FB: Tow Boats leavin cuz it don't care, what's not on board and who's not there...

Jacob and I didn’t have as much time together in my hometown as we did at his. He was only staying a couple of days, and most of those I would have to go back to work for. Luckily, since I worked for a non-profit, we were always desperate for volunteers, so I had been able to arrange it so that Jacob could come with me to work, under the guise of volunteering.

The days I had off, I took him to my favorite haunts. We went to the zoo, and to COSI, got coffee at Stauf’s, ate ice cream at Jeni’s, visited my favorite local restaurants. We ran together in the morning at Antrim park. The only thing we didn’t do was spend a lot of time at the apartment.

Jarren was at the apartment, and when Jacob was around, all she did was annoy me. She flirted with him, asked him constantly if he had any marine friends to hook her up with, even though she finally had a boyfriend. She just pestered the crap out of both of us. She didn’t know how to take a hint, I’d be trying to spend some alone time with Jacob, and she’d bust into my room, and wouldn’t leave. So after the first day, we spent as much time as we could out of the apartment.

I also took Jacob to meet my parents. We had lunch together, and I was glad to see they got along with him. The only boyfriend I had ever had that my parent’s hadn’t liked was Chris. I didn’t feel like I needed to seek out my parents approval of who I dated, but it did make things a lot easier if they liked my boyfriend.

The night before I returned to work Jacob and I decided to do something relaxing, and so we decided to go see a movie. It was a later showing, and I was worried about being up too late and having to get up early, but I decided just let it go. If I got too tired, I could always fall asleep in the movie, and if I was a little tired in the morning, so what? I’d just make it a free day for the kids and take it easy.

In the middle of the movie, I went to use the bathroom. While in the stall, I checked my messaged. I had eighteen missed calls from Jarren, and five texts. I stood out in the lobby and dialed her number.

“Jarren? What’s going on?” I asked when I heard her answer.

“Ohmigodthankyou where were you? I need you to come get me. Like, now.”

“Where are you?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

“I’m at a motel on the Southside. With Sammy. I need you to come get us.” Sammy was Jarren’s cousin. She was a sweet girl, quiet, and she let Jarren run all over her.

“What’s going on?”

“I met this guy online, and I thought he’d be perfect for Sammy, but you can’t meet guys alone, you know that’s dangerous, so I went with Sammy to meet him. He was nice enough but he was flirting with Sammy and I asked him why and he got all mad and left.”

Her story made no sense. But, I knew Jarren. What had probably happened was that SHE met the guy online for herself, took Sammy with her to meet him, he flirted with Sammy instead of her, and Jarren probably got angry.

“Why can’t Eric pick you up?” Eric was Jarren’s new boyfriend.

“He just… Can’t. OK, can you come get me or not? I’m afraid this guys gonna come back and go crazy again.”

“Whatever. I’m like fifteen minutes away. Is there somewhere nearby you can walk too and wait for me? Someplace safer?”

“Yeah, there’s a Waffle House right in front of us. We’re at the Budget Inn on South High.”

“Fine. Go there. I’ll come get you.”

I pulled Jacob out of the theatre and half explained what was going on. He didn’t need to know the full story, just that Jarren was stranded and needed a ride. I was mad about wasting the money to only watch half the movie, and I was even more pissed off when I got to the Waffle House and found out that Jarren had ordered food, but “forgot” her purse in Eric’s car and needed to “borrow” the money to cover the check.

We brought both Jarren and Sammy back to our place, where Jarren immediately got online, and Sammy crashed, looking bored, onto the sofa. Jacob followed me into my room.

“You’re a good friend, Ella. But that chick, she walks all over you.”

“Sometimes.” I admitted. “Jarren and I have been friends for awhile. She’s been there for me through a lot. She’s having a rough time right now. She’s fighting with her Dad and sister, her Mom is sick, and is having a lot of family drama in general… She’s raised her nieces from birth and now her sister wants them back. So it’s a huge custody battle and Jarren feels like she might lose her little sisters.” I shrugged. “I can handle her being a little… Selfish.”

Jacob shrugged. “You should text Mom about that book we found today. See if she wants me to pick it up for her. I’m gonna grab something to eat, you want something?”

“Sure, grab me a snack.” I answered. I reached for my phone to text Sandy about an Elvis impersonation kit-book we found at half priced books. She was a huge Elvis fan and we thought she’d get a kick out of it. However, when I grabbed my phone, I realized that it was dead. I had forgotten to charge it the night before. I plugged mine in, and saw Jacob’s phone laying on the table. I grabbed it, planning on texting his Mom from his phone.

When I entered his inbox though, I couldn’t help but look through his texts. I knew I shouldn’t have, it was an invasion of privacy, and it’s not like I didn’t trust Jacob. I was just… Curious, was all. The only texts he had in his inbox were from earlier in the day, from his Mom. The conversation went something like this:

Mom: Saw M. today.
Jacob: What’d she want?
M: She looked horrible Jake. You should rly call her.
J: Did she apologize? Did she ask you to tell me to call?
M: No. She just looked… Alone. She dropped off some of yr stuff.
J: Then drop it Mom.

“Did you text Mom?” Jacob asked, startling me.

“…No. My phone’s dead. Can I use yours?” I asked, trying to play it off, hoping he didn’t catch me snooping.

“Sure.” He said, shrugging.

I texted his Mom, and then snuggled down next to him. Jacob had made popcorn, which we ate while watching old sitcom reruns on Nick at Night. I’m not sure when we drifted off to sleep, I just know a little while later, I woke to Jacob’s phone ringing, the TV still on.

“Hello?” He answered, groggily. “What?” He asked, sounding confused. “I don’t understand. No. No Mom. Mom… Are you sure? Are you really sure?” Panic was filling his voice, which made panic creep up in the back of my throat. Middle of the night phone calls were never a good thing.

“Mom. I’m coming home. Yes, right now. I’ll call you. Bye.” He said, jumping up out of bed.

“Jake, what’s going on?”

“It’s Michelle.” He said, searching the floor for his pants.

“What about her?” I asked, propping myself up.

“Mom says…” His voice cracked. By the light of the TV I could see his eyes were wet.

“What?”

“Mom says she’s dead.”