Mixed Worlds

Chapter Eight - Anger And Jealousy

    “How was it? How’s Mimi?” Jack asked Caspian.

    Lucas looks puzzled. “Who’s Mimi?” He asks.

     “She’s doing good. As for Ally, she enjoyed herself. They went for a trail ride on the stallions and that was it. Lucas, her Mimi says to smarten up. Jack, she says you’re welcome any time, and she would like to meet you some day.” He walks away into the study.

            “Hello?” Lucas waves a hand across Jack’s face. “Who’s Mimi?”

            “Ally’s grandmother.” Jack hangs his head.

    Still confused, Lucas says “I thought she had no relatives?”

            “Technically, she doesn’t. Cas took her up to heaven. She passed away a few weeks after Ally’s last visit when we first met in university. Her grandpa Ben and Papa Sam were friends back when they were our age. After the recent... events, in her life, I thought it was time for her to go visit her grandma again.” Jack stands up, and heads down the hall to Ally’s room, leaving Lucas on the couch.

            “Again?” Lucas stands up, and walks after Jack. Jack tops in his tacks, and turns around, with only a few feet in between him and Lucas.

    “The last time she saw her grandmother, was when I took her out to the farm to clear out the house after she died. Ally thought she saw her ghost, but said nothing. I know she saw her, because so did I. We grabbed a few boxes, and left. She never spoke about it again. That night I wanted to tell her everything, and try to help her communicate with her Mimi, but the next day you showed up, and I never got the chance.” He lets out a big sigh. “Just don’t ask her questions okay? I still don’t know how she’s going to react when she finds out it was my idea to get Cas to bring her there.” Jack turns his back to Jack before he can respond, and heads down the hall to check on his best friend.

            Jack stands in front of her door, not sure what to say. Should he knock? Should he just start talking? Or should he leave her alone? Just as he goes to walk away, Ally opens the door and looks up to Jack, still wearing her green dress. He goes to speak, but is caught off guard when he sees she’s been crying. “Ally I’m so sorry I should have never had Cas bring you there without telling you. I just thought that-“

            “It’s okay.” She said quietly. She tried to calm down, and as she went to bring her hands up to her face to wipe the tears away, more came out. Jack walked into her room, and embraced her and held onto her tightly. He felt her body tremble beneath him, barely able to keep herself standing. “I needed that. Whatever you did, it was... it was amazing. It’s been ten years since you brought me out to her farm. How did you even remember? And how was I able to see her? Feel her?” She kept sobbing with each question. Jack walked them over to her bed, and she curled up to him with his arm around her, like they did in school when her Mimi passed away. 

            “I asked Cas for help. Only a few... alive, humans can go up there. You are an exception. Because of your abilities thanks to Violet, you’re already able to see all the ghosts and demons and monsters that no one else can. You’re a gift to the earth Al. I’m so glad you’re here.” He holds her tighter, trying to get her to stop crying.

    She looks up at him, with tears streaming down her face, and says “Thank you, Jack. I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re always there when I need it, and always know what to do.” She lays her head on Jack’s chest, and closes her eyes. Soon after, he feels her breathing slow, and knows she’s fallen asleep. He pulls out his phone, and plays soft piano music, just as he did for her back in college. 

    Jack lets out a quiet but heavy sigh, and leans his head against the headboard. ‘What are you doing Jack. What you two have is fine as it is. And Lucas... You know they both agreed to stay friends but Ally is still hurt by what happened...’ Jack shifts himself, and places a pillow behind his head, and falls asleep with with his best friend still in his lap.

    An hour or so passes by, and Lucas goes looking for Jack to tell him about a possible case. He goes to his room, knocks a few times and after no response he walks in, only to find that Jack is not there. He walks back up the hall, and as he passes Ally’s room, he can hear Jack’s light snoring. He cracks open the door, and a small line of light enters the room, landing on both Ally and his brother. He sees that Jack has his hand draped around her with her head on his chest, and he can feel his face heating up with anger and jealousy.

    Lucas closes the door, heads to his room, and goes to sleep.

    Jack is woken up my the loud beeping of an alarm clock, and he reaches carefully to shut it off so Ally can sleep in. She’s still laying on his chest. He notices that the arm he had around her is now intertwined with hers. He takes a deep breath, and rubs the sleep out of his eyes with his free hand. He leans his head back in an attempt to get some more sleep when all of a sudden, he hears someone banging on he door. Ally shoots up, and grabs the gun beside her bed and runs to the door. Before Jack can speak, she rips the door open and points the gun in Luke’s face.

            “WHAT have I told you about waking me up like that?” Ally yells.

