Memories Work Like Magic

chapter two.

Jack walked into his dark house, the only lighting now was the dim shine of the moon through the windows.

"How does he even know I'm having a bad fucking night?" Jack angrily muttered to himself, slamming his front door shut and dropping his keys on the table in the foyer. He spoke so quickly, quietly, and slurred together that if anyone else were with him they would not have understood a word he had just said.

After a few loud steps up the stairs, Jack opened the door to the master bedroom of the house. He turned the light on and looked at the empty unmade bed, feeling angry about something, but not sure what. He got changed into a pair of sweatpants and a plain black tee shirt and tucked himself in under his grey blanket. He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes before drifting off to sleep.

~~

The sound of the Harp ringtone awoke Jack the next morning. Before looking at his phone, Jack checked the time. The sun was still rising and he was wondering who would call so early. Afterwards, he slid the green phone symbol across the screen of his iPhone and held it next to his ear.

"Why are you calling me at 6:30 in the morning, you prick?"

"Jack, I promise this isn't a joke. My car stopped in the middle of a country road and I need you to bring me gas," the voice on the other side of the line was slightly muffled.

"What the fuck Rian? Call a tow truck or something. I'm going back to sleep."

Just as Jack was about to press the red button on his phone to hang up, Rian spoke again. "Please, Jack! I'm standing here at the side of the road and people are driving by me, swerving past my car, might I add, giving me weird looks because I'm stopped in the middle of the road. Plus the closest tow truck would take longer than you to get here anyway."

"Fine," Jack stated before hanging up. He knew that a tow truck would be much faster than him, but Rian just didn't want to pay for a service like that. So, Jack hopped into the shower, cleaned himself up and dried himself off. He then dressed himself in black skinny jeans and an old black tee that had Glamour Kills written messily all over it, with their symbol, a pink pig with white wings, at the top right of the words.

On his way to the store to buy some gasoline, he got another call.

"Oh my fucking God. It's 7 in the morning, dammit!"

He glanced over at his phone to see a number that wasn't in his contacts, but he recognized the first three numbers to be the same area code as his. He didn't pick up, however, because he was driving.

After buying an expensive red container with a yellow nozzle that held gasoline, Jack dialed Rian's number on his phone and began to curse at him for not telling him which road the car was stuck on.

"Jeez buddy, you're the one who hung up before I could tell you. I'm on Park Road, by the way. See ya." And with that, Jack was on his way to bring Rian's car back to life.

The drive for Jack was long and boring, but the sun was finally up as he drove, so it kept him more awake. He couldn't help but notice that there was a fairly large billboard on his way to Rian that displayed the same jewellery advertisement he saw for the first time the day before. This time he payed attention to the name of the company. Gnash Jewellers. He wasn't sure why, but he wanted to remember it. He wanted the name to stick in his head.

The faint image of a car and a man standing next to it appeared as Jack turned onto Park Road. After reaching him, he assisted Rian in pouring the gasoline in his car. Jack then proceeded to ask where Rian was going at such an early time.

"I was actually just heading back from Alex's place. He had a dinner party last night and I ended up crashing there." Rian glanced at Jack and noticed something. "Hey, you alright buddy?" He wondered as Jack stared at the ground.

"Yeah... Why wouldn't I be?" Jack looked up really quickly before responding. He had a slight glare on his face.

"You just seem... Oh what's the word?" Rian asked himself.

"Grumpy?"

"Yeah."

Jack faked a smile. "Well maybe if my friend didn't wake me up at six thirty in the morning, I'd be better." He lightly and playfully elbowed Rian in the gut then handed him the red container. "Better get going. Keep the extra gas. Drive safe, Rian."

Jack began walking towards his car and Rian realized what was wrong. "Hey, Jack, I'm sorry man I just.. I wasn't thinking and it kind of just slipped out since you asked where I was going."

His smile faded almost instantly. He looked at Rian and said nothing. As Jack opened the door to the driver's seat of the car his face was stone cold. He drove away very quickly, noticing that Rian was still standing next to the gas tank of his car, staring at Jack with a look of worry.