“Happy birthday.” Jacob said as he kissed me on the cheek.
“Thanks.” I said shyly to him.
“What are you doing here?” Amelia said to Jacob.
“I came to wish Rose a happy birthday.” Jacob told her.
“Ppfft, you don’t care about her, if you did you wouldn’t have lied to her and you would be honest and tell her that we had sex.”
“Amelia, we did not have sex… You slept with my brother.” Jacob said to her. He moved closer towards me and I could feel his body heat. My body was calling out for him and my heart was feeling a little more mended just by him being close to me.
“You don’t have a brother…” Amelia started saying when Bonnie cut her off.
“He has an identical twin brother… He told us that he slept with you and that you kept calling him Jacob.”
“What?” I shouted. Jacob and Bonnie both looked at me. “Why wasn’t I told this?”
“Sorry, I only found out last night.” Bonnie said shrugging her shoulders.
“Me too, Joseph thought it was funny that she thought he was me.” Jacob explained.
“I don’t believe you… Rose, don’t believe him, he said he wanted me and that he was using you to get to me… Now I have him and we are going to be together.” I couldn’t believe what was coming out of her mouth, she was truly insane.
“You and him.” I pointed to Jacob who was now stood behind me. “Are not together, you will never be together… He doesn’t want you.” I poked her in the chest; she didn’t move she just squared up to me.
“We had amazing sex… Tell her, J.” Amelia said, looking at me in the eyes.
“Yeah it was pretty hot, you’re a wild little thing.” I knew without looking around that that was Joseph talking and it made me smile. She would now see for herself that there were two of them.
“See.” Amelia said, smirking at me. I stepped back and stood in between Jacob and Joseph. “What?” She looked gobsmacked, she probably thought she was high and was seeing two of everything.
“I was the one who fucked you, sweetness.” Joseph said to her.
“You tricked me… I wanted him; we are supposed to be together now.” She screamed.
“Never gonna happen.” Jacob said to her. Amelia screamed and stormed away. Bonnie and I both broke out into laughter.
“Well that was awkward… She was definitely a good fuck, but who wants a coke head for a girlfriend? I sure wouldn’t and her as my girlfriend? No way… Now if someone else was on offer I may have considered it.” Joseph said winking at Bonnie before he walked away.
“You wanna dance?” Jacob asked me.
“No.” He looked at me confused. “Thanks for helping out with her, but nothing has changed.” I picked up my drink and walked away from him. With every step I took I could feel myself crumbling, I was not going to cry, not on my birthday. I downed my drink and dragged Bonnie onto the dance floor. We instantly got guys coming up to us asking for dances and Bonnie sent them away with no arguments. The last thing we needed was for Jacob to get into a fight because I was dancing with someone else, it was still too fresh, too recent. Eventually he would have to get used to it.
***
We had been at the club for a few hours and my feet were starting to ache, I was standing off to the side of the dance floor leaning against a cold wall. Bonnie was dancing with Matt and I didn’t want to get in the way. They were hot and heavy, grinding against each other and kissing. I couldn’t understand why she was so against having a relationship with him, she seemed to like him a lot.
“Hey.” Joseph said as he stood beside me.
“Hi, Joseph.”
“You knew it was me?” He was surprised.
“Yeah, I can tell the difference between you two now… My heart isn’t racing with you stood next to me and Jacob has a little scar right there.” I said pressing my finger on the right-hand side of his forehead.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that… He did that when we younger.” He chuckled.
“What do you want?” I asked, sighing. I really didn’t want to talk about Jacob with him.
“He only didn’t tell you because I’m a bit of a nightmare with the ladies… Did he tell you about Jess?”
“No.” I was listening carefully to him now.
“We were only sixteen, Jess was his girlfriend; I mean they had only been together a couple of months… Until…” He hesitated.
“Until what?” I asked, waiting for him to tell me the rest of the story.
