"About a Girl"
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me; I'm just borrowing
them for a short period of time.
Show: Once and Again
Pairing: Jessie/Katie
Rating: PG
Author: Janine
Synopsis: What happens to girl's after their kiss in Jessie's room?
Email: jbstories@h...
===================================
Part 11
Karen's House – Thursday Night
----------------------------------------
Karen stood at the doorway to the living room, looking at the TV from her position just outside the door. Jessie was in there watching TV, and when she had passed by the image of a shimming half dressed woman on the screen had sucked her in. Hearing a sound behind her in the kitchen she quickly turned around.
"What's she watching?" Karen asked flicking her head towards the living room. Stepping to the side slightly so that he could see inside the other room Eli turned back around to face her.
"Shakira," he replied unconcerned as he pulled on his shoes.
"What's she doing?" Karen asked oddly captivated by the blonde woman's pelvic gyrations.
"Rain dance?" Eli suggested straightening up. "Be back later." And with that he was gone, leaving Karen back to her contemplation of Jessie's contemplation of shaking half naked women who were apparently ready whenever, wherever.
"Hey honey," Karen said finally deciding to actually enter the room instead of merely peeping.
"Hey," Jessie replied lifting her feet up so that Karen could sit down and then lowering them back down onto her lap.
"What are you up to?" Karen asked trying to keep her tone nice and light.
"Nothing," Jessie responded. "You can tell by the part where I don't do anything." Karen didn't reply, her expression still focused on something in front of her. "That was a joke, you can laugh," Jessie continued staring at her mother. "Or you can ignore me completely and stare at the wall. Mom!" Jessie said rising up her foot and wiggling it in front of Karen's face. "Hello!"
Karen caught Jessie's wiggling foot and carefully lowered it back down to her lap, apologizing, saying that the TV just distracted her for a moment.
"Could you turn that off for a minute, honey?" Karen continued a second later. "I'd like to talk to you about something."
Jessie hesitated for a moment, looking between the television and her mother, truly torn about what she could do. While it was true that there was nothing good on at the moment, the television also 'didn't want to talk to her for a moment'. Jessie had a thing with the 'I just want to talk to you for moment' cause it never ended up well. Finally, realizing that she didn't really have a choice in the matter she picked up the remote and turned the television off, turning to face her mother with a look of trepidation on her face.
"What?" she asked suspiciously.
"I just wanted to tell you, that you can tell me anything," Karen started, her tone serious but full of tenderness. "No matter what it is. If there's anything on your mind, or anything that's happening with you that's important to you, you can always come and talk to me about it. You're my daughter and nothing, absolutely nothing in this world could ever make me stop loving you. You'll always be my baby," Karen continued staring at Jessie's confused little angelic face trying to remain somewhat composed.
"I love you too," Jessie said slowly, eyeing her mother uncertainly. She didn't know where that had come from, and frankly it kind of creped her out. It was like someone was dying or something.
"Is there anything you want to tell me?" Karen asked realizing that she was going to have to lead Jessie if she wanted to actually have a conversation.
"About what?" Jessie asked. She was starting to feel suspicious again.
"About anything," Karen replied, noting the slightly defensive tone in Jessie's voice.
"I don't know," Jessie responded wondering what her mother was getting at. "I guess inflation kind of sucks."
"Does Katie think inflation sucks," Karen responded.
"I don't know," Jessie said slowly, kind of thrown by her mother bringing Katie up. "I would think so. I mean doesn't everyone?"
Karen nodded her head, letting the room fall into silence for a moment as she thought about how things were going so far. Or not going as the case was. Sighing she realized that there could be no beating around the bush with this, if they were going to talk about what was happening, then she was going to have to be direct with Jessie. She was the adult after all.
"So," Karen began a moment later, one of her hands tickling Jessie's feet and making her squirm. "Is she your girlfriend?"
She felt Jessie's body go rigid the moment the question came out of her mouth, and Jessie pulled her feet away, digging them into the couch cushions away from Karen's touch.
"What do you mean?" Jessie asked now sitting with her knees tucked up against her body.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Karen asked again.
"What do you mean by girlfriend?" Jessie asked. "It's a versatile term with many and various implications from use to use."
"Is she who you were talking about?" Karen clarified. "In the hospital?"
Jessie eyes dropped from her mothers face down into a deep study of her partially covered feet. She truly hadn't anticipated being thrust into a situation like this. She'd figured if, when, they talked about her and Katie it'd be because she brought it up, or someone walked in on them doing something. Never in a million years had she figured that her mother would actually figure it out for herself. Or that if she did, she would actually want to talk about it.
