The Boy Who Knew Me When (From Boys to men Trilogy) (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Julian

I didn’t expect the question to hurt so much but when she asked me to go with her to see her dad my heart nearly jumped straight out of my chest. It had been so long since I had seen the man who had been like a second father to me growing up. I had no clue about what happened until Jemma had told me and I had to admit that I was fifty shades of angry with him for what he had done. Not only what he had done to her mother Elaine who I loved like she was my own mother but what he had done to my Jemma.

Hearing Jemma replay the events of that horrifying day in her head I would say that it was a miracle that she survived. I wanted to kill him for trying to take her from me before I ever even got a chance to love her in the way I had grown to. What once was a love akin to that more of a brother had turned into the very vessel responsible for supplying air to my lungs and blood to my heart. Every moment away from her I felt my life force dim and I was positive that I would have died an early death without ever being able to experience her fire again.

“I am too Nicolai, I am too gunna be a fairy princess when I grow up!”
Jemma said with her hands on her hips.

“Fairy princesses aren’t even real baaaaby, you can’t be a fairy princess, you can’t be a fairy anything ‘cause you are nothing but a little girl.”
Nicolai teased.

“Tell him Julian! Tell him they are too real. Julian wants to be a fairy too, don’t yah Julian?”

Um, did I say that? Oh right, I did. Please shut up Jemma!

“Yeah, I bet he wants to be a fairy. Is that right Julian, are you gunna be a flaming fairy when you grow up?”

I was so gonna sock Nick Hale right in the nose if he didn’t knock it off.

“No, he don’t wanna be a flaming one he wants to be a prince one you big jerk. He said so, he’s gunna be a prince and I’m gunna be a princess and we are gunna rule all of fairy land together. TELL HIM JULIAN!”

“Um, I think I am gunna be a cop Jemma Lee.”
I said staring at the ground unable to look her in the eye.

“NICOLAI WAYNE HALE Get in here NOW!”

Ah, saved by the bell, or shall I say mom. I wonder what Nick was in trouble for this time?

Jemma watched as her brother retreated inside and then shot me a look fierce enough to start a forest fire, almost as quickly as it started the fire burned out and a tear rolled down her cheek. She sat down on the cold ground right where she stood leaving me feeling like a total ass. She just didn’t understand what it was like to be an eleven year old boy, eleven year old boys simply could not be fairy prince’s, not around their friends anyway. But I could not bare to see her cry so I took a seat next to her.

“I’m sorry Jemma Lee, I really do want to be a fairy prince with you I just don’t want Nick to know because he will steal all of my fairy dust. You know I won’t be a prince for long after that happens. Nick can be a jerk sometimes. You know that better than anyone.”

She sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Really Julian, really you wanna be a fairy prince with me? Cause fairy princes and princesses live happily ever after. Doesn’t that sound like fun Julian?”

I smiled and replied with confidence.
“Yup, I definitely want to live happily ever after with you Jemma Lee.”

Jemma leaned in, placed a kiss on my cheek, stood up and started dancing. I loved to see my Skipper dance!

“What has him smiling like that? Did you two sneak in a quickie when I wasn’t looking?”

Brea strolled out of her room and Jemma laughed at her friend’s ridiculous remark.

“I would like to know that as well. One minute he is flipping pancakes and the next he is smiling like he just spotted Santa Claus.”

She turned to me and teased, “Did you see Santa Claus Julian? Is old St. Nick going to bring you a shiny new bike for Christmas?”

“Nope, I was just thinking about my first kiss.”

“Yup, I’m outta here!” Brea picked up her keys and walked towards the door. “I am meeting Jonathan, don’t wait up and no funny business.”

Jonathan had decided to stick around for a few more weeks after spending two days holed up at The Driskall with Brea. I had excused myself to the men’s room after showing Jemma who wears the pants in the relationship and she went back to the table. When she got back they were both gone and the check was paid. A few minutes later Jemma found a text on her phone that read “Boom Chika, Chica. Will text later.” followed by “Maybe”. Jemma took that to mean they got a room and were fucking like chickens. I am not sure how she deciphered that information from that one text but girl code was not exactly my second language.

