DARE

{3}Talk To Me

Jack pulled his legs up on the big squishy chair and wrapped his arms around them. He buried his head into his knees and felt warm tears finally trickle down his cheeks.

A sudden soft buzz came from his pocket, where his phone was. Jack sniffled and wiped away his tears with his sleeve while he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone with his other hand.

He peered over his knees to look at the screen, the glowing message read, "Hey dude what's up?" It was from Mark.

Jack swiped the message and quickly typed in his password, and hastily replied with, "Actually something just happened, now's not a good time."

Another text arrived from Mark, "Oh are you ok? Sorry we can talk later." Jack made a noise like "uughh" as he thought to himself, "Damn it I shouldn't be so vague, I don't want to worry anyone."

Jack thought for a second, then typed, "Screw it. Can we Skype? I should probably talk to someone."

Jack instantly regretted asking to Skype, he didn't know what to say or how to say what happened.

After a short while Mark sent a message saying, "Sure Jack, whatever you need, I'm here for you." Jack felt relief and another set of tears welling up in his eyes, but this time from unexpected thankfulness.

Jack dragged himself up to his office and to his desk, where his computer sat and he opened up Skype. He found Mark's name under his contacts, and quietly said, "here we go" as he clicked the video call button.

A bubbly noise told Jack that Mark had picked up. After a second the window with Mark's face popped up, and Mark saw Jack's sad expression, So he said, "Hey, are you alright Jack?"

Jack looked down and squeezed his hands together while drawing in a shaky breath. "No... I'm not alright," said Jack.

Mark softly said, "Talk to me Sean, what happened?"

Jack looked down at the floor, "So Signe told me..." Jack started, sighed, and continued with, "...we broke up, just now. She's moving out today Mark... I don't know what to do, I feel like I don't have anybody left."

More tears poured out of Jack's eyes and dripped down his face. Mark felt a wave of worry and said, "I'm sorry, I know how you feel, but really, you have so many people here for you. This is just a part of life okay, it's not you. I love you man, millions of people love you."

"I know, I know," said Jack, "But.. I feel like I don't have anyone here for me, in real life, like physical people in front of me."

Mark thought for a second and said, "Well... I'll see you at PAX soon, you'll see all of us there, it'll be okay." A small smile tugged at the corners of Jack's lips with these words, while he looked up at Mark's face, and saw his compassion.