Flash

Recuperating

The entire world faded away and a bright light forced its way through his eyelids and Jace woke up with a start gasping for air. His breaths were short and hasty. He clutched at his heart and willed himself to calm his breathing. After a couple of minutes, he finally calmed down enough to see things a little clearer. He cursed himself for falling for that heinous trap. The dreams where she blamed him were daily now and he still longed for that false hope that she was alright. But no matter what he'd do and how long had passed, he still kept believing.

He whispered a sad apology as the tears began to flood. He loved the girl, but dang, the dream interpretation scared the hell out of him. He even had the fleeting thought that he wished that he had never met her but his sane side that didn't regret a thing, knew he was just frustrated. She loved to haunt his dreams and torment him, causing twice the pain he endured. Whenever he resented the pain and wished he'd never became her friend, he reminded himself of the pain she felt as the car had collided with her; Anne didn't want to have gone so... early. So he'd bear everything, just so that she'd know that they didn't want her to leave either. He willed himself to forget. Well, not forget, just cast her aside for a bit during the day so he could still function. It had been four days since she'd left and he wasn't fully recovered. She liked to frequent his mind ever so often. Almost every small thing triggered a memory about her and it was frustrating him to no end. He just wanted to... stop everything.

Every morning he woke with a flood of tears as he tried to recuperate from the dreams. He knew that as long as he remembered Anne, he wouldn't recuperate. And that was what was frustrating him; he would never forget her and so he'd never recover. He groaned every time that realization came to him. That night when he met with so many people that Anne knew seemed so long ago as so much had happened even though, it was only a week or so ago. He'd dismissed all thoughts of turning towards alcohol to forget and kept himself occupied... well tried to. When everything reminded someone of something, it wasn't exactly easy. He willed himself to just pretend nothing happened but as the days grew longer with every reminisce, he couldn't help but start yearning for the forgetting aspect of alcohol. He'd occupied himself with a new job as a worker at a senior citizen's center. It wasn't much but it did pay the rent. He just needed to get on his feet so he could pay off Tate and get out of his debt. He passed by the alley on his way to work sometimes and well, he could feel the unimpressed looks and glares come from the area.

It may have seemed so sudden and quick to have gotten a job, but he had his connections. Apologizing profusely, he called up Marcus. He'd finally figured out what exactly he needed to do. He stopped his gambling and other illegal activities. He was almost completely detached and done withe gambling but he still had yet to repay Tate. Marcus turned not out to actually be the driver much to Jace's unconscious relief; he couldn't take another reason for it to be his fault.

Marcus completely approved of Jace's choice. However, he wasn't too happy about the cause. Marcus saw the despair and mourning in Jace's eyes, every single day and was feeling the pain too. Jace was one of those people who could light up and break the tension in an entire room and Marcus wasn't used to the sudden change and just as contagious as Jace's happiness, Jace's sadness was just as contagious.

Marcus knew about Jace's lack of requirements for any good paying job but he managed to nab a job at the local senior's center with his connections to the manager. To Jace, it wasn't the best job but it paid well. The majority of the attendees weren't particularly happy which didn't benefit Jace's mood at all. He was one of the youngest workers and well, most of the people didn't take to him particularly well at first. The batch that he mostly worked with did warm up to him eventually and his 'radical adolescent' ways. They were pretty convinced he was a 'druggie' though.

He managed to keep up with his studies but pulled out of most of his classes during the day. He couldn't take the classes where he used to gaze at her longingly as she unknowingly just wrote her notes. She, unlike the majority of the class, wrote her notes by hand while the others typed on their fancy little computers. Anne was never one for taking the easy way out and found that she remembered things better when she wrote them down. However, she did end up a slacking behind the others and well, on some days, a mysterious printed copy of the notes appeared in her bag.