Ever After

Emergency

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This chapter is in Mark's perspective.

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"Mrs. McLoughlin!" I practically screamed, slamming the two screen doors shut behind me as I thrust Jack into the dining room (a good inch away from knocking over the coffee table). "We have an emergency!"

Mrs. McLoughlin, thankfully home from work, rushed down the stairs as soon as she'd heard my voice. She didn't even bother asking who I was, why her son was in a wheelchair (for the school hadn't called in seeing as the day was practically over when it'd happened), or why I had yet to kick off my shoes. I could feel my heart kicking against my chest as I watched her rush over to Jack, her baby boy, watching her kiss his cheek and smother him with love - how nice it must be to have a family to come home to each and every day.

"Oh, Seán, what happened?" she begged, her voice worried and heavy.

Jack couldn't seem to respond - his shoulders were bouncing up and down, telling me that he must be sobbing, and yet his mother's expression somehow became even more flustered. She cocked an eyebrow in the air (an attribute that apparently runs in the family) and waved me over, not prying her eyes off of whatever look was on Jack's face. I approached, soon to match Mrs. McLoughlin's expression - ridiculously, Jack wasn't crying, but laughing. He'd just gotten boiled water poured on his (now) numb legs, had been socked in the cheek by Killian, and I'm pretty sure he'd lost his phone somewhere in our journey through the woods, and yet here he was - laughing.

"What's so funny?" his mother asked, taking the words from my mouth. She turned to me. "What's he laughing at?"

I shook my head. Hell if I knew what Jack was laughing at - he could be laughing at something that happened three years ago, knowing him.

Through gasps, he mocked me by saying, "'Mrs. McLoughlin! We have an emergency!", being sure to crack my voice exactly where I had when it'd happened. He could barely get the words out as he wheezed. "Mark, you were fuckin' insane."

"Seán!" his mother gasped, baffled by his swearing. Oh, if only she knew...

"What happened, Mrs. McLoughlin," I insisted, seeing as this conversation would go nowhere otherwise, "was Felix accidentally spilled water on Jack's legs when we were performing our play - the water was boiling, although it wasn't supposed to be." I turned to Jack, finally capable of stopping himself from letting out hiccups of laughter. "What did the nurse say, again?"

"They'll be numb for the day, but nothin' more... oh, ma, stop giving me that look."

I then turned to Mrs. McLoughlin, her eyes having transformed from white to a veiny red (another gene that ran in the family). "Oh, Seán," she sighed, taking him in for another embrace and kiss, "my poor, poor baby..."

Between her kisses, Jack shot me a look to say "See what I have to deal with?", making me blush as I tried to hide the envy building up within me. I grinned as his mother gave him her final kiss to offer (along with the tears she'd painted on his cheeks), walking over to the phone to order us a pizza, saying that it was only right to treat me after having rescued her angel.

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We were up in Jack's room, an entire different world from the rest of the log cabin. His bed was a black brass with a comforter, one that you wouldn't expect to be nearly as comfortable as it was - once I'd sat down on it, I simply couldn't tell myself to get back up.

I was clinging onto the plate in my hand, a ceramic, painted dish that his sister had designed, 'cause "she's a bitch for that kinda stuff." It was a completely different feeling from the paper plates in my apartment, a feeling of warmth, giving off just as cozy of a vibe as the comforter and the logs that made up his house - I never wanted to leave. I was enthused, as well, by the fact that his mother had found it to be "no biggie" that Jack and I were eating up in his bedroom, for my father would insist that we eat in the dinner table. (There was no option otherwise, anyway, seeing as I didn't have a bed or bedroom to myself.) The two of us chewed on our pizza for a good ten minutes, the two of us too hungry to form words - Jack was the first to say something.