Cracker Jack

I could hear quiet music coming from inside Jack's room. Given the room's location in the house, I was certain that it had been the light that had been visible from my window. I hesitated for a moment, then reached out and knocked softly. The music increased in volume slightly, but other than that there was no indication that he'd even heard the knock.

I rapped my knuckles a bit harder against the wood. This time, the music stopped altogether.

"Yeah?" Jack's voice sounded gruff.

"Jack?" I asked carefully.

"Hayley?" He sounded surprised. I supposed that I should have expected as much.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure, I guess so."

I slipped inside the room, finding that Jack was sitting on his bed with a guitar resting on his legs. That explained the music, I guess. I gingerly set myself on the edge of his mattress, near his feet.

"You play?" I indicated the now silent instrument in his hands.

"A bit. What are you doing here, Hayley?"

So much for small talk. "I took Evelyn's offer for dinner. I didn't want to stay at home."

"Why not?"

I sighed. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not get into it right now. Let's just say that I don't like to be there at all if I don't have to."

He pushed the guitar off of his legs and leaned it against the edge of his bed, then sat up a little straighter. "I'm going to sound like an asshole here, but I don't get it. You have a real home, yet you hate it. I would kill to still have my parents. To me, you seem like a greedy, spolied brat for taking it for granted."

It took me a minute to compose myself enough to respond. Nobody had ever talked to me like that when it came to my family. Everyone else already knew how fucked up my home life was.

"And to me, you seem pretty lucky to be here. Why do you want out of here so badly?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

Jack wasn't looking at me anymore. He was focused intently on a piece of thread that had loosed itself from the stitching in his quilt.

"Why do you want out?" He asked quietly.

"I asked you first."

"I don't like to talk about it."

"Neither do I."

An uncomfortable silence settled between us. I felt like an idiot for trying to get Jack to talk about more than he wanted to. I should have known that it would blow up in my face. He intrigued me, though, and I wanted to find out as much about him as I could. I wanted to know how his mind worked.

"This was a bad idea," I said, getting to my feet.

"You don't have to go," Jack's voice was barely audible.

I paused and looked back at him. He suddenly seemed like such a small, scared little child. Until this point, I had assumed that he loathed this house. Now, it seemed like he was terrified of it. Out of curiosity, I sat back down.

"Are you alright, Jack?"

"I-"

"You'd better keep this door open, Jackie," Bobby's loud voice broke in before he poked his head inside the room. "You don't want Mom to think that there's something going on in here, do you?"

I rounded on him. "Do you always have to interrupt?"

He shot Jack a concerned look over my head. "Be careful, Cracker Jack. I think you've got your hands full with this one."

"Can you give us a minute, man?" Jack glanced meaningfully at his older brother.

Bobby held his hands up defensively. "Fine, see if I try and help you out next time." He disappeared from the room, but I had my suspicions that he was still listening around the corner.

Regardless, I turned back to Jack. "Are you okay?" I asked again, a bit softer this time.

"You won't look at me the same way anymore if I tell you."

"I don't see why I would look at you any differently. But if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. I'm not going to push you into anything. I didn't come here to do that."

His green eyes were full of wonder. "Why did you come here? It couldn't have been to eat an awkward meal with Bobby."

"Well, it wasn't for the awkward part. But I really did come to eat. I was on my own for supper tonight, and there's no food in my house."

"Is that why you hate it at home?" Jack brought his knees up to his chest, giving me more room to adjust my position on the mattress.

I shook my head. "No, that's not it. I can handle a missed meal or two."

Jack seemed to be searching his mind for any kind of clue that I'd given him in our earlier conversations. When he spoke again, I noticed that he was far more observant than I'd thought.

"Is it because of your brother?"

I nodded, but it took me a moment to speak. "Yeah, that's how it started."

"And you have no idea where he is?"

"No," I choked. "Mom won't let me have any communication with him. She thinks that if my ties with him are cut, I won't end up like him. I think it's only making me worse. Now I want to do anything possible to show her otherwise."

"I bet I could help with that."

I looked up at him with a sudden interest. "You think?"

"Yeah. It's win-win. You get away from your Mom, and I'll probably get kicked out of here. I'm just one step closer to being on my own."

I played with the sleeve of my sweater. "This is still bugging me. I don't get why you want out of here so badly. None of your brothers wanted to leave."

"They were just here because it was either this or prison."

"And you're not?"

"There was a third option for me."

"And what would that be?"

He sniffed audibly, then rubbed the side of his nose a bit. "I could have stayed where I was."

"So why didn't you?"

His gaze was suddenly piercing as he stared at me. "Because I probably would have died."

I couldn't hide my shock. "Why?"

Instead of giving me a straight answer, he shrugged his slim shoulders. "I just would have. As much as I don't want to be here, I prefer this to what I used to have. Actually, I prefer this to anything I've ever had."

"So why don't you stay?" My whisper sounded more desperate than I'd intended.

Jack leveled my stare. "Are you going to stay?"

"I will if you do."

He stuck out his hand. "Deal."

I shook his outstretched hand firmly. "Okay, deal."

"Hey, Jackie!" This time, Bobby's voice sounded distant as he called out. "Bring your date downstairs for dinner!"

Jack rolled his eyes as he stood up. I followed him down to the dining room, where I hesitated. I had underestimated how strange this meal would be, and it hadn't even started yet. Evelyn sat at the head of the table, and Bobby and Jack sat on either side of her. I slid into the chair next to Jack, where Evelyn had put out an additional plate setting for me.

"So, Jack, you never really told me. How was your first day?" Evelyn asked conversationally as we began to fill our plates after she'd said grace.

"It was fine."

"Did you meet many people?"

"Not really. Hayley's the friendliest person there, as far as I can tell."

Bobby snorted into his glass of orange juice. "Seriously? Wow. I'm glad I'm not in that school these days."

Jack didn't reply. He was incredibly focused on the salad on his plate.

"It's not that I'm the friendliest person," I corrected. I felt the need to step in, for some odd reason. "It's just that I'm the only person that's not terrified when they hear that he's your little brother, Bobby." I smiled sweetly at the older boy across the table.

"No, it's probably just because you're the only one who's equally feared," Bobby grinned back at me.

"Maybe I should stop in and talk to the principal," Evelyn pondered. "They should really be teaching the students to be more accepting of new students."

I tried not to shudder. If she caused the entire student body to get a lecture, things wouldn't get any better for Jack. In fact, they would get worse. Bobby either picked up on my distress or he already knew the facts as well as I did.

"Mom, that wouldn't help. Jack's better off just hanging out with Hayley than he would be if you stepped in."

Evelyn surveyed me with a new interest. "There's nothing wrong with spending time with Hayley. She's a nice girl."

"Thank you," I said quietly, feeling a little awkward at her praise.

Jack was giving me a sly smile. "Yeah, me and Hayley have a compromise worked out. I can see us hanging out a lot while we're here."