CHAPTER 65
A/N: Thanks to my reviewers as always! Love you guys and glad you all are still with me for the chapters we have left. =]
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MARCH 18th
12:20 PM
Jaylynn stormed out of her father's loft apartment, making sure to slam the door loudly behind her. Granted running away from the whole problem probably wasn't the best resolution, but there was no way in hell she was about to stay in there with all of them. She knew what she'd do. She'd pack up her things and get a late train back to DC, and if she couldn't get a train, she'd get a plane ticket back. She didn't belong here. Not with these—people, who at one time were supposed to be her family. Roger, fine, whatever. He was her biological father, but that didn't even mean shit anymore. And Mark! Mark, who sat there and preached to her for the past three hours as he told her everything that had happened, he was supposed to have been one of her legal guardians. Where the fuck had he been for the past twelve years of her life? It wasn't fair. None of this was. Nothing was making any sense.
She ran down the stairs, and upon reaching the second floor, she slammed straight into a man with light blonde, spiky gelled hair. He had on black Adidas track pants and a Liverpool, England soccer tee shirt. A workout bag was slung over his shoulder, and he was carrying a pair of soccer cleats in the other. He looked to be about her age, or perhaps a little bit older. Jaylynn didn't even care that much.
"Sorry." She looked up and shrugged. "I wasn't really watching where I was going."
"Yeah, I can see that," he joked. "You okay?"
"Um, sure. I'm not from around here. Sorry," Jaylynn apologized again. She took off down the rest of the stairs and then when she finally reached the pavement, she turned the corner sharply.
The man shook his head and continued up the final two flights of stairs. He stopped in front of apartment 4D and pushed the door opening, loudly dropping his bag onto the ground.
"Dad?" he called out. "Uncle Roger? Anyone home?"
"Yeah, in here!" Mark shouted over. "In the kitchen."
"God it's fucking hot in here. Uncle Roger, you trying to turn this place into a sauna or what?"
"Luke, do me a favor," Roger retorted, grinning.
"What?"
"Shut up."
Mark laughed and shook his head. Chris, Jaylynn's boyfriend, was still sitting uncomfortably in between Mark and Roger. "Chris, this is my son Luke. Luke, this is Chris."
"Chris who?" Luke walked over to the refridgerator and opened the carton of orange juice, taking a long sip straight. "Hey man."
"Just a friend of the family, I guess. Hey, I'm going to check on Jay. I'll be back." Chris stood up and grabbed his jacket as well.
"Yeah, sure," Mark acknowledged before the door shut.
Luke sat down on a barstool and glanced at his father. "Jay as in Jaylynn? Jaylynn Davis?"
"Yeah. My daughter," Roger answered. He started coughing and stood up. "I'm gonna go lay down. Wake me when she comes back, okay?"
Mark nodded and shot a glare at Luke when he opened his mouth to speak. "Don't say a word. You don't know anything about the situation."
"Didn't she leave her when I was like, five years old, or something?"
"She did. Just, wait. I'll explain later." Mark cleared his throat. "Wait until your mom gets home. How was practice?"
"Good. Rough. Lots of injuries. I got carded once."
"Again?" Mark laughed.
"The refs are fucking stupid and they hate all the midfielders."
"When do they want you back in Liverpool?"
"Next Friday. Mom's mad."
"Why?"
"Because she wanted me to come back to Sydney with her for a few weeks. She's a bitch about it."
"Don't call your mom a bitch…" Mark sighed just as the door opened.
"But—"
"Luke, drop it," he responded through gritted teeth. "Hey, Jackie."
"Hi, Mark." Jackie had walked in the door with their thirteen year old daughter, Nicole, who had just come from dance class. "Luke, when did you get home?"
"About five minutes ago. Hey kid Nicky."
Nicole made a face and dropped her dance bag near her older brother's soccer bag. "Why don't you just stay in England?"
"Nicole," Mark warned. He sighed and rubbed his temples. This was always how it was whenever he was around Jackie now. They would both attempt to make polite conversation, and their kids would bicker back and forth constantly. Especially Luke and Nicole. Then it would become an argument between himself and Jackie, and then usually Luke would get into it with Jackie as well.
Mark still couldn't fathom how much his whole family situation had changed. Jackie was temporarily visiting the United States to see Nicole and Luke, and she was staying at Mark's apartment uptown while Mark stayed at the loft to be closer to Roger. It was more convienient to take him back and forth to his doctor's appointments this way, and if Roger ever needed anything, Mark was there instantly and not twenty minutes later. Luke had been signed to a British soccer team the past summer, Liverpool, and since then he had been flying back and forth from Liverpool and New York City. Jackie wasn't too happy with his decision to drop out of college, especially since he had gotten an athletic scholarship to attend in the first place. Mark however had supported Luke's decision and was paying for half of Luke's apartment in Liverpool, which was a constant source of argument between himself and Jackie. Mark knew that it was hard for her to live in Sydney with Hannah, have their nineteen year old son in England, and Nicole here in New York City with Mark. But what Jackie also didn't understand was that it was also hard for Mark. Neither parent got to see enough of their children.