"Um," was what she managed to choke out a few seconds later.
Karen took a deep breath at this response from Jessie and reached out her hand placing her hand on her daughter's knee. It was true then, in some way or another they were involved romantically.
"It's okay," Karen, said softly, her thumb moving in what she hoped was a soothing pattern on her knee, her mind racing in thought about the implications. Even though she thought that she had seen signs, even though over the past few days she had read books and felt that she was suitably prepared to deal with any eventuality, a little part of her had always assumed that it wasn't true. That she was just being paranoid as usual and Jessie would glare at her for a moment before shaking her head and telling her she was so stupid.
"Is it?" Jessie asked, her voice small as she tentatively glanced up at her mother a few seconds after Karen's gentle words. "Or are you just saying that, and really inside you want to cry, and think you did something wrong?" she continued staring at her mother intently.
"It is," Karen replied meeting Jessie's gaze and holding it for a moment before continuing. She was lying of course, the tight feeling in the pit of her stomach and the burning in her eyes as she struggled to hold back tears, indicated to her strongly that she was in fact not okay with anything. But that was her problem to struggle with, not Jessie's, and she truly believed that given more time to adjust, she would be okay with it, and it was this belief that allowed her to continue. "I'm not going to give you the speech where I tell you that it's going to be a harder road, or that it's not what I would've chosen for you," she continued, "because I think that you probably have a better idea about all of that than I do."
Jessie merely made some sound in the back of her throat that vaguely sounded like an affirmative, and then rested her head down on her knees.
"And I'm not going to ask if you're happy," Karen continued. "Because I can see that you are … maybe not at this moment," she admitted, "but that you have been. And I'm not going to give you my blessing, because you have it. You always have it," she finished her voice choked but full of love.
"But," Jessie mumbled around the material of her pants blinking rapidly. She knew that there was a 'but' coming.
"We have to talk about some things," Karen responded stealing herself for what was about to come. After the talk they'd had about Jessie's lack of feelings for Tad she had assumed that her daughter was just a late bloomer, and that she would be spared having to have this conversation for a few years. She was wrong. "Especially with this dance coming up," she continued knowing very well what generally went on after dances in backseats and motel rooms.
Jessie was silent for a moment, then her head shot up as she realized where this conversation was most likely going. "Oh god, we're not going to have the sex talk are we?" she asked clearly horrified by the prospect of having to discuss anything like this with her mother. "Cause we had it already in gym class. Like three years in a row."
"You had the generic sex talk, the manual in the seat pocket talk," Karen told her blithely. "Now, now the captain is speaking."
"I don't…" Jessie started shaking her head as if that would ward off what was to come.
"Have a choice? That's right," Karen responded wishing that she could just leave it at that, but the good parent inside of her knowing that they had to talk and set down some ground rules. "Now," she said taking a deep cleansing breath. "Your father mentioned a sleepover a few weeks ago," she started really wishing that there were a paper bag around her somewhere. "Have you and…"
"No!" Jessie exclaimed in a mortified half sob. "Can we PLEASE not talk about this?" she went on her voice rising with distress, before she buried her face down behind her knees.
"Oh, thank god," Karen breathed out clearly relieved to a degree that she didn't have words to express, that her baby hadn't yet been deflowered. Quite frankly she wasn't certain she would have been able to handle learning that Jessie had … with her nerves already so frazzled. "And no."
Jessie sighed again, but at which statement Karen wasn't sure.
"First, no more sleepovers," she continued, her face an authoritative mask when Jessie's head snapped up ready to protest. However, seeing the look on her mother's face she glumly nodded waiting for Karen to continue. "At either house," Karen added as an after thought realizing the loophole she may have lain open.
"Are you going to tell dad?" Jessie asked ignoring Karen's addition to rule one.
"I won't tell him, no," Karen responded slowly. "If he doesn't figure it out on his own, then that's something you should tell him," she continued struggling to get the words out as it went against every fiber of her being. She wanted to tell Rick, she wanted to point and poke at him, and ask him how he couldn't know what was happening, and many other things that she could feel but not articulate. She wanted someone to share her confusion. But the books had said that this was the best way to go about handling things, and Karen figured that they knew what they were talking about. And it had to be about Jessie, it always had to be about Jessie. "However, I would suggest that you tell him, but I'm not going to force you too until you're ready," she went on. "That being said, if you don't tell him, do not expect to be able to get away with anything over there that you can't here. Because despite what the after school specials tell you, divorced parents still DO talk to each other."
