LOTF: Before and After

Phase 3: Chapter 15

"Jack?" he asked after he'd been sitting a couple feet away from him for a few minutes.

"Hm?" Jack half responded, his gaze intently focused on the game in front of him.

Ralph waited a second for Jack to give him his attention, but of course, he didn't.

"Jack!" Ralph repeated more firmly.

"What?" the blond responded hotly, still refusing to take his eyes off the screen.

Growing impatient, Ralph snatched the controller out of Jack's hand and paused the game with it.

"Hey!" Jack shouted as he tried to snatch it back, to no avail. "I was on the last lap!"

"You can have it back after we talk" Ralph said in the bossy, controlling way that had made Jack's blood boil back on the island.

"Talk about what?" Jack asked in a frustrated tone, flopping his head against the back of the couch.

"Last night" Ralph answered a beat later. He could sense the abrupt shift in the energy between them when he said it. Jack's shoulders grew tense as he more intentionally avoided eye contact with Ralph.

"There's nothing to talk about" Jack was careful in his response, begging his eyes to keep looking ahead.

"How is that—"

"Because it was stupid, alright! I was out of it. It didn't mean anything. I was just in my own head and you were just the only person there. That's it. We don't have to talk about it... ever" Jack interrupted to make his stance on the matter clear.

"But—"

"Just drop it! ... please."

Ralph felt the hurt and frustration bubbling up inside him, making his face and skin hot beneath the surface, as he begged himself to stay composed. Ralph wasn't sure last night meant anything either, but he did know that he needed to get his spiraling thoughts out of his system in order to figure that out. But he instead kept his mouth shut, tossing the game controller back to Jack. He felt Jack's eyes on him, but this time it was Ralph who refused to look at him. Jack picked up the controller and resumed his game; his distraction. Ralph watched for a minute before he got up and disappeared down the hallway.

A few hours after his parents had both come home from work, Jeffery announced he was going to the grocery store.

"Can I come with you?" Ralph asked as his father put his jacket on.

Jeffery was surprised because Ralph had only been grocery shopping once since the food run his mother brought him on in Virginia the night after the rescue. It was only a week or so after, and the boy had an anxiety attack inside the store. When Jeffery got him back in the car and calmed him down, Ralph said he'd felt overwhelmed and overstimulated. It was too much to have to think about; too many aisles, too many options. Today was the first time since that incident Ralph had expressed any interest in going to the store again.

"Sure, buddy" Jeffery responded, and looked over to his wife for an explanation. She simply shrugged, an indication she knew as little as he did.

After Ralph and Jeffery had gone, Laurie returned to the novel she was reading at the kitchen table; her signature cup of nighttime tea on the table in front of her. Jack was watching TV in the living room; some old rerun episode of Alvin and the Chimpmunks.

Laurie glanced over at Jack when she saw him stand up out of the corner of her eye. She watched as the boy lifted the bottom of his sweater up a little to scratch an itch that was bothering him. She winced at the sight of several, different coloured bruises across his back. One was dark purple, others red and yellow. She'd only seen a little of his skin, and tried not to imagine how much worse it might be beneath the rest of his clothing.

Laurie tried to return to her book, but couldn't focus. She couldn't get Jack's bruised lower back out of her mind. It was much worse than the bruising on his face was. Suddenly, she understood why Paige had so desperately brought him here. As reluctant as she'd been to let Jack back into her house after the airport, she now considered what different a life he'd gone home to compared to that of her own son.

Jack's eyes grew wide as he turned his head to see Ralph's mother sitting down on the couch beside him. Jack was well aware that she didn't like him, and with everyone else out of the house, he was certain she was about to make it clear just how much she didn't like him.

"Jack, hon" she began, "how have you been doing since your sister dropped you off?"

Jack was stunned by the question; so much so that it took him a moment to answer.

"Fine.. good, actually. Pretty good" he stumbled through the words, still mentally preparing for what could come of this conversation.

"Things at home are a little hectic at home right now, your sister said" she insinuated.

"Uh, yeah. I-I guess so" Jack answered honestly and awkwardly as he dropped his gaze into his lap.

"Is your mom not around?" Laurie pressed on.

Jack shook his head sadly, unable to find the words to talk about her, especially not with Ralph's mom.

"It's just you, your father, and Paige then?"

"Yeah" Jack shrugged as he spoke.

"Your sister seemed pretty worried about you. She told Jeff and I that your dad hasn't taken what happened to you very well, that he's been pretty upset with you" the woman forced him to confirm.

"More than usual" Jack answered uncomfortably.

"He's usually upset with you?" she questioned.

"I dunno, I guess you could say that" the boy was clearly bothered by the conversation but felt pressured to answer given his rocky relationship with Ralph's mother.

"Jack, sweetheart, I need you to understand that it is never okay for an adult to hit a child" Ralph's mother instilled firmly but gently, noting the way he abruptly turned to look at her. "No matter what you may have done to upset your father, it is not normal nor is it legal for him to put his hands on you like that."

Jack's diverted his watering eyes as he struggled to stay composed, to maintain his image. "Like what?"

"Like the bruising on your face... and on your back" Laurie explained. She saw the boy's eyes grow wide with concern and confusion.

"How did you—"

"It isn't something you can, or should have to, hide" Laurie vaguely elaborated.

"It looks worse than it is, it's no big deal" Jack sighed and shrugged. "It's always been this way."

"It is a big deal, Jack. I'm not saying we plan on reporting this to anyone, but if someone at school were to see the bruises, they would be" Laurie informed the boy of the harsh reality of the matter.

"He'll kill me if you tell" Jack's strong voice shrivelled into a desperate plea. "Or I'll get sent back to military school, or worse... please..."

As unfamiliar as Laurie was in matters of child abuse of this degree, she knew that the consequences of reporting it would be much greater for Jack than for anyone else.

"I know, hon" Laurie nodded as the unfairness of the situation settled in her troubled mind. "What I do want to do is make sure you know that you're safe here. If you need to stay a little longer than a day while things settle at home, that's okay. We don't mind, and it's clear Ralph doesn't either."

"How do you know Ralph...?" Jack trailed off as the memory of him kissing the unclothed chest of the woman's son last night flashed through his mind.

"I do worry about him, as I think you noticed, but he's been doing better and you two are getting along well so I'm not overly worried about that" Laurie explained without explaining. "We're far more worried about you, especially considering what you boys just went through."

Jack nodded, unsatisfied with the vague answer but still accepting of it. Clearly, if Ralph's mom had seen him and Ralph together this morning, she didn't think much of it. That, or she just didn't mind.