“Until… I slept with her.” He hung his head as if he was ashamed of what he’d done. “When I see what I want, I don’t stop until I get it and I wanted her… Not that it took a lot of persuading.”
“You did that to your own brother? Your twin?” I looked around for Jacob; I could feel his eyes on me. He was stood at the bar, watching us.
“Yeah, I was an idiot… That’s why he kept you away from me.”
“Was an idiot?” I laughed.
“Hey.” He protested.
“You still kissed me.” I reminded him.
“Yeah, I know… I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry, don’t punish him for my stupid behaviour.” I nodded so he knew that I had heard him. I was even more confused; had I reacted too quickly? Should I have given him another chance? One thing I did know was that I loved him and he was looking very sexy standing at the bar and despite the fact that I had rejected him several times in the past couple of days, he hadn’t taken his eyes off of me all night. I needed to talk to him.
Chapter 26
Jacob
I was watching Joseph talking to Rose; I was keeping a close eye on him. If he made a move on her I was going to kick his ass. They had been talking for quite some time when finally she looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back and then I saw her move away from Joseph. She looked like she was heading straight over to me. I decided to get her a drink; I turned towards the bar and ordered her a drink for when she got here. Once I paid for the drink I turned back around and saw that Amelia was standing in front of Rose and she was talking to her. Amelia looked drunk and she could have been stoned too.
“Hey, bro.” Joseph said as he stood next to me.
“Hey.” I replied, not taking my eyes off of Rose and Amelia.
“Want a drink?” He asked me. I shook my head. “You love her don’t you?”
“Yes.” I replied. Bonnie and Matt then approached us and my view of Amelia and Rose was blocked. When I moved to the side they were gone. “Where did they go?” I was looking around and I couldn’t see them anywhere. I was worried as Amelia didn’t look like she was very steady on her feet and I knew Rose hadn’t been her favourite person for quite some time.
“Who?” Bonnie asked.
“Rose and Amelia were standing there talking, Amelia didn’t look too happy.” I said pointing to the spot where they were, I couldn’t see them anywhere now. I looked over towards the door and I saw Amelia dragging Rose out. “Shit, there they are.” I took off running towards the door, which was very difficult to do in a crowded club. When we finally got outside I couldn’t see them anywhere, until I heard tyres screeching and Amelia’s car was heading out of the car park.
“There! Quick, Matt, get your car… We can’t lose them.” We all ran for his car. I jumped in the front seat and Bonnie and Joseph jumped in the back while Matt drove. “Hurry.” I shouted, slamming my fist down onto the dashboard.
Rose
“Amelia, where are we going? You shouldn’t be driving, have you taken something?” I asked, worriedly.
“Shut up.” She screamed at me. “I need to think… Need to think… Need to think.” Amelia was scaring me. She kept repeating things to herself and I didn’t know what she was thinking. I was annoyed at myself for not bringing my phone out with me. I figured if I left it at home then Jacob couldn’t ruin my night.
“Please stop the car, Amelia.” I pleaded.
“No… This is all your fault, he should be mine…
Mine… You won’t get a chance to have him again… I can’t let you.”
“Ok, you want him? He is yours… I will break all contact with him… I promise.” I was telling her what she wanted to hear. I needed to find a way to get her to stop the car; she was jittery and I knew she had taken something and it was messing with her mind. She was unstable and I was scared of what she was planning on doing. I hadn’t been her favourite person recently, not since I started dating Jacob. She had wanted him and he wasn’t interested.
Jacob
Matt was driving fast and we were only a couple of cars behind Amelia’s.
“Where is she heading?” Bonnie asked.
“I don’t know… Why won’t Rose answer her phone.” I yelled pressing re-dial again.
“She doesn’t have it; she left it at home tonight.”
“Fuck.” I roared. Matt turned the car down a small lane; it wasn’t lit very well and we could only see as far as the headlights shone. “Are you sure they turned down here?” I asked him.
