three in the morning « jack gilinsky

22. some parents are accepting.

 "Keaton, what are you doing here?" the confusion in Jack's voice was impossible to ignore, his entire body tensing up at the sight of his long lost brother stood in front of him, panting heavily as though he had just ran the longest marathon in his life, clad in a black sweatshirt — he clearly underestimated the Omaha heat.

Using the sleeves of his jumper to wipe beads of sweat off of his head, Keaton shifted his weight upon one foot, darting his eyes between Celia and Jack; "We need to talk." he blurted out, his cheeks red from the sun; "Or, you need to listen, and I need to talk."

Oh, so he had a change of heart?

Was it not recently that he dismissed Jack and Diana as though they were worthless, as if he didn't need to be in their presence after they left their state with their parents not knowing, riddled with emotions that they could not describe and had never felt, hoping their older brother would show them some sort of compassion for their trials and tribulations, only to find out that he simply wanted nothing to do with them?

He ran rings around their hearts, making them feeling as though they were the reason he was put up for adoption, ensuring it was more than clear that they knew he thought he was superior to them, claiming they had no idea what it was like to be hurt.

But now, he wants to talk?

"We don't need to do anything." Jack frowned, leaning against the car beside him; "You made it pretty clear when Diana and myself traveled all the way to Atlanta to see you that the last thing you wanted was to speak to us. You made it clear that you were better off not knowing us, how could you possiblyneed to speak to me?" he was hostile towards the human race enough as it was during such a moment.

He had his heart ripped from his chest hours earlier, thrown to one side after being led on by the one girl he thought he could trust for the rest of his breathing days. Jack didn't want to speak to anybody. He didn't want to hear excuses that meant nothing and formed only to rid a being of their own guilt.

"And I know now that I shouldn't have done that to you both." Keaton stepped forward, the sun burning the back of his neck; "Jack, you don't need to accept what I have to say, you don't even need to believe it. But, could you push aside the fact you don't like me, that your expectations of me were shattered because of my own attitude and emotions on that day and just hear me out?" he wanted to prove that despite his actions, despite the resent he let show on that damned day, he cared.

Keaton simply wanted one chance, a chance that he could use to admit that he has seen an error in his ways, a sincere apology needed to be bought to light. He had been beating himself up over that day, having numerous debates with who he calls his parents, his therapist, friends, his brother and even his boss, trying to understand what would be the best way to prove he knows he was wrong — all of them told him that unless he made his way to Florida, found both Jack and Diana, they would never forgive him.

"Jack—" Celia piped up cautiously, knowing that her brother was far from in the best of moods, and all it would take is one little thing to trigger him; "Can we talk for a second?" she weakly asked, hoping she could approach the current situation from a neutral angle, rather than simply taking his side for the sake of him being her brother.