Nicole's voice brought Mark back to reality. "What? He gets away with everything. You both let him do whatever he wants to."
"Sweetie, your brother lives in England—" Jackie started to explain.
"Blah blah blah and he plays soccer and he's so damn good at it. Whatever. I'm good at dance and I don't get to do half of what I want to."
"You're thirteen!" Luke laughed. "You think when I was thirteen I was allowed to do whatever I wanted to?"
Nicole ignored him and sat down roughly at the kitchen table next to her brother. "Just stop talking and go kick a soccer ball around."
"Honey—"
"Mom, stop it!" Nicole shouted at her. "Stop trying to parent us! Go home! You're never around anyway anymore!"
"Nicole, please…" Mark trailed off.
"Say something, Mark! Not just, please, thank you, do whatever you'd like! They're your goddamn kids too!" Jackie yelled out.
"I fucking know they're my goddamn kids too! What do you think, I sit here and don't give a shit about them! Lay off, Jackie, I'm tired of arguing about this!" Mark shouted back.
Luke grabbed Nicole's arm and pulled her out of the kitchen with him. "Everything okay with you?"
"Yeah. Just a bad day at dance."
"Oh." Luke nodded. "Well if it makes you feel any better, I got carded today."
"Again?" Nicole laughed. "What'd you do?"
"Got in someone's face and cursed them out, then tripped them afterwards?" he smiled sheepishly.
"Luke Tyler Cohen!" she giggled. "I gonna go to Emily's."
"Want me to take you?"
"Nope, I'll take a cab. Dad lets me do it all the time."
"Just be careful."
"I know. Hey, I didn't mean to say what I did before. Mom was just pissing me off on the way over here and I guess I took it out on you."
"Don't worry about it," Luke shrugged. "It happens. I'll see you later. You coming to England on spring break?"
"You mean I'm still invited?"
"As long as mom and dad let you, then yeah," he told her. "You can stay with me, come to practice with me, meet some of my friends. We can go to London and one weekend we'll take the Chunnel to Paris."
"Really? Awesome."
"Yeah." Luke yawned and punched his little sister playfully on her shoulder. "I'm out of here for awhile if they're still fighting so I'll walk you to the corner."
"Okay," Nicole agreed. "Let me get changed first."
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2:45 PM
About an hour later, Luke had dropped Nicole off at her friend's apartment and was now out roaming the streets of the East Village. His parents had still been fighting when he had left, and if anything, it made him want to return to England even more. He was tired of dividing his time and attention between them. In reality, he was closer to his father than his mother, mostly because he had grown up in Manhattan with him. Now here he was, almost twenty years old, and still having to put up with their constant bullshit and fights.
Luke had almost decided to go back and hit the gym instead of walking around aimlessly, but spotted the same girl he had run into before sitting on a bench in Tompkins Square Park. She was smoking a cigarette and blowing the smoke out into the cool late March air. Jaylynn. Luke hadn't seen her since she was around six years old. She had certainly grown up. They all had to sometime.
"Jaylynn."
He saw her jump and look over her shoulder at him when he called out her name. "How do you know my name?"
Luke walked over and stood in front of her, hands shoved in his track pants. "You don't remember me, do you?"
She laughed and ran a hand through her light brown curls. "Well, perfect strangers don't exactly come up to you in the middle of a park and call out your name, do they?"
"I guess not."
"Then I guess I might know you somehow," she answered him, crushing out her cigarette on the bench. Jaylynn studied the man in front of her. He was tall, a little over six foot, with blonde spiked hair and blue eyes. He was also very muscular with broad shoulders. It was just in the way he carried himself. She knew he had to be athletic or involved with sports somehow. "Who are you?"
"Luke Cohen?"
Jaylynn stared at him and covered her mouth. "Oh my god, I do remember you! Mark and Jackie's son, right?"
"Yeah," he grinned. "I didn't think you'd remember. After all, you said you weren't from around here…"
"Of course I remember you! I couldn't not remember you. It's just been…a really long time. Twelve years, or something like that."
"Yeah it has."
They stood in silence for a minute or so until Jaylynn laughed and said something. "I can't believe it's really you. You—grew up, as stupid as that sounds. I just really remember you as little six year old Luke playing with me at the park."