“Well, I ask you to come see my murderous father with me and you start thinking about kisses with other women. Explain to me what to make of that Julian?”

“Not another woman sweetheart, you.”

I shut off the stove, wandered over to the bar stool where she was sitting and put my arms around her waist.

“Remember the day Nick got in trouble for painting Old lady Willis’s dog blue?” she nodded indicating that she did indeed remember.

“Well, you got upset with me because I was too much of a coward to tell Nick that I wanted to be your fairy prince....”

“I kissed you on the cheek.” she smiled, her eyes beaming with pure joy.

“My first kiss sweetheart.”

“Don’t be silly, that did not count as a kiss Julian, I was what, six? Plus it was on the cheek!”

I softly placed my lips on her cheek and rejoiced as her body weakened beneath me.

“It counts sweet heart, trust me, it counts.” I moved my lips to her other cheek. “It counts because you made my knees weak and brought a flutter to my stomach. I went home that day and told my mom I was sick, I thought I was coming down with the flu. Looking back on it there isn’t a doubt in my mind that you were my first kiss.” and the only one that has ever counted since.

“What do you say we go away for the weekend? Maybe head out to Galveston before it gets too cold? We can leave Friday and head out Sunday to see your dad?”

“Galveston sounds good, the dad part, um, not so much! Maybe we can just play that part by ear?”

“Anything you want sweet heart.” I said kissing her on the forehead.

I wasn’t going to push her into doing something she did not want to do even though I knew she was going to end up doing it anyway. She needed to see him in order to truly move on, it’s possible that I needed it as much as she did.

When Friday came along Jemma was a nervous wreck. I had no class on Friday so I s
tayed over Thursday and awoke to her screaming at the top of her lungs covered in sweat. It took me over an hour to get her calmed down enough to lay back down, another half hour of smoothing my hands over her auburn hair to get her to fall asleep. She chose not to tell me about the nightmare but it did not take a genius to figure out that it had to do with her dad.

Once her breathing stilled I crept out of the bed hoping to catch Brea in front of the television. For a while she would come running into the room every time Jemma woke up screaming. Eventually realizing that I had it under control she opted to put on some cheesy romance flick.

I think it made her feel helpless not being able to run to Jemma’s side but being there for her was my job now. I intended on having that job for as long as Jemma would allow. Luckily the only thing that changed was the fact that Jonathan was sitting on the couch next to her. She was stroking his hair while he lay with his head in her lap passed out cold.  

“Hey, is she OK?” Brea
whispered, muting the television as I sat down in the chair on the other side of the couch.

“She’s asleep. She fell asleep this afternoon and woke up the same way. They are getting worse the closer it gets to time to go.”

Brea turned away and started staring at the muted television. I could tell something was going through her mind so I just sat back and waited until she was ready to speak.

“What if I went with you? Maybe Jonathan might like to go?”

At the mention of his name Jonathans head poked up a few inches out of Brea’s lap. “Wha...what? Go where?”

He was still half asleep but Brea never stopped stroking his head instead she responded to him softly as if talking to a child.

“To the beach baby, with Jem and Julian.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah sure princess, sure.”

“It’s settled then, go back to sleep baby.”

And with that he lay his head back down and began to snore.

“Well Julian? Do you mind? I am scared for her and I have never
not
been there, Julian. I
have
to be there for her if she decides to go see him which is something we both know she will decide to do.”

“I agree Brea, you should come. But just so you know, I have plans for the two of us Saturday night. Just us.” I should have chosen my words better because her eye brows instantly shot up questioningly.

“No Brea, not those kinds of plans.” I replied to her unspoken implication emphasizing the word “those”. 

“Then what kinds of plans do you mean that couldn’t include....” and then it hit her.

Why the hell does she have to be so perceptive? Did this unfortunate character trait drive Jemma as crazy as it drove me? 

“Show me. I wanna see it!”

I pulled the small red box out of my pocket and opened it for her to see the prize inside.

“I knew it! I knew it!”

