Half-Hearted

Chapter 4: When It All Began

The clock on Jacqueline's desk let out a soft 'beep', indicating it was 10 at night. She ignored it and continued to finish her essay due the next morning while checking her phone for Thomas' replies every few minutes. 45 minutes into starting the essay, a car screeched to a stop in her driveway as Jacqueline heard a door open then slam close. She quickly finished the last sentences of her essay before closing up her laptop. Jacqueline flopped herself onto her twin size bed as she pulled the blankets until it covered up to her waist as she laid on her side. Out of the blue, a door being slammed shut made her jump, but Jacqueline very easily shook it off. "Where were you? I called your office and they said you left a few hours ago!" Mom yelled. "Well, first of all calm down, and second of all, I needed to unwind from a long working week," Dad said loudly but still calm, "So much going on next week ya know, all the events, meetings, planning for the events a-"

"JUST SHUT UP!!" Mom's voice could be heard throughout the town. "And where were you all night? I THOUGHT you got off work at 7." His voice raised louder, then she screamed, and he yelled. Jacqueline's mind was filled with all sorts of pictures, broken glass bottles, porcelain bowls, her mom thrashing around as dad holds her back. But she is soon snapped out of her daze when they start screaming at each other. "YOU ARE DRUNK!!!"

"SO ARE YOU!!" Jacqueline did her best to block out their voices. Music, radio, headphones anything that had sound come out of them, she switched it on. But it didn't work, no matter how much she tried, she could still hear them. This is it. Their first fight. Jacqueline couldn't take it anymore, she pressed the lock button on her iPod and turned off the radio and stereo which were both blasting, to hear them better. "YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT, KEITH!! A PIG TOO!!" The voice yelled from downstairs. "WELL AT LEAST I WOULDN'T STARVE MY FREAKING CHILDREN!!!" "You didn't know my intentions," Mom said softly then louder, " AND YOU NEVER WILL!!" Jacqueline couldn't take it anymore, she had to leave, and go, far far away, but it was too dark to do anywhere.

"Thomas." Jacqueline whispered to herself as she quietly stepped out of the room, making her way to the stairs leading to the front door. Even if she left from the front door or backyard, she would still need to get past her parents somehow. She breathed a deep breath and began tip-toeing close to where the walls hugged the steps, shifting her weight when the stair unexpectedly creaked under her weight. She looked up to check if her parents heard, but they didn't, obviously, they were tearing at each other's throats. She snuck through the house in a pair of sweatpants and a black hoodie with her hair down. As she is about to slip on her shoes, her mom bellowed, "AND WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING MISS JACQUELINE??"

Jacqueline freezes in her tracks and slowly turns around. "Y-Yes?" she ends up stuttering, as her chest heaves up and down with each heavy breath. "I asked you where YOU were GOING, NOT 'Do you want to eat ice cream?' Anyways, you are NOT GOING ANYWHERE YOUNG LADY!" Her mom and dad slowly walked towards her with a 'I'm so gonna kill you if you breathe' look on their faces. Out of everyone's sight, Dylan pokes his head downstairs and continues to watch as it all unfolds before his eyes. Jacqueline estimated that she is 6 feet away from the door before her mom throws herself up in the air and lunges towards Jacqueline with eyes of pure fury. With so little time to react, all Jacqueline could do was crouch down, when her mom pins Jacqueline's arms and legs down to the ground. As Jacqueline fought to get out of her mom's grasp, from behind her mom, Jacqueline sees her dad throwing empty beer bottles at her, shattering inches and centimeters close to her face. To make matters worse, he has a good aim and shards of brown stained glass scratched Jacqueline's face. Jacqueline heard a small gasp from somewhere but couldn't pin point the voice, or where it came from, but it sounded like a little boy.

Within a split second, her mom went from pinning her arms to pinning her neck with one hand, cutting off a little bit of Jacqueline's oxygen, while the other hand was free to do what it wanted. Teresa raised her arm above both their bodies, giving Jacqueline a glimpse of her dad running back into the kitchen. Thanks to gravity, Teresa's hand fell and slapped Jacqueline across the face. Waves of pain flowed through her body as the stinging pain continued on her cheek. Jacqueline started to become light-headed as her vision started to blur. She saw her mom raised her arm up again. Jacqueline's eyes feel heavy as she closed them, waiting for the searing pain to come a second after her mom's hand would connect with her cheek. But it never came. Instead, she regained consciousness and saw Dylan, pinning her mom's arms behind her back as Jacqueline gasped at the amount of oxygen that she needed to take in.

"Dylan." Jacqueline sighed out as she said in a soft voice.

"Go." That was all he said.

"No, Dylan I'm not--"

"Just go. Go!"

"Dylan look, I'm not leaving without--"

"I said 'Go'. I'll be fine. LEAVE!"

Jacqueline stumbled backwards into the door and pushed herself out to the front porch and ran through the bushes to Thomas's front door to knock on the dark oak door, even though her tears blurred her vision. A few seconds later, Thomas stands facing Jacqueline. He is appalled by how her face looks and can't help but lets his jaw drop. "I knew you guys were fighting but I didn't know it was this bad." Thomas cups Jacqueline's face as he examines the scratches and cuts that have blood dripping from the sides, tears streaming down her face and her left cheek as red as a tomato. Jacqueline couldn't help but blink and the tears that have been pooled up in her brown eyes begin to fall onto the concrete ground. Thomas takes Jacqueline into his arms which wrapped around her waist as she leaned against his chest.

Jacqueline woke up to the sun shining in her face and birds on the branches chirping outside Thomas's bedroom window. She was dripping with sweat. She squinted her eyes from the glaring sun staring at her face as she uses a hand to shade her eyes so that she could see clearly. Jacqueline slowly sat up and only then realized, Thomas wasn't there.