52Thank you again for reading and commenting! I enjoy reading the reactions to the story! I thought the conclusion would be a lot longer, but as I was writing, I realized that so much of their story has already been told, we deserve to get to the good stuff! I hope you enjoy! As always, thanks to the Let's Talk Upstead group chat on Tumblr for the support!
As she stood up and made her way to the door, all the sympathy and compassion Vanessa had for Jay started to disappear. The closer she got to the door, she was positive it was Jay on the other side, the more anger built up in her. Anger for her friend who was hopelessly in love, anger for the pain she was being put through, anger for how a simple misunderstanding had spiraled into the mess that was their night at Molly's, and anger at Jay for not being able to admit his feelings. In that moment, as she reached for the door handle, all common sense and logic left her body. No longer did she see two people that were too afraid to admit their feelings for each other who got tangled in a confusing web of misunderstandings. No, as she opened the door and saw Jay standing there, a bruise forming around a cut on his lip, what she saw was the man responsible for making her best friend cry.
When she opened the door, she thought she was gonna unleash a tidal wave of fury on Jay. She stepped outside, an act which made Jay take a couple of steps back as Vanessa shut the door behind her. She stood there, arms folded across her chest and stared Jay down. Jay couldn't help but feel like a kid getting ready to be scolded by his mom. He looked at her wide eyed, not knowing what to expect but knowing whatever it was, he deserved.
"Is she ok?" Jay finally managed to say.
Vanessa did not answer. She simply maintained her stance trying to compose herself. She knew Jay wasn't completely at fault for what had happened; the last thing she wanted to do was explode on him. She racked her brain for what to say and how to say it. She didn't trust herself to open her mouth and have anything other than screams come out.
"I just want to talk to her." Jay said looking to the ground.
Vanessa took a deep breath in and looked Jay up and down. She noted his slumped shoulders. His hands in his pockets. The way he could not seem to hold his head up. The way he struggled to look her in the eye. In that moment she knew that there was nothing she could say or do that would make him feel any worse than he already did. She breathed in deeply again as she felt the anger leave her body and be replaced with sympathy for another one of her friends that was hopelessly in love.
"OA I assume." Vanessa asked softly as she pointed to Jay's jaw.
"Uh. Ya." Jay said, embarrassed as he recalled the night's events. "Can't blame him though."
Vanessa nodded at Jay's statement. She let out another deep breath and then reached her hand out to Jay's shoulder. She instantly felt the tension in Jay's body leave. She chuckled at the thought of the war vet, one of the strongest and bravest people she knew, fearing her.
"She's not ok." Vanessa said as she turned and opened the front door. She stepped aside and waved an arm for Jay to enter. Jay nodded at her as he walked in.
"She's in the bathroom. She's been throwing up. I made up the couch for her, she said she couldn't make it to her room." Vanessa said as she walked towards the bathroom. She held out a finger indicating to Jay to wait for a moment. She went into the bathroom and crouched down next to Hailey who was resting her head on the edge of the bathtub.
"Hailey. Jay is here. Do you want to talk to him?"
"Not really." Hailey mumbled. The last thing she wanted was for Jay to be witness to her current state.
"Do you want me to tell him to leave?"
"No. Don't." She attempted to lift her head to straighten herself out. "Can you get me some mouth wash really quick before you let him in?" Hailey figured the least she could do was to not smell bad for this conversation. Vanessa chuckled and helped her rinse her mouth out. She gave Hailey a quick hug before she left.
"Good luck." Vanessa said as she walked around Jay to go to her room. She had no idea what was going to happen, but as she walked up the stairs, she said a little prayer for Jay to still be there in the morning when she woke up.
Jay found himself frozen in place. He wasn't sure that he could handle seeing the aftermath of what happened at Molly's. He approached the bathroom tentatively and as he slowly pushed the door open; he felt his heart drop when he saw her.
"Hey." Jay said sheepishly. He watched as Hailey tried to lift her head off the edge of the bathtub. Before she could shift her body to sit up straight, Jay was rushing to her side, scared she would fall over.
"Don't sit up Hails." He said to her as he crouched down next to her and reached out to move her hair behind her ears.
"Mmhm" Hailey hummed as she leaned into his touch. "I think I over did it." She chuckled weakly.
"Ya. You definitely did." Jay said as he sat on the floor next to her. He looked down at her hand which was resting on her lap. Just as he was about to reach for it, Hailey began to speak again.
"There's nothing going on with OA."
"Hailey, you don-"
"No. Jay. I need you to know. I'm not interested in anyone else." Jay nodded at her to let her know he heard her. He reached down and grabbed her hand.
