Today, Alex Gaskarth was sick and couldn't come over.
"Okay, well I need to go see Gram, you're more than welcome to come with." I said, finishing off my food.
"Sounds good. I miss Gramma Unruh." He said, still shoveling food into his mouth.
"She misses you too. She asks about you every time I go over. Y'know. Since what happened." I said.
I didn't give Jack a chance to talk back and I went to my room to get changed. Gram likes it when I wear dresses, so I decided to wear one for her.
A cream lace dress with a sorta chiffon floral bottom with a pair of lace socks and a pair of dark brown combat boots.
I finished getting dressed and went downstairs to go tell Jack we were leaving.
"Hey, you ready to go?" I asked, once finding him in the living room.
"Yeah." He answered and got up.
Then we walked to grams house.
We walked in silence, but it was comfortable silence. We haven't really enjoyed each others company in a long time.
"Hey, I'm really sorry I broke your locket chain. I know how much it meant to you." Jack said, quietly. Almost afraid to speak.
"It's okay Jack. It's all taken care of." I said and almost grabbed for his hand.
But would that be too awkward? Probably. Would Jack shove me over? Maybe. Or would he grab back, like he used to. Also a possibility.
Fuck it.
I grabbed ahold of his rather large hand with my small one.
And he held mine.
It made me genuinely smile. I quickly looked up at him, and saw a small blush playing on his cheeks.
We finally got to grams house, a small yellow house at the corner of Maple street. I did the usual, open the door and yell 'Knock knock!' throughout that house.
"In the kitchen!" Gram yelled back.
She's most likely fixing herself some breakfast and making Grandpas lunch to take with him.
"Oh Elizabeth! You brought Jack with you! Vernon! Elizabeth brought Jack!" Gram called out.
"What!" Grandpa yelled back.
"Damnit Vern! Put your hearing aids in!" Gram yelled at grandpa just as he was walking into the room.
"Lizzy! You brought Jack! Shirley, why didn't you say anything?" Grandpa asked, which made Jack and I fall into a fit of laughter.
Gram handed grandpa his lunch and he hugged me as he went out of the door.
"Do you two want breakfast or anything?" Gram asked.
"No thanks, we ate before we came over." I answered.
Jack and I sat at the table with Gram and talked with her.
"So, Lizzy. How are you doing? With everything going on, I'm worried about how you're dealing with it. You know, I don't want you to do what you did when your father passed." She said.
Jack looked at me, obviously confused.
"I'll tell you later." I mumbled to him.
"Gram, I'm fine. Quit worrying about me. How's Ms. Joyce Loper?" I asked.
"Oh honey. About three o'clock this morning somebody found her laying in the front yard. She's up in a home now, said she had a stroke." Gram said, shaking her head.
"Oh hell. I'm sorry to hear that." Jack said and I gave him a death stare.
He just cussed in front of my grandmother!
So, I kicked him underneath the table.
Few hours later, Jack and I headed back to my house.
"So. What's going on?" Jack asked.
"This is a rollercoaster of a story. You sure you wanna get into that?" I asked.
He nodded, so I told him.
"After dad had passed away. I became depressed and moody. I was pissed off at the world for taking my rock, my protector. That's when I distanced myself from you, then Alex. Because I was afraid I'd hurt you both.
I started getting pissed off at every little thing. Mom would do my laundry and she'd fold my tee shirts in a way that I didn't like so I'd start throwing fits.
Dad was always the one to calm me down if I was mad at something I did or anybody else did. But about a month into him being gone, I broke my promise to him.
I picked up smoking and drinking. I woke up hungover almost every day.
Then you started to pick on me. Just a little bit though. I thought you were joking around. Clearly, you weren't. But I thought that for the longest time. I never told mom about it. Because I felt like I was betraying you, y'know?
But then I realized. And I picked up smoking again. Mom found out. So, she bought a pack of cigarettes. She sat me down and made me chain smoke every one back to back. I haven't had a pack since.
Now, I just found out that mom has cancer. She's on chemo and she's supposedly doing really good.
But Jacky. I'm scared. I'm so scared." I said, spilling everything.