Flat 64

Chapter 19

Pulling away from me, Jackson starts the car and drives off, ignoring how I've yet to stop staring at him. "You mean... Nothing happened at home?" I ask carefully, watching as he nods in response. "Oh my God, I've gone insane." I gape, turning back to sit properly in my seat. Wishing away the past 20 minutes of my life and praying for a do-over, there is no way I just acted all psycho in front of Jack... over absolutely nothing. Replaying my rambling about Drew hating me has me grimacing in embarrassment. "You could have been more clear." I huff out, refusing to look his way. "Lottie, all I said was not to come home and to wait for me. How you managed to think that meant your brother hates you and that your life is over? I have no clue." He replies, sighing. I can hear the amusement in his tone, but it doesn't help me feel any better about how much I just jumped off a f*****g bridge into assumption ally.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get all...crazy. It's just that I-" he reaches over and squeezes my thigh gently, silencing me. It takes my attention away from the window, and all I can do is look at how large his hand is on my thigh. It feels good, having his hands on me again, and I find myself placing my hand over his, lacing our fingers together. "It's really on your mind, huh?" Jackson says, pulling me out of my trance.

"Yeah. I've just never kept anything from him before, and the first time I do it's something terrible. I just hate myself for it." I can feel his thumb rubbing soothing strokes on my thigh beneath our hands, and the comfort it brings me eases the guilt a little. "Don't be so hard on yourself, it's not like he told you about him laying it on your best friend either." he shrugs, as if it's no big deal to him at all, but we both know he cares just as much as I do. "You know about Drew and Lily?" I ask him, shocked. He spares me a quick look, before he focuses on the road. "Everyone does. I wasn't sure at first, but when they started making out the other night it was pretty obvious that something was going on there." Jackson turns into a completely empty car park, pulling up close to a gate which is covered with weeds and nearly hidden by bushes. He motions for me to get out of the car, and I watch as he jogs to the boot, taking out a duffle bag. Curiosity fills me, and I eagerly follow him and try to unzip it to see what's inside. "No. Don't be nosey, you'll ruin the surprise," he says, pulling the bag out of my reach. I pout slightly, which brings a laugh tumbling out of Jackson. He jumps the gate, and turns to look at me expectantly, waiting for me to follow. Once I've successfully climbed over (after slipping about a hundred times on the mossy metal bars), Jackson pulls me to him, his free arm wrapped tightly around my shoulder, and we begin walking to wherever he is taking us. "Where are we going?" I ask him, breaking the comfortable silence. "Don't worry it's not that far." He says casually. Desperate for more information, I pry further. "Okay, but what are we doing? Like are we-" Jackson laughs at me softly, "Stop being so impatient baby, we're nearly there, I promise." He kisses my forehead, effectively shutting me up. I perk up at the sound of water crashing, and I pull myself away from Jackson, rushing ahead through the overgrown path. It's clear that not many people come here. The foot traffic is basically nil, but there is enough worn in weeds to figure out the general direction of where to go. Soon enough, we emerge from the woods into a clearing. The grass is soft and mossy banks surround a crystal clear stream, where a small waterfall is rushing down over rocky walls higher up the trail. A gasp escapes me at the beauty of it all. The sun is gleaming through the trees, causing beams of light to flood into the area. The smell of fresh rain lingers in the air, but I know it hasn't rained here for days, so I can only think that it must be from the waterfall. I'm stood frozen as I basked in my surroundings, only half aware of the sound of a bag dropping to the floor. Strong arms wrap around me from behind, and Jackson gently kisses my neck, before whispering in my ear. "Do you like it?" He sounds so hopeful, and it causes butterflies to have a party in my stomach. I nod my head eagerly, amazed over where he has taken me. "How did you find this place?" I ask him in wonder. I'm speaking so quietly, scared to disturb the peace of nature. His head is resting on my shoulder, his breath tickling my skin and sending shivers down my spine. "I came across it years ago. My car broke down on a road near here, and when I called for assistance they said I needed to wait a couple of hours because of how busy they were. I decided to go on a walk to kill the time and just kind of fell upon it, I guess. I had sat here for so long just taking in the place that when my phone rang to tell me they were on the way, I had to run back to the car to get there on time. Ever since then, whenever I need time to think, or just time alone, I always find myself back here. I tend to get into my head quite a bit sometimes, but when I come here, it's quiet, and I'm in the world instead. I thought maybe you could use it too. If you ever wanted to find some peace and quiet, just escape for a bit." He finishes barely above a whisper, placing a gentle kiss on my neck. My heart is beating so hard in my chest that I can practically hear it, and I feel warm and tingly all over my body. Turning in his arms, I raise his head, my hand wrapped in his hair and pulled his lips to mine. The kiss is slow and soft, but it sends me breathless, overwhelmed by all the feelings he is stirring within me. It's scary almost. When we pull apart from each other, I stare into his eyes, and I see how much he cares for this place, and it elates me to think that he wants to share it with me. "Thank you, Jack. Really, it's wonderful," I say, smiling up at him. He returns it with one of his own, as he moves away from me to pick up the duffle back he had dropped. He leads us closer towards the bank of the stream, then sets the bag on the floor. I watch as he pulls out a large picnic blanket, followed by some snacks he must have made and I help him to organize everything onto the blanket. When all the food is out of the bag, we both take a seat and start to dig in. "Jackson, this is amazing. No one has ever done anything like this for me before. Thank you." I can't help but grin at him, in awe over this whole thing. "What do you mean, no one has taken you to a secret waterfall?" he grins sarcastically, in mock horror. "Yes, that and the fact that I've never been on a date before." I shrug off, slightly insecure over my love life, or lack thereof.

