Alex

My eyes flickered up, in a slight surprise, to meet Jack’s stare. Did he seriously just ask me that? He’s never said anything normal towards me, let alone ask for something. So it’s fair to say - that surprised me. I kept looking at him, waiting for him to look away or maybe say that that’s really not that important, or that he really doesn’t want to see it that much, but he did none of the things. His eyes said just one thing – ‘show me’.

I sighed and slowly shook my head at him, looking back at my laptop and writing ‘Jack Barakat missing’ in the search bar. Many articles popped up, but I chose few with the video included. There were no need for him to read anything.

I clumsily got up from my bed, nearly falling over while keeping a strong hold on the laptop, “Fuck,” I muttered, hating the damp and humid feeling that was left between the scarf and my skin. All I wanted to do was pull it off and breathe normally.

“I’ll show you just few videos,” I said to him, sitting down on the floor next to him, feeling his body tense and his eyes on me. I put my laptop on my legs, so that he could see it, “There’s more, but there’s really no need for you to see more. Information is the same,” I surprised myself by speaking so much to him.

I opened the first video, it showing the news lady with shoulder length dark hair, headline ‘son of a billionaire missing’ written in red letters stretching across the bottom of the screen as the woman was telling the little of the information they had about Jack’s disappearance.

I heard Jack let out a breathe when the woman in the video said, “Rian Dawson sat down to have a conversation with us while his family still refuse to give media their statement,” camera showing very nervous looking Rian.

I took a quick glance of Jack, his dark eyes fixated on the screen as Rian told his side of the story, when and where he had seen Jack last and what he had said to him. The video ended with the same woman asking everyone who had seen Jack to call the number below.

“Oh, so he didn’t persuade my parents. They still don’t care,” Jack said after a while, his eyes still on the screen, “James lied.”

“Who the fuck is James?” I asked without thinking about it, while looking for another video I planned on showing to Jack.

“One of you,” Jack looked at me a little bit shocked, “I mean…I think he is. Or there was a guy who broke in to your apartment and fed me.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, understanding who he was talking about. Jaime. There were no one else here to feed Jack so it must be Jaime Jack’s talking about, “so, here’s another one and that’s it for now.”

Jack looked back at the screen, some woman again introducing the viewers with the news and then showing both Jack’s parents.

“What the fuck,” Jack quietly said, his eyes wide. His mom looked close to tears, asking for everyone’s help, while Jack’s father stood next to her. He looked quite unimpressed with the situation and like he obviously thought it was a waste of time.

I drummed my fingers against the side of the laptop, waiting for video to end so I could get up from the floor and leave Jack alone here. I couldn’t bear looking at Jack’s parents, hating the fact that they didn’t appreciate what they had. They were already ready to give away fifty thousand to anyone who had at least seen Jack.

“What the fuck are they doing?” Jack asked, letting out a laugh, “Why are they doing this,” he chuckled.

I wanted to punch him. He obviously didn’t understand anything. The money his parents were ready to throw away for, probably, nothing were nothing to him too. He could just laugh at them. They could be giving fifty thousand to anyone who said that they’ve seen Jack somewhere. Did they really not care about their money or were they really that desperate to see Jack again?

“You know I could just call them and say I’ve seen you somewhere in the city and they’d be giving me money,” I grumbled, getting up from the floor, “kind of stupid.”

“You wouldn’t get that money. My father would check everything before doing anything. If you would be the only person saying that you’ve seen me, you’d probably get nothing. Trust me, I know him,” Jack said, his tone serious.

I looked at him skeptically, but he didn’t seem to be lying.

“I am serious,” he said, using the same tone, “if you want to get money out of him, you’re gonna have to prove it to him that you really have me and that I’m not here on my own accord, cause, trust me, he’s gonna think that I’m just hiding from him or something.”

I looked away from him, feeling my stomach churn at his words. Not that it would be that hard to prove it to his father that Jack was kept here against his will. I just hadn’t really thought of a way we’d present the news to Jack’s parents.

I closed my laptop, throwing it back on the bed and turning around to leave the room, my fingers already tugging on the annoying scarf.

“No,” I heard a whine behind me.

“What?” I turned back around to glare at Jack.

“Don’t leave,” a light pink color rose to his cheeks, “I’ve been in this room for…god knows how long and I’m going insane in here.”

“And what do you want from me?” I asked, annoyed at him.

“Stay? Talk to me?” he asked sheepishly.

I sighed at that, the humid air under the scarf starting to suffocate me.

“Just…” I reached my hand up to scratch my nose, but stopped, realizing that that would lead me to taking off the scarf, “just wait.”

I turned around and left the room. The moment I closed the doors behind me, I pulled the scarf off, breathing in deep.

“You’ve been in there for quite a while and I haven’t heard any yelling. What’s wrong?” Vic asked me when I walked in the kitchen. He was sat at the table, his laptop in front of him on the table and a cup of coffee next to it.

“You’re not sick of coffee yet?” I ignored his question.

“This one is not from the shop,” he shrugged, “but you haven’t been there for a while. Don’t you think you should at least go down there few times a week?”

“I’m busy,” I mumbled, looking through the cupboards for a bottle of something alcoholic.

“Really?” he sounded unsure, “And what’ve you been doing?”

“Keeping some company to our guest and trying not to break anything,” I pulled out a bottle of wine from the back of the cupboard.

“You didn’t get the pills?”

“No. They didn’t have them,” I found a bottle opener and opened the bottle, “asked me to come back next week.”

“So now you’re going to drink?” he suspiciously eyed the bottle I my hands.

“Yes. And entertain our guest,” I took a sip from the bottle before reaching back in the cupboard to take a glass for Jack. If he’d want.

After our little conversation just a few minutes ago, it had dawned on me that it was best of me to stay on his good side. Not completely but enough for him to trust me while still respecting me. He seemed to have bonded quite well with Zack, but it was too much. I did not want to be his new best friend, a shoulder to cry on or someone he could trust. I am far from being a person anyone could trust.

I pulled the scarf back up, hiding most of my face. I will have to put the blindfold back on his eyes. He can drink without having to see, but I need my mouth to be free, without this annoying scarf.

As I entered my room, Jack’s eyes were already on me, “I thought you were looking for someone else to keep me company.”

“Do you want me to find someone else?” I arched my eyebrows.

“No, no,” he said too quickly, “it’s fine. As long as you’re not threatening me.”

“It’s all up to you,” I huffed, “You want some?” I asked, showing him the bottle.

“Are you asking me if I want to drink? With you? Everyone else have abandoned you?” he chuckled at his joke, but quickly straightened his face once catching my glare, “Yes, please.”

“Okay, but you’ve seen enough,” I said, taking the blindfold in my hands and walking towards Jack, tying it back around his head and taking away his vision, “you don’t have to see what you’re drinking.”

“So that you can finally poison me?”

“Shut up!” I snapped, reaching up to untie one of his hands, “and don’t think I’m not watching you.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re watching me. I’m quite good looking,” he smirked, making my blood boil. It took everything in me not to smack that smirk off his face.

“You make it really hard for anyone to like you,” I said, pulling the scarf away from my face and pouring the red liquid in glass, and giving it to Jack.

“I could say the same about you,” he smiled and took a sip.

Notes

im really sorry for not updating this but...the last few weeks were quite crazy.

but, hey!! at least alex is being somehow decent towards jack ;D

- ilovetea