LOTF: Before and After

Phase 3: Chapter 10

Laurie quickly ushered her son out of the assembly hall. Jeffery was in tow behind them.

"Where's the nearest bathroom, honey?" Laurie asked her son, who was struggling to hold back tears of embarrassment. He pointed down a hallway, and she continued to practically drag Ralph as they walked.

"Jeffery, hon, grab some paper towel and go clean up where we're sitting" his wife requested as she pulled some paper towel from the dispenser and pushed it into his arms. Knowing better than to argue with his wife when she unlocked overprotective mama bear mode, he obeyed without a word.

"It's okay, sweetie" Laurie cooed softly as she ran paper towel under the sink and began dabbing at the stains on Ralph's uniform.

Ralph continued to fight the tears welling behind his eyes as his mom cleaned him up. All of a sudden, Ralph started sobbing. His mom put the paper towel down and pulled her son tightly to her chest as he cried. "It's okay, baby, it's okay" she whispered gently, rubbing his back for comfort.

When Jeffery returned a few minutes later, he stopped in tracks at the sight of his wife holding their son while he cried in a nearly hysterical manner. He was shaking in her arms, his face buried tightly in her shoulder. Jeffery realized that perhaps he was being too hard on Ralph. Maybe Laurie was right, and he did need time to recover. He'd been bottling all this up, his father realized, and Jeffery became angry with himself for forgetting that Ralph's education came second to... well, all this.

Laurie turned her head a little and spotted her husband out of the corner of her eye. She extended her arm out to invite him into the embrace. Ralph turned as he felt his mom's arm leave his back. Seeing his dad, Ralph pulled his arm out from behind his mom and both of them brought Jeffery into their embrace.

The ceremony had concluded, and Ralph had softly cried a few more times in the assembly hall, as did many others. Shortly after, Ralph found himself dabbing his eyes with paper towel in the dining hall bathroom. He knew it was important that he had come, but he didn't realize how hard it was going to be.

"Oh, sorry" a voice came from the bathroom doorway. "I didn't know anyone was in here."

Ralph turned to the speaker of the familiar voice. He was surprised to see Jack Merridew standing in the doorway. He didn't expect Jack to be at the academy today at all. But there he was, standing in his Bainbridge Military Academy uniform, his face free of war paint, his blond hair sparkly clean.

"What are you doing here?" Ralph asked as he tried to remember the last time he saw Jack. It was at the hospital, the day they were rescued a couple weeks back. He'd shared his fruit with the older boy.

"Same thing as everyone else" Jack said simply.

Ralph could barely process that Jack was really here, standing in front of him. He couldn't get the dirty, branded, savage look Jack used to embody out of his mind. He had forgotten Jack had ever looked like anything else; like he did right now.

Not knowing what else to say, he turned back to the mirror and continued dabbing his face. Jack joined him at the row of sinks, their reflections side by side in the large mirror.

Ralph noticed Jack's eyes shift from his face to the damp stains on his uniform. Jack hadn't been sitting anywhere near Ralph in the assembly when he threw up. Thank god, the younger boy thought to himself.

"What happened to you?" Jack asked as he kept his eyes on Ralph's stained clothes in his reflection. "You spill something on yourself?"

"Something like that" Ralph answered dismissively.

They could hear the chatter of the crowd outside in the dining hall, gathered around tables where Bainbridge was having the buffet now that the ceremony had ended.

"I never took you to be clumsy" Jack responded as he turned the tap on, holding his hands over the running water. Ralph turned his head to watch the water fall over Jack's pale, thin hands. He felt heat rising inside him, his heart rate picked up seemingly unprovoked. He forgot that Jack had just spoken.

"I threw up" Ralph found himself admitting as he continued to stare down at Jack's hands in the water.

Jack turned his head to look at Ralph's face. He waited for Ralph to lift his head too. It took a moment longer than it should've.

"You threw up?" Jack questioned. "At your table?"

"During the ceremony" Ralph admitted. He had no idea why he was even telling Jack this, or when he'd even made the decision to do so.

"Oh, so that's— ... oh" Jack said as he awkwardly turned away to turn off the running water. Ralph continued to stare as the other pulled paper towel out of the dispenser and used it to dry his hands.

"I-I don't know why I just told—"

"Don't worry about it" Jack interrupted him. He tossed the paper towel into the trash bin beside the sink as he approached the door. "Hope you feel better" he added.

"You do?" Ralph questioned just as Jack had opened the door, and was halfway out.

Jack smiled awkwardly and weakly before he let the door go behind him, leaving Ralph alone again.