Jessie and Thomas were at the kitchen. It was awkward between them because they had a small argument yesterday. They didn't talk to each other until this morning. Thomas was slicing the steamed chicken as Jessie was scooping rice from the rice cooker and placed it into two food containers. One was for her and one was for Lauren.

Lauren, who just went down stairs with her denim jacket on, knew about this but she had no intention to interfere with their argument. So, she just went straight to her car to start and heat up the engine as they were going back to their campus on that day. 'What a bad way to start a day.' She thought.

"Jessie, you don't have to go all the way here just to check on me. I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me. Just focus on your study, all right?" Thomas spoke to Jessie as he packed lunches for Lauren and Jessie and placed them into a small bag, fit enough to put the containers in. They both decided to stay at Thomas' house during the weekends just to make sure that he was okay. They went back to their dorm to pack their belongings and went to Thomas' house at that night.

She looked at Thomas and gave him a cold-eyed stare as she was still mad at him. "I wouldn't be worried this much if you can just be honest with me and stop lying whenever I ask of you are okay." Jessie took the lunches that Thomas handed over to her. She could hear that Thomas sighed. "You told me to not worry about you, but with you hiding everything from me, it is worrying. I can't help it."

Thomas stood in front of her, pulled her closer to him and hugged her. "Sweetheart, even if I tell you, you would still be worried about me. What's the point?" Jessie looked at her old grandfather. The wrinkles on his face became obvious from day to day. Almost all of his strand of hair turned grey. She could see that her grandfather was becoming weak as he couldn't stand too long in one place but couldn't also walk in a long distance.

Jessie could not say anything about that for he was right anyways. "Promise me that you will be careful and tell me if you need anything. Just tell me right away. And about yesterday, I'm not finished yet. So we are gonna have to talk about that later." Jessie kissed Thomas' cheek and headed towards Laura's car, in which Laura was waiting for her.

"Promise me?" She repeated as her grandfather hadn't answered her.

"I promise. Now get in the car and get out of here." He smiled. Jessie got in the car and fastened her seat belt. She rolled down the car window. "Love you grandpa."

"Love you more."

"Bye Mr. Thomas!" Lauren drove the car out and headed to the main road. She thanked him for the lunch before they left.

After they left the house, Jessie did not say anything for 15 minutes. Lauren took a look at Jessie who was sitting at the front passenger seat next to her. She was contemplating to talk to Jessie. But it felt weird to have her stayed quiet all the time in the car. The radio wasn't even helping at all in breaking the silence because she would still feel awkward.

"Hey J, I know that you are worried about him. If you want, maybe we can visit him again next week. I don't mind going with you, you know. Plus, I'm worried about your grandpa too." Lauren eventually spoke, trying to calm her friend down, she knew that Jessie was worried and anxious to leave her grandpa alone. Her eyes were still focus on the road, she needed to be careful.

Jessie still didn't want to talk. She folded her arms and closed her eyes, hoping that Lauren would stop talking to her if she did that. Lauren didn't just simply give up. She was thinking about something else. "Do you wanna rant, J?" She asked so because she knew Jessie would want to rant. Lauren was ready to turn the steering wheel to the left as they were approaching  the T-junction. She turned on the signal.

"Can I?" Jessie finally talked. Lauren looked at Jessie again before turning the steering wheel.

"Sure." She answered shortly.

Jessie took a deep breath before she started to talk. And heaved a huge sigh of disappointment."You know what? I'm just so mad at him, I really really am. Just look at how stubborn he is. And hell yeah I'm freaking worried about him." She stopped for a while to catch a breath. A very deep breath as if she was ready to rant more and longer than before.

"He's the only family I have left and I love him, I don't wanna lose him like I lost my father. Urghh!! Maybe I should've not left him alone, maybe I should've stayed there and taken care of him. He's not feeling well. Obviously, he is sick, but he just didn't wanna tell me. He didn't want to worry me he said.  Maybe I should've not accepted the o-" Jessie couldn't finish her ranting because Lauren stopped and interrupted her.

"Okay girl, you shouldn't said that and maybe you should STOP saying that, like, at all. Thomas was really happy when you got accepted into our university, he even wanted you to study there because he knew that you really wanted to pursue higher education. It's for your own good and your own future. He wanted that for you, and he knew you wanted that too."

Lauren could hear the frustration in Jessie's voice but she needed to stop her from blaming herself for accepting the offer letter from their university and leaving her grandpa alone.

Jessie was about to say something, but again, Lauren stopped her. "You should be grateful for that, some people couldn't even get themselves into any university at all."

"Goddamn it!" The poor girl snapped. "You said I can rant but you wouldn't even let me finish ranting." She raised her voice a bit. Jessie heaved a sigh full of frustration and leaned her head against the window. She went silent for a moment. Then she talked in a calmer voice, admitting that her friend was right. "But you're damn right and I fucking hate you for that. But I love you for that too. I'm sorry that I snapped at you."

"I heard you both argued yesterday, that you want to take a semester off. I know I have no right to tell you what you should and shouldn't do, but I believe you both can discuss in a good way about that. He's old, you do not want to worry him by staying mad at him." Lauren tried to talk some sense into her friend, but Jessie did not give any response.

"Hey, I'm sorry too if my words hurt you but when you can't pull yourself together, you really need someone to give you a good slap on your face and that's gonna be me."

"Shut up." Jessie eventually smiled. She did not say a word just not because she was actually thinking about what Lauren said.

"Stop blaming yourself okay? Just give Thomas a call later. Tell him that you love him and that you are sorry for being mad at him. It's okay to be worried but try to not worry too much. He would not want you to worry too much about him."

"Hmm." Jessie nodded silently without uttering a single word. Not because she was mad or anything. She just did it.

Jessie closed her eyes again, not to stop Lauren from talking to her, but she was really going to sleep. Having a very short conversation with Lauren really had opened her eyes. She really should be grateful for what she had gotten so far and she definitely knew that her grandpa would want the same for her. But that didn't mean that she had stopped worrying about him. It was silent for a while until Lauren started to talk again.

"What, are you gonna sleep now?" Lauren asked when she saw Jessie starting to close her eyes. her right hand patted on Jessie's thigh while her left hand was still on the steering wheel.

"Yeah, I need to take these things off my mind for a while." She answered with her eyes closed. She folded her arms and hugged her body as her head leaned against the window. She moved the seat belt that was bugging her face when she leaned.

"No no no, talk to me or I'm gonna be sleepy as hell."

Jessie didn't answer. She hadn't fallen asleep yet but she pretended she had.

"You uncultured swine, I know you are not sleeping yet. Come on!" Lauren pinched Jessie thigh.

"Ouch! That hurts you son of a-, hell. Okay, fine. Let's sing together. Make sure you sing it out loud so that you won't feel sleepy." Jessie then scrolled down her music player to find Lauren's favourite song - Can't Take My Eyes off You, and played it. At least, she could take those things that made her worry off her mind for a while.

"That's my girl!" Laura grinned as her favorite song was on play. They sang together until they safely reach their destination.

Author's note:

Hello guys! I kinda think that this chapter was a bit boring because it focused on only at one place ; in the car, and focused precisely at Lauren and Jessie.

On next chapter, I have added more characters so you guys won't feel bored when reading. Please keep supporting me and keep reading my story♥️

Please leave a comment and vote for my story to encourage me to keep on writing thia story and posting it on Wattpad. And please tell me of there's any way I can improve my writing.

Thanks for taking your time to read my story. I hope you enjoyed and liked it. Thank you very much♥️♥️♥️♥️