His jaw drops, "What?" he whispers, seemingly in shock. "You've never..." When he doesn't finish his sentence, I shake my head at him in response. "B-but how...surely people must have asked you out before, I mean in school I remember you would have guys approach you quite alot." He stutters out in disbelief. My eyes widened slightly at his little confession. I didn't realize that he paid me any attention back then. It's true what he's saying though. Guys did come up to me, but they were all immature d***s who only wanted to sleep around. I confirmed that for myself after agreeing to go to prom with Brad Miller. I mean, the actual prom aspect was fine, fun even, but it was what happened after that made me swear off guys like him. I promised myself I wouldn't let anyone get close enough to hurt me again. I looked at Jackson to see him staring at me curiously. I sighed before explaining more. "I guess they did, but never anyone that I actually wanted to go out with."

"But you've had boyfriends though, haven't you? Surely they would have taken you out and stuff." He urges me to go on. "No, I've... I've never been in a relationship. Not if middle school doesn't count. Even then it was literally like a week." I chuckle out, trying to hide my embarrassment. Jackson's jaw is practically glued to the floor, and I can't help but roll my eyes at him. I feel almost as if I shouldn't have said anything now, and just spared myself the interrogation all together. Instead, I decide that I'm too far into it now to turn back, and for some reason my stupid mouth keeps talking. "I don't know why you're so surprised. You know Lily has always been the more out there one of the two of us. She's the one that gets all the attention from the guys." I say quietly, picking at my nail bed to distract myself from this mortifying conversation. Seemingly snapping out of his stupor, his hand reaches out and covers mine, stopping my movements. "You are beautiful Charlotte, I can assure you right now that you get a lot of male attention. I've seen it myself when we are all out together. I think you've just been so closed off that you were ignorant of it." I shrug my shoulders at his words, not believing him for a second. After high school, people stopped approaching me or inviting me places, maybe it was partly my fault as I had never said yes to anyone, but I always just assumed people stopped asking me because they weren't interested in me. Not because I give stand-offish energy out to people. I didn't think I was that unapproachable. Jackson takes my chin in his fingers, tilting my face up to look at him. "I'm serious Charlotte. You are beyond beautiful. I've always known it, even when we were kids. I never let myself become friends with you because you could only ever be Drew's sister to me, nothing more. I knew if we did, and I let myself talk to you, I would want to be more. I meant what I said about not being able to go back to how we were before. Because now that I know what it's like to be near you, to kiss you, to... touch you, there is no forgetting for me. Even if you think you had no admirers, you always did, you had me."