Thread: First Fights and Future Trips Who: Rachel and Jaime When: Tuesday, Jan 10th (Backdated) Where: Rachel's room; Rachel and Jaime's apartment (in the FUTURE!) What: Rachel and Jaime have a fight, which leads to a very eye-opening trip to the future.
Rachel huffed as she walked into her room, Jaime hot on her heels. He was speaking about something that happened at school today, and she was only slightly ashamed to admit that she wasn’t listening in the slightest.
When they’d left school that day, she had suggested -- for what felt like the hundreth time -- that they go to his house instead of hers. After all, he practically knew her house’s entire floorplan by now, when she’d had yet to see anything but his room. Heck, she hadn’t even met his mother!
When she’d said as much, though, Jaime had just laughed and shook his head, saying that he loved her house, and even liked her parents, and even felt comfortable there, now. When she’d pushed, he’d said no again, this time citing the distance as an unnecessary inconvenience.
To her, it just sounded all like excuses. He’d been acting... strange around her for awhile now, and ot her, his reluctance for her to meet his family just proved it. After her birthday, she thought all had changed for the better, but she had been proven wrong. The New Years Eve party had clenched it for her. Was he ashamed of her? It was certainly beginning to feel like it.
She turned to him suddenly, then, cutting him off. “Why don’t you want me to meet your mom?”
Jaime blinked, surprised not only by the suddenness of Rachel’s question, but of the question itself. Ever since they’d left school, she’d been unnaturally quiet and he’d sought to fill the silence with meaningless chatter, thinking that she was tired. He’d intended to suggest that they just watch a movie for the rest of the afternoon. He was aware that things were slowly becoming tense between them, but he’d had no idea why. Until now it would seem.
“What? Of course I want you to meet my mother. Why would you think that?” He was genuinely confused by the seemingly random question.
Rachel just shook her head. “Why would I think that? Jaime I’ve been to your house twice. Twice. Every time I suggest we go there, you deflect and we end up coming here instead. You know both my fathers by name, when the only person in your family that I’ve met is Jadyn. I must tell you, considering how she feels about me, that’s not inspiring much confidence.”
Honestly, she was so upset at this point that she’d completely forgotten about her promise to keep her and Jadyn’s true relationship from Jaime. And really, she was no longer willing to sacrifice her own happiness for someone that seemed so... ashamed of her. She’d done that once with Finn, and she didn’t honestly think she could handle a repeat with Jaime. Especially considering how well things were going for them, otherwise.
“That has nothing to do with not wanting you to meet my mother, or vice versa.” Jaime answered instantly, trying to dissuade any thoughts Rachel might have about his mother not liking her. To be honest, his mother had been hounding him mercilessly to let her meet Rachel. She couldn’t wait to meet the ‘young lady who’d won her only son’s heart with seemingly the snap of her fingers’. He wanted them to meet, really he did, but his mother wasn’t the problem. Rachel had hit the nail on the head without really knowing it and it hurt him in a way he couldn’t explain.
“As for Jadyn...” He faltered. How did he explain that he knew how Jadyn felt about her, at least to a certain extent. That he didn’t want Rachel having dinner with his family, his mother, because of how his sister felt about her, without making it seem as if he was taking Jadyn’s side. Because he wasn’t, but an all out confrontation with his sister was the last thing he wanted. Not after the last one. Ideally, he wanted them to like each other and get along, but at this point, he’d settle for civil.
So instead, he’d repeatedly begged off with his mother, while he worked on smoothing over Jadyn’s animosity. He hadn’t anticipated that it meant he was going to end up having a confrontation with his girlfriend instead. “Now just isn’t the right time.” He finished lamely, not meeting Rachel’s eyes directly.
Rachel sighed deeply, his words affecting him more than she would like. When she’d first started this conversation, there’d been a part of her that thought that she was being insane. Sure, they hadn’t been to his house lately, but hers was closer to the school; it was clearly more convenient, and he was used to it. It was all just a misunderstanding, and a huge overreaction on her part. At the first opportunity, he would invite her to his house, introductions would be made, and all doubts would be satisfied.
That part of her was substantially quieter, now.
“Why not? I’d really like you to fill me in here, Jaime, because if you ask me, this seems like the perfect time. My dads recognize your car now, we’re spending almost every waking moment together - we sleep together, for goodness sakes! How is this not a good time?” She didn’t know why this hurt so much. It hadn’t even been this bad with Finn, when he’d basically let the entire school continue torturing her while they were dating. There was just a huge, hollow feeling in her chest, because dammit, the idea that the person that she loved was ashamed...
Oh.
Oh.
She laughed mirthlessly at the realization, unable to stop the sorrowful tears from leaking from her eyes. She wiped them once, sniffing loudly, and then turning away from him some. “I just don’t understand how you could be so wonderful with me when we’re alone, but the second we get near someone we may know, I’m suddenly the last person you want to see. Why do I... Do I embarass you that much?”
