Chapter Three
Almost as if he had heard his name in Jake's thoughts, Justin emerged from the bedroom.
"Jake, look I'm really sorry" Justin said, in a slightly nervous voice, fully aware that Jake stood between himself and the flat door. The look in Jake's eyes told him that he was right to be nervous. He took several steps back, increasing the distance between himself and Jake.
"You've got some nerve, Burton" Jake spat, taking his eyes off his wife and fixing them directly on the blond haired teenager.
"I want to explain, I…"
"Slept with someone else's wife? I bet you loved it. A teenage boy's dream isn't it?" Jake finished, making no attempt to hide the sheer hatred and anger that was in his voice. He wasn't about to make things easy for him.
"It wasn't about sex, I love her and she loves…" Before he could stop himself, and in an attempt to rebut Jake's damming assessment of his relationship with Becca, he had blurted out something that could take Jake over the edge.
"What?" Jake said, turning back towards Becca, studying her face and trying to gauge her reaction to what Justin had just said.
"Do you love him?" Jake said, almost unable to bring himself to ask that question of his wife.
"Jake, please. Now's not the time" Becca replied in a pseudo calm voice. It was times like this that Becca disliked Justin's naivety and inexperience. Getting Jake even angrier was the last thing either of them needed but Justin's reckless comment could cost them dearly.
"Just tell me now, Becca, tell me!" Jake moved his eyes back and forth between Becca and Justin, just as he had done so when he had caught them in the bedroom. Justin, having realised his grave mistake, kept quiet, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
The sound of glass breaking and of screaming pulled Justin's eyes from the floor directly in front of him to the place where Becca had been standing moments earlier. The remains of a vase and of some brightly coloured flowers lay on the floor, the wall covered in water.
"What the hell are you doing? That could have hit Becca!" Justin exclaimed, his regret for the hurt he and Becca had caused dissipating slightly. He remembered back to the time where he had said he would take a beating from Jake if it meant he could be with Becca. Naively he had hoped he would never have to but the situation they now found themselves in was all the evidence he needed that he might just have too.
"Justin, don't. Just leave it, its fine!" Becca cried, hoping that Justin would understand what she was trying to say. The situation was spiralling out if control and Becca was acutely aware of how Justin was never one to back down.
"Becca, he could have hurt you!" Justin retorted, his voice full of anger, at Jake for what he had done and at Becca for telling him to leave it.
"I'm fine. Look I'll sort this out, okay. Just go" Becca knew she was being harsh but she didn't know what else to do. Justin had made things ten times worse and with him gone, she might be able to get Jake to calm down.
"Don't bother Justin. You can stay here, Becca wouldn't mind. You've taken my wife, you can take my flat too." Jake said as he strode towards the door, turning back only to throw the key to the flat at Justin before disappearing out the door and slamming it shut. The look in Becca's eyes told Justin that he should have stayed in the bedroom.