Well, I heard her all right, but that wasn’t going to change the fact that I was going, and this was more like an informative meeting rather than me asking her permission to go.
“Mom, I’m going, and unless you plan on locking me in my room, you can’t stop me,” I stated matter-of-factly. “Jacob will be there. He’ll be watching over me—”
“Oh, right, because a thirty-year-old at a high school party is normal,” Mom cut in, rolling her eyes. “You and Oliver certainly seem to adore that Jacob, but he’s not God, Jaz. He won’t be able to save you from someone if they try to go after you—”
She really didn’t know how savage Jacob could get when his adrenaline was pumping, but that was something I wasn’t going to tell her. She’d only wonder how I knew that, and then…yeah, then I’d have to get into our history together, which would only freak her the hell out.
Yeah, had to avoid a freaked-out Mom, definitely.
“I’ll be fine,” I said.
“I’ve heard that before.”
Granted, that was true, but I never had a whole team of guys looking out for me before. Tonight would be different.
Mom let out an angry sigh, squeezing her eyes shut as she muttered, “The last time you went to a party, I didn’t hear back from you until the morning after, when you came home wearing clothes that weren’t yours.”
“I told you, nothing happened,” I said.
“Then why didn’t you come home?” Her voice cracked, and I found myself speechless at my mom’s emotional stance. “Why didn’t you call? I stayed up worried sick after you, Jaz. I thought—”
Finally, I found my tongue. “You thought what? You thought Dad had found me? You thought I’d decided to take after him and get myself into trouble?” I shook my head. “When have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?” Granted, there were a few times I’d gone behind her back and did things she probably would look down on me for, but I was a hormonal teenage girl. Like, give me a break, you know? Let me act out every now and then.
Mom’s eyes opened, and she let out a loud sigh. “I worry about you, Jaz. I worry that sometimes you take too much after him, even though he didn’t have a hand in raising you.” AKA I failed in raising you right.
That’s what she meant. I knew it, and yet it still irked me.
“Stop worrying about me, Mom.”
“It’s my job as your mother to worry about you, even when you don’t want me to.” She let out another sigh, this one near earth-shattering. “Fine, go to your party, but I swear to God, if something happens, I will find a way to lock you inside this house.”
I knew that was as good as I would get from Mom, so I gave her a smile before bouncing out of the room. Sucked that Jacob had to come and basically be my shadow for the night, but that was something I couldn’t get out of. And sneaking out of a house like this would be impossible, unless I wanted to scale the fence.
I mean, I liked to think I was reasonably athletic, but I wasn’t that good.
The next hour and a half I spent getting ready: doing my hair, my makeup, choosing an outfit that said I cared a little bit but at the same time I didn’t want to try too hard. It was a difficult balance to achieve with an older t-shirt and some frayed jeans. I figured I’d wear my leather jacket, the one labeled slut, but then I wondered if that would be too much. After all, the slut addition was by Brittany’s hand, so having an entire crowd see me in the jacket might cause them to riot or something.
Hell, I’d seen enough horror movies to know that wasn’t a good idea, so I decided to go for a zip-up hoodie instead, leaving the zipper open.
I was in the process of doing my makeup when I heard arguing in the hall. Two male voices, one of them so familiar to me it caused my thighs to clench in remembrance. Jacob Hall. Technically David Hall, but if he wanted to keep going by Jacob, that was fine. He would always be Jacob to me.
Those scars…I couldn’t say I ever imagined that they were from a fire he’d set himself when he was younger.