Chapter 20
This chapter is set in the present day
It was 2 in the morning and Rachel was pacing around her house, Jess had been going to a party but still hadn't come home even though Rachel had made her promise to be back by 12, Rachel felt sick with worry she couldn't imagine what had possibly happened to her niece.
Suddenly Rachel heard the door open and saw Jess come home, Rachel didn't know how to react half of her wanted to go over and give her a big hug as she was so relieved she was safe however the other part of her wanted to scream at her for deliberately disobeying her like she had. As soon as she started walking towards the kitchen it became apparent to Rachel that Jess was very, very drunk, in fact she was hardly able to walk.
"Jess where the bloody hell have you been?" Rachel asked struggling to remain clam, she really was furious with her niece
"To a party" Jess replied her voice loud and she was slurring her words
"Yes well I'd already established that why are you so late?" Rachel asked icily
"Because I met this lad who was hot as fuck" Jess giggled
"Oi don't you dare use that language in this house and what do you mean by you met this lad? What were you doing with him" Rachel asked hoping to god Jess hadn't done anything stupid
"Do you want a detailed picture" Jess said still giggling
"Don't you dare try and be clever with me Jess, now I want to know what the hell you've been up to and I want to know now" Rachel shouted
"Don't pretend you've never done it, don't worry we were very, very careful" Jess slurred
"That isn't the point Jess, how could you be so bloody stupid, you do realise how much you're going to regret this in the morning, I'm beginning to wonder if you have even a fragment of common sense in that brain of yours, how many times do I need to lecture you about this flaming obsession you have with drinking to the point you're not in control of yourself, you are asking for trouble and you know what Jess, I'm not going to put up with it any longer, your grounded for a month and I mean that, no drinking no going out, I should have stamped down on it much sooner, how dare you just jump into bed with any lad who flaming smiles at you" Rachel yelled, she hated having to tell Jess off like this but it really did need to be said
"Well at least I didn't make him pay for it" Jess said
"What did you just say?" Rachel asked in disbelief
"I said at least I didn't make him pay for it, I'm not the one who went around charging guys for shag am I now?" Jess aid spitefully
Rachel walked towards her niece till she was stood looking down on her
"I'm only going to say this once and if I ever have to repeat it again Jess… believe me your life isn't going to be worth living. While you're in this house you show me and everybody else here some basic respect and don't let me ever hear you speaking to me like that again, do you understand?" Rachel asked her voice sounding quite chilling Jess thought about answering with some cheeky or sarcastic voice but thought better of it so just nodded.
"Now get out of my sight and up to bed" Rachel said
Jess did as she was told and went up to bed.
Rachel sighed heavily and poured herself a large glass of red wine-she was going to need it if she was going to have any chance of sleep tonight, suddenly she heard footsteps, she hoped to god it wasn't Jess coming back downstairs as she knew she would finish up saying something she'd regret if the two of them had any more confrontation tonight, however when the living room door opened she saw it was Hayley and to her surprise she had baby Grace in her arms.
"Hello love what are you doing down here at this time?" Rachel asked trying to remain calm but she still felt extremely angry after everything that had happened with Jess
"I couldn't sleep and then I heard you and Jess arguing and Grace was crying so I brought her down for you, but I'll go back to bed if you want" Hayley said sensing that Rachel was feeling very tense
"No don't be daft I could do with some company actually, thanks for bringing Grace down I'm surprised I didn't hear her crying normally she's loud enough, anyway come and sit down help yourself to these chocolate biscuits as much as I'd like to I really don't think it would be a good idea for me to eat them all myself." Rachel said causing Hayley to smile, she gave the baby to Rachel to tend to before sitting down on the sofa next to her and wrapping her big blanket round the three of them, Rachel smiled before putting her arm around the little girl.
"So what was keeping you awake then?" Rachel asked
"Nothing I was just thinking about stuff, Rachel why were you and Jess arguing so much" Hayley asked
"Because she's an extremely irritable stroppy teenager at the moment who has to have everything her own way, but it's nothing for you to be worrying about love." Rachel said
"When do teenagers start to become less like me and more like Jess"
"Sweetheart I think there will only be a very small amount of teenagers who are quite like Jess" Rachel said half joking "But normally kids start to get a bit stroppy when they've got a lot of stuff to deal with and there's all this peer pressure and if whoever is looking after them doesn't let them do whatever it is their friends are doing then they'll feel all stressed and worked up about it"
"What's peer pressure" Hayley asked
"Well it's the pressure from your friends and people to do certain types of things"
"Like what"
"Well like smoking, drinking, sleeping with boys, doing drugs you know that sort of thing"
"if I did any of those sort of things now, what would you do?" Hayley asked with an undefinable sense of fear in her voice
"Well I'd be very disappointed because you're a very smart girl, much to smart to be getting involved in any of those things"
"Would you get really angry?"
