I stayed at the boathouse for an entire week, practically locked in the study room like Cam would often do when writing songs. Using the pens and paper he had left behind I wrote as many songs as I could. I knew they would never be as good as the stuff Cam wrote, but I still tried and wrote down everything I felt. In addition to that, I picked up his guitars, tuned them and did my best to teach myself how to play. At first, there was a lot of swearing and giving up since I wanted to do more than I physically could, but whenever I took a quick break and went running before coming back, I managed to progress quickly. I quickly improved three skills in the time it usually took to start up one.

But after one week, I realized it was time to go. I didn’t know if I ever was going to come back, so I put the guitars and bass in their cases and put them in the car along with my suitcase and the box of letters. Of course, I also realized I couldn’t just show up back at home without telling anybody, so as soon as the car console screen showed that I had one bar of reception, I quickly shot a couple of people a text message.

What I didn’t realize was that I was going to lose that signal pretty soon, causing me to be in some deep shit later on.

When I arrived at home, the other car was on the driveway, so I assumed that Jack was at home. Maybe he was already waiting for me. But when I quietly unlocked the door and walked inside with the first two guitars, I heard him talking to another person.

“Do not touch that.” Jack scowled in a deep voice. “Isle doesn’t like it when people touch her idea board.”

“Oh, come on, Jack! You don’t actually believe she’s going to come back, right? She just isn’t that type of girl. She literally left without saying a word!” The voice retorted, telling Jack he had basically gone insane.

“But she promised…” he said in a voice much quieter and weaker than before.

“Yeah, well, promises are meant to be broken.”

I turned around and went back outside for two more trips to get all my stuff out of the car. They still didn’t seem to have noticed me coming inside. When all the items were in the hallway, I locked the door behind me. Now it was my time to make my entrance. Picking up two cases to show I had actually been out doing something with a reason, I walked into the living room.

However, just before they noticed me, the other person had something more to say. “Look, Jack, maybe it’s for the best. Let’s be honest here, she wasn’t all that good for you. You’ll be able to find somebody so much better, somebody who won’t leave you like this. Just trust me when I say she isn’t going to come back. After a week, somebody like her isn’t going to.”

“Wow, thanks for having so much faith in me, Alex.” I glared right at him, and if looks could kill, he definitely wouldn’t be breathing anymore.

He stared right back at me and while he tried to look like he meant every single word he said, I could see a hint of fear and shock in his eyes. Something, however, told me he didn’t just tell Jack all that just to make him feel better. I didn’t know Alex had always despised me a little. Now I had just given him a reason to turn it into full blown hate.

Without uttering another sound, I put down the cases and walked away briefly to get the heavy box of letters. After placing it on the table, I went over to the mood board that Jack had defended just minutes before, and started taking off all the paper except for the small notes Jack had written me over the course of our relationship. I put all those in an ordered line on the right while the rest of the space was just for the list Cameron had made. That way I could keep track of what there was to read for me.

I could feel the two pairs of eyes on me the entire time, even when I went to the kitchen to throw away the pile of what I now called junk. All the old stuff didn’t matter anymore, it was time to start something new.

Just a little while later, after I had decided I actually wanted to recycle the paper and not just throw it away like I had initially done for dramatic effect, the front door opened and Carter came bouncing in. I hadn’t seen him since the funeral, and I really hadn’t expected to see him so soon after either.

“Carter, what the hell are you doing here?” I frowned, knowing that this wasn’t going to help my case with Alex and Jack at all.

He grinned at me in return, taking in his surroundings as he hadn’t been here ever before (kinda made me wonder why he’d just walk in the house like that without being 100% sure that it was the right one). “You said you had some goodies!”

“I never told you to come over,” I stressed, looking at him as if he were out of his mind. But it was already too late.

Alex had something to say regarding the whole matter. “Wait a second… if I understand correctly, you contacted him and whoever else you decided to send a message too or whatever, but you haven’t said anything to Jack. Now, that seems fucked up.”

“Yeah, that does seem fucked up…” I agreed with a nod. “But only if Jack hadn’t been the first person I texted.”

“But he didn’t get anything,” Alex retorted, picking up Jack’s phone and opening the text messages to take another look.

I rolled my eyes and pulled my phone out before tossing it towards Jack. “I’m pretty sure Jack can speak for himself. You can check and you’ll find I’m not the annoying little brat you think I am.”

