I walked outside and tossed a sweatshirt on. "What are you doing here?" He shrugged and unstrapped a bag from his bike. "I thought a lot about what you said. About living with no schedule and I call bullshit." He walked closer and held out a piece of paper with a list of classes I was already enrolled in for the summer semester. "You can follow a schedule." I furrowed my eyebrows and crinkled up the paper.
"This is different. This is school, and they make you follow it. Not life. Life is full of unpredictable moments." He nodded and I tossed the paper in a recycling bin. "So why didn't you tell me you where going to school already, and trying to finish early?" I shrugged and crossed my arms. "Figured we had other problems that where more important." He raised my head and kissed my lips. "And why not tell me at the house when I showed you my plan?"
I shrugged and huffed. "Because you where set in your decision, and I didn't think my summer courses and clinics for the past two years would make a difference in your plan." I put emphasis on the word your. He grimaced and let out a growel. "Our plan." I laughed and it made him even more mad. "No mine was to start our life together after you changed packs. Not in three years. That was all you."
"Paisley." He whispered as he ran his hands down my cheek. He held them still when he reached under my face his thumbs rubbing my cheeks. "This is a lot all at once." I nodded and pulled back. "Come on let's get you food before the twins eat it all." I went insode and he followed looking defeated and down. I grabbed him a plate before walking in to finish my game with my cousins.
We finished and I won the pot. "Rematch!" Nash yelled and I handed him back his watch. "Don't bet high if you aren't sure." He grunted and he took more nickels from his pocket. Archer followed suit. I took some from my jar and handed Archer back his headphones. He grabbed them back with a nodded and I set up my piles and shuffled the deck. "Deal me in." Jackson said as he shoved the last piece into his mouth. They bet normally the first few rounds and Jackson was up next. "I bet five nickels and a secret about Paisley."
"You can't do that." I said as the boys gave him a piece of paper to write his bet on. "I sure can." He smiled and My Mom linked me bet a secret back. "Fine I see your five nickels and raise you a secret about me that no one knows and a secret about Jackson." I wrote it down and tossed it in the pile. "Oh I fold." Nash said and Archer smiled. "I raise it six nickels and make it two secrets about Paisley." I glared at him. Jackson tossed seven nickels and a ring from his hand. "I bet you that, plus two secrets of my own." I tossed the seven nickels. And thought about what I had on me, and tossed a twenty and a picture of me my Dad had taken and a small knife my Dad had given me when I was younger.
"I bet that and a skinnydip. If I loose." I wrote it down and Archer folded. "To rich for my blood." Jackson looked at me with a flash in his eye. The bright yellow catching me off guard. "I'll raise and add marking." He jotted it down and tossed it in the pile. I looked at my cards and looked at Jackson. "I'll add a shower fun, a toss in the sheets, and a forest adventure." I wrote them all out and Nash whistled. Jackson raised them and pushed his whole pile in. "I raise you everything." I pushed my bigger pile in the pot. He showed his cards and he had a pair of Jack's. I smiled and laid down three aces. He shook his head and I emptied the table. "What bets are you keeping?" Archer asked. "As the winner you can keep or toss them." I took all the pieces of paper and shoved them in my pocket. "None." I handed Jackson back his ring and he shook his head.
"You won it fair and square." I looked down to see it was his family crest. In a silvery finish. He got up and walked out the back door. "I think I should have folded." I said to Archer and Nash. The nodded and I took the papers. I ran out to Jackson. He sat by the stone wall over looking the forest. "I should have let you win." He slid his eyes towards me. "That would have been cheating." I nodded and handed him the papers. "Hand them to me as you want and I'll do it." He handed me the secret no one knows.
I read it again and nodded. "Okay I love you, and it may sound dumb or rushed to you... But it's the truth. I eat in the shower when I'm stressed. Something about the water calms me, and I don't really study. I just kind of remember the material." He shook his head. "I want a darker secret." I let out another huff and looked away from him.
"I hated my sister Faye and all that she did to me, but the day she died I felt like I had failed her. I was so upset she was gone I dove into that water to feel something other then numbness. I sat on the floor till my lungs burned to feel. I don't think it was really about her though. I think it was more an internal thing. Like I should have done more sooner. Or I don't know, been more upset. Cried maybe... I still don't miss her. Isn't that awful? Gosh it is." I let out a breath. "We where close. Like Archer and Nash close when we were younger."
Jackson pulled me closer. "You are grieving in your own way. And you don't have to love someone to miss them. I think you wanted her dead and felt more upset about that then her actual death." I nodded. "Maybe you're right, but that doesn't make me feel better." He shrugged. He passed me another note. Shower fun, tangle in the sheets and forest adventure. "Which one first?" He snatched the paper and ripped off forest adventure and handed it to me. "Okay let me grab my boots."
I went inside and grabbed my boots. When I came back out Jackson played with the papers and put them into his jean pocket. "Where is the ring?" I slid it from my pocket and handed it to him. He slid it on my left hand. It was way to big, and me mhmmed. "Just take it Jackson. I don't want to loose it." He slid it on his finger and took my hand. "It's still yours I'll just hang onto it till we get home."