Fractured

Chapter 7

I bit my lip and all I could do was nod. It was a real disappointment to me. I wanted to get evidence but it was more than that.  I've been wondering about these people for years, curious to know what happened to Clare, who my grandparents were.... Always wondering with no answers.  And now, we have something that could lead to everything I always wanted to know.  I understood where Luke was coming from, that we couldn't interrogate them.  It just sucked.

I watched as Jack climbed up closer to me, walking over all the papers before he sat right in front of Luke and me, spreading out over the paper and making me smile. Inching his way towards Luke's lap, he climbed up over his legs and pressed his little paws into Luke's chest, getting leverage to lick just under his chin.

"Jack," Luke said, smiling slightly as he moved away from him and Jack moved back towards all the papers where he laid down.  "Have you been up this whole time?" Luke asked me a second later.

I nodded and I saw him look down in thought.  "You still need to go to school even if you are tired tomorrow."

"I know," I said, beginning to collect all the papers around me to put back in the file.  While I did, Jack had to move and as he did, he grabbed a piece of paper in his mouth and started walking off towards the end of my bed.  Chucking, I reached over towards him to get him and Luke managed to pick him up for me.

Smiling, Luke pried the piece of paper from his mouth and gave it to me.  At least it wasn't anything important and I already read it, I noticed.  Jack was a trouble maker.  At the same time, I liked that about him. 

"You have dog toys for a reason."  Pulling Jack up into his lap, he ran his hand over his fur and scratched him in his sweet spot.  I could tell Luke loved Jack too.  Looking back up to me though, his small smile fell as did his eyes the moment they met mine.

"Well, I'll be... getting back to bed.  I need to wake up in a few hours.  So do you," he mumbled, setting Jack down on my bed and turning to stand up.  Moving towards the door, I was about to tell him something.  To stay because I needed to say something.  But I had nothing to say.  I just didn't want him to leave.

Closing the door behind him, it was just me and Jack.  Shuffling all the papers into the file in the order they were in before, I stood up and walked over to my closet, setting it up on one of the shelves.  Now that I had a dog, I couldn't leave it on the floor under my bed.  Jack picked a fight with everything he could possibly reach.  It was entertaining seeing him wrestle my clothes, a shoe, his own cage, the blanket in his cage he would constantly drag out.... He was a handful but he was worth it.

By the time I was laying down in bed, I didn't have the heart to put him back in the cage.  Laying on my side under the covers, Jack made himself comfortable against me as he laid down to and went to sleep. I followed soon after.

***

I usually am not in the mood when I wake up to go to school.  So imagine just how cheerful I was this morning.  What sucked even worse was that Natalie was gone today still since she wasn't back from her family trip for Christmas.  And where I was now was the worse hour of the day.  A class I hate with a bitch of a teacher. Chemistry with Mrs. Dugan.  The same lady that disrespected me more than some of the kids, the one that I bitched it out, who taught the class I struggled the most at.

She was passing out worksheets for us and when she got to me at my lonely table, she stopped, squinted down at me and observed. I happily did the same in disgust up to her.  Her sandy hair, long nose with glasses perched at the end of them, thin straight lips.... Ugh.  I can't stand her.  She looked nearly as ugly as I wished Clare to be.

"Is there something the matter, Albany?  You look rather tired.  Or drained," she said in a suggesting tone I didn't like.  Suggesting what, I wasn't sure.  Maybe staying up late and worshiping the devil?  Out late doing drugs?