He hadn’t been looking at her. The whole time she yelled at him, he’d kept his eyes on the ground, wondering how this had happened and what he could do to make it better. If he had been looking at her, he would have seen her tears. Then he would have stopped. He would have put his own emotions behind him, and done everything in his power to make her tears go away. He would have never walked away.
But he hadn’t been looking at her.
His eyebrows furrowed, her words ripping right through him. How could she ever think that it was anything but painful not being close to her all the time? But he’d endured it. For her. To make her happy.
“You-You think I’m embarrassed of you? After everything we’ve said and done,” he paused to swallow, the words unbearably thick in his throat. “Is that what you really think of me?”
He looked up finally, only to be met with her back turned to him. The sight was just as jarring as a door being slammed in his face. But rather than stand around and watch her decide to walk away for good, he panicked and back peddled.
“I think I should go.” He spoke softly, swallowing around the painful lump in his throat. Maybe she just needed a little space. They had been spending nearly every possible moment together. He would just give her some space, and time. When they were both calmer, they could revisit both issues at hand and clear up any misunderstandings. Jaime nodded at his reasoning, clearing his throat in the hopes that it wouldn’t break. “I’m gonna go, and you can just call me later. Okay?”
When she didn’t respond right away, he took that as a sign and walked out of her room, his entire body trembling with the strain of his connection to her being stretched over the already ever-widening distance between them.
Jaime wasn’t the type of boy to cry easily or freely, even though he never hid his emotions, but as he drove away, he vaguely became aware that if he didn’t pull over soon, the road would become too blurry for him to see.
Hearing the door click closed downstairs, Rachel finally let the tears that had been slowly flowing down her cheeks turn into full-blown sobs. She had really hoped that finally confronting him about his feelings toward her wouldn’t come to this, but she couldn’t honestly say that she was surprised. After all, every relationship before him had been plagued with either her stupid mistakes, or his fear of being seen in public with her. She had thought Jaime was different. She had thought they were different.
Reaching back to her bedside table, she sent a quick text to Olivia, informing her friend that she would be late tonight. Olivia was going through enough. She couldn’t go over there like this, and expect the other girl to comfort her. She’d just have to pull herself together first. She laid back onto her bed, curling up onto her side and wrapping her arms around her torso. He’d sounded so hurt though. But if she was only blowing this out of proportion, and he really did love her and want to be with her where everyone could see, why had he left? Nothing was making sense to her anymore. She just didn’t understand how the could have gotten here so quickly.
Clenching her eyes shut, she tried to think of her fathers, of her impending graduation, of her future career -- anything to keep her mind off of what had happened tonight. She fell asleep that way, wishing she could think of anything else.
He waited exactly two hours. Two hours of waiting for Rachel to call, or even text him. Two hours, before he began to worry and his resolve caved. But rather than go straight to Rachel, he texted Olivia, knowing that today was when Rachel was going to start spending her nights there.
He and Rachel had discussed it at length since it might become a problem with their current sleeping arrangements. He couldn’t exactly break in to Liv’s house at night just to sleep with Rachel, but he couldn’t sleep without her either, and neither could she without him. Finally, when he asked and she said that she wanted him there, it was decided, or it had been before they got into a fight.
Gritting his teeth, he waited for Olivia’s response. Without alerting Olivia’s suspicions, he’d been trying to figure out how Rachel was doing. Was she mad? Was she upset? Was she unaffected? But when Olivia replied that Rachel hadn’t arrived yet, Jaime began to get worried. Not giving himself enough time to panic with thoughts about what could have kept Rachel from getting to Liv’s, he opened a portal that left him standing just outside her closed bedroom door. Not wanting to startle her, he knocked, hoping she was there, and that she’d just lost track of time.
“Rachel? It’s me. Are you in there?” When he didn’t receive a reply, not bothering to think that she was ignoring him, he pushed into the room. He released a heavy sigh of relief to see that she was sleeping on her bed before his heart clenched in pain. Rachel was lying in the fetal position, her body curled into a tight ball. There was a deep frown on her face and her eyebrows were furrowed. And when he got closer, he could clearly see the dried tear tracks on her face.
This was his fault, he knew, and he wished, more than anything, that he could take the whole afternoon back. When Rachel fidgeted restlessly and her frown deepened, Jaime came to a decision. He may have been the reason she was so upset, and she may not want him to be there when she woke up, but the least he could do was make her sleep more peaceful.
Kicking off his sneakers, he climbed onto the bed and wrapped his entire body around hers, spooning her. He cradled her with his body, relaxing when she sighed and sank into him, the tension in her body melting away. It didn’t take him much longer after that, to fall asleep himself.