Chapter 4 - Naive Seventeen

I made my choice. I choose 'love' every single time. After my Mum giving me the choice to leave Jacob and remain living in the house, or stay with him and leave the house, I get ready for school and meet my bestie Elijah in the main street. I fill him in on what happened and tell him I'm moving out! I go to school, talk to some girlfriends to see if they would want to join, apparently they do but I gather it's just wishful thinking for them. 

I finish up at school, head home and start packing my things, loading it into my trusty VK Commodore. I let Mum know my choice, she was oddly calm; I think she gets it 🤷🏼‍♀️. But I still have the feeling she's testing me so I don't let her know where I'm going. I head out to my friend's place across the river, thinking I'm hidden but realise later our mothers are talking 🙄. After 2 weeks I get an offer to move in with a couple 10mins out of town until I get on my feet, awesome! I have my own room, I'm learning to cook, juggle work and finish year 12. One Saturday night, Rocky Horror comes on TV and I'm instantly home sick (our family's favourite movie/album). I risk a message to Mum to let her know it's on and ask how she's going. We have a surprisingly good chat, she seems almost proud that I'm out doing it on my own and let's me know she has a few things at her place for me. I head there the next day, she's bought me some groceries and some of my favourite snacks and some housy things, my heart melts, but I'm an independent woman now, grow up, I tell myself 😅. 

I continue to see Jacob, mostly after work as I don't have alot of free time, and he doesn't have a licence to come out and visit me. I drive us out to "the spot", a private beach along the river just out of town where we sit and shit talk for hours, planning a life full of what ifs. 

After 3 months living with the couple, I get a lead on a house! I go there with my 2 girlfriends to talk to the owner (Boaz) after school. The house is cute, two bedrooms, nice little kitchen and yard, next door to the owner. I fill out an application and of course, the girls pull out and don't want to leave home. Whatever, I'll do it myself! 

Nimrod helps me move in, it's weird because I haven't really spoken to him since I left but all seems business as usual. We have a beer after moving and he leaves. I'm sitting in my own house, with all of my own stuff... What do I do now?!? I call Elijah, he comes over, we have a few drinks and envy the house together. After a week, I'm getting pretty lonely, Jacob's been around a few times, Elijah is here alot, so I ask if he wants to just move in, and he does!

Life's been pretty great; Elihah and I have people over when we want, I do all the cooking koz he sucks at it 😅 but he's good company. He's clean and we agree on things and stick to our ground rules, plus he never complains when I make him play SingStar and Wii dance 👏. My landlord comes over for a drink sometimes and he's just offered me a job cleaning his place next door where he runs his business from. So I take it and start the next weekend cleaning windows, which turned into cleaning his collection of cars and boats, which turned into his accounts lady needing a hand until she left. Now he's teaching me accounts and doing the payroll for his business and even got me a laptop! I somehow am now juggling my own house, 2 jobs and year 12!

I go to Mums once a week for dinner; We're getting along so well, and a night off cooking is amazeballs! One night, I've been obsessing over getting a puppy, now I'm all grown and have my own place and no one can tell me no 🤣. She helps me look online and we find a staffy X rotty, the only tan one of the litter 😍 The next day Mum comes with me to pick the little guy up from the owners, one had an impressive moustache, and it wasn't the husband 😳. So I now have a little Bossy Boots aka Boss. After a few weeks it turns out little Boss has a serious case of separation anxiety 😅. My landlord caves everytime I'm at work and Boss is crying at the fence, Boss likes to come in and take a shit on landlords bed or cock his leg on the Mezzanine posts (we built the mezzanine floor last week at work 😍). Lucky for me, Boss seems to win everyone over and even comes to class with me, or on a busy day he goes to Nanees (Mum lol). 

After a few weeks of settling into our new place, Elijah and I decide to have a housewarming party, why not, what could go wrong 🤷🏼‍♀️. We have about 40 people over by dinner time, the landlord comes over and starts a bonfire for us and everyone's having a good time. I'd invited one of the new girls from the supermarket over so she can meet some people, we click really well. As the party's in full swing, Jacob surprised me and showed up (he doesn't usually hang around my friends) I was so happy! I went to get him a drink and came back to find him kissing my new work friends neck in the middle of my kitchen! I stand there frozen, staring in disbelief. They see me walk away. I find Elijah and hysterically ask him to make Jacob leave, so he does, in perfect Elijah fashion, Jacobs being literally dragged out of the house and thrown out of our yard 😅 thank god for him! Then the immature wanker comes back, drunk with his brother to hurl insults at me across the fence, throwing stones!? Cops were called and they were made to leave. Sarge has a chat with me about underage drinking blah blah then leaves, letting me know he'll be watching to make sure Jacob doesn't come back. When everything had calmed down at the party, I obviously hadn't and didn't know what to do with myself. I remembered Jacob throwing his cigarettes in the bin just before he was thrown out, so silly me thinks "fuck it". I sit by the fire chainsmoking for the rest of the night. The next morning I find the new girl from work in my school friends van parked out the front of my house from lastnight... What a floozy! 