“Yeah, positive… Look car lights, there.” Amelia was driving so fast, I didn’t know how she knew these roads so well to be going that speed. If she lost control of that car and Rose got hurt I would be the first one in line to kill Amelia. We turned a corner and Matt slammed on his breaks. I gasped and Bonnie screamed. All we saw was Amelia lose control of her car and it plunged off the side of the road into a river.
Chapter 27
Rose
Amelia and I had been arguing the whole ride, I didn’t know where we were going or why. While I was shouting at her to stop the car and pull over she just kept saying;
“He should be mine, he should be mine, he should be mine.”
“Amelia, stop the car!” I shouted as a weird sensation overcame me. It felt like we were flying. I turned my head away from her to look out of the windscreen and we were in fact flying through the air. I screamed as we hit the water of a large river. I was panicking and trying to remember the correct way to get out of a car sinking in water. The car would fill up fast and I tried to remain calm. I was pulling at my seat belt trying to get it off, it was stuck and the water was freezing cold and I could feel my fingers already starting to go numb. Amelia hadn’t been wearing hers and she had already opened her window and was trying to get out of the car.
“Amelia, help me… I’m stuck.” I cried out. She didn’t turn around and I was scared as the car was filling up quickly with water. I was going to drown if I couldn’t get out. I tried to calm myself down and kept pressing at the button. It would soon release and then I could swim out of the car.
Jacob
When I saw the car flying through the air I jumped out of Matt’s car and ran towards the grassy bank; I was trying to see where the car was and couldn’t see anything, all the light we had was the headlights from Matt’s car. Surely Rose and Amelia should have surfaced by now, I tried listening for any sounds that would indicate where they were but my heart was racing and all I could hear was it thumping in my head.
“Where are they?” Bonnie cried beside me.
“I can’t see them… I’m going in.” I kicked off my trainers as I prepared to jump into the river.
“Look, what’s that?” Bonnie asked pointing to movement in the water. I jumped in and swam over to someone in the water. I pulled them out and quickly saw that it was Amelia and she didn’t seem to be breathing. Joseph pulled her out of my arms.
“Go and find Rose… Police and ambulance are on the way.”
“She isn’t breathing.” I told them.
“We will start CPR.” Bonnie said, laying Amelia down and starting chest compressions on her. I was scared; if Amelia wasn’t breathing then what condition would Rose be in? I swam over to where I found Amelia, I couldn’t see under the water as it was dark and murky. I dove down and couldn’t see a car; I attempted it again, taking a deeper breath so I could go further down. This time I saw the car and swam towards it; there was an open window and I looked inside and it was empty. I pushed myself off of the car and gasped for breath when I resurfaced above the water.
“Did you find her?” Bonnie called.
“No, she isn’t in the car… Look around, in case she got out by herself.” I shouted at them. I noticed that Bonnie was no longer doing CPR on Amelia. Amelia was sitting on the ground with a blanket over her shoulders; she was rocking herself back and forth. I needed to get out of the water, it was freezing. If Rose was still in the water somewhere it would not be good, I was already really cold and she had been in the water longer than I had, she would be frozen.
“JACOB!... She’s there.” Bonnie cried out, pointing to the side of the water. I swam towards her and the guys ran to the same spot on the grassy bank. I got to her first; she was face down in the water. I turned her over and she wasn’t breathing and her lips were going blue.
“Quick, grab her… Get her out.” I shouted at Joseph and Matt, passing her up to them so I could climb out of the water.
“Don’t move her too much… Lay her down.” Bonnie cried. “She has been in the water too long, she could have hypothermia… If we move her too much we could damage her organs.”
“Bonnie, she isn’t breathing.” Matt said to her calmly.
“I can do CPR.” Bonnie said, placing her hands on Rose’s chest. I was so glad that Bonnie was studying to be a nurse. A couple of minutes later I heard spluttering and I looked and Rose had water spilling out from her mouth. Bonnie rolled her over so she wouldn’t choke on it. I flew towards her, cradling her face in my hands.