Jessie merely nodded, relieved at least to know that she wouldn't be forced into talking to her dad about it yet. "What's second?" she asked finally resigning herself to Karen's rules.
"Um," Karen responded not quite sure where to go from here. Even though she had planned to have this conversation with Jessie, she realized at that moment for the first time how much she had truly believed that nothing would come of her questions. She hadn't even considered what she would want to do about the situation if it was true, hadn't been able to force herself to consider it. But here it was, and she was feeling quite lost, which pretty much fit the pattern of her life as of late. "I guess that thing about your dad can be second," she continued stalling for time.
"Oh," Jessie replied, chancing a glance at her mother. Karen was sitting with her back ramrod straight and her eyes facing downwards to her lap. She was playing with the fingers of her left hand, and Jessie swore that she could see her shaking faintly. "Okay then," she continued with a sigh. Despite her words, Jessie could tell that Karen wasn't really fine with anything but was merely doing her best to make her think that she was.
She tried to curl her body tighter around itself, but she had no more room left to maneuver on that front.
"Three," Karen continued feeling a desperate need to lighten the mood in the room a bit, for her sake and for Jessie's. "Don't do anything your brother would do," she dictated with a smile even though her words were a bit shaky. Jessie lifted up her head at this, staring a Karen for a moment before tentatively grinning, then smiling full-blown she recalled all of Eli's girl problems.
"Can she still come over?" Jessie asked softly, the worry in her voice that she may not be able to spend time with Katie anymore painfully evident to Karen. She realized that Jessie must have been picking up on some of her anxiety and had to struggle to suppress the urge to sigh. She was doing a wonderful job of this.
"Of course," Karen responded trying to keep her voice light to alleviate some of her daughters concern. "But not when I'm not home."
"But Eli…" Jessie started to protest forgetting the supposed delicacy of her situation for a moment, the clear injustice of the statement catching the ire of her teenage indignation.
"Rule number three," Karen retorted interrupting Jessie's objection.
"Fine," Jessie mumbled shooting Karen a disgruntled look nonetheless, before continuing. "So you're really okay with this?" she asked still not sounding at all convinced. "I mean what about…" she started say trailing off gradually lost in thought.
"What about what?" Karen asked gently.
"Your plans and stuff?" Jessie replied almost inaudibly. That fear that she would disappoint her parents somehow, that she wouldn't be good enough for them, now raring it's monstrous head once again, as every conversation she'd ever had with her mother about weddings, and boys, and children played loudly in her head, mocking her with her failure.
"The plans haven't changed," Karen, responded softly, though her heart was heavy, desperately waiting for the day that she could truly believe that, "just the generic figure in them with you. It's more shapely now," she went on trying not to think of how much it actually hurt her that the figure had changed, and getting mad at herself for being hurt about it.
Jessie looked over at her and smiled. "Shapely?" she asked highly amused, Karen's antiquated choice of words momentarily breaking through the dark cloud that had been hanging over her head since they had started talking.
"Shapely," Karen confirmed, realizing that she must have emitted some kind of uncool mom sound into the world, thereby causing Jessie to internally mock her. If that was the case, so be it, she had made peace with the idea.
"Can we go down to the speakeasy later to hang with all the cool cats?" Jessie asked grinning madly through the occasional sniffle.
"That's going to cost you," Karen said turning around to face Jessie an evil smile working it's way across her face, her cloud momentarily parting as well.
"How much?" Jessie asked with some trepidation, the tension that had been running through her body from the beginning of the conversation slowly beginning to ease now. She was glad, she hadn't realized how tense she was, she had certainly been only moments away from rupturing something.
"A tickle and three kisses," Karen said solemnly, willing to let the stress of their conversation slide away for the moment.
"Oh come on," Jessie whined as Karen reached out for her with outstretched wiggling fingers. "This is like cruel and usual punishment," she cried out as her mother tickled her.
"Where did you get your law degree?" Karen asked laughing as Jessie squealed under her fingers.
"Bought it off the internet," Jessie replied trying to roll herself off the couch so that she could make a getaway, but she soon found herself trapped and just gave into the inevitable. Sometimes it sucked being the baby of the family, but these were just the sacrifices she was destined to make.
=============================================================
TBC...
Thank you for reading, I hope that you enjoyed it. Comments are very
much welcome and would be GREATLY appreciated, I'm a feedback whore,
enable me … please! :) jbstories@h...