"Maybe it depends on what it was"
"oh"
"Sweetheart what's this all about" Rachel asked to her surprise Hayley suddenly burst into tears, if there was one thing Rachel couldn't bare it was seeing a child upset like this she rubbed Hayley's back supportively before saying "Oh darling, I didn't mean I'd get so angry you have to be this upset, come on tell me what it is and we'll fix it"
"No because you're going to be so angry and I really don't want you to yell at me" Hayley sobbed
"I'm not going to yell at you I promise, I won't promise I won't get a little bit angry if it really is as bad as all that, but come on surely it's not worth putting yourself through this for"
"I don't want Dad to know, please don't tell him" Hayley pleaded
"Well you haven't even told me yet"
"A few weeks ago you know we had that year 6 Christmas party thing"
"Yeah" Rachel said wondering where this was leading
"Well I kissed this boy in my class and now where sort of going out" Hayley confessed
"Oh love that's great, I'm happy for you"
"But you said you'd be angry if …" Hayley began
"Hayley there's a difference between going out and getting drunk out of your mind and finishing up sleeping with someone you don't know and kissing a boy. I won't pretend I don't think you're a little young to be having boyfriends but all you girls are determined to grow up so fast now."
"Thanks Rachel" Hayley said before giving her step mum a huge cuddle
"Ok now are you ready for bed" Rachel asked
"Yeah" Hayley replied before giving Rachel a kiss and then going up to bed herself
Rachel sighed she was beginning to feel a bit bad about what had happened with Jess earlier, she decided to get Grace tucked up in her cot and go to bed herself and speak to Jess more calmly in the morning. She went upstairs and tucked Grace in, she was just about to go to bed when she saw Jess darting across the landing she was clutching her stomach and her eyes were bright red it was obvious how much she'd been crying, Rachel followed her into the bathroom and held her hair back for her as she was sick.
A couple of minutes later Rachel said "are you finished being sick now love" to which Jess nodded her head, Rachel then helped her back into bed before pulling the old arm chair in Jess's room so it was facing Jess's bed, shesat down and stroked her nieces hair
"Darling I'm sorry for shouting like I did, it was unfair of me and I really didn't want to make you feel this upset"
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for saying all that stuff, I can't believe I was so horrible I don't blame you for being angry in fact I'm surprised you haven't kicked me out" Jess sobbed
"I think we both finished up saying some stuff we didn't want to, the last thing I want to do is to make you feel upset, I just don't want you making bad choices when you've got such a brilliant life ahead if you" Rachel said gently
"Why are you being nice to me" Jess asked
"Because I've been there Jess, I've got stupidly drunk, ended up doing some stupid stuff and came back home hours later than I was meant to and saying a whole bunch of stupid stuff that I didn't mean"
"Rachel I didn't mean any of it, you've been amazing to me all through my life –more like a mum to me than anyone else and I know I've been a pain in the arse to live with, it's just since I broke up with …." Jess began but she couldn't finish her sentence as she started crying. Rachel put her arms around her and let her cry into her chest a bit like Jess used to do whenever she was upset or frightened when she was little
"It hurts doesn't it? Breaking up with someone you thought you loved"
"What so you're not going to give me the whole he was just a teenage crush and all that"
"No because I know how much he meant to you and I remember being a teenager thinking I was in love, my first proper boyfriend-Joe I think he was called well anyway I thought I was madly in love with him, I'd sneak out at night to see him, skive off school the lot anyway after a year of going out with him I found out he'd been sleeping with another girl and I was heartbroken, when we broke up I would cry myself to sleep every night but I wouldn't let anyone see I was hurting so I'd drink myself into oblivion finish up sleeping with boys I didn't know I'd often take drugs, honestly it was the worst time of my life…well except ….."
"I'm so sorry I've given you so much stress and worry recently but from now on I'm going to get my head down I promise" Jess said
"Good girl, now come on time to go to sleep, I love you lots and I really am sorry about earlier" Rachel said before giving Jess a kiss goodnight
"I'm sorry too, I love you Rachel" Jess said
Rachel then went to the door to turn off the light but before doing so she said "Jess what I said earlier about being grounded I want us to stick to that, I just think it'll be good for you to have a break from partying and drinking and the stuff that inevitably goes long side that you understand?"
"Yeah I understand" Jess mumbled as she was half asleep
"Goodnight darling" Rachel whispered before turning off the light
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