FicWad

FINDING JARED

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

As Jared and Skyla continued packing in Jared's hotel room, Shannon worked up the guts to apologize to Jared. He knew he would have to sooner or later, but he would actually rather do it later rather than sooner. He left the hotel room and went down four floors to Jared's; he knocked and waited.

A few seconds later Skyla opened the door and let him in. She realized that this was going to be a tense conversation between Jared and Shannon, so she tried to leave.

"I'm going for a short walk; I'll be back soon," she said hesitantly. She left as quickly as she could.

Shannon and Jared both watched her leave; as the door closed behind her, Shannon turned to Jared. He gave him a piercing look.

"So what happened between you and her?" Shannon asked him, oh-so-casually.

"Absolutely nothing," Jared replied. He threw some shirts into a suitcase; he needed to organize everything better after Shannon left.

"Ha! You have an air about you that says you did something–" Shannon started.

"I do not!" Jared interjected. He started throwing jeans in on top of his shirts. Then he grabbed a few pairs of sneakers and tossed them in, too.

Suddenly Shannon grabbed his suitcase and dumped it out. "You guys did something, and I want to know what it was!" he yelled at him.

Jared grabbed his arm and threw him on the floor. "We kissed, okay? We just fucking kissed! Now leave me alone!" He turned back to his suitcase and picked it back up; he began packing all the clothes Shannon had dumped out back into his suitcase.

Now he knew what Skyla meant by "possessive": Shannon turned him back around. "What do you mean by, 'We just fucking kissed!'?" Shannon asked him, red with rage. "All kisses mean something!"

By this time, Jared wanted to shrink into the floor and disappear. He wished Skyla would at least come back...

"...and you're fucking eating her damn face off..." Shannon was muttering to himself.

"At least I'm not the one having sex with her," Jared thought to himself as Shannon, still grumbling to himself, went into the bathroom.

Skyla was standing outside the room; she had heard everything. She took several deep breaths before she opened the door with the room key. She saw Jared furiously packing and Shannon coming out of the bathroom; she turned to leave, but Shannon grabbed her by her shoulder.

"Wait! You have a decision here," Shannon said. He guided her to Jared's bed, where she sat nervously on the edge. Shannon and Jared stood across from her. "Skyla, did you really kiss Jared?" Shannon asked her.

Skyla felt a pang of unease in her stomach; she looked at them both. She felt like a small child who was being punished for stealing something he (or she) shouldn't have... technically, she was a teenager with something she shouldn't have: an older man.

"Yes, I kissed Jared. But only because I was tired of you being so possessive of me!" Skyla told Shannon. Jared's mouth dropped open. "I'm tired of being used like some rusted tool in my father's shed! I'm not waiting for this afternoon; I'm leaving now!"

As she ran out of the room in tears, Jared followed her. He didn't give a damn about Shannon being possessive, or Skyla being used. All he cared about was letting Skyla know that someone was there for her.

It took him ten minutes to catch up with Skyla. She was in the stairwell at the entrance to the lobby and she was sobbing. Jared walked down the last flight of stairs to go and meet her... but then he hesitated. What if she didn't want to see him right now? What if she told him to buzz off? He sighed and continued down the stairs; he sat down by her and put his arm across her shoulders.

"Are you going to be okay?" Jared asked her quietly.

"I will, eventually," she replied. Jared pulled her in close.

In between sobs, Skyla managed to get a few sentences out. "I lied. I prefer you over Shannon."

Jared's heart felt like the Grinch's: it just grew three times its own size. As he stood up, he held out his hand to pull Skyla to her feet; as she stood up, she stumbled and fell into Jared's arms. They laughed as he straightened her up.

"I'm sorry," she told him.

"It's okay! There's no need to apologize," Jared told her as he escorted her back upstairs.

Skyla laughed as she placed her hand on the crook of his elbow. The familiar shock of electricity flowed between them at his touch; Skyla never felt that with Shannon. That small shock was what Skyla had at the top of her list of guys, i.e. "Must have bad case of static discharge." She smiled to herself.

Jared couldn't help but notice the small shock he got when he touched Skyla; he didn't know if she felt it too. He placed his left hand on top of Skyla's right hand and they both jumped at the flow of electricity between them. She quickly pulled her hands away from his, as did he.

"So you felt that?" Jared asked her.

"Yes, and you did too?" Skyla was confused.

"Yeah. So..." Jared trailed off. He looked at her expectantly.

Skyla stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, feeling a mix of electricity, nervous and ecstasy all at once. Jared kissed her back, feeling more than ecstasy rush through him.

As they headed back to Jared's hotel room, they passed Shannon on his way back down to the fourth floor. Shannon stopped in the hallway and apologized to Jared: "I'm sorry for everything Jared. Can I talk to Skyla for a minute?"

Jared left them alone, albeit hesitantly. After he disappeared into his hotel room, Shannon ad Skyla started talking.

"What do you want?" Skyla asked him.

"It's obvious you and Jared want to be together, so I'm just gonna... dump you," Shannon said.

"We were never together in the first place!" Skyla hissed. "Two nights of hot, passionate sex and you just assume we're together?"

"I know Jared did, for one," Shannon spat.

"Well Jared jumped to conclusions because he had just escaped from a bunch of abductors!" Skyla was practically yelling now.

Shannon was quiet for about five minutes; he didn't think about Jared and his kidnapping because he didn't want to. He was so busy with his outings with Skyla he had forgotten them. But Skyla didn't. He realized now that Skyla was truly the woman for his brother.

"Go to my brother. He'll need you in a few months," Shannon said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Skyla asked him.

"He won't get over this thing easy by himself. With you, he'll have a strong person behind him the whole time. You're a good influence on him." Shannon sighed; saying that was hard for him, but it was the truth.

That was the second time someone said that she'll be behind Jared. The first time, she herself had said it, and now Shannon said it. She pushed that thought out of her mind as she went to see Jared.

He was repacking his suitcase. She went over and sat down on his bed beside it; he looked at her.

"You work things out with Shannon?" Jared asked her.

"Yeah... we've, you know... broken up," she told him with a small smile.

Jared gave her a hug. "Don't worry about being around him; he'll get over it."

Skyla nodded. "Are we really leaving today?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I think, in a few hours. Why?" he asked her.

"Nothing, just wondering," she replied. She was going to wait until they got back to the United States before actually asking him out.

"I was wondering if you might want to go out with me when we get back to the States?" Jared asked her with his head down. So much for waiting.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Skyla smiled as she accepted the date offer.

"Great, we'll go someplace tomorrow night then!" Jared beamed.

Skyla was excited for her first actual date with Jared; she just didn't know what all the date had to offer.