Back to the Place We Knew Before

Raegan
The sky in the winter was always grey. I hated that. I’d always hated that. Yet, I still found myself staring at it, almost captivated by its complete lack of colour. I was sitting bitch in Rian’s care with Brae to my right, lecturing Mikayla about the perils of drinking while pregnant.
“Oh my God, relax, I had three shots. He’s be fine.” was Mikayla’s response.
“Will he? Or will he turn out to be like Jaime from the health class video?”
“Ew! My kid is going to be so perfect. Like, you don’t even know.”
“Or due to your poor judgment will fall behind in school and life.”
“SHUT UP!” yelled Alex from my left. “I’ve got the worst headache ever, and I’m about to cut whichever one of you talks next.”
“Alex” says Rian in an authoritative fatherly tone.
My phone rang in my pocket, and as I reached for it I must have accidentally hit deny. Mikayla asked who I was talking to. Alex told her to shut up and not be “such a fucking nosy-ass dwarf whore,” which got another sharp “ALEX” from Rian. Then my phone made a ‘ding’ sound that signaled a new voice mail. It was from Jack, and I couldn’t really understand anything he was saying. I sent him a text saying to meet me at my house, since that was where we were headed. He didn’t respond.

When we pulled up to the house, Jack and Finn were sitting on the porch. Finn sipping on a beer, Jack drinking water. I was surprised how close the guys had grown to be with Finn (with the exception of, you know, Zack.) We al got out of the car, and Brae ran to Finn to greet him with a hug and a kiss. Jack scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“Come on, let’s go,“ he said, grabbing my hand to lead me off of the porch, “You have to drive. We‘re going to the lake house. ”
That’s all he said. I tried to ask him what was wrong, and he told me he’d talk to me when we got there. The ride was awkward, with nothing but Something Corporate’s Through The Window and the occasional direction from Jack breaking the silence. The ride was shorter than last time seemed, but I could only imagine what he was upset over. I parked in the spot he had just a few days ago.

“Did you know?” Jack said, turning to me as soon as we got through the door.
“Uhm. Maybe?” What was he talking about? He’s crazy. Wait, he couldn’t know about-
“About fucking Braelyn fucking cheating on Finn!”
He knew.
“Y-yeah, well, she’s my sister, we tell each other everything.”
“You knew?! And you didn’t tell anyone?!”
“What? Why would I tell anyone?”
“Because that’s the right thing to do!”
“Hurt my sister and spread rumors is the right thing to do?”
“Yes! I mean, no. It’s just.” he sighed. “I’m sort of freaking out. This is all so crazy. I mean, Braelyn. The innocent one having scandalous stay-overs with a man who isn’t her boyfriend?”
“Jack. It’s Braelyn and Zack. Nothing can keep them apart.”
“But I was finally making friends with Finn.”
“You can still be friends with Finn. This isn’t going any further.”
“I can’t handle this. I really can’t.”
“Want me to make you some tea?” I asked, rubbing his back. He nodded.
I turned on the rusty faucet and filled up the old tea kettle on the stove before burrowing through the Lazy Susan for the tea that I knew Jack’s mom would have stocked there. Alex’s family may have been the British ones, but Jack’s mom loved her tea. Jack’s phone went off as I poured the tea into a mug.
“Now?… Ugh… The lake house … Yes, with Raegan, who else? … FINE!” he closed his phone and rose up from the couch. “We have to go to band practice. I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jack. Just don’t make anything of the whole Brae/Zack think, alright?”
“Alright.”
This wasn’t just any band practice, though, because right in the middle Finn came in and punched Zack in the face. I watched as Jack sprang up to see what had happened. However, he looked disappointed and sort of angry when Braelyn ran to Zack’s side, defending him. Then, an hour later, we were all sitting in the hospital room Mikayla was given to stay in before the actual pushing process.
Mikayla was pacing back and forth complaining about the ungodly pain she was in.
“Baby, it’s going to be okay. Don’t worry. They’ll, uhm, give you the drugs soon, and you’ll feel completely, ah, comfortable. Okay? Just try to relax.”
“Shut up! You don’t have to deal with this!” she replied, snappily. He sighed. I couldn’t imagine being Rian in this situation. He had to sit and watch the girl he loves in such unbearable pain, and he can’t do a thing about it. I looked over at Jack, who gave me a weak smile. A few hours later, a nurse checked Mikayla and told her it was time for the epidural, and that they would start pushing soon. We all wished Mikayla good luck and left her and Rian to have some last minute conversation before the baby came.