This is a longish post, but bear with me because there is a point...Jake Wethers *cough* ;)

I don't know how many of you know this, but I came up with the idea for THE MIGHTY STORM back in 2010. At the time, I was working on other projects, so I shelved it, until Jake refused to wait any longer and forced me to write their story in 2012, and as they say the rest is history--I'm going to veer off a little for a sec, but it'll make sense in a minute. I broke my memory stick today, and I really needed it to transfer a bunch of documents over to my laptop from my PC because my hard drive isn't liking me very much. Pissed off that I'd broken the memory stick, I hunted (stomped) around my house, trying to find another, as hubs was sure we had one, he just didn't know where. Somehow, I managed to find this memory stick - bonus! Happy I'd found it so I could get back to work, I plugged it in to my PC, expecting it to be filled with a load of crap that I'd have to delete.
Only it wasn't filled with crap.
It was filled with some of my work from 2010.
One folder in particular standing out to me 'THE MIGHTY STORM IDEAS' <-- clearly, I'm not very inventive with my folder names.
I had completely forgotten this folder even existed. Of course I had to look through it and see what ideas I'd come up with for Tru and Jake in the very beginning.
And that's when I found the VERY FIRST SCENE that I had ever written for The Mighty Storm. Yes, I might have got a tad bit weepy reading it, and kind of mad at myself for forgetting about it for all this time, but just incredibly happy that I found it.
This scene, of course, never made it into the book. It's totally out of left field, unedited written by my naive 2010 hand, and has little to no relevance to TMS as it stands today, but I thought you ladies might want to read it, because, even though it's not a happy scene, it made my heart happy to read <3



I’m laid in bed staring up at the dark ceiling. I can’t sleep. Will is snoring beside me. And I’m desperately trying not to think about the fact the Jake is in his room, just down the hall from me, with a woman…no doubt having sex with her.
Of course, I’m failing miserably at not thinking about it...about Jake, and feeling sick at the thought of him with her.
Hypocritical of me when I have Will sleeping next to me, I know, but it’s not going to change what I think, or how I feel right now.
Which is just mostly just confused. And angry, even though I have no right to be.
Knowing sleep won’t come to me anytime soon, I get out of bed. Pulling on a sweater over my pyjamas, I grab my wallet, with the intention of going to get a drink from the vending machine, and if I happen to pass by Jake’s room on the way, then that’s just merely a coincidence.
Yeah, right.
Leaving my room, I let the door close with a quiet click.
I’m halfway down the hall, nearing Jake’s room, when I hear a voice from behind.
“Hello, gorgeous.”
I turn to find Tom, a bottle of beer in his hand, and a groupie hanging off him.
Ugh.
“Tom.” I force a smile.
“What you doing out here so late?”
“I needed a drink.”
“You cleared out your minibar?” He grins, almost knowingly, his eyes flickering in the direction of Jake’s door.
Does he know that I can’t sleep because of Jake? Or that I’m being a creepy fucker and walking past Jake’s room. And for what reason Tru?
To torture myself, of course.
“We ran out of Diet Coke.” I lie on the spot.
“Of course you did.” He nods, still grinning at me.
God, he’s such an arsehole.
“Tom.” The girl gets his attention. I can see her hand making is way down his chest, heading south. “Are we going to your room to fuck, or what?”
Am I not standing here?
Tom lets out a laugh. “Yeah, sugar, we’re going now. Duty calls.” He smirks at me.
I roll my eyes. “Goodnight, Tom,” I say haughtily, ignoring the sight of Jake’s door, I walk away from Tom, to the sound of his rumbling laughter, and the girl’s giggling.
God, he’s such annoying fuckwit of a manwhore.
But isn’t Jake? Well, he’s not annoying, but he’s definitely a manwhore, who’s stamping his manwhore card right now.
I’m seriously going to throw up in a minute.
Reaching the vending machine, I feed my coins in it, and select a Diet Coke.
I’ve just got my can, and I’m more than ready to go back to my room and cleanse my brain of all Jake thoughts, when I see the girl that he left with earlier, standing out in the hall, outside his door.
She’s laughing, and her hair is all messed up, her clothes looking creased.
Like she just had sex.
They had sex.
Tears prick my eyes, and my stomach feels hollow.
Then, I watch, like a car crash, as his hand reaches out and pulls her back to him.
He's kissing her.
Not wanting to see anymore, I shut my eyes against the agony I feel.
When I open them, the girl is walking away in the opposite direction from me, and Jake is standing out in the hall staring at me.
“Tru?” There’s a question in his voice. Understandably, so, when he’s just caught me standing here with my eyes closed like some kind of freak.
“Jake.” I force myself to walk toward him, shutting down my feelings. It’s taking a lot of effort, because all I want to do right now is cry. And maybe scream.
Jake’s eyes stayed trained on me. “Are you okay?” he asks.
No.
“I’m fine.” I smile, but it feels tight, and probably looks as fake as it is.
“What you doing out here?”
“Just getting a drink.” I stop a few feet from him.
He looks beautiful. His hair all dishevelled, his tattoos on show. I’m trying not to look at his bare chest, or his jeans, which are only partway buttoned up, and I can see his happy trail, leading downwards.
Then, I remember what he’s just being doing with the thing at the end of his happy trail, and all ‘Jake is beautiful’ thoughts are obliterated, just leaving me with that cold, sick feeling again.
I lift my eyes to his to find them already on mine.
Blowing out a breath, he drags his hand through his hair. “Look, Tru, we need to talk about–”
“I’ve gotta get back to my room,” I say way too loudly, cutting him off. “Will is waiting for me.”
I see his jaw tighten, and his eyes darken, at the mention of Will’s name.
Does it bother you Jake? Will being here? Are you jealous?
“Then you should definitely fucking go to him.” His voice is tight, bordering angry.
And without another word, I walk away from Jake, hating him and myself, fighting tears, and feeling his eyes on my back as I leave, the whole time.