"I remember you the same way."
Jaylynn covered her mouth and smiled. "So what have you been up to all these years?"
"Nothing big. My parents divorced when I was eight. I grew up here with Mark and Jackie moved back to Australia. Played a hell of a lot of soccer. Graduated high school, went to the University of Maryland for my freshman year and part of this year. In June I was offered a position as midfielder to play for England and now I live and train in Liverpool when I'm not here visiting."
"So you live in England, then? What about college?"
"I guess I dropped out?" he laughed. "But yeah, I live in Liverpool. I'm just here for a week to visit with my team. We're doing some promotional deal with the US teams. How have you been?"
"I've been okay. I moved to Scarsdale with my grandma and grew up there. Graduated high school and ending up going to college in DC. I came back here to make amends with my dad—Roger, whatever I'm supposed to call him. It's not easy."
"No, I guess it's not. You know that he's sick, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know he has AIDS? The doctors say he only has a few months left."
"Oh." Jaylynn dropped her eyes to her lap. "I didn't know that. I mean, I knew he was sick, but…I didn't know he didn't have much time left."
"Don't blame yourself for it, or anything. You couldn't have known."
"He wasn't involved in my life."
"He didn't mean not to be."
Jaylynn stood up and shrugged. "How would you know?"
"I've grown up around him my entire life. I know how he is. He didn't mean to abandon you, Jaylynn. He just couldn't deal with anything going on around him."
"That's not a good excuse."
"It's going to have to be," Luke defended.
"Well it's not." She raised her voice and shoved her hands into her jacket pocket. "At least you had a real father and mother. I can't say I knew either of them."
With that said, Jaylynn walked away from the park, leaving Luke in her tracks.
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9:30 PM
The loft had remained generally quiet for the rest of the day and night. Roger and Jaylynn had been careful to avoid each other without many words being said, although that hadn't been very hard, since Roger had slept for the majority of the day. Jackie and Nicole had left to spend the night at Mark's apartment uptown, and Chris had went to stay at a hotel to give Jaylynn and her family some space. Speaking of Chris, his marriage proposal the night before was still swimming through her head slowly. She hadn't had much time to even consider it, let alone allow it to sink in. Jaylynn knew she'd have to give her boyfriend some sort of answer sometime soon.
Mark had disappeared off to his office right after dinner, and every so often Jaylynn could hear him on the phone or typing away on his computer. Roger's soft snores and the drone of his television passed through the walls, and Luke was still sitting on the couch watching some sort of European soccer game. Jaylynn sat on the edge of the bathtub and rested her head against the wall. She couldn't even remember how long she had been sitting in here. Long enough, probably. She quickly shed her robe and pulled on a pair of tiny boxer shorts and a gray tee shirt before pulling her damp hair up into a ponytail. She glanced at herself quickly in the mirror and bit her lip. Maybe she really should go home.
A knock at the bathroom door shook her out of her thoughts and Jaylynn jumped a little bit.
"Jaylynn?" Luke's voice floated through the door and into the bathroom. "You okay in there?"
"I'm fine." Jaylynn tried to steady her voice to make her sound more sure of herself, but it wasn't working at all. "Long shower."
"Okay."
She reached for the door handle and unlocked it, coming face to face with Luke. "Sorry."
"I was just worried about you."
"I'm okay. Really." There she went, trying to convince herself again.
"I think I'm going to bed. I've got to me up with the guys early in the morning for practice and then we're scrimmaging against another team here."
"Sounds fun," she smiled. "Hey, I just wanted to apologize for sort of blowing up at you before. I didn't meant to take it out on you."
"Nah, don't worry about it. I probably deserved it," he laughed. "Where are you sleeping?"
"I guess on the couch? Mark's still in his office and I don't really want to bother him."
"You can sleep in my bed and I'll take the couch," Luke offered. "It's not really my bed anyway, it's the guest bedroom next door in the connected apartment."
"That's a moutful," she laughed. "I don't want to make you sleep on the couch. I'll share it with you, if you don't mind or anything."
"Nah, I don't really care. It's not every day I get a beautiful girl to sleep in my bed."
Jaylynn shook her head and followed him into the other aparment. "I think you're lying."
"Maybe a little bit," he grinned.
Jaylynn crawled into the bed and stretched out onto her back. "You're really serious about soccer, then?"
"There's nothing I like to do better. I guess besides having sex and sleeping, that is."
"Ew," she laughed. "That's a great thought to fall asleep on."
He laid next to her and turned off the light. "Night," he yawned. "I'm glad I got to see you again."
"Yeah, me too," she smiled, turning over onto her side away from Luke. "Night."
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