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Did he even love us anymore? Were we even a thought?
Time stood still in that instance, the truth consuming both of us.
She was the first to break our middle ground. Locking eyes with Skyler, she muttered, “Jackson and I were just arguing about his laundry habits.”
I stiffened beside her.
“Jackson knows how to do laundry?”
“Or lack thereof,” she added, smiling over at me.
I narrowed my eyes at her, more confused than ever before.
She had the chance to rat me out. Get back at me for all the shit I’d put her through, even the playing field once and for all.
She didn’t.
She took my side, being there for me.
Making me realize right then and there…
I was just as lost.
As my father was.
22
JACKSON
Then: Thirteen years old
They say everything needs to come to a head.
As the days continued on with no sign of our father, the further my resentment grew to a point of no return.
Another month had flown by and still nothing.
In spite of that, my dynamic with Camila had changed in ways I never expected. Our pranks developed into less hostile territory. We weren’t trying to take each other out like we were before. Now they were merely our source of entertainment.
But I was still Jackson Pierce, and I still always won. At everything. Even our nicer pranks.
Jagger and I walked into the house after school one afternoon, suddenly hearing Mary Poppins lose her shit on Journey’s stuffed animal in the living room.
Screaming, “Can you hear me? I’m going to find you! And then we’re really going to have words!”
“You know that’s a stuffed animal, right?” I questioned, looking at her like she’d lost her mind.
She jumped as soon as she heard my voice, whipping around to face me. She yelled, “No! It’s your dad!”
My father’s absence was affecting everyone in the house.
“Since when did my dad become a bunny’s ass?”
“He’s in here! I know it!”
I tilted my head to the side, narrowing my eyes at her. “Mary Poppins, Journey is watching you lose your mind on one of her favorite stuffed animals. So, before you traumatize her any more than you already have, put it down and step away from the bunny.”
She scowled, stepping toward me, shoving what was left of the stuffed animal into my chest. “Fine. Then I’m going to find the man that’s inside the bunny.”
