. Ethan observed me as I grabbed the toilet plunger. I made direct eye contact with him and raised my eyebrows before leaving yet again.

“Jack,” I knocked on the bathroom door and asked, “are you sure you’re okay in there?”

“Umm… yeah, it’s all good…” he replied, but I knew better than that.

“Dude, Alex literally just texted me that you texted him, just open the door.”

A second later, the lock turned, and the door opened ajar, Jack blocking my view of the bathroom. “Did you just dude me?”

“Yes.” I gave him a single nod before holding up the plunger so he could see it too.

A sheepish grin crept up and a slight blush spread across his checks. He didn’t even need to say a word, and I knew that I had rescued the day.

“Do you need me to help?” I questioned and pushed one hand up against the door so I could come inside.

Jack, however, held the door closed and instead snatched the plunger from me. “No, it’s cool. I’ll do it.”

The door shut and locked again. I just waited outside and leaned against the wall. Luckily, it didn’t take all too long for Jack to fix the problem, especially compared to how long he had already been in there. I just hoped for him that there was no mess. An overflowing toilet is never pleasant.

When Jack came out, I was still waiting for him with my arms crossed.

“Sorry about that…” he mumbled and turned off the bathroom light, having left the plunger in the bathroom for now.

“No, it’s fine,” I brushed it off, knowing it happened to the best of people. “Although, you could have asked for my help. Why didn’t you?”

“Cause it’s awkward as fuck!” he breathed out and scratched the back of his head. “And I seriously can’t believe Alex texted you.”

“What else was he supposed to do?”

“Moral support.”

I just laughed but didn’t go downstairs just yet. “It really doesn’t matter anymore. Just promise you won’t clog the hotel toilet as well, and I promise I won’t do so either.”

“Like you’ve ever clogged or will clog and toilet in your life,” Jack snorted.

“There’s still a lot left to learn about me.” I winked to make him feel better and kissed his cheek. “I love you.”

He returned the gesture by briefly pecking me on the lips and wrapping one arm around my waist.

“Anyway…” I started guiding us back to the stairs. “I kinda told my parents that we had to leave and that I just had to get you. So… we’re going to be leaving a little earlier than we first planned, meaning we’ll have some extra time at the hotel…”

“You seriously want to have sex with me after I clogged a toilet? That's not sexy in anyway.”

“Yes,” I whispered in his ear.