Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 88

Chapter 88

Chapter 88

Jessa

…

55 vouchers

By the time Jackson came home from practice, the sky outside had already turned dusky gray, the kind of light that made everything in our house feel smaller and heavier.

I was curled up on the couch, half–watching a reality show I couldn’t even pretend to care about. The pizza I ordered sat on the counter, growing cold in its box.

When the front door opened, I didn’t even look up. “Hey,” I said quietly.

Jackson didn’t answer right away. I heard the door shut, his cleats drop, the heavy sigh that followed. Then his footsteps–slow, deliberate–coming toward the living room.

“You ordered pizza?” he asked finally.

I blinked, realizing I’d forgotten all about it. “Oh–yeah. I did. Mom’s working late. Thought we could just do something easy for dinner.”

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “Easy. Sure.”

Something about the tone made me look up. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders tight. There was a storm brewing in his eyes, and I could feel it before he said a word.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting up straighter.

He ran a hand through his hair. “You want to tell me what’s going on with you and Noah?”

I froze. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb, Jessa.” His voice was low but sharp. “You think I don’t notice? The weird tension. The way he looks at you. The way you look at him.”

“Jackson-”

“Did you even think for a second what that does to me?” he snapped, cutting me off.

I blinked at him, startled. “What are you talking about?”

He started pacing, voice rising. “He’s my best friend, Jess. The one person I can count on when everything else feels like it’s on me. And now… now I can’t even have that without you being part of it too!”

I swallowed hard. “You think I asked for this? You think I planned any of it?”

“I think you make everything complicated,” he said, his words landing like punches. “You don’t get it–I’m the only guy in this house. It’s me who has to protect you, protect Mom, keep everything from falling apart. And you-” His voice cracked for just a second. “You just make it harder.”

“Harder?” I repeated, my own voice trembling now. “I didn’t ask to be protected, Jackson. I didn’t ask for you

18:36 Mon, Oct 13

Chapter 88

to take on everything. That’s not fair.”

56 vouchers

“Tait?” He laughed bitterly. “Nothing about our life is fair, Jess. You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to grow up before I even had a chance to figure out who I was?”

I could feel the distance between us widening with every breath.

And I hated it–because for all the things he said, for all the anger, I knew what was really underneath it.

He was scared.

Of losing control.

18:36 Mon, Oct 13

Chapter SS

Of losing Noah

Of losing me.

And the truth was, I was scared too.

55 vouchers

Because maybe we’d both been pretending for too long that we were fine in this house without a father–him playing protector, me playing invisible.

And tonight, for the first time, neither of us could hide behind those roles anymore.

AD