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Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous

Chapter 19

This is nice.

I was sat up against my headboard, reading. Jack had sprawled himself across the rest of my bed, his head in my lap, and decided to play on his phone.

“You’re staring, Lexy,” he chuckled. I felt heat in my face and hid behind my book. “No, no, don’t do that.” He plucked it from my hands and tossed it to the floor. “What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing really.” My hands, having nothing else to occupy them, found themselves in his hair. “Just…stuff.”

“Mmm,” he hummed, leaning into my hand. “What kind of stuff?”

“Just…just that, I dunno, I kinda like this.” I shrugged. “It’s…kinda cute and, um, couple-ish?”

“Well don’t go thinking I’m your boyfriend or anything,” he said simply turning back to his game.

I blinked. “What? But, that whole thing in the kitchen?”

He sighed dramatically. “A man likes to be courted, Lexy. You never asked, so we’re not a thing.”

I rolled my eyes. He will be the death of me. “Do you want to go on a date you, big baby?”

Jack pulled me down to kiss him. “Why, darling, I thought you’d never ask.”

“You’re an asshole,” I laughed.

“If you play your cards right, I’ll be your asshole.” He winked as he moved to sit on my lap.

I grinned and kissed him, moving so he lied on his back with me above him. When I pulled back, Jack looked up at me with just a touch of want in his eyes. “You’re already my asshole, if I play my cards right your asshole will be mine.”

He rolled his eyes, but a smile was playing on the corner of his lips. “Wow, you really know how to woo a guy, huh, Gaskarth?”

I kissed him. “You love it.”

He squinted at me. “You’re lucky I do.”

Ahem.”

Both of our heads whipped towards the door to find my mom standing there arching an eyebrow at us. I felt heat in my face as I clamored my way off Jack. “H-Hi mom.”

“I need to speak with you two. Come downstairs, boys.” Having gotten out what she needed to, my mom hurried away, leaving my door wide open.

Jack chuckled. “Good thing we weren’t fucking.”

I grabbed the nearest pillow and—

Thwap!

“Hey!” He laughed. “Come on, your mom is waiting.” I groaned. “I know, I know, I feel the same way, but the sooner we get it over with the better.”

I laced my hand with his as we made our way to the kitchen table where my parents and two extra steaming mugs waited.

“That’s an interesting definition of ‘just friends’ Alexander,” my mother noted, clearly unamused by the entire situation. My father chuckled beside her. “This isn’t funny, Peter.”

“Oh lay off, Iz. Now, boys, would you care to explain why when I turned on the TV Dora was playing?”

I snorted. “Asking the real questions, huh, dad?”

Jack let a small grin grace his mouth. “Sorry, my little sister was watching TV earlier.” I realized he was keeping his head down, holding his mug with both hands and keeping his eyes glued to its spot on the counter.

“Well that explains it then. So now, why is it that Jack and his sister mysteriously appeared in our house to spend the night while your mother and I were asleep?”

I bit the inside of my cheek and looked to Jack. I wasn’t sure what he would or wouldn’t want me to say. I didn’t want to upset him; he’d been through so much in the last twenty-four hours.

Jack returned my gaze from the corner of his eye before he sighed and lifted his head to look at my parents.

My father whistled. “You got a number done on you, kid.”

My mother gasped. “Oh! What on earth happened?”

I watched Jack swallow and drop his eyes back down. “I, um…” My eyes flickered to Jack’s cup. Its contents were shaking.

I felt my parents’ eyes on me as I gently placed one hand on his arm and slid the cup from him with the other. I held his trembling hands in mine. “Take it easy, Jay.”

He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Right, right.” He took one more breath before forcing out, “I got into a fight with my father.”

Both of my parents had acquired deep set frowns. “A physical fight, with your father?” my dad asked slowly.

Jack nodded slightly. “I-It’s not really his fault. He probably doesn’t even remember it, he usually doesn’t,” he defended weakly.

“This is not an unusual circumstance?” my mother asked carefully.

Jack’s hands were shaking in mine, so I spoke for him. “It’s not regular, but this isn’t the first time.”

There was a moment of silence before my mother said, “We should tell social services, Peter.”

“No!” Jack exclaimed in a panic. “No, no, you can’t! They’d take May away from me! I can’t leave her!”

