Your shoulders

In His Own Little World

In the morning Jack did what he foretold; leave.

The only trace of his existence that he had left behind was his number scrawled messily on a post-it note which he'd stuck on her forearm sticking out from under the covers. Lola hadn't woken up when he left so he paid off a couple of extra hours in the room so she wouldn't wake up to the cleaning ladies pounding their fists on the door like FBI.

He got a cab to take him back to the bar to retrieve his car. He found himself surprised that it was all in one piece after leaving it overnight in an area like this but was pleased to avoid another call to triple-A.

He drifted down the - seemingly endless - dirt road that claimed to be a shortcut home.

Groaning behind the wheel, he remembered he was supposed to come home last night and ditched his little brother with one very sick Eric without even a call.

"Sounds familiar.." he scoffed to himself, in reference to his father's hearty history of no-call no-show. He hoped Shawn was alright and Eric too for that matter.

He ought to invest in a handheld cell if he was gonna drift through his college 'party hardy' phase, complete with strange pills, hookers, biker bars, midnight check-ins to hotels, party buses, and basement clubs.

'Hah.. my parents would be proud' he joked.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye he found himself pulling into the parking garage of his apartment just sitting behind the wheel, mustering up the courage to face a very angry Shawn and maybe Eric.

He managed to make it up the stairs - dodging the elevator as he was in no rush to get home - and to the front door barely his foot in the door before Shawn let out a sarcastic

"nice of you to join us, Jack!"

Jack pinched the skin on the bridge of his nose, clenching his eyes shut.

"I should've called.." he started.

"The babies been crying since he woke up from his nap and I've had no help around the house! I even had to call in sick from school!"

"You're welcome?!" Jack gawked. He knew Shawn would've looked for any excuse to call in sick from school if it wasn't to watch after Eric, it was to do something else.

"The baby? Is that what you guys have been calling me?! Not cool!" Eric gaped, disbelieving of their rather distasteful labels. 

Jack let his serious demeanor break with a snort. "Baby's the least of ya worries, just wait till you find out what we call you when you're not here."

Shawn flinched with eyes wide open, as he frantically waved his arms, signaling Jack to cut it out.

"Whad'do you call me when-"

"I demand compensation!" Shawn yelled, cutting off the conversation before it could lead them further off-topic.

Jack held his hands up in surrender before digging around in his front pockets. "Fine! Ya want money? Here, take it." he said desperately bargaining with his little brother; waving two 20s at Shawn.

He smacked jack's hand away. "You can't buy me like some cheap hooker!"

Jack then dug out another 20 huffing under his breath "yeah even they wouldn't charge this much.."