My Best Friends Brother (A Jack Dail Fanfiction)

Chapter 27

*ari*
"Hi honey." My mom waves as I come through the door with all my bags. She stood up and followed me up to my room.

"Did I do something?" I ask worried.

She shakes her head "I just need to talk to you about something; something important."

"Okay...." I slowly say, I have always assumed the worst thing when someone had to tell me or show me something. I tried my best to forget about all the bad things that could happen and just listen.

I looked at her. She has short brown hair that she had pushed behind her ear. She glanced at her hands and lifted one to push hair behind her ear that was already there. "I.... Um...." She sniffled and looked me straight into the my eyes. "I got a call today."

"A call?" I questioned her "what kind of call?"

"About your father."

I clenched my fists "what happened?" Tears were threatening to spill out if my eyes in a matter of seconds.

"He's," she looked back down at her hands and then held my clenched fists "he's MIA."

I released the air I had been holding hostage inside my hands to reveal deep fingernail markings on my palm. I felt my whole world slip from underneath me; all of a sudden, I felt as if a boulder had been thrown on my shoulders my breath escaped from my mouth. "What do you mean MIA!?" I asked.

"Missing in acti-"

"I know what it means I just-" I sighed "When did you get this call?" I sobbed into my mothers chest.

"I got it just a few minutes before you came through the front door." She stroked my hair. "I'm so, so sorry."

"YOURE SAYING SORRY?! MY DAD, MY HERO COULD BE DEAD FOR ALL I KNOW AND YOU JUST SAY YOURE SORRY?! HOW CAN YOU BE SORRY?! HOW CAN YOU KNOW WHAT IM GOING THROUGH?! HES MY BEST FRIEND, HES MY DAD." I screamed to no one in particular. My hands clenched once again.

"Can, can I just be alone? I'm sorry." I whispered to my mom.

She got up and left without making a sound, I wouldn't have know she left except for the slightly smaller dip on my bed.

"He's my best friend." I cried. "WHY THE FUCK IS THIS HAPPENING" I picked up a small photo frame and threw it at the wall.

My legs collapsed.

Then my heart.

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*jack*
"I've called her 39 times in the past day! I haven't heard from her in a week!" I say to Ava. "I just don't understand."

"Maybe something happened," she explains "it's not like her to do something like that."

I shake my head. "What would happens so bad that she can't talk to me or you for a whole week!?"

"Did you try asking her?" Ava suggests.

"I told you! She won't answer my calls!"

"Walk over to whet house." She says in a hey you're stupid and I'm not tone #rude.

"I'll be back later" I say and run downstairs to Ari's house.

*ari*
I haven't eaten.

Or slept.

Or cried.

Or talked to anyone.

For a whole week.

I sit in the tree house and stare into space. Tears fill my eyes frequently but I push them back.

My mom left the night she told me.

She had a "business trip".

Business trip my ass.

She does this; she tries to run from her problems and asks Karen to watch me. She leaves for days or weeks at a time and comes back looking like she never left.

I sit in the tree house all day with my knees pulled into my chest. I don't even think. I just sit.

That's one if the good things that comes with having a problem, you can do nothing and no one will ask you what's wrong because they know you'll hurt them if they do.

To be honest, I think Karens scared.

Not for my dad.

She's scared for me.

She cares about me. She doesn't leave when she has a problem, she's always been by my side, she always knows what to say, and she will always be there.

This time though, she doesn't know what to say.

That's why she's scared.

She can't help me because she doesn't know what to say.

Thinking is something I don't often do and at a time like this, I wish I never had to. I've chosen not to think for the past week and now that I am, boulder after boulder after boulder is stacked I too of my shoulders. Sometimes I-

"Ari."

I turned my head and saw jack.

I turned back and put myself in the same position I was in.

"Ari."

I didn't move.

"Ari."

Again I ignored him.

I stared straight out into space. My eyes stayed open so the tears wouldn't fall out and onto the bags below my eyes. After all this time, I found that to keep the tears in my eyes, it's best to not stare at the sun but somewhere sunny.

"Ari." He placed a hand on my shoulder.

I knew if I looked at him, I'd cry.

I hate crying.

I hate it.

"Please talk to me Ari." He rubbed my back "I love you and I would do anything for you. Just, please. Don't do this." He begged.

"I can't." I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared at the sky.

"I can't." I shook my head.

"You can't what Ari!"

"I- I can't." I sobbed.

I collapsed in his arms. He didn't ask anymore what was wrong. He held me and whispered little things in my left ear. I watched his hands, how every time he said something, they would make a small gesture. At one point, I held it in my hand and eventually interlaced our fingers together.

We sat there for hours in the tree house. We stayed until it was dark.

"We should go, it's getting late." He held his other hand out to me.

"But you promised." I whispered.

"What did I promise baby?" He asked.

"You promised, you promised that he's be okay. You promised he'd be there. You promised he'd be alive." I let my feet swing off the edge of the petite tree house.

"He-" Jack breathed "he's dead? I'm so so sorry I-"

"He's not, he's MIA."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He tucked a price if my hair behind my ear.

"Because," I shook my head "I can barely tell myself."

He carried my down the ladder with me in one arm and against his chest, his other arm holding on. "I'll take you home." He carried me through the whole path and through the back door and up to my room.

"Goodnight beautiful." He whispered and kissed my temple putting me under the blanket and he crawled in after me, wrapping both his arms around my waist.

"You're beautiful, smart, talented, funny, strong, perfect, sweet, the source to my happiness and you can get through this. I know you can. Never ever give up because you're worth anything and everything." He said and I fell asleep to him talking about how much he loved me.

At least I have one good thing in my life now.