My Last Regret

“He’s a complete asshole, Jack,” I sighed into the phone as I leaned against the wall.

“I know, baby,” Jack said. “You’ve got to hang in there for me though. I’ve got something special planned for us tonight, sound good?”

“Like what?”

“I can’t tell you, but I’ll see you later. I’ve got to go for now. I love you,” he said and before I even had the chance to say anything back, the call was ended.

Great.

Now I didn’t even have Jack to talk to. What was I supposed to do?

I scraped my shoe against the ground and stared down at my phone in my hand for a while before deciding to go back inside.

I wandered around in the lobby area for a while before finding a room with a snack machine and a coffee maker. I dug in my pockets for some quarters and decided to get some coffee. Depositing the said amount, I pressed the button with the sized cup I wanted and watched the machine do its work.

A medium sized Styrofoam cup fell down into the slot and it asked me to select the coffee I wanted. I chose vanilla because it’s simple, and the machine followed my requests by pouring my coffee of choice into the cup. The inside steamed up a little because the liquid was so hot, and when I opened the little door to retrieve my cup, the coffee was still running out all over the place.

I took in a deep breath before deciding that it wasn’t worth it and I let the door fall back into place, leaving the cup and the coffee there with it.

I moved my attention to the snack machine to the left, my eyes scanning every row. I put in the money and got a bag of Lays Original, but they ended up getting stuck in the machine on the way down. I pushed and rammed into the side, but I came up blank and received no coffee and nothing to eat. Just my luck.

I sighed and looked over the change I had left. Not enough. I put it back in my pocket and left the room, finding the elevator to take me up to the floor where my granddad’s room was.

-

“Alex, I just don’t understand why you can’t just try to get along with him. He’s really hurting, and you’re not making the situation any better for any of us,” my mom said to me in a hushed tone as my granddad slept.

We stood in the corner of the room with the curtain draped across so he could sleep.

“Then why don’t you just ship me off to dad’s again, so you don’t have to deal with me,” I shrugged, staring at the floor.

“You know I don’t want to do that,” she sighed. “My dad’s just really important in my life, and I know that having him come live with us hasn’t been the best, or the worst-“

“Speak for yourself,” I cut her off. “Why don’t I just call Jack to come pick me up and we can ask dad if he can help us afford a plane ticket down to where he’s at and that way I’ll be out of your hair, and I’ll still have Jack.”

“You’re not even considering if that’d be okay with him, or his parents,” she said. “You can’t just go and make decisions for someone else.”

“You sure can.”

“I never-“

“You kicked me out of my own room so your parents could stay in there, and you practically shipped me off to dad’s without my say. So how about we save the argument. I’m going out with Jack tonight so I’ll talk to him then.” I said and then she was silent.

-

We were at the hospital for at least an hour before my granddad woke back up and the nurses said they’d have to give him some shots and that we should probably head home for the night.

The walk to the car was silent. The ride home was silent. Everything was so quiet between me and my mom that I could hear ringing in my ears up until the point when I opened the front door and saw Jack standing in my living room with a smile on his face.

“You ready?” He asked the moment after I shut the door.

“Jack I… I just got home and I didn’t even-“

“Come on, we have to leave now if we’re going to make dinner,” he said.

“I’m not even dressed to go out and my mom doesn’t even know-“

“Alex, baby, stop for a second. I already had my mom inform yours about tonight, and you look fine. It’s nowhere big, I promise.” He gave me a reassuring smile before reaching his hand out and taking mine.

“But,”

“Bye Mrs. Gaskarth,” Jack called to my mom who was already upstairs.

“Have him home before two, alright?” She said and Jack laughed.

-

“You shithead, I thought you said this wasn’t anywhere big.” I cursed under my breath, trying to smack him from across the table. Luckily for him, he ducked out of the way and laughed.

“It’s not.”

“This place is the size of a mansion, and everyone in here is dressed to the nines. I look like I just walked out from under a bridge compared to these people.”

“You look fine, calm down,” he chuckled.

“I don’t see why everything’s so funny, Jack.”

“We’re not going to be here long, the service is quick, and then we’re going somewhere special.” He said as the waiter walked over to take our drink orders.

-

I elbowed Jack in the ribs as we walked up the stairs, his hands over my eyes.

“I don’t know why this is supposed to be a surprise, I already know this is your house.”

Jack didn’t reply, instead he just coaxed me through the house and up the stairs. At that point, we’d taken so many turns; I’d forgotten where we were until I opened my eyes.

There was a rug spread out on the floor, and there were pillows and two blankets laying in the middle. The whole room was surrounded by candles of a few different scents. They were on bookshelves, on the floor around the rug, everywhere.

“What did you do to your room?” I asked in shock.

“Don’t worry about it, just go make yourself comfortable while I go get snacks.”

I didn’t get him. One minute he’s pushing me away, and the next he’s just…wow. My eyes took in the whole room and in no time, he was back with his arms around my waist and a plate of food already placed on the desk next to us.

“Finger-sandwiches?” I asked, laughing a bit.

“They’re all I know how to make, okay? They’re good, I promise.” He smiled. “Go sit.”

I walked forward, slipped my shoes off and sat down on the big rug in the middle of the floor. Jack came and sat across from me, placing the finger-sandwiches in front of us. I grinned at him.

“Why’d you do this?”

“You’re stressed,” he stated. “I can see it in your eyes, I can hear it in your voice. You just needed a break, you know? No one needs to be around an annoying dying old man his whole day, right?”

I cracked a smile, which made him laugh.

“I guess you’re right,” my smile faltered a bit. “I don’t know, I kind of feel bad. He’s treated me like such shit for so long, but I can’t help but feel bad that he’s in this right now. I can’t explain it because it feels like I should be saying it’s karma, but I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack said, leaning forward a bit. “We’ll all get through this, and you’re not forcing me to go to your dad’s with you in order for that to happen.”

“What? How’d you-“

“Your mom told my mom earlier. I know you’re trying really hard to make things better for yourself, and run away from it all, but maybe you should let them play out for a while first before you go on and make rash decisions.”

“Stop acting all philosophical, it’s freaking me out,” I reached my hand up and poked his nose, laughing a bit. I was thrown off balance and in attempt to regain it, one of my hands ended up smashing into half the platter of mini sandwiches between us. I got mustard and tomato juice and the other parts of the sandwich all over my left hand.

“Nice going, asshole. Trying to kiss me and you end up with sandwich guts all over you,” he laughed.

“I wasn’t trying to kiss you,” I said, pulling my hand up and wiping the side across Jack’s face, smearing mustard on his cheek.

“You dick,” he smirked.

“You want it,” I laughed at him as he tried to wipe it off but ended up spearing it everywhere else instead.

“Yeah,” he leaned in real close, our lips almost touching, “maybe.”

With that, I closed the gap and pressed our lips together.