Chapter 07: A Distraction To Mend A Broken Heart

"Hey… Jack? Are you okay? What's up?"

A sincere question from a shaken younger sister was met with no response, just silence. She waited a few moments and repeated the question, however, the response was the same. Nothing but echoing silence befell them. Rachel stood still in front of his door, trying to contemplate what happened, however, just like that her patience wore thin and the old Rachel disappeared. Getting frustrated, she knocked on the door with her knuckles 3 times, *bam, bam, bam*.

"For God's sake! Just tell me what's going on already, I showed you I cared didn't I!? Just open the door and tell me, or I won't care anymore. Got it!?!"

A silence followed and no reaction was given by Jack as he hid curled up in a ball atop his bed, rolled around his pillow. After that, Rachel gave up and went back to her show's for a few hours until their mother came home from work. Following her usual routing upon coming back home from work, their mother entered the front door, placed her coat and back on the coat pegs on the hallway wall. Then she moves to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. After making her cup of tea she made the last step of her return home and that was to sit down on the sofa and just relax for half-hour. After all, a cup of tea is a great way to wind down after a long 9 ½ hour shift.

Watching the tv with Rachel, they both managed to distract each other from their own individual stresses, by talking about their days and enjoying the show that was on. However, out of nowhere, the strong character of Rachel who was still slightly shaken by her brother's actions from earlier on, allowed her strong character to disappear slightly to express concern to her mother about him. She explained what had happened earlier to her mother and said how out of character it was.

In response, they decided it was time to get him to talk, one way or another they needed to find out what was going on. They both approached his bedroom door and asked if it was okay to come in, which was followed by silence. After a while, his mother knocked twice and said aloud that she would be entering the room. However, when she turned the doorknob, the door stayed in place and rattled as she pushed it. Jack had locked the door from the inside and had no intention of coming out.

This made them both more concerned. Not knowing how to react, they tried talking to him through the door for the next half hour, but to no avail, the door wouldn't unlock, and Jack wouldn't respond. He had vowed to start over fresh with his second chance at life and make things right. However, one thing he was not prepared for was having his first love stood before him and being humiliated in front of her, as the object of his hatred embraced her lips with a kiss. For a man who entered the abyss of limbo, this broken feeling in his heart brought more pain in comparison.

His mother began to lose her patience with Jack not answering and not opening the door. Rather than taking the same approach Rachel did, she took a softer and more indirect approach. Giving him an ultimatum, he had to choose, either open the door and tell the both of them what happened, or she would contact the receptionist at the department he visited who would have ultimately seen him most of the day.

The reasoning in her mind for this ultimatum was, the receptionist who helped him must have seen what had happened, not to mention he had only been to the university and at home the whole day. The only other place he could have been was the bus and it's very unlikely something that had the ability to make Jack like this could happen.

*Click* *Click*

The door lock undid itself, the handle tilted down, and the door slightly opened. At first, they were both smiling, however, when they saw Jack's face appear from the ajar door their smiles disappeared and changed to a shocked opened mouth, wide-eyed expression. Jacks face was pale and dry as if he'd had his blood drained from him, his face was completely red and hot, eyes bloodshot, red, and irritated skin beside his eyes from where he had cried and claw marks on his forehead and cheeks from where he had been tightly grabbing hold of his face out of frustration.

Without uttering a word, Jack just looked deep into the worried faces of his mother and sister, realized how worried they were and complied with their wishes. After all, these were the people with who he needed to make things right with first otherwise his guilt would never leave him. Pulling the door open fully, leaving the darkened room behind him, dragging his feet along the floor he headed to the sofa in the front room.

Placing himself on the sofa opposite the one where both his mother and sister were sitting down, he took a deep breath before opening his experience of heartbreak. Slowly but surely as the story was told his mother's face changed from one of worry to one of understanding.

Although she wasn't happy with how his ex-dormmate acted, at least the issue of heartbreak was a lot easier to deal with than something more serious. However, his sister's reaction was far different. Upon hearing about the situation, rather than being supportive over the heartbreak she was instead fueled by anger.

"THAT BASTARD!"

"Language, Rachel!"

"I'm sorry mum, but that arsehole needs to get his arse kicked, now!"

"Calm down! Nothing good will come from acting like this."

Letting out a loud sigh to show her dissatisfaction at being told she was acting wrong, she sat back on the sofa and let her mother take over. Firstly, she placed her hands atop Jack's finger locked hands and began to console him of his first heartbreak. Telling him that's 'Okay to be sad' and to remember 'there's always more fish in the sea'. Hearing these words from his mother, although true, also made Jack feel very lowly and pathetic. He had been crying and destroyed by losing a love that was only ever one way. Not to mention, he'd already died and come back.

With no strength left in his drained body, he mustered out a faint "mmm" in agreeance to his mother's words. To distract him from this heartbreak, she knew he had to be occupied with something, so as everyone was present in the room, she took this as an opportunity to flip this discussion into a 'what next?' talk. A talk to see what he's going to do now that he's officially entered a gap year from his course. She panned her eyes up to him and sat forward, on the edge of the sofa cushion.

"So… What's next? What's the plan?"