We had been driving for twenty minutes.

Jared hadn’t said a word, he only stared out the window, the vein in his neck sticking out boldly underneath the skin of his neck as he clenched his jaw, his eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead of him.

The longer we didn’t speak, the angrier I became. How did he think it was right to speak to me that way after what had just happened between us? I was beginning to understand that there was a lot more to Jared than I had initially thought, but in order for me to get to know and understand him; he needed to open up to me.

“Are you just not going to speak to me now?” I finally questioned.

Jared craned his neck slightly, his eyes continuing to remain on the road, “I am speaking to you.”

“Oh really?” I asked sarcastically, “Because you’ve been pretty silent for the past twenty minutes.”

“I just…” Jared began before he trailed off, biting his bottom lip as he shook his head. I waited for him to continue but it quickly became obvious that he wasn’t going to carry on his sentence by the way he continue to stare out of the windshield dejectedly.

“Jared talk to me!” I practically pleaded, “I don’t understand what’s just happened! One minute you were kissing me and the next you’re shouting at me for asking questions. You told me you had a brother, and now you don’t have a brother.” My voice rose with every word, my whole body practically shaking with anger, “You can’t go from telling me you think I’m beautiful to speaking to me like shit! It’s not fair!”

“I don’t want to talk to you!” Jared yelled, the volume of his voice causing me to flinch back. “I can’t talk to anyone about it ok?” He was gripping the steering so tight his knuckles were turning white. “Why do you have to ask questions? Why can’t you just leave anything Jade?”

“Jared, slow down.” I shouted angrily, my hands clutching at the leather seat beneath me as the speed of the car increased. “Slow down now!”

I was panting, my heart beating frantically in my chest as I watched Jared angrily pull over. Jared stopped the engine, his own breathing bated as he slowly released the wheel. His hands were shaking as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Jade-”

My palm had reached out without my control, connecting with his cheek and causing a loud slap to ring out due to the harsh skin on skin contact. His head whipped to the side, his eyes pinching shut as I slapped him. I pulled my hand back, my breathing shaky as I stared at him in disbelief.

“Why did you do that?” I cried, tears prickling at my eyes as I looked at him. “I was terrified.”

“I’m sorry.” Jared whispered. He ran a hand over his face and I noticed the dark rings under his eyes. He suddenly looked very young and tired, as if he hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in a while. He looked at me, his eyes swimming with a dark emotion I couldn’t decipher. He reached for me but drew back, seeming to think better of it. “Jade, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“You scared me.” I told him honestly, “Seeing you like that, so angry, it scared me.”

Jared took a deep breath, the sound shaky and broken as he turned to look at me, “I don’t ever want you to be scared of me Jade.”

His eyes were shining with tears, his expression distraught as he reached out for me. It was as if a wall had come down and suddenly the cocky and charming Jared Felton had became a broken little boy. His hands found my cheeks, his lips pressing to my forehead as he muttered apology after apology. I was frozen, my mind so overwhelmed by the events that had happened today. I pulled back to stare at Jared and it struck me that perhaps I barely knew him.

“Jade, please say something.” Jared pleaded.

“I…” I stuttered, trying to explain how I was feeling, “What happened?” Was all I could say.

“What do you mean?” Jared frowned; although his voice was nervous.

“What happened with your brother? Something bad must have happened to have affected you like this.” I replied hesitantly. I sighed and slowly reached forward. The small expanse of my hand barely covered his larger one but his eyes fluttered closed at my comforting gesture. “I know you find it hard to talk about, but I’m just trying to understand Jared. The way you acted back then…” I trailed off, internally wincing at the frightening memory, “Please just let me be here for you.”

Jared opened his eyes, the green depths finding my own instantly. He licked his lips and inhaled sharply. I squeezed his hand lightly and he surprised me by lifting our entwined hands up to his lips where he pressed a soft kiss to the skin of the back on my hand.

“His name was Jacob.” He told me softly. “He was five years older than me, and he never used to let me forget it.” He chuckled, his eyes swimming with memories, “I always used to try and hang out with him and his friends when I was little, of course he never let me, he was always worried I would rat him out to Dad that him and his friends were smoking. But we were close, without his friends he was nice, he used to play with me in the back garden, take me swimming, sometimes we would just go out for drives and talk.”

“It sounds like you spent a lot of time together.” I smiled, enjoying the small smile that had crossed against Jared’s lips as he spoke about his brother.

“When I got older we spent even more time together…Dad had started going off on us more, telling us we needed to get our acts together and start representing our family properly. It was me and Jacob against the world.” His smile fell suddenly, his expression darkening as he seemed to struggle with the memories he was now re-living.

“Jared-” I began before my phone began to ring, the shrill beeping sound making both of us wince. I wanted to ignore it but when I saw that I had previously missed four calls from my Mum I knew that if I didn’t answer she would probably have a search party looking for me by the time I did get home. “I’m sorry.” I sighed apologetically before answering my phone.

“Jade?” My Mum’s worried voice sounded from my phone.

“Hey Mum.” I replied begrudgingly. Mum had ran at the worst possible time; I had finally managed to make a tiny crack in Jared’s wall, and now as I looked at Jared, who was staring out of the window thoughtfully, I was worrying that the little progress I had made was now lost.

“I know I said your curfew was half eleven, but your Father and I have decided that we would like you to come home earlier. You’ve been seeing your friends a lot recently and we’re worried it’s affecting your grades. You got a C in your maths paper and you’re predicted a B so-”

“I’ll come home.” I said through gritted teeth.

I thought I had managed to escape my Mum’s constant intruding presence, lately she had toned down the smothering mother behaviour due to the fact she had been busy sorting out Adrianna’s counseling and her cleaning at reached another erratic level, I had more time to see Jared and my friends. I hadn’t told my parents about Jared yet, I knew they wouldn’t be happy but another reason I hadn’t told them because I wouldn’t even know what to say, Jared and I weren’t a couple…but we weren’t nothing, tonight had definitely proved that.

“Ok, I’ve left you some shepherds pie for when you get back, I thought you could eat it while you revised? I know you’ve got mocks coming up after Christmas?” Mum suggested hopefully.

“Yeah great thanks.” I mumbled distractedly, “I’ll see you soon.” I glanced at Jared to see he was looking at me as he started the engine.

“Bye honey.” Mum called happily, completely oblivious to the important conversation she had just interrupted.

“I’m sorry.” I sighed unhappily once I had said goodbye to Mum. I bit my lip anxiously, “We could still talk-”

“Hey, it’s fine Jade.” Jared shook his head, reaching over to stroke my hair briefly, “Don’t worry about it. I don’t want your parents to worry about you anymore than they already have. I’ll take you home, I’ll see you in school tomorrow anyway.”

I nodded, “Ok.”

He maneuvered the car off the side of the road, his hands fiddled with the radio briefly before a song from Coldplay came on. I couldn’t help but watch him, the broken boy was once again the calm and collected Jared Felton. He was sat back in the seat, the wind musing his hair from the open window while he looked impassively out of the windscreen.

Any trace of pain he had showed during our conversation had vanished. I knew that my opportunity had gone; but I reminded myself that I had managed to find more information about Jared’s brother, but I knew there was still much more to be learned.

“I’m sorry again.” Jared said apologetically. He reached for my hand over the gear stick and entwined our hands. “I was a dick back then.”

I squeezed his hands, pleased that he was apologising for his behaviour, “Thanks.”

“I’ll make it up to you.” Jared promised.