LOTF: Before and After

Phase 3: Chapter 23

An hour later, Jack came downstairs and re-entered the kitchen. He found Paige sitting at the table with Ralph, her showing him the complex biology notes she was taking for nursing school.

"And that's the part of the brain that controls impulses and stuff. It's like the whole reason we don't say every stupid thing we're thinking out loud" Paige pointed at something on her paper, and Ralph laughed a little.

"Sometimes I don't think my mom has that part in her brain" Ralph chuckled, and Paige laughed with him.

"I could say the same about my whole family" she added, both chuckling at the mean joke.

Jack stared from the archway for a minute, wondering why it was so easy for Ralph to get along with everybody except for him.

"Hey Jack" Paige lifted her head when she noticed her brother across the room. "I made pizza cause dad won't be home at 1730 anymore, probably not til around 2000 I think he said. Help yourself."

Jack said nothing as he silently walked over to the kitchen island and pulled a slice off the plate. He picked the pepperoni off it and tossed the rest into the garbage can beside the kitchen island. Ralph watched him intently while Paige failed to notice as she refocused on her notes. Jack grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and filled it up from the water filling station attached to the the side of one of the fridges. He chugged it in one go, and abandoned it on the counter as he disappeared from Ralph's sight.

By the time another hour passed, Jack had spent the bulk of it up in the third floor living room, playing his 3GO console. Luckily, the house was so big he couldn't hear Paige and Ralph talking downstairs. He was pissed at Paige for getting along with Ralph, pissed at Ralph for being overly sensitive about Emma, and pissed at himself for upsetting Ralph.

"Jack! Get your ass down here now!"

"Shit" Jack whispered to himself at the sound of his father's booming, aggressive voice. He turned off the TV and 3GO at an impressively fast speed as he ran down both sets of stairs to get to the first floor where his dad had just come in.

In the downstairs living room, Ralph had jumped at the sound of Evan Merridew's shouting. Paige glanced over at him from the other side of the couch and silently mouthed 'it's okay' earning a hesitant nod from Ralph.

"What the hell's this shit?" Ralph heard Jack's dad shout at the boy from the other room.

"I forgot to hang it up" in the foyer, Jack responded in a much softer, fearful voice.

"What if I had guests coming over, huh? We aren't living like fucking pigs out here, Jack! Clean up after yourself or you can go live back on that island and act like an animal til your goddamn heart's content!" he continued to yell at his son.

"It's okay" Paige whispered again to Ralph, but this time Ralph didn't nod. He just stared at her, trying to suck in the tears forming in his eyes.

Paige turned up the volume a little on the TV and nudged at Ralph to refocus on the show they'd been watching. Ralph complied as he let his eyes fix on the TV screen, forcing his body to redirect its attention from the upsetting interaction. Several minutes later, Evan Merridew entered the kitchen.

"Hey, babygirl" he said to his daughter in a gentler but still low and firm voice. "How's the studying going?"

"Takin' a break" she answered cheerfully as she paused the TV. "This is Ralph, Jack's friend; the one who's staying the night, remember?"

"Right right" he nodded as he rummaged through his briefcase. "How it's going, Ralph?"

"Good, sir" Ralph answered, and Paige could hear the fear in his tone a little. She remembered when she brought her bruised up brother over to Ralph's house at night back in March, and suddenly understood why the brunette boy was so afraid.