“How did you know? I didn’t even tell Jonathan.”

“Uh, I saw the bulge in your pocket and I have seen
the
bulge enough times to know that it wasn’t your dick, hot shot.”

Embarrassed, I laughed. “Damn Brea, you can be so damned crude that I sometimes forget that you are a lady.”

“I don’t have to be a lady for you. I reserve my ladyship status for this gorgeous hunk of man right here.” she said, running her hands over Jonathans sleeping face.

“Of course I also save my bad ass bitch in bed status for him, too. As you can see, mama was a little too much for him tonight.” she winked and I went back to bed.

Way more information than I needed at three in the morning.

Chapter Fifteen

Jemma

The last few days have been pretty rough, last night being the worse yet. I have been having the same dream over and over again as if it were stuck in a loop. Julian and I are out to dinner when suddenly my father appears. He is frantically shouting something at the two of us that I cannot quite make out but whatever it is has me scared to death. Julian however never flinches; he simply sits in his seat eating his filet mignon like nothing is going on around him.

The next thing I know my mother is behind my father and she is screaming at him in the same muted way that he is screaming at us. Before I know it there is a gun floating up through space, they both reach for it. I never actually see who catches it or even hear the gun go off , the bullet simply appears out of nowhere and I watch in slow motion as it makes its way into the side of Julian’s head. I fly from the table over to his side screaming, as he falls face-first into his plate, listening to the laughter of the sudden crowd surrounding us. My father is standing in a corner next to my mother who is also laughing, but instead of laughter, my father is crying.

This night was the same as it always has been only this time I saw who held the gun that took from me the only man who had ever held my heart in his hands, I saw the fingers that pulled the trigger. Only, I did not just see them, I felt them.

“Hi, Brandon,” I said, picking up the phone.

“Hey, Jem. I just thought I would call and check in. Are you leaving today?”

“How did you know?”

“Brea, she has been keeping me in the loop.” I bet she has.

“Oh, did she tell you that she has a new boyfriend?”

“Yeah, kind of. Some guy Julian hooked her up with. I figured she would have dumped him by now.”

“I dunno, they seem kind of serious, serious for Brea anyway.”

“Humph!”

“What was that humph for?” I ask curiously.

“No reason, anyway, so I just wanted to call and wish you luck seeing your dad. I wish I could be there for you.”

“Don’t worry about it, Brea and Jonathan will be going with us. I will be fine.”

“Humph!” There it was again.

I wanted to give him the third degree about why it was he seemed so annoyed every time I mentioned Jonathan but Brea walked into the room before I had a chance to pry. He has known Brea just as long as I had and nothing about her dating life had ever mattered to him before.

“Well, Brandon I gotta run, Brea just walked in. We have to head out in a few minutes.”

He then asked to talk to Brea, who took the phone and bounced out of my room with it pressed firmly to her ear. I could have sworn that I heard Brandon’s voice yelling on the other end. What was that all about? I am not so sure I wanted to know.

Once we arrived in Galveston we were completely famished. Other than the fact that Brea was acting a bit off , having she and Jonathan in the car with us offered good distraction from the racing images of last night’s dream that were racing through my head.

We checked into our rooms and Brea and I headed down to the beach while to boys unloaded Julian’s truck.

“Jem...” Brea grabbed my hand as I started off to put my feet in the water. “Can we talk for a sec?”

“Of course, Brea, what is it?”

We both sat down burying our toes in the sand.

“I want to tell you something but I am not sure how you will react. And maybe this is not the time and place to say anything but I need to tell someone and you are generally the first person I would tell. And...”

“Brea just spit it out, OK? Life is not all about me, you are my best friend, I am sure whatever it is, it is not nearly as bad as you are making it out to be.” 

“OK, here it goes, you know the day Brandon saw you and Julian. The day I followed him out after he got all weird and stuff?”

I nodded. I would never forget that day, the look on his face that told me I had broken his heart for the umpteenth time.

