My Song Has Not Been Sung

“Rian, where the hell is my work uniform!” Jack screeched from across the apartment.

“I don't know! Where did you put it!” Rian yelled back.

“I left it on my floor but you and Zack took all the laundry for this week so which basket is it in!”

“Check the white one! I put your laundry in that one!”

“They’re all white!”

“Well use your damn eyes and find them yourself then!” Rian huffed.

Jack grumbled and riffled through the stack of baskets that sat filled with dirty laundry. He finally found the one that was overflowing with his tshirts and scavenged around for his ugly work outfit. He was expected to keep his clothes clean but in all honesty, he was working minimum wage and there is no amount of washing that can remove the smell of fast food from any uniform.

After hastily changing in his bedroom, Jack rushed down the stairs to find his roommates. Rian was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee while Zack was furiously typing away on the shared laptop next to him.

“Alright, Rian you’re taking Lynn to work once she’s done changing and Zack is taking trips to the laundromat then picking her up. And both of you are finishing your homework already so I can have some help in the garage until school starts again.” Jack ordered.

“Chill out it’s only Friday, we’ve got more than a week before school’s back. And why aren’t you walking Lynn into work, I thought you assigned yourself the job as her unnecessarily aggressive bodyguard?” Rian answered.

“I was going to but someone at work didn’t show up an hour ago and it’s fine right now but when we get busy then everyone’s gonna be screwed if someone doesn’t show up so Case called me.” Jack replied, “And if you want to come by America’s worst pizza at any point you can meet Cassadee, she’s the one that I think you’re gonna like.”

“Don’t fool yourself Jack, there is no pizza worse than the homemade stuff you made that one time.” Zack chirped.

“Whatever, bitches. Get your stuff done by the time I get back.” Jack said before he darted out of the apartment.

The walk to work was short and uneventful. The most interesting thing to happen was a pigeon seemingly trying to catch its tail across the street. But seeing a bird run circles like it was possessed by a dog’s spirit didn’t do much to raise Jack’s mood.

He had wanted to try to go by the courthouse to find Alex, or maybe even his apartment. But he knew that this entire day would be work, just his luck to pick up a 10 am to close shift. Jack opened the front entrance to Pizza Hut, feeling completely miserable that he both couldn't stay with Lynn that day or check on Alex. He knew that the anger his father had dealt likely only got worse that night.

Cassadee was of course the only other prep worker that morning, a small relief, “Hey Jack.”

“Hey Case.” Jack sighed.

“You sound bummed, what's up?” Case asked over her shoulder as she slid a tray of bacon into a small oven.

“Today is honestly a sucky day to work open to close.” Jack replied.

“Oh yeah I heard what happened to Lynn, I’m assuming you’d rather be making sure she's alright.”

“God yeah, she could be in danger you know. She told me last night that the lawyer’s gonna try to get a warrant for Bryar’s DNA. If it's a match for what the hospital found on her, which it will be, then he gets arrested and charged.” Jack answered.

“Why are you so worried then? They’ll get a mouth swab and arrest Bryar, he’ll never make bail so he can hang out in jail and you guys can sleep easy.”

“DNA takes time to process. Once the cops get the sample, Bryar will know that Lynn’s going to court on this and he’ll go after her. He can't be arrested immediately.”

“Shit.” Case groaned, “Zack and Rian-”

“Already know when and where to pick her up and drop her off,” Jack interrupted, “I’m not taking any chances with Bryar.”

“Well if he sees either of those two, he’ll run with his tail between his legs,” Case nodded, “but of course, you're still worried.”

“Yeah, and there's other stuff right now.”

“New stuff since Wednesday? Has to be important if you're this grumpy.”

“I went to the courthouse with Lynn yesterday, and there was this guy-”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Seriously? You're all sad and weird cause you couldn't get some guy when you're best friend is going through this. Shame on you, Jack.” Case snapped.

“No, it's not like that. The lawyer wouldn't let me sit in with Lynn while he talked to her about the case so he sent me to the other room with his kid and well his kid, Alex, was hungry so we went to go get pizza from Pete’s but we had to make a detour to his apartment, and we talked a lot and - I don't know - I like to hang out with him, he’s fun. But his dad went ballistic on him when we got back for being late and he just seemed so scared, you know. Like not the way kids, especially teenagers, should be around their parents.” Jack explained.

“Jack if this turns out to be what I think it is, you can't get involved.”

“But if he’s-”

“No! Jack I understand that you care if something is happening to Alex but if you get mixed up in this, that lawyer’s gonna find out. And not only will you probably be sent back to Lebanon but I’ll get fired, maybe arrested for forging your paperwork, Lynn will have no one to help her through this, and Zack and Rian will have nowhere to live.” Case pleaded, “Please, for once in your lifetime, put yourself before someone else.”

“I won't get mixed up in anything, but he's still my friend so I’ll be just that to him. A friend.” Jack conceded.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”


-------------


That was a bold faced lie.

The second Jack was let off on lunch break, he snagged an extra pepperoni pan pizza, booked it to the office, and immediately googled “Peter Gaskarth”. Well, in all honesty, he did first have to google “Baltimore District Attorney”. While trying to avoid dripping grease all over his phone screen, Jack had so far only been able to uncover surface information.

Former criminal justice attorney in Manchester, then moved to London, almost took a corporate job but declined the offer when offered a prosecutor position for the city. Stayed there for a few years, married girlfriend, wife had baby, nearly two decades later puts away high profile terrorist hacking group. Sees easy win in Baltimore DA election and a pay raise, moves family to US afterwards, and now we're here.

But Jack hardly would end his inquiry there. After sifting through a few dozen news sites, he finally found something. A local paper from Essex, “London Prosecutor Found by Police in Domestic Dispute, Both Parties Claim Misunderstanding and ‘No Need for Police Involvement’”.

Reading through the article, Jack could piece together that the “domestic dispute” had actually been between Peter and Alex, when he was ten. It was his mother that claimed a misunderstanding. It was pretty clear that no one cared much about how a well respected lawyer chose to discipline his kid, even if it was obvious that “discipline” was the lightest of all possible words to describe the situation.

Jack put his phone away and fished out the logbook for delivery orders. It had the address, phone number, name, and total of all the called in delivery orders. They were supposed to be put into the computer system with the online orders every night, but Jack knew full well that nobody had done that in at least a few months. He flipped through it until he found order Alex had made two days ago.

Despite knowing it was probably, actually definitely, an invasion of privacy, he made a contact for Alex in his phone with the address and phone number.

This is just because I’m his friend, so I can get in touch with him. I won’t go any farther than hanging out with him, I won’t overstep any boundaries with his parents…. Jack told himself all of these things. But deep down, he had the urge to save someone, even at the cost of his own life.

Notes

Sorry it's short but hey I posted two chapters in one day so not bad (if you also ignore that I haven't posted anything in over a year).

Title Creds: Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back

Your Boy, PJ