After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 91

The door was pounded on aggressively from the other side, but Jack Merridew didn't flinch. In fact, Jack had been waiting for the bang, bang, bang that indicated he was in for it. He knew a heated argument was in his immediate future. He knew he was in trouble. He was tired from the day, too tired to fight the inevitable. So he lazily hauled himself off his bed and opened his hotel room door.

"Are you insane?" Ralph Langley blurted the very moment the door was cracked. Jack opened it the rest of the way to be greeted by a look of sheer disappointment and shock on Ralph's face. Jack was no stranger to this look of the brunette boy's; he saw far too much of it in the early days on the island.

"Tell it to me walking" Jack insisted boredly as he turned around and ventured back into his hotel room. He plopped down to sit on the bed, holding his weight up on his arms. He stared at Ralph, waiting for him to go on.

"You went back" Ralph unnecessarily pointed out. "I told you not to go back but you did it anyway. Of course you did! How could I have been so stupid to think that you'd actually listen to me for once? You brought a knife into the store, Jack! And you used it! You hurt that kid, and way worse than he hurt me. How on earth did you manage to stay out of juvie after that? How did you manage to keep this from me for almost a year now? Say something!"

"My dad fixed it" Jack flatly answered.

"Fixed it? What'd he do, turn back time? What fixes cornering someone alone in a store after hours and stabbing them?" Ralph asked in disbelief.

"Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars" Jack answered, still without any clear emotion.

"What?" Ralph stopped pacing and turned to look right at the blond boy, baffled to confusion.

"A three-hundred-and-fifty thousand dollar donation to the East Point Police Department. That's how he fixed it" Jack reiterated in more detail.

"You're kidding" Ralph raised his eyebrows.

"Am I?" Jack asked knowingly.

"That's insane" Ralph said again, "how can money cover up assault with a deadly weapon?"

"People who aren't rich have no idea what money can cover up" Jack explained further. "Everything is for sale, Ralph. Even freedom from imprisonment."

"That's sick" Ralph scoffed. He was evidently baffled beyond comprehension. Jack was just now starting to see how privileged his family wealth made him. Not only could Ralph have never paid his way out of that situation, but he didn't even know that Jack could. "Since when do we live in a world where rich people are exempt from the rule of law?"

"Since forever, Ralph" Jack told him, "it's always been this way, even if you didn't know it. For as long as the law has existed. Things like this aren't public knowledge because silence is for sale too, for those who can afford it. And if everyone knew that, there would be a rebellion from those who can't afford the price of freedom. The world's always been sick, Ralph, whether you like it or not."

Ralph looked like he just woke up in a nightmare he was hoping would end any minute now. And until now, Ralph Langley lived in a world where nightmares ended when the sun came up. But Jack knew better, this had always been his world.

"Why'd you have to go back to the movie store?" Ralph changed the subject back. Clearly, he had no desire to learn any more about reality.

"Because he hurt you" Jack reminded the other. "I told you I was gonna go back. I told you."

"I didn't think you really meant it. I thought you'd just forget about it, like I did" Ralph thought aloud.

"Well I didn't" Jack mumbled, turning his head to the side to avoid Ralph's penalizing stare.

"Clearly" Ralph scoffed, "so what, do you have a record now?"

"No" Jack sighed, turning back and dropping his gaze in his lap. "The charges the EPPD intended to file against me were dropped after my dad showed up. He beat me to a pulp when we got home though. I started school the next day. I had to wear long sleeves and sweatpants in August, it was awful."

"Wearing long sleeves? That was the awful part?" Ralph questioned, surprised and confused.

"Yeah" Jack said simply, "why?"

Ralph too was starting to see his own privilege, like Jack did minutes earlier. Sure, his parents would never be able to pay his way out of jail, but they'd never force him to wear long sleeves in ninety degree heat either. And it wasn't even the clothes that made Ralph's heart stop, it was the fact that Jack didn't see how being beaten was worse than sweating.

"Jack" Ralph sighed sadly after a quiet monent of contemplation. He sat down next to the blond boy on his bed. "You're lucky the police didn't press charges against you, but you realize what that kid's testimony's done to your case, don't you?"

"Yeah" Jack nodded, dropping his head. "I don't even know how Barnes found 'im. The police report was shredded that night. The whole thing was supposed to be off the record."

"Laywers can find out any and everything" Ralph insisted. "Especially sharks like Dana Barnes. My lawyer told me that we have to assume the prosecution knows literally everything about us. You can't sit on a park bench in this country and not leave a paper trail."

"I got that now, thanks" Jack sarcastically scoffed.

"Are you okay?" Ralph asked softly as he placed a hand on Jack's upper thigh for comfort.

"Yeah, course I am" Jack forced a smile, but he didn't look over at the other boy. Eyes never lie, so he avoided Ralph's intense stare.

"Good" Ralph whispered weakly, which quickly earned Jack's attention. He lifted his head to look to Ralph, whose eyes were glassy with sadness.

"What?" Jack asked worriedly, "what is it?"

"I don't want this to be all we have left" Ralph dropped his head as he struggled not to cry. "I don't want them to take you away from me."

Ralph was an optimist even on the worst of days, and Jack was seeing that slip away before his eyes. The younger boy was forced to realize how detrimental Jack's case was looking, and the likelihood that Jack's freedom would only last as long as the trial would. He was prematurely grieving the loss of the love of his life, anticipating a verdict that would keep them on opposite sides of glass walls for a long time.

"Hey, I'm right here" Jack reminded him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him forcefully closer to himself. "Nobody's taking me away from you, I'm here. Look at me."

Ralph lifted his head to obey Jack's demand. His glassy brown eyes met Jack's protective blue ones. Jack squeezed him again, and brought his other hand across his body to wipe the tear from Ralph's cheek.

"I'm right beside you, for as long as you need" Jack continued to insist, their eyes locked intently.

Ralph curled himself up to fit into the crevices of Jack's body beside him. They sat like that only for a few minutes before they made the plan to ask Ralph's parents if he could stay the night in Jack's room. Tomorrow was Friday, so it wasn't the weekend yet. But Ralph was sure his parents would agree when they saw what state he was in. And sure enough they did, contingent on Ralph waking up half an hour early and returning to their room to get ready for court bright and early tomorrow morning.

"Maybe there is an upside to this whole trial thing" Ralph suggested as the two of them got settled in Jack's bed together, both in their pyjamas, teeth brushed, lights off for the night.

"Yeah?" Jack asked in disbelief, "like what?"

"Our rooms aren't even ninety feet apart, let alone ninety miles" Ralph pointed out.

"Yeah" Jack smiled at the realization. The distance between East Point and Dalton had always been one of their biggest hurdles, and right now, it didn't matter at all. They could spend the night together and Ralph could be back in his own room within seconds the next morning.

"Maybe you're still an optimist after all" Jack chuckled softly as he ran his fingers absentmindedly through Ralph's brown curls.

"What do you mean by that?" Ralph wondered.

"That maybe there's still hope for us yet."