Unfinished

Seventeen

A/N:
So this is the last of my new covers. Tell me which is your favourite in the comments and I'll tell you which was the overall favourite. This will only work if you decide to participate, though.  Also I am so sorry I haven't updated in ages. High school is really busy, let me tell you. But here is an update. Sorry again.
- Ellie

***
After the goodbyes and thank you's, and the long, quiet car ride home, Soren was feeling rather uneasy. Jess obviously had something important involving him on her mind. If it wasn't important or if it didn't involve him she would have told him already. As it was they were just sitting across the kitchen table from each other, cooling mugs of hot chocolate in front of them.

That was another tell. Jess always had hot chocolate when she was upset. It was her comfort food. Well, drink.

"So," she started, and his attention snapped to her, noting that she was twirling a strand of her hair around her finger, a nervous tick. "I want to take you back to London with me."

"I know. You've been telling me that ever since you moved there." Soren wondered why she was so nervous. What could she have to tell him that was upsetting her this much?

"Well, a few days ago Mom called me. She told me that Becca had died and it had really hit you hard. And she asked me if I could take you in because she thought I would be able to help you better than she or dad could."

"And?" He didn't know whether to be angry that his mother wasn't willing to try for him, or happy that she wasn't as oblivious to him as she seemed.

"And I said I couldn't afford to send you to school and feed you and that kind of stuff. And she said she would pay for your school and set an allowance for clothes and food and stuff. And so I said yes." She looked up at him then, met his eyes full on. "I thought you would want to. And then I got here and you were at a friend's house and having a good time and I don't want to take you away from that."

He looked at her, at the glisten in her eyes that clearly meant that she was trying not to cry. "What do you want me to do?" he asked softly, unsure how she would answer.

"I want you to make a decision. I want you to decide whether you want to stay here with your friends and our parents and have life be basically the same as always or to come with me to London and live in my apartment and go to a new school with new people in a new country and be separated from your friends for a while. I don't know how long you'd stay. I do know that I can't afford to fly you over here for holidays or even for the summer. Mom's going to fly you out if you decide to come with me. " She paused, closing her eyes  and breathing deeply before opening them again. "I want you to decide between those two things. And I know it's going to be hard and I am so sorry."

Soren stared at her, his mind still trying to process everything. She wanted him to choose. Between her and Ella, home and England. He supposed in some way the choice was also about Becca. Staying here would mean being closer to her, to be in places she had been. Being here would make it impossible to forget. Going away to places she had never been, would never go to, that would make it harder to remember. So in some ways the choice was remembering or forgetting. Past or future. How was he supposed to choose?

Jess rose, saying something he didn't hear as his thoughts circled and fought and remembered. If he had been pressed, though, he would've said that it had been "I love you."