Everybody’s eyes seemed to snap towards me as the words left my mouth. I wasn’t just going to let Alex get away with putting these thoughts in Jack’s mind, but something told me this was going to take much longer than just one afternoon.

“Hey, look, I’m just saying that leaving without any announcement isn’t exactly the nicest thing to do. Think about it from Jack’s side. You just told him you were leaving and left. Nothing about where or for how long. What’s he supposed to think?” Alex continued to blame me for whatever he was mad about. Jack had had complete faith in me, it was Alex who started to make him doubt things.

Before Alex could keep going on with his rant, Jack stopped him by patting on his back. He showed my phone and muttered, “Alex, you might want to stop.”

Alex rolled his eyes and snatched the device from Jack’s hands. I didn’t know what he was doing, but he took a moment while I could see he was using his thumb to scroll through stuff. While I expected to get some shit about something else that he wasn’t supposed to see (I didn’t know what that thing possibly could be, but he seemed to be ready to twist anything), he stated the obvious. “They didn’t deliver.”

The look he gave me showed that he was blaming me for it. But I didn’t understand why he’d be stupid enough to do something like that. After writing three long text messages, I was not going to do something to not make them deliver. I practically told Jack that I would be coming home, that he didn’t need to freak out, that I was very sorry, and that I was going to explain everything when I got home. Well, this was nothing like what I wanted to happen.

“And you think I did that on purpose?” I retorted, shaking my head and taking my phone back from him, not feeling comfortable to let him see all the text messages Jack and I had shared.

“It’s not that difficult to see that your messages haven’t delivered.”

“Do you really think I’m going to check my phone while I’m driving? Have you gone insane?!”

“It just seems too coincidental to me that all your other messages sent, but the ones to Jack didn’t,” he pointed out, still not letting Jack get any say in this. To be honest, I would have much rather been having this fight with Jack than with Alex. It just seemed pointless to me. Why would try to defend myself without knowing I actually had to prove something to the one I loved?

“You know what? I didn’t come back for this shit.” I walked over to one of the guitar cases and opened it, getting out the multiple pages I had scribbled new lyrics on, and harshly gave them to Carter. “Here’s what you came for. Do whatever you want with it. Now leave.”

Without giving him a proper goodbye or walking him to the door, I went over to my suitcase next. Picking it up, I made my way upstairs without showing that I noticed Alex’s glare burning into my back. He was directing all his rage towards me, while Jack seemed indifferent about it. Why wasn’t Jack doing anything just to show me he either agreed with Alex, disagreed with Alex, or maybe even had a whole different opinion. I wasn’t in a relationship with Alex here.

Running my hand through my short hair and tugging at it lightly out of frustration, I laid down and opened my suitcase to throw all my clothes into the laundry. It was quite the workout having the bend down to grab something, only to stand up and throw it in a laundry basket just a step away. At least I was able to let out my rage in a less aggressive way.

Eventually, just as I was reaching down to grab another t-shirt, somebody came up behind me and wrapped their arms around my waist. I nearly jumped out of my skin, remembering when the last time somebody had touched me without me knowing of their presence; it had been Jack and I screamed at him not to touch me only seconds before Cam was pulled out of the car. This time, I tried to suppress the memory and turned around with a forced smile on my face, circling my arms around Jack’s neck.

Before he could open his mouth, I looked him in the eyes and said, “do you want me to explain?”

“No, I understand,” he shook his head, his hands interlocked behind the small of my back. “Alex is just trying to look out for me.

I nodded in response, still deciding I needed to give a little bit of clarification, or at least something to show Jack that I really wasn’t the person Alex was trying to make me look as. “I promise my trip wasn’t for nothing. I brought back some stuff and made sure nobody will have to unexpectedly deal with what he left behind.”

“I know.” He smiled softly, but there was still a hint of sadness in his voice. I wasn’t sure if it was because I mentioned Cam, or if he was upset about the whole situation.

I hugged him tightly for a while before slowly untangling myself from him and turning to go back to me sorting out what else I still had to throw in the laundry. But then something else caught my eye. Somehow I had managed to completely miss it when I had entered the room. Anger was probably clouding my vision before.

“Hey, you got the new bed.” I pointed at the large black framed bed that had taken the place of the old wooden squeaky one. Jack and I had decided to get a new one after not being able to deal with the noises the old one made no matter what we did.

“Yeah, it arrived two days ago. Alex helped me set it up… You might also be happy to hear that we also have a new mattress.”

