Alex

The weeks drug on without him. My heart was breaking each moment I stared at my phone contemplating whether or not I should call him, but I knew that each time my call would be left unanswered. I had no way of hearing his voice and he was beginning to drift from my mind ever so slowly. I hadn't even scrubbed the purple crayon off of the coffee table just because it had something to do with him.

I had kept in close contact with May just in case Jack randomly called on day and said that he was coming home. So far, no call like that had been made and none of his family really seemed to care that he had gone missing. As she had mentioned before, he pulled a stunt in Miami where he was gone for almost two months.

It had been four months since he up and left though. The days were dragging now as I struggled to pull myself out of bed. I didn't really have to go to the park anymore because Jack was sending me checks from wherever the hell he was hiding.

The day I found the first one in the mail was very clear in my mind.

"Bill. Bill. Bill. What's this?" I said flipping through the mail when I came across an envelope that just had my address scrawled on it in a slightly familiar handwriting.

It took me a moment to realize that the handwriting was Jack's and I dropped the rest of the mail on the ground, not caring that it almost fell into a recently formed puddle. Quickly I tore the back of the envelope open, hoping that there was a letter of some sort inside, telling me about how he was coming back and how we would be together once more, but my heart shattered when I looked in it and saw a post-it and a check for three hundred dollars.

I keep my promises, Lex. Don't spend it all in one place. Love you. -Jack xo

I picked up the rest of the envelopes off of the ground and held the check and the post-it tight in my hand. This was the only thing I had of him and this was the one thing that I could hold dear right now.

I started getting checks every two weeks after that and I ended up putting each one in my bank account and was finally paying off my debts, bills, and was able to buy food that was actually edible. I told May about how I was getting checks from him and her only response was, "It's not my family's bank account that he's using. Dad and Mom would have caught it by now."

Those words meant that no one could track where he was. Those words meant that he was making this money himself and that he was still willing to help me out and that amazed me of how much of a nice soul that he was.

"Alex, are you there?" May asked, pulling me out of the trance that I was in. Me and her were currently sitting at Starbucks, both of us having our own tastes of coffee in our hands.

"Yeah, I'm here. Just thinking," I said softly and she nodded her head.

"I think you do way too much of that sometimes," she said, laughing softly and I just stared at her for a moment before shrugging. It was true, but I wasn't about to admit to it in front of Jack's sister.

"Probably," I sighed.

We sat in silence for a moment before May said, "Still nothing from Jack?" and I shook my head because there had been nothing from him. I gave up calling his phone a week ago just because I knew that he wasn't going to pick up.

"I'm sure one of us will hear from him soon enough. He can't hide out there forever. I know he'll be missing you, at least, eventually. If he didn't care then he wouldn't have sent you those checks," she said softly and I nodded my head.

"I miss him a lot. He was the one reason why I even tried. I've spent so long worrying about whether or not I'd have money to get by and it got to the point where I just thought it'd be easier if I joined my brother..." I trailed off, my eyes going slightly wide at admitting that thought.

"What do you mean?" She asked and I remembered that the only one who knew about Tom was Jack.

"Well my brother... He passed away a few years ago..." I trailed and she looked at me sadly before nodding and I continued, "If I hadn't of met Jack when I did, I probably wouldn't be here right now."

May let off a small sigh and said, "I wish he knew that because if he did, he would have either stayed here for you, or have taken you with him when he had run off. He just didn't know how to react to Leeyh seeing you two together..." and I nodded my head.

"I wouldn't have known either. I just want him to come back though. I miss him a lot," I said softly and she nodded her head.

"He'll come around eventually, Alex."

- - -

I laid in bed, tears rolling down my cheeks as I clutched a pillow tightly to my chest. Today had been a long day and with Jack on my mind, I was beginning to wonder whether or not he really did have feelings for me or if he was just playing with my heart while he had the chance.

I thought I was falling in love with him and here I am now, a sobbing mess. I'm about as bad as a teenage girl who just broke up with her most recent boyfriend.

I wiped my eyes and sat up in the bed wondering a million and two things in my mind. I let out a small sigh and I looked over my phone before picking it up and opening my contacts, scrolling down to Jack's.

I hit the call button and this time the phone actually began to ring. My heart leaped a little bit, but I didn't know for sure if I was going to get an answer.

"Jack Barakat speaking," he said once the phone picked up.

"Jack, I miss you."
Title Credit: Lullabies by All Time Low

EmptySighsAndWine