Jack Barakat x Terri Amess : My Only One. [Requested]

Chapter VI.

“Come on, Terri! There’s gonna be a lot of people!”

Over these past few days, Alex and I had hung around each other more often than I imagined. He quickly became my bestfriend, coming over the library and spending time with me when Jack was with Therese doing God knows what. “For the nth and hopefully final time,” I sighed, glaring at him as I flipped a page from the book I was reading. “No.”. Alex groaned, hitting his head on the table and making me chuckle.  “Come on, Lex. You know I hate socializing.” “But, I just want you to meet my bestfriend!” He reasoned out, making me drop my smile.

A secret I’ve kept from Alex is that I’ve met Jack, and that we’ve talked before. I carried on pretending to act dumb whenever his name was raised by Alex, only telling him a cheap excuse on why I know he existed, which was “He’s just my neighbor. I never really knew him.”. Honestly speaking, apathy is worse than fully acknowledging your hate towards a person. Showing people that you hate him still shows that you actually feel something for him, wherein apathy just makes it clear that you don’t care about him; and I’m very much convinced that apathy’s the perfect way to explain what I’m feeling for Jack.

There’s no way I could ever feel anything for him. Impossible.

“Terri?”

Alex snaps me back to reality by waving his hands up and down in front of my face, making me flinch. “Huh, what?” I stuttered like an idiot, making him smirk. “I said Jack’s going to be there. It would be a perfect opportunity for the two of you to know each other better.”. I turned my focus back to the book, pretending it was actually interesting when in fact I never even realized what the plot was about. “I – I don’t think I can go.” I said, biting my lower lip. Why does he want me to meet Jack so much? Can’t he tell that I don’t want to?

“Please, Terri! I promise you Jack’s going to be a whole lot of fun. He might be an asshole almost 80% of the time, but he’s really nice. You don’t need to talk much if you don’t want to, because he’ll do that for you.” Alex pleaded. Out of his sight, I roll my eyes.

He’s an ass 80% of the time? Maybe a hundred.

“No, it’s not that.” I lied, turning the book closed. “My father’s going to be away for work, and I… kind of need to look after the house.” No matter how pathetic it is of an excuse, this is partly true. My father does go away for his work and is almost always gone, but I’m not really required to watch over the house. I can go wherever whenever I want to. The only thing that I sometimes feel good about is, I don’t.

Alex sighs in defeat. “Fine, fine.” He muttered, giving me the ‘you are a pathetic excuse for a bestfriend’ face. I take out a deep breath. Sometimes, I have no idea whether I’m hanging out with an 18-year-old or an 8. “Look, if something happens, you can give me a call and I’ll save your ass for you. Deal?” I tried to add, to at least make it sound like I wasn’t a shittier friend that he thought I was. Alex gave me one more disappointed look before sighing, running his hand through his messily-done hair. “Alright, alright. You win.” He says in surrender. “Geez, you’d do anything just so you won’t see anyone, won’t you?”

A tight smile on my lips formed as the bell rang, signaling that classes were over. Of course I’d do anything just so I won’t see anyone.

Especially if that anyone is a certain Jack Barakat.

-x-

“Sometimes I give myself the creeps. Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me. It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up. Am I just paranoid? Or am I just stoned?”

I sang to Greenday’s “Basket Case” as I turned it into a maximum volume, my head banging along to the beat. The best part of my father leaving the house is that it’s totally rule-free, except for the fact that I should get things back to clean and tidy when he goes home, and that everything I do is under my command, and no shitty neighbor have any right to come here and complain shit about it ‘cause all they’ll ever get is a good salute from my middle finger.

People always thought I was shy and into the usual things they thought I do. Well, they’re wrong. I don’t always paint. I don’t always play some instruments and sing. If you think I have low tolerance for alcohol, guess again.  I can party like someone who just wants fun, too. I’m even random when it comes to Alex. It’s just; most of the time having fun on my own can be preferable. It’s nice, it’s quiet, and nobody can give a flying fuck of what you do.

As I sat down to the living room’s recliner chair, a good measure of vodka on my hand and good music blaring from behind me; for once in a very long time, I felt relief. I felt the feeling of happiness, a feeling school and everything had taken away from me ever since I moved to Baltimore. My mind goes blank as it tries to remember all the pain it had to suffer from Therese and her friends, the lack of time my father offers me, how I had to live in this vicious little place.

Then, Jack.

A wave of anger fills my head as the name enters it. Jack. He promised he’d show me around Baltimore. I used to think he was so funny, so nice, so understanding… Then he comes nosing into my life and pretends he doesn’t even know shit about me. This, this was all his fault. If he only apologized for looking at that picture, if he only said that one word, I would’ve let it pass. If only he tried to make it up to me. If only he tried to talk to me.

If only he cared.

I would’ve told him what I wanted to tell somebody. If only he tried to show me that he really didn’t mean it – that he was there by accident and not because he wanted to snoop around,   A small crack from the glass I was holding snapped me back to reality, making me realize how firm my hold was from the poor, defenseless glass I was holding. I tried to push Jack away from my thoughts with a sigh, it would be a waste of my time to even be thinking of him. Besides, this was a moment I wanted to cherish.

It’s not like I’d be able to do this for long, anyway.

Just as I was about to take it to a whole new level of relaxing, my phone starts vibrating and playing “All The Small Things” by Blink-182, making me groan. Only one person would be calling me at this hour. After a few seconds of debating whether to take it or not, I take the phone out of my pocket, flipping it open and putting it in my ears. “Hello, Alex.” I say without looking at the caller’s name.

“Terri?” his voice was so loud, almost a scream, yet I can barely hear him from the crowd that was overwhelming the other line. I put my phone a few inches from my ear, sighing as I recognize the slur in his voice. “Yes, it’s me. Let me guess. You got too drunk, your head exploded, and you want me to get Tylenol there as soon as possible. And by ‘as soon as possible’, you actually mean ‘hurry up, you fucking bastard. Can’t you see I’m fucking drunk?’ ” I guessed, hiding the sarcasm in my voice with a smile. There was silence on the other end as Alex tries to process what I said. “Actually, the Tylenol part was right.” He confessed, and I was about to start triumphantly when he cut me off. “But it’s not for me. Why the fuck would I drink Tylenol when I can just get fucking wasted? It’s my house.”

I nod, rolling my eyes. “Okay, Tylenol for your drunk buddy then. What else?” I say, putting all of it in some sort of note in my head. “Actually,” Alex suddenly spoke up, breaking me away from my thoughts. “That drunk buddy you’re referring to… Well, it’s Jack.”

Shit.

“And, well, he’s too wasted to go home on his own. And he lives just across your house… So, I was wondering if you can drive him home?”

This was going to be a fucking bad night.

 A/N: I am so, so sorry for not being able to update for some weeks now. (I think it's been a lot of weeks. Is it? I really missed Wattpad.) College life was so stressful, I thought it was more chill since less subjects are taken, but I was so, so wrong.

On the next chapter, I will be showing Terri Amess's picture! :)

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