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me; I'm just borrowing
them for a short period of time.
Show: Once and Again
Pairing: Jessie/Katie
Rating: PG
Author: Janine
Synopsis: What happens to girl's after their kiss in Jessie's room?
Email: jbstories@h...
===================================
Part 11
Karen's House – Thursday Night
----------------------------------------
Karen stood at the doorway to the living room, looking at the TV from her position just outside the door. Jessie was in there watching TV, and when she had passed by the image of a shimming half dressed woman on the screen had sucked her in. Hearing a sound behind her in the kitchen she quickly turned around.
"What's she watching?" Karen asked flicking her head towards the living room. Stepping to the side slightly so that he could see inside the other room Eli turned back around to face her.
"Shakira," he replied unconcerned as he pulled on his shoes.
"What's she doing?" Karen asked oddly captivated by the blonde woman's pelvic gyrations.
"Rain dance?" Eli suggested straightening up. "Be back later." And with that he was gone, leaving Karen back to her contemplation of Jessie's contemplation of shaking half naked women who were apparently ready whenever, wherever.
"Hey honey," Karen said finally deciding to actually enter the room instead of merely peeping.
"Hey," Jessie replied lifting her feet up so that Karen could sit down and then lowering them back down onto her lap.
"What are you up to?" Karen asked trying to keep her tone nice and light.
"Nothing," Jessie responded. "You can tell by the part where I don't do anything." Karen didn't reply, her expression still focused on something in front of her. "That was a joke, you can laugh," Jessie continued staring at her mother. "Or you can ignore me completely and stare at the wall. Mom!" Jessie said rising up her foot and wiggling it in front of Karen's face. "Hello!"
Karen caught Jessie's wiggling foot and carefully lowered it back down to her lap, apologizing, saying that the TV just distracted her for a moment.
"Could you turn that off for a minute, honey?" Karen continued a second later. "I'd like to talk to you about something."
Jessie hesitated for a moment, looking between the television and her mother, truly torn about what she could do. While it was true that there was nothing good on at the moment, the television also 'didn't want to talk to her for a moment'. Jessie had a thing with the 'I just want to talk to you for moment' cause it never ended up well. Finally, realizing that she didn't really have a choice in the matter she picked up the remote and turned the television off, turning to face her mother with a look of trepidation on her face.
"What?" she asked suspiciously.
"I just wanted to tell you, that you can tell me anything," Karen started, her tone serious but full of tenderness. "No matter what it is. If there's anything on your mind, or anything that's happening with you that's important to you, you can always come and talk to me about it. You're my daughter and nothing, absolutely nothing in this world could ever make me stop loving you. You'll always be my baby," Karen continued staring at Jessie's confused little angelic face trying to remain somewhat composed.
"I love you too," Jessie said slowly, eyeing her mother uncertainly. She didn't know where that had come from, and frankly it kind of creped her out. It was like someone was dying or something.
"Is there anything you want to tell me?" Karen asked realizing that she was going to have to lead Jessie if she wanted to actually have a conversation.
"About what?" Jessie asked. She was starting to feel suspicious again.
"About anything," Karen replied, noting the slightly defensive tone in Jessie's voice.
"I don't know," Jessie responded wondering what her mother was getting at. "I guess inflation kind of sucks."
"Does Katie think inflation sucks," Karen responded.
"I don't know," Jessie said slowly, kind of thrown by her mother bringing Katie up. "I would think so. I mean doesn't everyone?"
Karen nodded her head, letting the room fall into silence for a moment as she thought about how things were going so far. Or not going as the case was. Sighing she realized that there could be no beating around the bush with this, if they were going to talk about what was happening, then she was going to have to be direct with Jessie. She was the adult after all.
"So," Karen began a moment later, one of her hands tickling Jessie's feet and making her squirm. "Is she your girlfriend?"
She felt Jessie's body go rigid the moment the question came out of her mouth, and Jessie pulled her feet away, digging them into the couch cushions away from Karen's touch.
"What do you mean?" Jessie asked now sitting with her knees tucked up against her body.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Karen asked again.
"What do you mean by girlfriend?" Jessie asked. "It's a versatile term with many and various implications from use to use."
"Is she who you were talking about?" Karen clarified. "In the hospital?"
Jessie eyes dropped from her mothers face down into a deep study of her partially covered feet. She truly hadn't anticipated being thrust into a situation like this. She'd figured if, when, they talked about her and Katie it'd be because she brought it up, or someone walked in on them doing something. Never in a million years had she figured that her mother would actually figure it out for herself. Or that if she did, she would actually want to talk about it.
