Happy Anniversary.

36. Bulletproof Love.

"Hello?" The voice was deep, tired.

"Jesus, Jack. You scared the shit out of everyone! Can't you answer your damn phone sometimes?!" I was laughing and crying at the same time as I chastised my boyfriend for basically dropping off the face of the planet for two days. Two days he hadn't contacted anyone, leaving us no way to know if he was even alive. Concussions were a bitch, and you could be the most careful person in the world and still fall victim to their tricks.

Jack was certainly not the most careful person in the world.

My parents had gone to get dinner, leaving Rian and I alone in my room. His face lit up when I spoke Jack's name. "Alex? Oh, God. I'm sorry, I love you. I couldn't watch you like that, knowing it was my fault..."

"Shut up. I made the decision to go with you. Stop." He groaned in protest, but didn't argue with me. That was probably because I was still in a hospital bed that he felt was his cause and he was God knows where doing God knows what. "Where are you?"

"I, um, I kind of..." He trailed off, words becoming indecipherable.

"You kind of what?" He didn't speak. "Jack."

I could almost hear him rolling his eyes in annoyance, at the same time biting his lip in hesitance. "I'm at the beach."

My eyes blew wide and Rian was instantly more attentive due to my reaction. "Alone?"

"The only person I want to be near right now is you. That doesn't really make a lot of sense considering I pretty much just ran away from you, but I had to get away from the hospital. I'm sorry."

He was pulling my heartstrings. "It's okay, love. I-stay there, okay? I'll be down soon."

"Alex, I swear if you come down here-"

"You'll what?" The line stayed silent. "Exactly. They cleared me to leave tomorrow. I'm coming to see you."

"You're going to see who?" My parents stood in the doorway, my mother's arms across her chest.

I rolled my eyes. "I have to let you go, J. I love you."

"Love you too. Don't get in trouble."

By this point, Rian had slouched down in his chair, trying to disappear. He hadn't egged me on, but if I knew my parents in the slightest, they would put at least part of the blame on him. "Mom, don't freak out." She sighed, but said nothing, so I continued. "That was Jack. He's at the beach and I'm really worried. I've gotta go down there."

"No. Absolutely not." She said, no hesitation. "You're hurt, and you need supervision."

"So take me down there!" I pleaded.

"Alex, I'm not going to pretend like what you did was alright. I'm not nearly as mad as I would have been two months ago, but that doesn't mean what happened was any less excusable. You...you tried to kill yourself!" She blurted, voice cracking. I wasn't even sure how to begin to argue that, considering I still wasn't sure exactly how I came to the decision to put myself in the hospital. Was I trying to kill myself? I didn't think so, but even if my hand hand slipped on the gun, there's no way it would have done a full 180 degree flip in my hands with me still being able to pull the trigger.