The Taste of Chaos

6

Once inside, I sigh in relief when neither mom and dad are in the sitting room, but it's short lived when mom walks down the spiral stairs. She wore a sundress and open toed shoes with a slight heel. Her brown hair is pulled into an elegant updo despite it being late at night.

"Jessica, is that you? Do you have any idea what time it is? You were supposed to be home an hour ago." She says, looking at her very gold and very expensive wrist watch.

She gasps when she sees Jake. "What on earth happened to you?"

She fastens her pace going down the steps and stops before us. She takes in Jake's bloody appearance. His skin turns purple and blue from where Will punched him. She glares at me, as if she already knows it's my fault, hands pawing at his shoulders.

He hisses and yanks himself back and she quickly lets go.

"We got mugged." I quickly say when I see Jake opening his mouth. I can’t let him speak. I can’t trust that he’ll go along with it. "After our movie date," I squeeze Jake's waist, a plea for him to go along with me, "Jake was walking me to his car, and two men tried to rob him."

My mother gasps and places a delicate hand on his shoulder, "Jake, is this true?"

I hold my tongue, ignoring the sting of how my mother needs confirmation. I'm not known to be a liar, but even she needs confirmation from the son she always wanted. It's probably why she's forcing him to propose.

"Muggers in Hill Hedge, what an outrage." She continues before Jake can answer. "Come on dear, let's get you cleaned up." She takes Jake off my shoulder and helps him into another room. "Jessie, get your father. He'll want to know about this." She looks at me over her shoulder. I hear her talking about capturing the culprits as they disappear.

***

"That's a mean black eye, son." My father says when he sees Jake's face. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, the top few buttons undone at the top. His black hair is styled back, but messy as if he ran his hands through it too many times. He was a lawyer, a spectacular one, but it takes a toll on him. And tonight, it’s very visible that he's stressed.

Jake isn't bloody anymore, and he wears a black eye so swollen that it's forced shut, a bruised cheek and a busted lip. Will beat him good.

"We'll have to call the cops if you say you were mugged." Dad nods his head with his brows pointed downward.

We sit at the kitchen island, Jake and I sit on the stools as mom and dad stand on the other side.

"I'm sorry, Mr. And Mrs. Young. I can't lie to you any longer." Jake states to them, and my eyes widen.

"Jake-" I stand up.

"We didn't go to the movies." He says, ignoring me. I open my mouth, ready to scold him because he said he will keep it a secret, but only a frustrated huff escapes me.

"Then where did you go?" Dad asks, brows furrowed in confusion as he turns his brown eyes to me. I bite my lip as guilt claws it's way up my throat. It’s one thing to lie to my mom, but dad is a different story. I didn’t like disappointing him. I grew up a daddy's girl, and once upon a time things between us weren't so tense.

"Jess convinced me to take her to visit Richie." He confesses.

I groan, and rest my head on the counter, avoiding the anger I know they feel now.

"Jessica Beau Young, we strictly forbade you from going to see him." Mom hisses at me, I can hear the tightness in her voice. She smooths her hand down her body tight dress that she changed into after cleaning Jake up.

"How did you really end up like this?" Dad asks Jake when I don't say anything.

Jake explains his side of what happened, that Will just attacked him. I listen as I chew on the inside of my cheek, pondering on what happened at the table while me and Richie talked.

At the end, Mom offers Jake to stay in the guest room until morning. She shows him the way, while dad stays behind with me.

"You're stubbornness caused this, I hope you're ashamed of yourself." Dad says as he glares at me. I squirm in my seat, uncomfortable with his dark and angry eyes. It hasn’t been that long since he was last disappointed with me. Ever since Richie left I’ve been nothing but.

"I just wanted to see him." I defend myself, but inside I do feel guilty. However, I can't find myself to regret going down there.

A part of me needed closer, and somehow I think I got it. I wanted Richie to come back for purely selfish reasons, I couldn’t stand being in the spot Richie was in before me. I’m in his shoes now, and I understand, I think, why he left.

"We don't want you being influenced by him." Dad says, "You're not going to see him again. Stop worrying about him, and worry about Jake. He's hurt, you should apologize to him."

I frown and cast my eyes down to the floor to hide my annoyance. What did mom and dad know about Richie? I bite my lip, what do I know about him?

I realize that it isn't just them that are wrong about him, but me too.

How could I expect him to come back to parents who don't believe in him anymore? How can he come back when the main reason I wanted him back is because I didn't want the attention on me?

When Richie left, I pushed the image of selfishness onto him, but I'm just as selfish.

After dad leaves for bed, I don't go to Jake. Instead I go to my room and lay on my bed.

The moon glares at me through the curtains, as if it was blaming me too. I stare at the ceiling, thinking over what happened.