Author's Note - This was originally 'the One-Shot Project', but I have decided to make it into a Jara one-shot instead, since it was going nowhere.
Jerome hadn't spoken to Mara since their fallout. He regretted ever saying anything about her ever dating Mick, but couldn't turn back time. He was alone in his room, since Alfie was in the common room trying to impress Amber. He shook his head thinking about his best friend's multiple failed attempts to impress the girly girl. He couldn't stop thinking about Mara, though, and what she'd yelled at him. He felt really bad, but he was Jerome, and wasn't willing to admit his mistake. He was deep in thought when there was a knock at the door. "Come in," he said simply.
Jerome was surprised to see Mara standing at the door, tears streaming down her face. She just stood in the door, not saying a word, hanging onto the door handle. "Mara?" Jerome asked, worried about her. She ran inside, slamming the door behind her, and hugged Jerome. He hugged her back, wondering what was wrong.
She smiled. "You were right," she whispered, pulling back from the hug. He gave her a confused look before finally understanding what she was saying. She smiled, and Jerome returned the smile. Then Mara turned on her heels and walked away, leaving Jerome sitting there, staring at the closed door in a confused state.
He was broke out of the state by Alfie, who ran into their room screaming, "YAY!" over and over again. Jerome raised an eyebrow at him, then decided it was best not to say anything and let his friend explain.
"Amber finally agreed to go out with me!" he screamed, almost bursting Jerome's eardrums.
"Congratulations, dude," he said, falling back on his bed, thinking about what Mara had said again, not in the slightest interested about what Alfie had to say. Alfie, however, hadn't noticed that Jerome didn't care, so continued to go on and on about him and Amber, only stopping when he'd realised that Jerome had fallen asleep.
"Thanks for being so nice," he muttered angrily, before getting up, grabbing a glass of water from his bed-side cabinet and pouring it over Jerome's head, causing him to jolt up and give an annoyed look to Alfie.
"What the hell?" he screamed, getting up, pushing Alfie out of his way and heading to the kitchen. Jerome picked up a saucepan and threw it against the wall in rage, causing there to be a loud clatter that everyone in the house heard. Lots of them came rushing out of their rooms to see what all the noise was about, only to find Jerome sitting int he corner of the kitchen facing away from the door. No one dared to go near him while he was in this state except for Mara, who walked into the room and sat down beside Jerome, placing her arm around his shoulder.
"Care to tell me what all that was about?" she asked softly, hoping he didn't take it the wrong way.
Jerome sighed before saying, "Alfie was going on about him and Amber, and I must have fallen asleep, so he decided to wake me up by pouring water over my head. I lost my temper and threw the saucepan at the wall." He thought that Mara would think of him as stupid because of what he'd done, but he couldn't read her expression.
Without saying a word, Mara got up and left Jerome there, feeling sorry for himself.
Jerome couldn't understand what had just happened. He knew that Mara wasn't mad at him anymore, but she was acting strangely. So he got up, pushed his way past a scowling Mick, then went up to Mara and Patricia's room. He knocked on the door then turned the handle. Patricia was no where in sight, but he could hear quiet sobs coming from Mara's side of the room. "Mara?" he asked. There was no reply. "Jaffray?" She turned around to face him. Her hair was a tangled mess, and mascara was all around her eyes, giving her the black-eye look. She had tears streaming down her face. She ran over to Jerome and threw her arms around him. Jerome pushed her away. "What's wrong?" he asked, genuine worry in his voice.
She looked down, embarrassed, then looked back up and gave a smile. "Mick..." she managed to say between her sobbing. "He told me he still loved me. It took everything I had not to take him back, and everything I had to stop the tears from falling before I got back to my room." She was crying again, so Jerome put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "I told him that I... I..." She couldn't manage to finish her sentence since she was crying so hard.
"What happened, Mara, what did you say?" he asked.
"I told him I didn't love him - I told him I love you!" She stood up and walked away, facing the wall shamefully. Jerome couldn't believe what he'd heard.
"How true was what you said?" he asked.
She turned back around and walked over to him. "This true," she said, planting a gentle kiss on his lips. Jerome smiled.