Jackie stepped off the airplane and walked through the airport, completely ignoring her surroundings. She was hoping that no one would notice her, given she wasn't exactly in the mood to entertain. As much as she was hurting she had yet to cry, still too angry above anything else.
While standing in baggage claim, she switched on her phone and saw Catherine's message on asking to let her know when she landed. Not giving her the satisfaction of a phone call, she sent a one word text.
J: Landed
****
Catherine went to retrieve her keys from the desk when she spotted it. Her lacrosse t-shirt folded on a chair. Jackie must have left it before leaving this morning. She picked it up and held it close, breathing in Jackie's scent, heart broken at the gesture.
After she returned home, she kept her phone close. Knowing that Jackie's plane should be landing soon. As she was fixing dinner, she finally heard her phone vibrate on the counter. Her eagerness soon dissipated once she saw the short response.
J: Landed
****
Jackie grabbed her bag from the carousel and was walking to the parking garage when her phone began to ring. Catherine obviously wasn't a fan of her message. She hit 'ignore' and continued on her way. What else could she possibly have left to say to her?
Thirty minutes later, while stuck in traffic, Catherine called for a third time. Completely agitated at this point, she picked up.
"Catherine, I'm stuck in traffic and am trying to get home. Can you please stop bothering me? I'm in a bad enough mood as it is."
"I'm not trying to bother you. We need to talk. Call me when you get home."
"I'll think about it."
"Jackie, please-"
Jackie hung up.
****
Three hours had passed and Catherine still hadn't heard a word from Jackie. Her flight to Stanford was in the morning and she was supposed to end her trip in LA with Jackie, but now she wouldn't even speak to her. Â She texted her, hoping she would get some sort of response this time.
C: Please talk to me. I'm going to bed for my early flight. I'm still planing on coming to LA after. Will you at least talk to me then?
Jackie was sitting on the couch, deep into a bottle of wine, when she saw the message. She rolled her eyes and tossed the phone across the couch. A few moments later, she looked over at it. Knowing she had to at least give her an answer.
J: Yeah, we'll talk then
****
The following evening, Jackie was struggling to get moving. So she told Rachel that she would meet her at the party.
"Where's Catherine?" Rachel asked, looking behind her as soon as she met Jackie at the door.
"I don't want to talk about it," Jackie responded.
She grabbed a martini from the waiters tray and swallowed the entire thing in one gulp. Then she placed the glass back down and slid the olive off of the tooth pick with her teeth, throwing the pick back into the glass.
"It's going to be one of those nights, huh?"
"You bet," she said, walking in front of Rachel without a care in the world.
"Did you guys break up?"
"What did I say?" Jackie snapped back at her.
"Okay, okay. Sorry," Rachel said, putting her hands up in surrender.
****
Catherine returned to the hotel after her Stanford interview and checked her phone. Jackie hadn't returned any of her messages since this morning when she let her know that she had landed. Even then, she just received a "K".
She tried not to let it bother her, since they would see each other soon, but she was hurt that she didn't even wish her luck for her big interview. Hopefully they would resolve their issues or at least compromise and meet in the middle.
Since she was at Stanford, Catherine went ahead and made dinner plans with an old college friend that she hadn't seen in years. She decided not to let the others know she was in town, considering she wasn't exactly in the mood to discuss about her love life.
During dinner, she checked her phone while her friend was in the restroom. Unable to resist to see if Jackie replied.
Nothing.
It was then that she noticed the battery was only at 5%. She turned it off and stuck it in her purse to try and save the battery. Â Not like Jackie would respond to her anyways, considering she was at her party now.
****
It was barely past 10 o'clock and Jackie was well on her way to blacking out. Pre-gaming with a bottle of wine as she got ready probably wasn't the wisest idea. After stumbling into a couch, she collapsed on it for a minute to take a breather. She pulled out her phone and reread all of the messages Catherine had sent her since leaving Bloomington.
