Summary: Jake is there with you when you finally sign the documents needed to set you free.
Warnings: none
A/N: This is based on a writing prompt I found (and from a list of prompts I've collected. The prompt: "Bend over."
Jake Jensen Masterlist | Character Masterlist
"What a time to not have a truck or table. Something to write on," you groaned.
The papers in your hand needed your immediate attention and signatures to get everything settled once and for all.
Jake, your best friend, stood next to you, taking in your strange surroundings. You could tell he wondered the same thing though he had enough wherewithal to have a pen on his person. He was even holding it out to you so you could sign the papers. The papers, he knew, were so important to you.
"What about the wall?" he asked, doing his best to help but feeling quite inadequate.
You glanced between the wall and his pen, shaking your head. "Won't work. The ball will dry out before I can sign them all. Stupid physics."
There had to be a solution. There simply had to be.
You just wanted this part of your life over.
A few signatures would see to that.
If you could find a surface to sign them anyway.
Glancing around, you happened upon a solution that could work. The more you gazed at the perfect amount of surface, you couldn't see a better option. The fabric could prove a problem, but you're certain the right touch could keep it smooth for a few minutes. Now, to see if you could get your surface to cooperate, you turned towards Jake and said, "Bend over."
"Excuse me?" he asked, his voice rising. "Why?"
"Please, JJ, just do it."
Jake glanced at the few people milling outside the rotunda hall of the courthouse. Some waited to appear before a judge while others were seeking out the few records' offices offered. One young couple seemed to be waiting for their justice of the peace, a small bouquet with a white ribbon sitting between them.
"You're not messing with me? Setting me up for some prank?"
"No, JJ," you said, horrified at the thought, and shook your head. Sadness filled you at the idea that someone would think to do that to someone like Jake. Putting your hand on his arm, you squeezed softly. "I just need your back for a minute. Well, your back and your pen. Just for one minute. Promise. Please, Jake?"
He didn't move right away, but he did study you. No doubt he was making sure you weren't screwing with him.
You must've passed because he simply sighed and bent over, putting his back at the best height for you. One of his hands held up his pen so you could grab it easily enough. Not about to waste a moment of this great favor, you shuffled through the papers in your hands. Every sticky note soon had your signature or your initials next to them.
When you signed the last page and dated it, you put his pen back in his hand and leaned down enough to press a kiss to his cheek.
"Thank you, JJ," you murmured before racing towards the chambers you needed.
Your deadline was moments away.
But you made it.
The judge added his signature and stamp.
You did it.
You were finally free.
With a quick thanks to the judge, you ran back to Jake's side where you threw yourself into his arms. His glasses nearly went flying from the impact, but you grabbed them and held them secure as you pressed one kiss after another against his adorable face.
"Dinner's on me tonight," you said when you finally leaned back, a wide grin stretching your cheeks. The muscles would surely ache if you kept it up too long, but it would be worth the twinges of pain after being set free.
Jake grinned back at you, accepting his glasses when you handed them back.
As he settled them back where they belonged, you reached up and straightened them.
"Come on, I know just the place to celebrate."
You grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the courthouse. Nothing and no one got in your way since you had no plans to slow down or divert from your destination of Jake's truck.
"Hellion," Jake muttered even as he let you shove him into the driver's seat.
You just grinned right back at him, dashing across the front of his truck to take your spot in the passenger's seat. "You know it. Now, let's go eat. Then, we can see about repaying the favor I owe you."
"Got anything in mind?"
A smirk slid across your lips. "Yeah, I've got a few ideas, including being bent over just for you."
If Jake happened to speed at your words, could anyone really blame him?
In 21 years I have ghosted ~5 phases of my life. Burning bridges, changing faces, and altering what I considered the foundations of the world I created around me.
Safe to say that's a bit unhealthy.
After 5 months, 5 hospitalizations, over 80 missed phone calls, 300+ missed texts, a faux graduation, and my entire degree hinging on a book report I could have written in 6th grade
It'd be reasonable to assume I embodied my biggest fear-
Failure.
There are periods of the last 5 months that I could not tell you where my mind was, where I was. Buried in resentment? Guilty as I collect more reasons to be? Trapping hatred in a body that has only ever known that sickening grey, the animosity of avoiding mirrors, reflections... light.
The endless times I wished to pick up my phone and find something to say to this blog- a fragment of my soul preserved and admired by mostly strangers. The wave of guilt that followed as I remember I couldn't even type up a book report.
Music stopped sounding like joy, the air stopped feeling free, my mind atrophied into hazy memories of a life unlived; I wondered how long I could remain unaccounted for.
Turns out- close to half a year.
I have spent over half a year in this waste, hoping that tunnelling through neurons and eating away my muscle would force some answers.
The only one I found?
Damn perseverance, this motherfucker still wants to live.
In fact- she wants more life than she ever has before.
And if she's willing to rot for death, imagine what she would do for life.
Starting at ground zero is my favorite double-edged sword.
This is the closest to negative zero I have ever gotten, an impossibility nearly made possible by a force greater than me. Somehow, I'm happy with that.
If ever I needed to learn something, it is accountability. Where I'm at today feels exactly where I needed to start. Somehow, I feel I couldn't have started any sooner.
I submitted my final paper today. It took me a month and another hospitalization to complete, but it's done. My mom and I sent the email to my professor with warmest intentions and all the hope that my degree will be completed with no further complications.
I don't want to give up my studies.
Independently.
I intend to start another blog, maybe a website, maybe a substack, on research that actually interests me, within my beloved field of Psychology, but I wont syphon myself-- if I find something within another philosophical field that I want to discuss, why not share with others who are interested in the pursuit of deeper knowledge?
I have passions, interests, loves, and much too much hate (most I hope sloughed off with all the weight I intend to regain).
I am so young, with a life I refuse to waste one more day worrying about. I am created, wholly, faithfully, wonderfully. I am capable of such creations myself. I am more than excited to share another day on this planet with you.
So, if you made it to the bottom of this post, and you're wondering what to take from this: Hear the love that exists even in the emptiest spaces & know; all who are willing are capable.
P.S. I miss you, I love you & my biggest goal at the moment is to remember to charge my phone, for you <3
