Here is Home • The Pack

Chapter Thirty-Three

^^^yo there's a song above you should listen to because it reminds me of this chapter
Chapter Thirty-Three

Day 1 of 2190

Preston's sitting on the edge of his bed. Lachlan's bed. Their bed. He hears the chatter of the others downstairs. He should be downstairs with everyone else, but instead he stays sat on the bed like a rock.

Preston watches as the bathroom door creaks open and Jess emerges with a towel wrapped tightly around her. She turns to walk to her room, and her eyes meet Preston's. Her lips turn upright into a smile and her eyes twinkle with sympathy. Preston almost frowns at that, but he forces himself to return the smile.

A few minutes later Jess reemerges dressed nicely in skinny jeans and a hoodie, brushing her hair out with her fingers as she walks.

As soon as she disappeared downstairs there were tears welling in Preston's eyes, he no longer felt the desire to keep it all inside, silent tears fell to his cheeks slowly. He just sat there for minutes on end, in the doorway of his and Lachlan's bedroom with tears cascading down his face and there appeared to be no end to this in sight.

That was until Preston heard the stairs creak and the warm voices of Mitch and Jerome flooded through his room. He froze for a second, unsure of what to do, inevitably he decided on scooting to his closet door where he could not be seen from the hallway. But Mitch, he had some weird brotherly senses going on, so of fucking course he hushes Jerome in the middle of his sentence and walks as quietly as possible to where Preston is hiding.

They both froze.

Preston's face was growing hot with embarrassment as Mitch's eyes went from curious to pity in all of a matter of a second. At this point, Jerome was peeking inside the room to see what was going on, and Preston grew even more embarrassed.

A shuddered breath escaped Preston's lips to make matters worse and as fast as his body betrayed him, Mitch was hugging him. So now he was crying, embarrassed, and uncomfortable.

"I know it's hard, Preston. You're out of bed, that's one step in the right direction," Mitch's chin digs into his shoulder as he talks. "Maybe you should take your downers for a couple days to help you adjust."

Preston wriggled angrily out of Mitch's hold, "This isn't a bipolar thing, fucking hell! Am I not allowed to be sad because my HUSBAND is in fucking PRISON for SIX YEARS!?"

Mitch waves his arms in defense. "Geez, I'm just trying to help."

"We'll leave you alone, Preston. There's toast downstairs if you're hungry," Jerome interrupts, grabbing Mitch's arm and leading them outside of his room.

Preston sat half-inside his closet, stroking one of Lachlan's long-sleeved shirt that was hanging where he could reach it. He sat there for awhile, thinking - crying - until he heard voices coming from downstairs.

No. He's not going to sulk.
He has stuff to do. Important stuff.

He marched straight downstairs into the kitchen and poured himself a generous cup of coffee, like he did every morning.

"Morning," he said warmly.

"Hey Preston," Vik said as he came speeding into the kitchen. He threw a wad of cash on the counter and grabbed a piece of toast. "That's for the shoe box. I gotta go catch the bus!"