She began to feel guilty for not wishing her luck today but didn't even know where they stood anymore. Thankfully, Catherine was driving up to see her first thing in the morning before flying home. Ignoring her was supposed to teach her a lesson that she didn't get to call all of the shots in this relationship.
However, Jackie was missing her.
She didn't want to admit it, but she understood why Catherine was so nervous. The media were snakes and would without a doubt make her out to be some sort of predator. It didn't make this any easier though. She thought they were finally moving forward for once.
Would they ever be able to make this work? The alcohol was really starting to get to her, making her become emotional so she broke down and texted Catherine.
J: I'm sorry for not wishing you luck. I hope your interview went well. I really do
****
When Catherine returned to the hotel after dinner, she took a shower before remembering her phone was turned off. After she was done in the shower, she grabbed her phone from her purse and it wouldn't turn on. She dug through her bags to find her charger.
"Great," she mumbled to herself after searching for five minutes.
She must have forgotten to pack it. Picking up the hotel phone, she dialled the front desk to ask if they sell phone chargers.
"No we don't, I'm sorry Ma'am. There is a convenience store about five minutes down the road."
"Great. Thank you," she responded.
After she hung up the phone, Catherine whispered to herself "Damn it."
It was already almost 11pm and she didn't feel like having to venture out into town again.
****
"There your are! I've been looking for you everywhere!" Rachel said, as she plopped down on the couch next to Jackie. "I'm going to head out. Do you need a ride?"
"Why won't she answer me, Rachel?" Jackie pouted.
"Catherine?"
"Yes," she moaned.
"So are you finally going to talk about it without biting my head off?"
"She wouldn't come tonight. We had a meeting with PR last week and they scared her by saying if the media finds out about her past, they will label her as a predator. Because of that, she's scared to be seen with me now. So we got into a huge fight back in Bloomington and have hardly talked since."
"I mean, I can't really blame her. Can you?"
"Yes! I should be more important!"
Rachel just looked at her.
"Ugh, but no, I can't blame her," Jackie said, sighing. "I just love her so much. Why can't we figure this out already?"
"It's not east dating someone in the spot light. You need to give her more credit. She already lost her job once because of you."
"I know, but it's hard."
"The things worth the most in life are usually the hardest. Come on, let's get out of here."
"No, I'm going to stay."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, the longer I'm here the more busy my mind will stay before I see her tomorrow."
"Alright. Well, I'll see you later."
****
After Jackie hugged Rachel goodbye, she got another drink and sat at the bar waiting for Catherine to text her. An hour later with no response, she texted her again.
J: I wish you would answer me. I love you so much. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. Wish you were here right now xo
Jackie was kicking herself for leaving with Rachel. Now all she wanted was to go home. She got up from the bar stool and stumbled to the door to leave the party. As she stood outside trying to decide how she was going home, she saw Tommy out of the corner of her eye making his way to the valet.
"Hey Jacks, need a ride?"
She stared at him. Contemplating what to do.
She was far too inebriated to drive herself, but would rather not take a cab alone this wasted. Catherine would be so angry if she found out she left with Tommy, but this is what she gets for not wanting to be with her publicly.
Why wasn't she answering her phone anyway? After wrestling with the decision, she finally decided to get into the car.
****
When Catherine returned from the convenience store, she plugged her phone into charge before turning off the lights and attempting to get some sleep. A few minutes later, her phone began vibrating uncontrollably.
Jackie must be finally calling her because she had some alcohol in her system, she thought.
After leaning over to retrieve her phone, she saw 9 missed calls from Rachel. Her heart immediately dropped into her stomach as she dialled her number.
Jackie...
"Catherine!" Rachel answered, sobbing on the other end of the phone.
"What's wrong Rachel? Is Jackie okay?" Catherine frantically asked.
Rachel struggled to get out the words before finally spitting them out.
"There-there's been an accident."
A/n Thanks for reading my story. Please vote and drop a comment. Comments will help me a lot more than you might think. â¤ï¸