"Um," was what she managed to choke out a few seconds later.
Karen took a deep breath at this response from Jessie and reached out her hand placing her hand on her daughter's knee. It was true then, in some way or another they were involved romantically.
"It's okay," Karen, said softly, her thumb moving in what she hoped was a soothing pattern on her knee, her mind racing in thought about the implications. Even though she thought that she had seen signs, even though over the past few days she had read books and felt that she was suitably prepared to deal with any eventuality, a little part of her had always assumed that it wasn't true. That she was just being paranoid as usual and Jessie would glare at her for a moment before shaking her head and telling her she was so stupid.
"Is it?" Jessie asked, her voice small as she tentatively glanced up at her mother a few seconds after Karen's gentle words. "Or are you just saying that, and really inside you want to cry, and think you did something wrong?" she continued staring at her mother intently.
"It is," Karen replied meeting Jessie's gaze and holding it for a moment before continuing. She was lying of course, the tight feeling in the pit of her stomach and the burning in her eyes as she struggled to hold back tears, indicated to her strongly that she was in fact not okay with anything. But that was her problem to struggle with, not Jessie's, and she truly believed that given more time to adjust, she would be okay with it, and it was this belief that allowed her to continue. "I'm not going to give you the speech where I tell you that it's going to be a harder road, or that it's not what I would've chosen for you," she continued, "because I think that you probably have a better idea about all of that than I do."
Jessie merely made some sound in the back of her throat that vaguely sounded like an affirmative, and then rested her head down on her knees.
"And I'm not going to ask if you're happy," Karen continued. "Because I can see that you are … maybe not at this moment," she admitted, "but that you have been. And I'm not going to give you my blessing, because you have it. You always have it," she finished her voice choked but full of love.
"But," Jessie mumbled around the material of her pants blinking rapidly. She knew that there was a 'but' coming.
"We have to talk about some things," Karen responded stealing herself for what was about to come. After the talk they'd had about Jessie's lack of feelings for Tad she had assumed that her daughter was just a late bloomer, and that she would be spared having to have this conversation for a few years. She was wrong. "Especially with this dance coming up," she continued knowing very well what generally went on after dances in backseats and motel rooms.
Jessie was silent for a moment, then her head shot up as she realized where this conversation was most likely going. "Oh god, we're not going to have the sex talk are we?" she asked clearly horrified by the prospect of having to discuss anything like this with her mother. "Cause we had it already in gym class. Like three years in a row."
"You had the generic sex talk, the manual in the seat pocket talk," Karen told her blithely. "Now, now the captain is speaking."
"I don't…" Jessie started shaking her head as if that would ward off what was to come.
"Have a choice? That's right," Karen responded wishing that she could just leave it at that, but the good parent inside of her knowing that they had to talk and set down some ground rules. "Now," she said taking a deep cleansing breath. "Your father mentioned a sleepover a few weeks ago," she started really wishing that there were a paper bag around her somewhere. "Have you and…"
"No!" Jessie exclaimed in a mortified half sob. "Can we PLEASE not talk about this?" she went on her voice rising with distress, before she buried her face down behind her knees.
"Oh, thank god," Karen breathed out clearly relieved to a degree that she didn't have words to express, that her baby hadn't yet been deflowered. Quite frankly she wasn't certain she would have been able to handle learning that Jessie had … with her nerves already so frazzled. "And no."
Jessie sighed again, but at which statement Karen wasn't sure.
"First, no more sleepovers," she continued, her face an authoritative mask when Jessie's head snapped up ready to protest. However, seeing the look on her mother's face she glumly nodded waiting for Karen to continue. "At either house," Karen added as an after thought realizing the loophole she may have lain open.
"Are you going to tell dad?" Jessie asked ignoring Karen's addition to rule one.
"I won't tell him, no," Karen responded slowly. "If he doesn't figure it out on his own, then that's something you should tell him," she continued struggling to get the words out as it went against every fiber of her being. She wanted to tell Rick, she wanted to point and poke at him, and ask him how he couldn't know what was happening, and many other things that she could feel but not articulate. She wanted someone to share her confusion. But the books had said that this was the best way to go about handling things, and Karen figured that they knew what they were talking about. And it had to be about Jessie, it always had to be about Jessie. "However, I would suggest that you tell him, but I'm not going to force you too until you're ready," she went on. "That being said, if you don't tell him, do not expect to be able to get away with anything over there that you can't here. Because despite what the after school specials tell you, divorced parents still DO talk to each other."
