Autumn, Year 0
Paul is 44, Lisa is 41, Ben is 18, Declan is 18, Jessica is 18, Tegan is 0
TW: Death
A few days had passed and Jess was bonding with her father, Paul, over a video game. Paul had been particularly stressed recently and Jess was bearing the brunt. He’d been nagging her over her relationship with Declan and she was getting tired of hearing it.
“Dad, please,” Jess begged. “Let it go. I don’t really know how things are with Declan yet but as soon as we sort something out, I’ll tell you.”
She was exhausted and tense and really didn’t want to discuss it any more.
Sadly, Paul didn’t want to let it go. He just couldn’t understand why Jess was being so casual about whether she was in a relationship with the father of her baby or not.
“Look Dad, stop it. I don’t know what’s going on with you at the moment but will you please drop the subject of Declan!” Jess finally snapped. “You’ve been going on at me for ages, what’s wrong with you?”
Paul looked sad for a moment. “All right, I’ll let it go. I’m sorry, I only want what’s best for you.” He sighed. “I’ve been struggling with not having a job and I suppose I am rather taking it out on you. I’m just so fed up with applying for jobs and being rejected all the time.”
Jess hadn’t realised that unemployment was affecting her father so much. She felt a little bad for exploding at him.
That evening, after Jess and Lisa had gone to bed, Paul checked his phone. To his dismay, he’d been rejected again. The last few weeks had been incredibly frustrating for him and he knew it hadn’t been fair to take it out on Jess.
He needed to get some air.
He put on his running clothes and stepped out into the cool, night air. It was still early autumn and the days were still warm so the chill in the air was very welcome. He set off at an easy pace, enjoying the cool breeze washing over him. He needed to do this more often, he realised as he listened to his own feet pounding the pavement.
The following day, on her mother’s advice, Jess went out to the Foxbury Student Centre to see some of her friends.
While there, she got talking to one of the guys, Ben. She found herself getting very flustered every time she caught him looking at her.
As much as this crush on Ben complicated things for her, Jess was enjoying flirting with someone new. She began to relax a little more as they talked.
Although a few comments did make her wish she’d just shut up. She couldn’t really tell if Ben was interested in her and she realised that it might be time to leave him with her number and go home before she embarrassed herself further.
As she was getting ready to leave, the bees in the community beehive suddenly swarmed and started attacking her. As she swatted them away and headed for the door, she glanced around quickly to see if Ben was watching.
Thankfully, nobody but one of the Foxbury lecturers saw her predicament so she darted inside to the bathroom.
Of course, some joker had pranked the cubicle she went into and she ended up the victim of a thoroughly disgusting prank.
It really hadn’t been her day. She hurried away from the site before Ben could catch sight of her in the state she was in. She wanted to get home as soon as possible and have a shower.
Shortly after she got home, she received an invite from Declan to go out for the evening. Keen to get away from any questions from her parents, she hurried up and left to meet with Declan.
He was genuinely pleased to see her and they talked for a while about Tegan, including Declan trying to arrange when his parents could meet their granddaughter. All the time, Jess was thinking about Ben.
Feeling guilty, she forced herself to concentrate on what Declan was saying.
She had an idea. She thought that she was obsessing over Ben because he wasn’t complicated. Everything with Declan felt more difficult; co-parenting Tegan, Declan’s parents, her own parents and so on. Nothing seemed straightforward or normal and Jess decided she needed to try and make it normal.
She placed her hands on Declan’s shoulders. “Dec, I need to ask you something. I know we’ve been a bit on and off lately but I think that maybe it’s time we sorted things out.”
“You mean like a normal relationship?” Declan smiled. “Are you sure? I know you haven’t wanted to get too serious or anything but-“
Jess cut him off with a kiss. “Yes, I’m serious. Let’s at least give it a try.”
Declan felt a bit stunned. Only a handful of days before, Jess had been avoiding the conversation about his parents meeting Tegan and had been insulting him, to suddenly hitting on him and sleeping with him the following day and now to this. He felt like he was reeling a bit from her shift in attitude but he did adore her so he let it go.
For the rest of the evening, Declan’ was so enamoured with Jess that he forgot the teasing over his appearance ‘s world revolved around Jess. He’d liked her for such a long time and he’d spent the last several years as a teenager wondering if she fancied him at all. To be in a relationship with her at last was a dream come true for him.
The next day, Jess was enjoying a quiet household. Tegan was asleep upstairs and both her parents were out. So she ordered a pizza and settled down to watch the television.
Lisa had gone over to the new community centre in town. It was due to open properly soon and she was interested in what they were going to do with it.
Heading inside, she realised they were giving residents the chance to vote on what the centre would be. Excited, she added her voice to the mix. It would be lovely to have somewhere new to go in town, especially to be able to take Tegan out and about when Jess went off to University.
After leaving, she was heading across town when she spotted Paul sitting by himself on a bench. Confused, she went and sat beside him.
“Paul?” She said, somewhat uncertainly. “Are you okay?”
He looked up suddenly. “Oh Lisa, hi. Sorry, I didn’t notice you there.”
“Lisa, I need to talk to you.” Paul began. He then poured his heart out about his lingering unemployment, Lisa flirting outrageously with Declan right in front of him and the pressures of having another mouth to feed in the house. Most of all, he expressed his fear of Lisa cheating on him.
Lisa couldn’t quite make sense of half of Paul’s ramblings but she listened and made supportive noises.
