Chapter Eleven: Right now I'd Rather be Jack.
Grace's POV
"See ya later Texas!" I waved Austin goodbye as I walked across his side lawn to my own. He waved backed meekly, hurriedly turning back to disappear inside as soon as I hit my lawn. He'd been acting strange ever since the hospital visit, I couldn't remember a whole lot after that, it's like my brain had just shut down. When I woke up on Austin's couch an hour ago I had felt nicely rested and better than I had in a long time.
Walking inside my own house, I dropped my new prescription in the key dish by the front door then automatically fell onto the couch, which resulted in a low "oomph" sound coming from the cushions.
"Jack?" He was lying face down, limbs spread out and his clothes very rumbled. "Jack?", I asked again, placing my hand on his side and pulling him off of the couch so I could look him over.
"Grace?" He mumbled, one of his eyes was swollen shut with a small cut underneath it, the other half open, staring at me.
"Jack, what happened?" I shook his shoulders a little bit as he appeared to be fading off into unconsciousness.
"Fight at football practice, you should see the other guy." He chuckled.
"What happened?" I firmly insisted. He grinned up at me, touching the side of my face gently.
"He called you a slut. He called you a slut for hanging out with Mallory and leaving with Mallory. He said I'd lost my girlfriend to a lonely, psychotic bastard."
My heart dropped, and something tugged at my stomach, my emotions were scattering, and I didn't know what to do about anything.
"Did I lose you Grace?" Jack whispered, looking up at me with his warm brown puppy dog eyes, and his tousled golden brown hair. I felt my heart breaking all over again. I'm sure that if I wasn't on that medication that I'd be halfway through a panic attack.
It was only when I felt moisture on my top lip that I knew I was crying.
"You cheated on me, Jack." I choked out, struggling to keep a calm demeanor. I didn't want to show him that he hurt me, he didn't deserve to know that I cared. Jack sighed, his head dropping in what I hoped was shame.
"I know Grace, I was just-" His voice cracked and I saw a tear in the corner of each of his eyes.
"I was so mad, you were hanging out with him," Jack spat out the pronoun as if it burned his tongue, I didn't understand what had happened between the two, they used to be the best of friends. Before...
"He has no one, Jack," I whispered, feeling a fresh wave of tears fall down my cheeks. "He has no one." I buried my face in my hands.
"He had everything. That's why I hate him. Everyone adored him, his mother, his father, his sister, you." Jack wouldn't meet my eyes.
"Do you know who I had Grace? I had my mother, that's it."
"No," I said, squeezing his arm in an attempt to comfort him. "You had me and Austin and his whole family, Jack you could still have Austin, and you still have me."
"No," Jack laughed, "I fucked up, I know I don't have you anymore, I can see it, I saw it that night at the football game, I've seen it ever since you started hanging out with Mallory."
My brain was screaming at me to agree with him, to take the chance to tell him that it was all because I was afraid of hurting him, of seeing him like this. I opened my mouth, nothing came out.
My eyes drifted to the wall where a portrait of my parents hung, my mother's eyes were like lasers. The longer I stared at her, the stronger the gnawing feeling of guilt grew.
