By Your Side

Chapter 20: Jerk

On the other side of the bed, Clare reached in the bag as she finally stopped ruffling around and pulled out a cylindrical object. What sounded like pills bounced out of the container, as she downed them. James only listened to this, giving the girl her privacy while he kept his attention on the chardonnay in the bucket. Luckily for them, Chris had also put two wine glasses in the ice as well.

While examining the bottle and trying to figure out a solution on how to open it, he ran his hand across the ridged cap, and after a few attempts it popped off. A smoke trail billowed from the top of it as the pressure released from the bottle. James then pulled the two glasses out and set them down before pouring each of them a drink. Taking one in each hand, he turned around to see Clare putting whatever the object was back into her bag.

"Hey."

The calm whisper startled Clare a little as she turned around and was presented the glass from James. Her eyes settled on the glass, and she smiled at the boy before taking one of the drinks for herself and smelled the liquid as James copied her.

The slight scent of oak danced around the room as the two swirled the liquid in the glass pretending to be snobby rich people until Clare lowered hers and looked at James with a curious look.

"Smells interesting."

"Yea," James was lost in thought remembering the sound of pills and how he had forgotten to take his antidepressants for the day. "So is everything-"

"Cheers."

Cutting him off Clare raised her glass, and James took the hint that it wasn't time to talk. Clinking the glasses, they both took a sip of the wine. Neither of them having ever been exposed to any sort of alcohol before, there really was no reference for the non-alcoholic version.

The taste was subtle and very light but had a sour aftertaste that clearly reflected on both of their faces. They lowered their glasses and continued to try and savor the taste. Clare looked at the remaining liquid in the glass as James put his off to the side.

"So that's different."

Clare lowered the glass cupping it in both of her hands an resting it in her lap.

"Yea. Interesting."

"Didn't you like it?"

"It's good, not my go to though. Did you?"

"I mean I could probably do without it."

"Yea are you going to finish yours."

"Probably not, are you?"

"No. I'm good."

Offering her glass up, James took it from her and placed it beside his on the side table. Turning his back to her for a moment, he recapped the wine bottle, then felt Clare shuffle off the other side of the bed. He glanced over his shoulder and watched as Clare opened the door and stepped out of the room.

A weak smile crossed his face as he started scrolling through the movies yet again while trying to figure out how he would kill the next couple hours. Minutes passed before Clare finally returned through the sliding doors.

"Catch."

An Oblivious James turned to face her only to see a red can come spiraling through the air at him. Raising a hand to catch it, he reached for it but was too late as it grazed the tip of his fingers and twirled downward hitting him on the thigh with a thud. Wincing in pain, James' body curled over from the impact, letting out a pained moan. Assuming the worst, Clare rushed onto the bed and wrapped her arms around him in a side hug.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry."

The apologizes just kept coming as Clare buried her head into his shoulder. James realized what she probably thought happened and dragged it out for a few more moments until his composure broke and he started to laugh through the wincing. Clare raised her head, while tears were continuing in the corner of her eyes.

"Are you laughing?"

James broke down as the moaning stopped only to be replaced with his subtle laughter.

"Sorry."

"Seriously? I was so worried."

"Why?"

"Because I thought I canned you."

"You did...in a sense."

"Jerk."

His laughing continued as Clare punched him in the shoulder and fell back onto her side of the bed.

"C'mon it was only a joke."

She remained quiet though as she cracked open her can of pop and started taking small sips of it, while her face was riddled with a sarcastic hatred. James tried to lean over to get close to her, but she continued to block him with her hand while taking another sip of the drink. It was clear that he wasn't going to get through to her, and leaned back over. Picking out another movie for himself, Clare did the same as they both sat there watching separate things.

###

The rest of the day was spent in silence as they both sat there killing time by watching movie after movie, while thoughts of Hannah and Nathan raced through James' mind and the bruise on Hannah's face kept flickering in his head. What really weighed on him though was the fact he knew that she was down there with him...alone.

When the daydream came to an end, he snapped back into reality, and the room was now dark the only light coming from a subtle wall light. On his one side, the windows were all dark now and the night had engulfed the plane. On the other side of him, Clare was still sitting there nearly motionless, her eyes glued on the screen in front of her. He blinked looking at her a couple of times, realizing the daydream hadn't completely worn off, and he began to have a hallucination of Hannah sitting next to him.

A wide grin crossed his face as he leaned over, this time Clare didn't block him and allowed him access into her territory. Still seeing Hannah, James kissed Clare on the cheek as a smile instantly formed on her face.

"Hey, you."

The sound of her voice brought an end to the vision as he realized that Clare was still in the room and it wasn't actually Hannah.

"Hey, are you still mad."

"You really have a lot to learn."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I'm still in the room, aren't I?"

"Yea but-"

"I'm still sharing a bed with you aren't I?"

"Yea but-"

"James there is no buts. We're all good. I'm still your fake fiancé and vice versa."

As the words left her mouth a wave of relief flushed over James, as Clare took advantage of the move that he was making on her and cuddled up next to him.