            “Well, good morning to you too...”  Lucas said as Ally lowers her gun. She rubs the sleep out of her eyes and stretches. “Sleep well?” He looked over at Jack, who is now standing behind her, taking the gun out of her hand. Ally scoffs, and walks past Lucas towards the bathroom. “So, have a good night?”

            “It’s not what you think Luke.. She was upset and I was just here making sure she was okay.” He goes to make up her bed, trying to ignore Lucas.

            His body is hot with anger and he raises his voice. “So cuddling and holding hands is how you comfort people now?” He shakes his head, and laughs. “She’s a tough girl Jack. Not everyone needs to be saved by you.” He walks into the room, and stands across from his brother on the other side of the bed.

            Jack stops what he’s doing, and speaks loud and clear. “Maybe not, but right now she needs someone to lean on. You have no idea all the terrors that woman has been through. She’s not a child Lucas. Stop calling her a little girl. You have no right to be upset with me. If you should be mad at anyone, be mad at yourself for f*****g things up.”

            “Jack, stop.” Lucas says as he hears footsteps closing in to the room.

            “No. Things were going great before you kissed her and got her all confused. I never said a word about how I felt about it. And you know exactly how I feel about her. So shut your mouth and leave it be man.” Lucas doesn’t say a word, and as Jack turns away, he sees Ally standing right behind him, wet and in a towel. 

            “What’s going on here?” She’s confused, and stares at both of the men in front of her, who look at her with sad and confused eyes.  “Why is no one telling me what’s going on?!”

            “It’s nothing Al. Go get dressed and we’ll talk over breakfast okay?” Lucas and Jack walk out into the hallway, so Ally can get dressed. She hesitates, but does as she’s told. Before she closes the door she hears Lucas laugh as he says; 

            “How cute, your first date.” He crosses his arms and walks away.

            Ally stops and looks at Jack. She c***s her head to the side, and turns and calls after Lucas. “Hey! What the hell are you talking about? Food can wait. What’s going on here??”

            “Oh don’t you know? Jackie here has a little crush on you. Has since you two met. He’s all butt hurt ‘cause I kissed you.” The silence from all three of them makes the air grow thick. Ally’s heart begins beating fast. ‘What the hell...? no... he can’t... and even if he did there’s no way he feels the same after so many years...’ She turns to look at Jack. He avoids her eyes, and Ally turns back, and walks up to Lucas. 

            “What does it matter to you? You’ve made it very f*****g clear that you don’t care about anyone but yourself. You made it clear from the very beginning, and you’ve been with another girl since this whole thing started. Jack knows how I feel, just as he said. I didn’t even have to tell him how I felt. He’s the one who was giving me advice on what to say to you. He’s the one who told me to go clear things up with you the last day in Colorado. And who are you to say whether he has a crush on me or not?” Her voice cracks in between words. Words filled with red-hot rage. 

            “Well, ask him yourself. I’m sure he’ll be happy to talk about it.” Lucas turns, and walks away. Within a moment, he’s gone. Ally turns back to Jack, and they look at each other not knowing what to say. Jack hangs his head again, and sighs. She walks over to him, and looks up. He’s a foot taller than her, so she puts her head right under his. 

            “Jack, is it true?” He doesn’t move. His eyes are avoiding her in fear of embarrassing himself even more. “Hey, look at me.” She puts a hand under his chin, and tries to tilt his head up to look at her. He opens his eyes, and lifts his head up. “Please, say something...” she takes her hand down and fixes her towel. 

    He takes a step back, and clears his throat. “You should get dressed. You’re dripping water all over the floor and you could catch a cold. I’ll see you in the study after breakfast.” 

            “No, Jack. I’m not pushing things aside anymore. We’re talking whether you like it or not.” She grabs his hand, and pulls him into her room. She walks into her closet, changes, and comes back into her room wearing a baggy black t-shirt and her purple pyjama pants, and sits on the edge of her bed.

    Jack is still standing by the door deciding whether to walk away, or to stay and talk. ‘If I leave, she’ll get mad, and if I stay, she may not like what I have to say.’  Looking at Ally, and looking back at the open door, Jack is torn. 

    “Jack.” Ally says as more of a demand rather than a question. She clears her throat and crosses her arms.

            Jack reaches for the door, and swings it shut. He turns around, and lets out a heavy sigh. “Okay. Let’s talk.” He runs his hands up his face and into his hair, and plops himself next to his best friend, leaving an awkward amount of space between them. She turns herself towards Jack with one leg turned on the bed, and the other hanging over the edge. With her hands in her lap, she looks at him and says;

            “What he said... is it true?” She doesn’t want to say the actual words, as she still doesn’t know how to react. “It’s okay to talk to me Jack...it always has and always will.” 