"I'm really sorry, Hails. I was a jerk today." He whispered quietly.
"Ya, you were." Hailey said with a chuckle. She might be drunk, but she wasn't passing up an opportunity to call Jay out for his behavior. "I don't do jealous, Jay. You need to know something, just ask." She said as firmly as she could in her state.
Jay nodded in understanding.
"I wish I could redo this day. Do it right." Jay said shaking his head. "I was just so jealous." Jay thought hard about his next words. "I'm not that guy." He said shaking his head. "Going forward, I can promise you that I will never make you question how much I trust you."
That was when Hailey noticed that Jay had grabbed a hold of her hand. She shifted hers so that fingers could be intertwined. They sat there for a minute staring at their hands. They had so much to say but for some reason, just sitting there on the bathroom floor and holding hands seemed to be enough.
"I really hope you aren't planning on kissing me tonight." Hailey deadpanned, but in all seriousness, she was very worried he would. Jay laughed at her boldness.
"You know," Jay said as he looked her in the eyes "I was." Hailey groaned and tried to playfully swat at him.
"Jay. I've already thrown up twice. This is not how I want this to happen." Hailey said trying to reason with him.
"So, you've thought about how this would happen?" Jay said cheekily, raising an eyebrow at Hailey's revelation.
"Yes." She answered with a matter of fact tone. "and none of the scenarios took place on a bathroom floor." She said as she looked pleadingly at Jay. He reached out and placed a hand under her chin, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. It was taking everything he had not to lean over and kiss her, but he wanted to respect her wishes.
"Ok." He said softly. "You think you're ready to move?" Jay asked. Hailey broke eye contact and looked out the bathroom door. The couch seemed so far away, and she wasn't sure that she was done throwing up.
"I can carry you." Jay said, noticing her hesitation.
"Ok. I'm ready." She said. Jay stood up and slowly pulled Hailey to her feet. With one arm supporting her back, Jay bent over and used his other arm to scoop Hailey up. He began walking to the couch when Hailey stopped him.
"My room please." She said as she closed her eyes and buried her head into Jay's shoulder. He turned and began going up the stairs, passing Vanessa's room on the way to Hailey's. Luckily for Hailey, he was familiar with the lay out after helping the two women move in, which meant she didn't have to keep her eyes open to give directions. When he reached her room, he set her on the bed and took her shoes off. Hailey took a pillow and held it over her head, hoping the act would make everything stop moving. Jay had sat on the bed while trying to adjust her sheets for her so she could be comfortable. When she felt the weight shift on the bed, she realized he was leaving.
"Are you leaving?"
"I was just going downstairs. I was going to take the couch, if that's ok." It would not have been the first time Jay slept on the couch, so he didn't think it would be a problem.
"Stay in here." Hailey responded. "Please."
"Hailey, you're drunk." Jay said, worried that she wasn't fully aware of what she was saying.
"Just sleep here Jay. I might need help getting up; you can help hold my hair back." She joked, hoping to make Jay feel more comfortable. With the pillow still over her head, she couldn't see Jay's reaction. As the silence grew longer, she began to worry that she had made him uncomfortable. Just as she was about to move the pillow away, she felt the bed dip on her right side as Jay laid down.
Hailey smiled as her hand began to fumble around the mattress looking for Jay's. When he noticed, he moved closer so that he could reach an arm behind her back, moving her closer to him. He listened as Hailey's breathing began to get deeper and deeper, knowing she was falling asleep.
"Let me know if you need to get up." He whispered as he lifted the pillow slightly so she could hear him.
A few years later during her maid of honor speech, Vanessa would tell the crowd of how it took a right hook to the jaw to knock some sense into Jay. As they laughed, Jay would lift his glass towards OA who would return the gesture, understanding what was being said. She joked about how she had no idea when she let Jay into the house that night that he would never leave. How Jay and Hailey hadn't been apart since then. She expressed her genuine gratitude towards Jay for loving Hailey as much as she deserved to be loved. She cried as she told Hailey she was the big sister she always dreamed of having. She laughed as she the crowd cheered when Hailey and Jay shared a kiss.
And she said another little prayer, thanking whoever it was that heard her prayer that night as she was walking up the stairs for answering it.
I hope you enjoyed! I kept going back and forth while writing this fic about how I wanted it to start. I wanted to write something with Jay and OA meeting and came up with 2 different ideas. I decided to make the other idea into a fic also, so I am hoping to get that finished up so I can start posting sometime next week. I hope you guys aren't burnt out on OA coming to Chicago yet.