Jessie merely nodded, relieved at least to know that she wouldn't be forced into talking to her dad about it yet. "What's second?" she asked finally resigning herself to Karen's rules.
"Um," Karen responded not quite sure where to go from here. Even though she had planned to have this conversation with Jessie, she realized at that moment for the first time how much she had truly believed that nothing would come of her questions. She hadn't even considered what she would want to do about the situation if it was true, hadn't been able to force herself to consider it. But here it was, and she was feeling quite lost, which pretty much fit the pattern of her life as of late. "I guess that thing about your dad can be second," she continued stalling for time.
"Oh," Jessie replied, chancing a glance at her mother. Karen was sitting with her back ramrod straight and her eyes facing downwards to her lap. She was playing with the fingers of her left hand, and Jessie swore that she could see her shaking faintly. "Okay then," she continued with a sigh. Despite her words, Jessie could tell that Karen wasn't really fine with anything but was merely doing her best to make her think that she was.
She tried to curl her body tighter around itself, but she had no more room left to maneuver on that front.
"Three," Karen continued feeling a desperate need to lighten the mood in the room a bit, for her sake and for Jessie's. "Don't do anything your brother would do," she dictated with a smile even though her words were a bit shaky. Jessie lifted up her head at this, staring a Karen for a moment before tentatively grinning, then smiling full-blown she recalled all of Eli's girl problems.
"Can she still come over?" Jessie asked softly, the worry in her voice that she may not be able to spend time with Katie anymore painfully evident to Karen. She realized that Jessie must have been picking up on some of her anxiety and had to struggle to suppress the urge to sigh. She was doing a wonderful job of this.
"Of course," Karen responded trying to keep her voice light to alleviate some of her daughters concern. "But not when I'm not home."
"But Eli…" Jessie started to protest forgetting the supposed delicacy of her situation for a moment, the clear injustice of the statement catching the ire of her teenage indignation.
"Rule number three," Karen retorted interrupting Jessie's objection.
"Fine," Jessie mumbled shooting Karen a disgruntled look nonetheless, before continuing. "So you're really okay with this?" she asked still not sounding at all convinced. "I mean what about…" she started say trailing off gradually lost in thought.
"What about what?" Karen asked gently.
"Your plans and stuff?" Jessie replied almost inaudibly. That fear that she would disappoint her parents somehow, that she wouldn't be good enough for them, now raring it's monstrous head once again, as every conversation she'd ever had with her mother about weddings, and boys, and children played loudly in her head, mocking her with her failure.
"The plans haven't changed," Karen, responded softly, though her heart was heavy, desperately waiting for the day that she could truly believe that, "just the generic figure in them with you. It's more shapely now," she went on trying not to think of how much it actually hurt her that the figure had changed, and getting mad at herself for being hurt about it.
Jessie looked over at her and smiled. "Shapely?" she asked highly amused, Karen's antiquated choice of words momentarily breaking through the dark cloud that had been hanging over her head since they had started talking.
"Shapely," Karen confirmed, realizing that she must have emitted some kind of uncool mom sound into the world, thereby causing Jessie to internally mock her. If that was the case, so be it, she had made peace with the idea.
"Can we go down to the speakeasy later to hang with all the cool cats?" Jessie asked grinning madly through the occasional sniffle.
"That's going to cost you," Karen said turning around to face Jessie an evil smile working it's way across her face, her cloud momentarily parting as well.
"How much?" Jessie asked with some trepidation, the tension that had been running through her body from the beginning of the conversation slowly beginning to ease now. She was glad, she hadn't realized how tense she was, she had certainly been only moments away from rupturing something.
"A tickle and three kisses," Karen said solemnly, willing to let the stress of their conversation slide away for the moment.
"Oh come on," Jessie whined as Karen reached out for her with outstretched wiggling fingers. "This is like cruel and usual punishment," she cried out as her mother tickled her.
"Where did you get your law degree?" Karen asked laughing as Jessie squealed under her fingers.
"Bought it off the internet," Jessie replied trying to roll herself off the couch so that she could make a getaway, but she soon found herself trapped and just gave into the inevitable. Sometimes it sucked being the baby of the family, but these were just the sacrifices she was destined to make.
=============================================================
TBC...
Thank you for reading, I hope that you enjoyed it. Comments are very
much welcome and would be GREATLY appreciated, I'm a feedback whore,
enable me … please! :) jbstories@h...