So apparently lastnight was a wake up call for Jacob. He apologized profusely for his behaviour, says he needs to make changes in his life and is planning to move out from his mother's back room. Within a week he has a place with another guy from work. I start to go around there more often, as he's not welcome at mine or around Elijah which is totally fair! I meet his daughters, they're 3 and 6 and so adorable 🥰. Life starts to settle back down and I'm happy. 

My step brother comes to town randomly (the only step-sibling I like of Nimrods) and he's invited me to a party. I take another new girl from work, she seems nice and we get along well and we have a good night. My step brother stayed at my place and hit it off with Elijah. He asked if he could crash on the couch for a few days while he's visiting. My new friend from work comes around quite a lot, next thing I know, she and my step brother are together 🙄. 

It's been 2 weeks now and my step brother is still on the couch, I have a chat with him and he breaks down and tells me him and his kids mother have split up (I thought they already had since he was seeing my friend?!) And asks if he can stay longer and pitch in around the house. Elijah isn't pleased about it but we agree. They barely leave the house, Elijah spends more time at his parents house and I at Jacob's, just to get a break. They notice, so they try to get us closer and organise a party at the house. 

The party is going alright, everyone's there having a good time. I was quite drunk, chatting away with my landlord and Jacob when my friend comes up and starts kissing me 😳 I'm shocked, thinking wtf is happening right now and pull away and go to the bathroom to collect myself. Jacob comes in, going on about how hot that was and egging me on. I'm confused, isn't that cheating?? I didn't even know what was happening. He gets me another drink and takes me back out to the party. By the end of the night I am completely smashed, everyone had left so I headed to bed, Jacob and my friend were still at the fire chatting and my step brother had gone out with Elijah. I'm woken up to who I think is Jacob getting into bed and obviously wanting sexy time, so I engage. A lamp turns on and Jacobs next to the bed on a chair, where did the chair come from?? And my friend is the one kissing me all over.... Um... WHAT!?! I lay still for a minute, my heads spinning, Jacob seems into it so I try to relax, I kiss her back and it just feels SO wrong! So I get up and say I'm not digging it, drink or not it's a no from me and they both need to fuck off. I go outside for a smoke, right as my step brother and Elijah pull up. They see I'm a bit shaken, so I tell them what happened. My step brother is heart broken, I guess like me, he sees it as cheating. He's pissed with me, and even more pissed with his new girlfriend... Well this is going to be awkward! 

The next few weeks get pretty weird! Elijah has moved back home because of all the drama. My friend wants to cuddle on the couch and watch movies when the boys are at work, I tell her straight I'm not into it, she does eventually stop. One night we plan to go out, I'm getting ready in the bathroom, she comes in and locks the door and tries to hookup with me again, I kick her out and end up staying home. The next day my step brothers daughter is up for a visit for the weekend, she's a little sweetheart, only 2 years old. When it came time for her to go back to her mum, he refused to hand her over and threatened her with court. A few days go by, I'm trying to talk him around to giving his daughter back to the mother, after all I'm the one who's actually taking care of her while he's off doing God knows what! He says she's crazy and doesn't look after the kids etc etc. His ex called the cops for a welfare check, and were happy with her being taken care of. I watched his ex collapse outside our gate, crying hysterically for her daughter (she's also got their newborn son in the car who was too young  for visits). It breaks my heart, so I go out there and speak with the cops and come up with a plan to give the daughter back to her mum and make it look like I didn't have a choice. If he had been a good father and actually taken care of his daughter, it would be a different story, he was doing this purely out of spite towards his ex, trying to play happy families with his new girlfriend who's off her rockers and it's MY house they chose to steal his child in and doesn't even know how to look after her! So I take the daughter out, the cops cause a scene in the driveway for my stepbrother to see, and they drive me around town for awhile, pretending I was at the station. I meet up with his ex and she tells me he and my step brother have been sleeping together for weeks now.... Wtaf 🤦🏼‍♀️. 

I've had enough, I tell my step brother and friend that they have to be out by the next morning, and head to Jacobs for the night so they can pack their shit in peace. I head back home the next morning, thankfully they listened and they're gone. But then I find my pillows, blankets and a heap of food is also gone... Who steals cereal ffs?? I'm pissed but thankful they're out of my life! 

The year is nearly over, and wow it's been a big one! I've graduated from year 12, am now the accounts manager for the landlord's business 3 days a week, work most days at the supermarket, Bossy is growing up so fast! Things are going steady with Jacob, he's now living at my house and has his daughter's over ever second weekend which is nice, I do enjoy making their weekends fun, but I'm feeling a little stuck at home, almost like the stay at home parent while Jacob goes out, on HIS weekends... Bring on 18 I guess, koz boy are things going to change!