When two worlds collide at midnight in the empty halls of New Jersey Private Hospital, Jack and Parker learn that no matter what, the heart wants what it wants.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ALL IT HAD DONE FOR THE PAST FOUR DAYS IS RAIN. Granted, I spent most of my life in a building, so it didn't affect me, but still, the halls were dark and miserable, and it felt like everyone was in a bad mood. Everyone except for Jack.
It started on Wednesday night, when he'd waiting by my bedroom door for me to finish movie night with Xander, scaring me half to death, but the other half of me was ultimately just swooning at the way he looked so effortlessly attractive leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
I snuck him into my room, and we played board games and talked all night—and by all night I mean until I fell asleep from exhaustion after about an hour into our time together. Jack had been sitting on my bed opposite me, holding a deck of cards in his hands while I sat perched up against the mound of pillows at the head of my bed.
I'd fallen asleep in a weird position, and woken up tucked under the covers, so I guess Jack moved me. The one time I'm actually asleep and not pretending to be and I have a cute boy potentially have his arms around me. So unfair.
The next day it was raining harder, which meant no sunshine for Jack and I, so instead we got that breakfast that was long forgotten the day before, but took Xander and Olive with us instead of going alone. They seemed to appreciate it, and I found myself melting at the sight of Jack getting to know my friends on a personal level.
He had rehab that day, which I wasn't allowed to go to, so I was stuck waiting around in my room, watching movies on my laptop for him to be finished. He was exhausted after his day of physiotherapy and muscle strengthening, and instead of coming to my room, he texted me to come to his and to bring my book.
He fell asleep watching me read poetry to him as quietly as I could.
My heart had started to flutter the more I hung out with Jack, to the point where it was now just a regular thing for me to blush or have my heart skip a beat. I was getting used to the fact that I was growing an attachment to him, which was almost worse than growing an attachment to him.
Yesterday he had his brother Luke and a few of his team mates visit him, and me, not wanting to be a bother, left him alone to himself so he could enjoy his company.
I was surprised when he texted me the entire time, telling me he missed me and wanted me to come meet his friends. I had to admit the idea of meeting jacks friends made my heart thump against my chest, but there was no way I was going to go through with it and go see him.
I didn't need to look like a little desperate fan girl, especially in front of his brother.
Instead, I went to the cafeteria with Olive and my book, and we both read adjacent to each other, sipping on tea and occasionally expressing our thoughts as we read our novels. I'd since finished my poetry book and had invested in a new book called Icebreaker, definitely not because I was browsing the library with my Mom while Jack was in rehab and it made me think of him.
