romance
had been prompted by his jealousy, and after Jenna went away that summer, it
lasted longer than it should have. He never loved Airika the way he loved Jenna. Airika was just … different. Fun and intense, more sexually daring and comfortable with her body
than Jenna. She was a vixen, even then. He was a teenage boy with a
broken heart. It wasn’t hard to tempt him. But as soon as he saw Jenna in the
airport, he knew. He would only ever love her. And he’d been faithfully devoted
ever since.
She knew he
wasn’t just with her because he got her pregnant. Surely. If she’d just answer
her damned phone maybe they could discuss it like adults. At first he thought
she just needed time to cool down, but three days went by and she still hadn’t
answered any of his calls, texts or emails. It was beginning to feel a lot like
high school.
He needed to
know she was okay. Felicity was safely out of the line of fire at Shawn and
Anya’s, but other than a cursory call, the three of them were pretty
tight-lipped. The open communication he was used to with Felicity now felt
stifled, awkward. Worse still was
when she gave him very parental sounding advice. “Give it time, Dad. Just give
her some space right now. She needs it”.
Great. Even
Felicity was talking to him like a small child. All he wanted was to make
things right and get his best friend back. He needed Jenna and didn’t think he
could act like everything was okay, knowing she wanted nothing to do with him.
Was there someone else? He tried to
bury the thought, but it resurfaced over and over, plaguing him with visions of
her climaxing with some hot vegan yogi who owned an organic farm and mastered
the ancient practice of Tantric sex.
His
perspective felt distorted, reflected in a fun house mirror where he couldn’t
find his way out without her. He hadn’t told her about his issues with his
label or Simon’s increasing secrecy because he wanted to show her he could take
care of them. She didn’t show any interest in the business, never asked
questions or offered to help out, so he kept it to himself. He wanted to make
her proud. It was humiliating for her to lose all her friends and see herself
as tabloid fodder (“The Trappings of Celebrity: Teen Pregnancy”, “Teen
Pregnancy: Trendy?”) and she deserved better—so much better. She was his
moral compass and support system—the one he counted on to make him feel
like he wasn’t a loser who knocked up his girlfriend and ruined their lives.
That he wasn’t a bad guy. And she’d left him.
Chapter 14
After she’d
hung every frame just so, stocked the fridge, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom,
swept the deck and raked the sand on the beach, Jenna sat. She sank down into
the couch, inert. Her body refused to obey her mind that was screaming at her
to get up and keep moving. For a moment, she felt relief. Then, of their own
volition, tears began to fall, glassing over her blue eyes, pooling on her
cheeks, cascading down to her lap. She felt nothing. Nothing at all, except for
the damp of the tears soaking through her pants to the skin underneath.
The one
thing that propelled her was her sense of duty. She could feel a complete
breakdown coming on and had one last thing to do for Felicity. She called
Alex’s voicemail to tell him where Felicity was so he wouldn’t worry. She may
not be speaking to him, but he was still entitled to know where his daughter
was.
“Jenna?” He
answered.
Crap! She thought, wishing she checked
his schedule before calling.
“Hi,” she said, unsure where to go from there.
“I’m so glad
you called.”
“I thought
I’d get your voicemail.”
“Oh,” he
said, frowning. “I know you’re mad, and you deserve to be. I just … miss you.
You’re the only one for me. How do I make this right?”
How indeed?
She did believe him, didn’t she? Yes, she knew he was telling the truth. That he didn’t have feelings for Airika . That she kissed him. But
Edward Cline
J. W. Murison
Julia Sykes
Liliana Hart
Sean Kennedy
Takerra Allen
Tristan Donovan
Greg Curtis
Michael Paterson
Kennedy Layne