“Babe, can you hear me?”
“Jacob?” She asked, quietly. She was falling asleep.
“We need to keep her awake.” Bonnie said.
“Babe… Rose… Stay with me… Please… Stay with me.”
“Matt do you have any clothes in your car? We need to get her out of her wet clothes… Where the hell is the ambulance?” Bonnie began panicking. Matt ran towards his car and grabbed his gym bag. Joseph had his arms tightly around Bonnie trying to keep her calm. I rooted through Matt’s bag once he’d dropped it beside me and I found a pair of jogging bottoms and a hoody.
“Bonnie, help me get her out of these wet clothes… You two, check on Amelia.” Bonnie began helping me undress her without moving her too much. Once we had her in the dry clothes I changed out of my t-shirt and put on a dry clean one. I felt relieved when I heard the sirens, Rose was going to get some help and she would be ok. I loved her and could not lose her, she was strong and she would fight with everything she had.
Chapter 28
Jacob
I climbed into the ambulance with Rose and Amelia; I’d had to tell them that Rose was my fiancée so they would let me go with her. Amelia had been changed out of her wet clothes and had blankets wrapped around her. Rose was still unconscious.
“Have you contacted her family?” The paramedic asked.
“I will call them when we get to the hospital… Is she going to be ok?” I asked, worried about his reply.
“She has severe hypothermia… We are going to need to take her to a larger hospital for specialist treatment.”
“Where are we going? Will she be ok?”
“We are taking her to St. Andrews hospital… Luckily she wasn’t in the water much longer; it could have been a lot worse. But we won’t know more until the doctors have seen her… It’s best to get her family there as soon as possible.” I nodded so he knew that I’d heard him. I sent a text to Joseph.
They are taking her to St. Andrews hosp, can you ask Bonnie to call Rose’s parents… Paramedic said to get them to the hosp as soon as possible.
She is on the phone to them now, we are right behind you.
Thanks
We pulled up to the hospital ten minutes later and they rushed Rose inside, followed closely by Amelia. I kept close to them hoping that they wouldn’t stop me going in with her.
“Sir, I am going to have to ask you to wait here.” A nurse said as she placed her hand on my
chest to stop me walking any further.
“But please, I don’t want her to be alone, I don’t want her to wake up and think that I left her.” I explained.
“You will be allowed back in once they have started treating her.” I nodded and went to turn around when I felt a hand on my back. I looked over and saw it was Bonnie.
“Do you have any dry clothes he can have? He was in the water too… He is shivering.” Bonnie asked the nurse. Was I shivering? I hadn’t noticed, I think it must have been due to the adrenaline coursing through my body. I was focused on Rose, my number one priority.
“Sir, please come with us.” A different nurse said.
“Are you taking me to Rose?” I asked.
“In a minute… We just need to check you over.” She explained as she steered me towards an examination room.
“But…”
“Your wife is in good hands… Please?” I nodded and she sat me down on the bed and told me to change into dry clothes and then she would be back. She called Rose my wife, I had lied earlier saying that she was my fiancée so I could go in the ambulance with her. I liked the sound of people calling her my wife. That would scare most men, but I was madly and deeply in love with her and hated to be apart from her for so long.
The nurse walked back in followed by Bonnie.
“Rose’s parents are here.” I nodded. Bonnie sat down in the examination room with me while the nurse asked me a load of questions, checked my blood pressure, listened to my heart and made me put heat pads on my neck and lower back. They were only slightly warm but she said it would help.
The nurse came back into my room an hour later and said that I was allowed to go and see Rose; I asked if Bonnie could see her too and she nodded her head. Bonnie looked at me with appreciation. I knew she was probably hurting as much as I was, Rose was her best friend and she loved her like a sister.
Taking A Chance Page 14
