Page 10 of Jake and Conner
The question hit me out of the blue and I wasn't sure how to respond. Why did he want to know about Jake?
"I don't want to be digging into your love life or anything," Laurence said quickly, waving his hands in front of himself. "I'm just worried. Or, Aaron is worried. I think. He won't really say. You know how alphas are."
I frowned. “Why do you think he's worried?" What was this all about? Had something happened to Jake? No, I would have heard. Somehow. This was a small-town, after all.
When had I last heard from Jake, though? My frown deepened as I searched my mind for that information. I'd run into him at the grocery store. When was that? It must have been over a week ago. Come to think of it, it was odd for Jake to go a whole week without even so much as a text message telling me to 'have a good day at work today!' with a smiley face or something at the end.
Sometimes I sent a smiley back, when I wasn't in the process of rushing out the door. It wasn't like I wanted to break all contact with Jake or anything. My feelings for him were... complicated, but that didn't mean they didn't exist.
"It's just..." Laurence shrugged helplessly. "He's acting a little weird." He hasn't come over all week, not even to get Bailey. Aaron had to return her to him the other day and he said he didn't look good. And he was supposed to come over today, but nothing."
"I see." That kind of behavior was odd for Jake. Everyone got busy every now and then, but for him to forget his dog? That wasn't the kind of person he was. That wasn't the Jake I knew.
"I figured if anyone knew anything, it would be you."
"I'm sorry. We haven't talked."
"It's okay. It's probably nothing." Laurence shrugged again.
"Yeah, you're right," I said, even as worry niggled at the back of my mind. What if it wasn't nothing? Should I go and talk to Jake? Because the way I knew alphas, Aaron wasn't going to.
But no, Jake didn't need me to mother him.
Whatever he was going through, I was sure he would snap out of it in a day or two. He'd never let anything drag him down for long. His resilience was one of the things I liked best about him.
It kind of contributed to my worries too, though.
What sort of thing must have happened to bring someone like Jake down?
5
Conner
Over the following week I was so busy with work that I didn't think much about Jake anymore. Or at least, I was too busy to worry about Jake during the day. I kept checking my phone to see if he'd left any messages whenever I had a minute, but I told myself that I was keeping an eye out for messages from my family or omegas in need.
It was the nights when it was hard to ignore the thoughts trying to invade my mind. With every day that passed that Jake didn't contact me, I worried a little more. That Wednesday, when it was nearing 1am and I couldn't sleep,andI couldn't focus on the book I was trying to read, I took matters into my own hands and sent Jake a message. After all, why should it always be the alpha who sent the first text? That was an archaic social convention that needed to die.
When I didn't get a return text, I told myself that it was silly to expect Jake to respond to text messages in the middle of the night. He was either working or sleeping. Hewasn'tstaring at his phone waiting for messages the way I was.
I was being ridiculous.
Huffing, I put my phone away and tried to go to sleep again.
It didn't matter anyway, because the next day would be my birthday. I would hear from Jake then. He'd never missed any of my birthdays.
* * *
I didnothearfrom Jake the next day. He didn't swing by my house, he didn't call and he didn't message.
It was downright bizarre for me to spend my whole birthday without Jake in it. Honestly? I was a little upset. What was he doing that was so important that he couldn't give me a quick call? Did I matter that little to him anymore?
The thought bothered me. More than it should, probably.
Maybe this was some sort of karmic retribution. I'd ignored Jake in the past. Maybe this was his way of showing me how much it sucked.
Or maybe it wasn't about me at all and I needed to accept the fact that Jake's whole life didn't revolve around me. Not anymore.
That evening, I sat at dinner with my family and tried to focus on them. My dad was telling a funny story about a difficult client he'd had at the garage, but I wasn't really hearing what he was saying. My thoughts kept straying back to the man who used to be my best friend--and so much more than that. And I wasn't thinking about my own birthday anymore. I was thinking about Jake's birthday now. Jake's fifteenth birthday.
