“But you understand what I’m talking about, right? Video games, music, walking, whatever… sometimes people just need to be by themselves.” It was probably too much for him to expect, really. To have a girl that was interested in him, who liked Star Wars and was a gamer? Jackson was only marginally disappointed in that, but figured that two out of three wasn’t all that bad. Perhaps the thing that struck him the most was the fact that Annabelle liked to be active. Jackson… wasn’t very active. He was a homebody, a shut in. He could be social when he needed to be, but there was only so much that he could take. “Don’t worry about it, I can put up with babble.” Jack found it endearing, really.
Jackson found his blue eyes looking at his parents’ room when she mentioned his mom. The light was off. If that meant they were sleeping or not was anybody’s guess. “My mom is great. She’s just… I can’t imagine having another mom. Dad’s great, too. My siblings and I got a pretty good deal on the parent hand.” Which could have been why it was so hard to see them the way they were. If Jack didn’t love his parents as much… he wouldn’t have cared. “I think my mom will like you, Annabelle… just, expect a little bit of doting on her end… it should be harmless. I hope.” He at least had the whole not being the favorite thing in his corner.
He… was her first? The first person that she’d ever really liked? Again, Annabelle Marrok tossed Jackson a curve ball that took him completely by surprise. It was a hard pill to swallow. She had no reason to lie, though. “I… didn’t know that. I guess I kind of figured that you would have had some boyfriends before or something. I just… wow.” He did understand what she was talking about, though. That thing that was there, hard to describe but there nonetheless. He felt it, too.
So she wasn’t going to make him go into a meeting with her family without more than a few ways of letting her know that he was nervous about it? Good. Very good. Jackson would make sure to help her with some Lowell precursors, when they time was right. As it stood, Jack was perfectly content with things going the pace they were going. Slow, private. It was hard not to tell his family, especially Blake, about Annabelle, but he knew that he was making the best decision.
“Coffee?” Jackson snickered, thinking of their initial encounter. “Are you even going to have time to do that with me? I mean, with all the prep and everything? I don’t want to get in the way of your hometown moment. I’d never want to get in the way of you doing your thing…”
The way she thanked him for the simplest of statements, true statements, made him think that it wouldn’t be as hard to wrap his head around being the first person that Annabelle had ever had feelings for. He didn’t know what it was about him, but it must have been something right. “Don’t mention it…”