“Mind if I test it out?”

“Go ahead.” He motioned towards the bed, expecting me to run up and dive onto it.

But I actually had different plans. I moved my body to be facing him again and pulled his head down to let our lips meet in the middle. As I desperately kissed him as if I was trying to prove something, he moved his lips along hungrily, not minding the heated pace I had started immediately. After his hands went down to squeeze my ass, he pushed me onto the bed and crawled up onto me. I didn’t wait to hastily take off his shirt.

----

Let me tell you one thing, the new bed was absolutely great. I didn’t have the fear of it collapsing every time Jack thrusted in, and for once it wasn’t the loudest sound in the bedroom. Plus, as far as I could tell, it was very comfortable. All around the best bed I’d ever owned in a while.

Jack was panting beside me, trying to catch his breath when he finally got a break. I, however, was already climbing on top of his naked body again, pushing my chest up against him and finding a space to rest my legs between his. He looked down at me before letting his head sink into the pillow again, making him stare at the ceiling instead.

“I just have one question,” he started, his heart still beating rapidly against my skin, “how did you even know all this stuff was going to be at the place you went to? Like, was it in his will or something? But I don’t remember you telling me that was all sorted out.”

Instead of replying, I shuffled up and pressed my lips against his again. This time, though he didn’t kiss me back and actually pushed me away lightly. With a hand on my bare shoulder, he gave me a stern look. “No, I’m not falling for it this time. Every single time I ask you a question, you want to start again. I’m not up for another round. I will not be giving in.”

“Fine.” I shrugged and pushed myself up so I was sitting on his torso instead. There was no point in denying what he accused me of, because then I would have been lying, but admitting to it also wouldn’t do me anything good. “But first let me get something to drink.”

I scrambled to put on a pair of panties and the shirt Jack had been wearing before I had taken it off. He didn’t try to stop me as I rushed out of the room and down the stairs. There was just one small bump in the way. In the living room, there was still a figure sitting stubbornly on the couch.

“Yes, I’m still here.” Alex glared at me as I went to the kitchen. “I hope you had fun.”

I opened the fridge and pulled out a cool water bottle. “Yeah. Thanks for asking.”

“Next time, I’d appreciate if you didn’t do that while I’m in your house.”

“Cool.” I nodded, dismissing his comment completely as I walked past to go upstairs again.

When I entered the bedroom again, Jack was wearing boxers and was sitting cross-legged on the bed. He was entertaining himself with something on his phone, which I suspected either to be twitter or Instagram.

“Alex is downstairs,” I told him as I got back onto the bed as well.

He turned off his phone and put it on his bedside table while frowning. “I told him to leave.”

“Well, he didn’t,” I pointed out the obvious, “but let him stay. It’s not like he’s going to achieve anything with it. I don’t know what he wants me to say, but whatever it is, it probably wouldn’t be the truth.”

“He was just trying to ‘help me get over you’ because he believed you weren’t coming back. He’s just too stubborn to give in he was wrong now.”

“I mean, I can tell him that I was going to leave forever, I can tell him that I didn’t care about the consequences, I can tell him he was right all along, but I’d be lying if I did. Sure, I didn’t exactly know what I was going to find, but I knew Cam always went to my parents’ boathouse when he needed some alone time or some time to really concentrate. So, I decided to follow his footsteps. I wasn’t trying to get away from you, I just couldn’t stand all the people that kept telling me they were sorry and that everything was going to be ok. The only thing that could work is letting me figure it out myself. I was never going to be gone for more than a week. If anything, I thought I would be coming back early. But I guess I kinda followed Cam’s footsteps a little bit too literally and tried teaching myself how to play the guitar, and tried writing some songs, which is my Carter was here. I never intended on any of this happening. I was going to tell you when I left, but I kinda freaked out when I saw there was somebody else. And today wasn’t like anything I had expected. If only my signal hadn’t been so bad, maybe Alex wouldn’t be so mad at me right now.”

“What matters is that I’m not mad at you,” Jack whispered and caressed my face lovingly, “I’m actually proud of you knowing that this was going to help you.”

Little did he know what was to come.

Notes

I wrote an entire long chapter today! Much better than the last one I wrote. So, hopefully, that one will make up for the short filler one. I'm trying to avoid fillers as much as I can, but sometimes a weird time skip doesn't make sense. I hope what I've been doing so far makes sense and doesn't make it seem rushed...