“Jack! Jack, hey, hey look at me. May isn’t going anywhere. It’s ok. Breathe,” I said. He was hyperventilating and working himself up the more he talked. Fear and panic swirled like a tornado behind his eyes as he watched me and tried to imitate my slow breaths.

As I calmed Jack down, my mother got a glass of cold water and set it in front of him. She and my father were silent as I forced Jack to focus on me and just breathe. It wasn’t long before his hands had stopped shaking and tears pooled in his eyes.

“Please,” he whispered. “Please, I can’t leave her. I promised her I wouldn’t, if I let them take her away she’d never forgive me.”

I gave my parents a hard look before turning back to my sobbing…boyfriend? Best friend? Whichever. I wiped away a few stray tears from his cheeks. “No one is taking May, I promise. I won’t allow it.”

Jack nodded and barely mumbled a small, “Thanks, Lex.”

My dad blew out a sigh as he wiped a hand down his face. “Boy, you sure know how to pick ‘em, kid.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright, say we don’t call. Then what?”

“Then things go back to normal. Mr. and Mrs. Barakat are hardly ever home separately, much a less together, and that’s the only time there’s a problem,” I said.

“And what happens next time? Maybe a few days will go by, maybe a month, hell maybe we’ll even go a whole year without another incident, but eventually there will be a next time, and just what do we do then? Do we not call anyone when we have to drive Jack to the hospital for his injuries? And what about the time after that? That little sister of yours will have you for now, but what about while you’re at college? She’ll be at home all by herself then. Do you see what I’m trying to get at?”

“No. I mean, yes sir, but no, that won’t happen. Next year when I’m eighteen I’m going to get custody of her,” Jack interjected.

“And where are you going to live?” my mother asked. “What are you going to live off of? If you fight your parents for their child they aren’t going to give you money, or let you live under their roof. How would you support yourselves?”

“I was planning on dropping out of school. I’ll get a job, maybe two or three. I’ll get her away from them as soon as I can, but I can’t risk losing her.”

“What if they hurt— “

I could already see the fire igniting in Jack’s eyes. “No! Stop, don’t go there. We’ve got it under control. It will never get to that point,” I rushed.

I was too late though, the idea was already seared in Jacks mind. His hands shook violently as he stood and walked out the back door. I ran after him without a glance at my parents. I found him slamming his already injured knuckles into the trunk of a thick tree. I picked my way towards him carefully, watching as he grunted and growled his anger out. When I was close enough I put a hand on his shoulder. He let one final punch rumble the tree before dropping to his knees, breathing heavy.

“Jack?”

He kept his head down, shoulders heaving. “I don’t,” he panted, “I don’t know, what more I can do.”

I slowly sat next to him. “It’s okay, Jack- “

“No! No, Lex it’s really not ok. Everything is completely fucked and I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to fucking do about it!” he growled.

“We’ll figure something out.”

“When?!” he bellowed, “When I’m in the hospital? When he lays a fucking hand on her? I’m out of options, Alex! What if I’m not there next time? What am I supposed to do then?” Jack dropped to curl in a ball as his hands fisted themselves in his hair. “What am I supposed to do?” he sobbed. “I don’t know what more I can do.”

I felt hot tears dripping from my chin. I was out of ideas as well. So with no answers to console him, I gently removed Jack’s hands from his hair and gathered him into my arms. “Shh, Jack. It’s ok. It’ll be ok.”

It was all I could do as Jack clutched my torso and cried in my shoulder.

“It’s ok. We’ll figure out a way to make it all ok.”

Notes

The fun's just beginning. I don't know how this is going to end. I'm just as surprised as you are when a new chapter goes up because I don't prewrite this, I just put it up as I go and never know what's going to happen until it's already typed. If you can stick with my haphazard posting, then I hope you enjoy! - Anna

Comments

@T-what





@fangirll


Glad you've enjoyed!

I'M SOBBING, THAT END WOW NJDKKJNS;IKDC PLEASE MAKE A BONUS CHAPTER

fangirll fangirll
6/9/17

That was beautiful and amazing and you don't have to ask, OF COURSE we want the bonus chapter!

T-what T-what
6/6/17

love this chapter xxx hope ur ok hun.

if you havent already please read my story xxx

SophieGaskarth SophieGaskarth
8/24/16

@AshtrayDoll


Gah, somehow I missed replying to this. I'm so sorry. You're wonderful. I'm glad you like it. I'm sorry this took so long.