“Well, we sat in his car for a while. He was upset but trying really hard to be strong, you know, like he always does when it comes to you.” she stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

“Anyway, so we were talking about you, he was telling me how he didn’t know if he would ever stop loving you, that he had thought you were the one, but he had to try and move on before you killed him. Then he said something else...” She hesitated.

“Tell me Brea? What did he say?” I was starting to get impatient.

“He said...he said, Jem, he said that he wished he had chosen me.”

I closed my eyes for a moment not knowing how to react to the words tumbling out of Brea’s mouth.

“I don’t think he meant it as like, you know an insult to you or anything, he was just hurting. I think it was more of an insult to me actually because Brandon thinks of me as a total whore, something he has made pretty apparent over the years.”

“Why are you telling me this Brea? Are you
trying
to hurt me? I don’t understand why I need to know that.”

I was confused and wanted to know what she was getting at, there had to be more to the story.

“OK, please don’t hate me Jem. When he told me he wished he had chosen me I kind of lost it. I seriously think all of my brain cells shut down because...because...ugh! Because then I kissed him.”

I stopped breathing and my body stiffened. What did she mean she had kissed him?

“I don’t know what I was thinking. But when he kissed me back...”

“He kissed you back!” I shrieked.

“Very much so. Jemma, we were both so screwed up at the time. One thing led to another and we were in the back seat, my skirt was up and he was on top of me and...and....I don’t...”

I felt her face collide with the palm of my hand before I ever had a chance to register what I was doing.

“You fucking bitch, you fucking God damn fucking whore! Did it have to be Brandon, out of all the jackasses you have at your beck and call, did it have to be him? He is mine Brea!”

And then I realized I had went to far. Brea jumped up and slapped me back.

“How dare you call me a whore? I told you I was in love with Brandon, I told you and you just blew me off like my feelings didn’t count for shit. You of all people should not be judging anyone. Look at how fast you jumped into bed with Julian, twenty four hours later you pretty much raped Axel ruining his friendship with Brandon forever and do not think for one second that Brandon didn’t tell me that you tried to fuck him that same night. I have never fucked three guys within 48 fucking hours, so FUCK YOU Jemma Hale, fuck you all to hell!” she screamed.

Suddenly her eyes were no longer fixated on me. Instead she was staring behind me, her mouth agape as tears began to well up in her eyes. I knew instantly that the guys were behind us. I turned around and caught the stares of Julian and Jonathan. Jonathan was angry, so angry he shook his head at Brea, clinched his fist and walked away. Brea went screaming after him. Julian just watched me as if he were looking right through me.

“Julian?”

“
Your Brandon
? You still think of him as
yours
? What about me Jemma? Am I yours too? Because you can’t have both of us. I will not share you with anyone.”

“Julian you misunderstood.” Taking a few steps towards him I reached for the hands hanging lifelessly at his side.

“I did
NOT
misunderstand anything, and don’t play me like I am an idiot. We heard it all, every last fucking word. Did you know that Jonathan is in love with her? What the fuck does Brandon have, I don’t get it. Just tell me, is it true, did you try to fuck him too?”

I tried to open up my mouth to speak, I knew what it looked like but all I could manage was a mumble.

“You forgave me for Axel.”

“You aren’t in love with Axel, Jemma.” he stated matter of factually and pulled something out of his pocket placing it in my hand.

“This was for later; take a good look at it
sweetheart
and then make up your fucking mind. I will fight for you with everything I have but I won’t tear my own heart out to do it.”

After giving me a cold hard look, he too turned and walked away leaving me standing on a deserted beach with my raging hormones, haunting thoughts and a little red box.

I looked down at the box that lay in my hands and opened the lid with my thumb. Inside lay the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. In the middle sat one large pink diamond, surrounding it were ten smaller white diamonds, along the side of the thick white band were the words “I believe in fairies” and on the underside “for my Skipper”.

I pulled the ring from the box and slid it onto my ring finger whispering to myself the word “yes”. I then threw the box deep into the ocean. The ring would never again be locked away inside. I knew one hundred percent without a single doubt that I was going to spend the rest of my life with Julian. Only I had one thing that I needed to do first and I needed to do it alone.