Although Lisa said very little during the discussion, Paul felt better for having opened up. He and Lisa went for a walk into the countryside around the town to settle down.
Lisa did assure Paul she would never cheat on him and he felt better about that, at least.
When they returned home, they made straight for their bedroom to make up. They’d completely forgotten about Tegan sleeping in the nursery.
They’d also forgotten about Jess being in the house.
Ben had texted while Paul and Lisa were out and Jess had invited him over to see her. She was slightly giddy at the thought that Ben wanted to see her and for a while, all thoughts of Declan had been banished from her head.
They ended up sitting and watching a romantic film on the television. Jess could hardly keep her eyes off Ben and could feel her cheeks warming up when he looked at her. She was sure he did fancy her – the signs all seemed to be there.
She needed to know for sure.
After the film finished, Jess offered to make some tea for them both. Before she went into the kitchen, she suddenly leant over and kissed Ben.
Initially, Ben was startled. He’d been suspecting Jess was keen on him but he was sure he’d heard she was involved with someone. However, he wasn’t going to reject her. He’d been having a tough time finding a woman who was interested in him so seeing Jess going all flirty and giggly was flattering.
“I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t have done that,” Jess said suddenly.
“Why not? I always believe we should be more impulsive,” Ben said, reaching for Jess’ hand.
Ben followed her out to the kitchen to have a cup of tea and talk things over. Jess hadn’t mentioned a boyfriend or anything yet so he assumed the rumours hadn’t been true.
Jess was feeling bolder than ever and was keen to see where this would go. Ben obviously did fancy her and it was a wonderful feeling.
Jess and Ben returned to the lounge to get properly acquainted. They were so engrossed in each other, they never heard Tegan start crying upstairs.
Thankfully, Paul did hear and attended to his tiny granddaughter. He did wonder what Jess was doing that had made her not hear her daughter.
“So, how do you feel about being exclusive?” Ben asked quite suddenly. It was a little while later and they’d resurfaced to wash up their tea cups.
“With you?” Jess asked, still a little giddy.
“Of course,” Ben laughed. “Who else?”
“Oh, well yes, I mean, of course I do!” Without thinking, Jess beamed at Ben. She was so very excited.
Lisa arrived in the kitchen just at that moment, so Ben and Jess held off their celebrations. To her credit, Lisa never asked what was going on, so Jess hastily introduced Ben to her mother.
Ben gazed happily at Jess. While he’d definitely lost out on that sneaky inheritance, he was glad in a way that Jess had come into his life after the fact. At least he knew his feelings for her were genuine.
Later that evening, Jess was feeding Tegan.
“I can’t believe how much you’ve grown,” she whispered to her infant daughter. “You’re getting to be such a big girl now.”
She still felt conflicted about having a baby at eighteen but at least she had a chance to make sure she could give her daughter a good life.
The following morning, Jess had a lie in so her parents took charge of everything. Paul was repairing the washing machine in the kitchen and Lisa was caring for Tegan. It was looking like it would be a beautiful day.
Paul spent some tummy time with Tegan, teaching her to roll over and lift her head. He had flashbacks of fond memories doing this for Jess when she was a baby and it gave him a wonderful flash of nostalgia.
Suddenly, he heard a scream from downstairs. “Paul! Paul, come quickly!”
Placing Tegan back in her cot, he hurried downstairs to where his wife was screaming to see Jessica lying motionless on the floor. “Paul, she’s not breathing!” Lisa exclaimed, sobbing.
Declan was desperately trying to revive Jess, tears pouring down his cheeks. “Come on Jess, breathe. Please, Jessie.”
Then the Grim Reaper appeared.
“No, please, not Jess!” Lisa begged. “She’s just become a mother, she has her whole life ahead of her!” Lisa sobs took over.
Paul watched with astonishment as the Grim Reaper moved towards Jess but, instead of taking her away, she was listed into the air.
Blinking furiously, Paul, Lisa and Declan watched Jessica’s eyes open.
The Grim Reaper had listened. Jess was alive.
“Mum?!” Jess cried, flinging her arms around her mother. “Are you okay?”
“Oh Jessie, I’m fine,” Lisa sobbed, holding her daughter close. “I’m absolutely, completely okay.”
Jess agreed to go upstairs for a bit of a lie down to recover from her ordeal.
Much later, feeling more refreshed, Jess returned to the kitchen to talk to Declan.
“Dec, I know this is going to seem a bit odd but I don’t think this is going to work.” She began.
“Wait, you’re breaking up with me?” Declan couldn’t believe his ears.
“I am, yes.” Jess took a deep breath. “It’s not you, Dec. I just feel that our relationship is too…complicated. I’ve been so stressed about it and I think that’s why I…nearly died. I need to relax more and I can’t do that with you.”
“And nothing I can say will change your mind?” Declan asked, desperately.
“No. I’m sorry.”
Jess hated seeing Declan so crestfallen but she knew it was for the best. She’d been doing a lot of thinking upstairs and she knew that her feelings for Ben were definitely stronger than anything she felt for Declan. It had been stressing her, wondering how she was going to hide her new relationship with Ben from everyone and this seemed the easiest solution.
Declan felt like his world had stopped spinning.
Lisa tried to comfort Declan but he left the house in a hurry. Unfortunately for her, Paul witnessed her trying to comfort him; he’d just returned from his new part time retail job and to say he was furious was an understatement.
