"love aint ever been so close
but so far away
it's like your mind is telling you to
just back off
and your heart says just stay
whats a love that doesn't keep you up,
all night and all day?"
sierra mumbles the lyrics to down for you by kehlani as she washes her face. she runs the exfoliating brush in a circular motion across her skin for a minute, and then rinses with cold water.
after she's done, she puts on her moisturizer and then pulls her hair back into a loose pineapple bun on the top of her head. sierra walks out of the bathroom with her phone and heads into her kitchen. she grabs a bowl out of the cabinet and pours herself some goldfish before grabbing a water out of her fridge and heading over to her sofa.
sierra turns on the tv to a random channel for background noise and then begins scrolling aimlessly on her phone. she scrolls through instagram and quickly switches to twitter for better entertainment. retweeting and liking a few tweets, sierra responds to a few mentions and DMs.
she's in the middle of replying to a tweet jack made a few hours ago when she gets a call from him. sierra answers quickly, a small smile on her face. "hey, jack!" she says excitedly.
"sierra, i just landed and im headed your way," jack says, his voice far from excited. it's serious and rash, stressed and clipped. sierra frowns at his tone and shifts on the couch.
"what's wrong?"
"my grandpa had a heart attack, and i'm going home to kentucky. can you pack a bag?"
"jack- sierra, please. i need you with me right now," he says, his voice extremely strained like he's trying to hold back tears. sierras heart hangs in her chest, thousands of emotions running through her mind. but after hearing how broken his voice was when he said 'please', her mind was already made up.
"okay. i'll be ready when you get here," they don't say goodbye, just hang up. sierra gets off the couch and runs into her bedroom and starts packing haphazardly. she throws a ton of winter clothes into a suitcase and a few pairs of shoes. it's only when she steps back to assess the situation that she remembers that it's the middle of the week and she has two more days of work and three more days of school.
sierra grabs her laptop and loads up her email, firing off messages to her professors and supervisor about a family emergency. obviously, none of them respond given that it's 9pm on a tuesday.
entering her bathroom again, she grabs all of her toiletries and throws them into large ziploc bag, and then transfers it into her suitcase.
by the time she finishes packing her carryon bag, her phone buzzes with a text from jack.
jack: here.
she shoves her feet into the first pair of sneakers at the bottom of her closet and grabs all of her belongings, as well as her keys. she checks her apartment quickly and then rushes outside to meet jack.
he barely acknowledges her as she emerges from her house, giving her an unenthusiastic upnod. she tries not to take it personally, given the circumstances, and quickly throws her bags into the back of his car before hopping into the front seat.
jack pulls out of the parking space without a word, and she messes with the strings of her jacket, unsure of what to say to him. she doesn't know his grandfathers condition, but it must be serious if he's in the hospital and jack is hopping on another plane after just getting home.
sierra opens her mouth to says something but closes it and instead places her hand on top of right one that rests on the gear shift. she pats it and looks over at him while his eyes stay locked on the road. he anxiously chews at his bottom lip and grips the steering wheel tightly.
