#royce armstrong

The drive back from Memphis was long, silent, and uncomfortable. The air was thick with an apology that Jake knew he should have been saying, but regardless of that fact wasn’t able to piece together. The truth was he was mad. At her, at his life, at the whole entire world that he was forced to live in and it was hard to apologize for just wanting a peace of normalcy for once. Which yes, that was the reason why Cassie hadn’t told him about Jamie in the first place, but it didn’t make it any easier for him to forgive her just yet either. Jake was holding onto his anger, because without it all he would have left was his melancholy and letting that out in front of her again wasn’t an option. Or at least one he would consider. The fact was he had broken down in front of Cassie, more times then he could count on his two hands the last few weeks and he hated himself for it. As if it wasn’t obvious enough already that she was the stronger one out of the two of them. Looking over at her, Jake took a couple of seconds just to stare at her, and wonder if the reason why she hadn’t said anything just yet was because she was well aware he was clinging on to his own self-preservation right now or if she was just sick of him picking fights with her lately. Because that was exactly what he had been doing; picking fights. Meaningless ones too and they never did that. It wasn’t them. They had worked out a long time ago it was pointless to fight over something, when it didn’t involve their lives or their relationship in the long run, so why was he doing it? The only answer Jake had was he was finally self-destructing. About time really. Looking away from her, Jake forced his attention back to the asphalt in front of him, as he tried his best to ignore the tightening in his chest that reminded him he couldn’t carry on like this for too long without hurting himself just as much as hurting her. And hurting her wasn’t exactly what he wanted either. Lucky for him though the drive was long, so despite the fact that mostly it was silent, and mostly it was uncomfortable, by the time they were crossing the state line back into Virginia again, Jake had moved his hand and intertwined it with her own. There would still be an apology later, and there would still probably be another disagreement, but there was no doubt that they wouldn’t still end up intertwined some way or another with each other once again. It was their real destiny after all. 

Originally the plan had been to have dinner with Jane, together but after recent events Jake decided he was just going to head home and see Nick. He couldn’t -- or perhaps he just didn’t want to work out if Cassie was upset that he wasn’t going to stay with her or if she was just relieved to have the time to herself without his mood swings, but regardless of whatever it had been he left her with the simple statement that he would pick her up later before driving off again. Leaving no room for argument. And then of course like all matters in Jake Armstrong’s life it wasn’t until a few minutes later; after being forced to come to a stop at a set of lights, that he really allowed his recent ‘pointless’ fight with Cassie to fully set in, his hands slamming down on his steering wheel as he let out a scream in frustration. He was half-way between letting out another scream and slamming his hands down onto the steering wheel again, when a horn blasted from a car behind his truck and he was forced to calm down, at least enough to start driving again. He really hoped Nick had the X-box out waiting for him, the idea of shooting anything right now; even something pixelated, sounded therapeutic. Sending his brother another quick text as he was once again forced to come to a stop, Jake quickly explained that Cassie was at her grandmas for dinner, and his life may or may not be on the line depending on whenever or not the TV was up and ready to go. There also might have been an excited ‘: D’ at the end, but Jake wasn’t going to be the first to admit that was anything but a typo on his end if someone brought it up again. Like Nick. Because Jake knew his brother. Which was exactly why he needed to stop and pick up a few cans of ‘Red Bull’ before they locked themselves in for a night of dick and brotherly bonding. After the long drive, Jake was still kind of surprised he wasn’t passed out on the wheel or wrapped around a tree at this point. Or maybe he was just lucky that Cassie had ended up driving the first six hours for them. Whatever. Semantics as his brother liked to say.