            “I just don’t want to say the wrong thing. I don’t even know where to start.” He won’t look at her, but she can tell he’s nervous. 

            “How about the beginning?” Ally grabs two pillows, tossing one at Jack. He jumps a little, and smiles.

            “Just like old times, eh?” He laughs.

            “Just like old times.” She repeats. She smiles, and says, “Really though Jack. Talk to me.” She holds the pillow in her lap, and crosses her legs on the bed and rests her chin on the pillow.

            “Okay. Lucas is right, about a few things anyways. He’s right about the crush. All through school I was fascinated by you. Your smile, your need to prove yourself to other people, especially guys,” they both laugh. “The way the room lit up when you walked in... but then Lucas came and -“

            “And everything changed. Yeah I know.” She sighed. “Lucas… Always messing things up.”

            “But for me, at least for a while, things didn’t change. I thought about you for a long time after I left. Then when I heard about your parents... well I wanted to reach out but I had no clue how I would explain myself. I had called another hunter and covered the whole ‘monsters are real’ thing up. Then as time went on, I just kinda... let it go. I had figured you moved on with your life, and I had sort of moved on with mine. Never in a million years would I have pictured you as a hunter. Not that you aren’t a great hunter, cause you are, uh... s**t I didn’t mean for it to sound like that... I’m sorry.” He ran his fingers through his hair, and dropped his hands onto the pillow. “Sorry.”

            “Jack, don’t be sorry. None of this is your fault.” She reaches out to him, and places her hand on his arm.

            “I feel like it is. If I had just told you how I felt when you came back into my life, you would’ve never gone through what you did with Lucas. You would’ve never gotten hurt and ran off. You never would’ve been attacked by Christian. We wouldn’t be sitting here right now having one of the most hardest conversations of my life.” He sighs, and flops back onto the bed. “I feel like an idiot.”   

            “Don’t. I’m not blaming you for anything.” Ally lets out a quick sigh. “Get up.” She stands up and walks over to the side of her bed, and Jack sands up. “You didn’t make my bed right. Now you gotta help fix it.” Puzzled, Jack pulls back her blankets, and follows as she does.  They fix the fitted sheet, then the pillows, and then they neatly smooth the blanket over her bed, folding the bottom of it in between the mattress and box spring only to be taken out of place later. She stands up and puts her hands on her hips. “Okay. How about that breakfast?” Jack smiles, realizing what shes doing. Whenever they would have an important conversation, they would stop when they needed time to think, and play off like nothing happened until the other person was ready to talk.

            “Okay. Pancakes?” He asks with a smile.

            “Yeah. Pancakes.”

    The duo walks into the kitchen, laughing about the time they took care of the ghost of a hooker gone mad. She was murdered in the middle of intercourse, and begun to possess others in the same scenario, causing the possessed person to kill the person they were with. “I think the weirdest part about that trip was the fact that we had to walk in when they were both naked.” Ally explained. They both laughed. 

            “Actually, I think the weirdest part about that was us having to tell them why we were there while they were still naked.” Jack shakes his head and they both laugh again.

            “Okay yeah. You’re right that is WAY worse.” Lucas is sitting at the table, and clears his throat. She takes a quick side glance at Lucas, and walks over to the cupboards. “What kind of pancakes shall we have today?” She asks Jack as she gets out the mixing bowl and frying pan. “Blueberry, strawberry or chocolate chip?”

    “Blueberry please.” Lucas suggested.

            “How about strawberry and chocolate chip? Never tried that combo before.” Jack says. He walks over to the fridge, and takes out the fruit, milk, and butter and sets it on the counter.

            “Alright but if I don’t like it, you have to make the second batch.” Ally sets down the pancake mix, and begins to prepare.

            “Deal.” Jack sets the table for three, but neither of them are still talking to Lucas. Frustrated, Lucas slaps the newspaper on the table.

            “There’s a Siren case about 6 hours from here. I’m gonna go make sure the vamp is all tied up.” He pushes his char out, and walks towards the hall.

            Ally slams the pan on the counter, causing both brothers to jump. “No. He’s mine to deal with. I’m the one who’s gonna find out where the rest of his nest is. You don’t get a say in what I do with him. End of story.” Lucas turns back to the two of them, and laughs. 

            “Woah! She speaks! I thought you were mad at me.” He scoffs.

            “Oh I’m pissed, you throw a fit every time something doesn’t work out the way you want it to. So if you’re going to act like a child, you’ll get treated like one. So you can either be nice and eat with us, or you can walk away and wait till we’re done. Choice is yours.”  Lucas stays silent, and grunts. He walks back over to the table, sits down, and says nothing.