The Party Scene Saga: Stories Yet To Unfold

Part 34

Jack

"Jack?" Lily croaked.

I looked at her alarm clock; it was 3 am. "What's wrong, babe?" I groaned, sitting up.

"I wanna see them."

"Who?" I asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"Mark and Zack." She said quietly. "I miss them."

I sighed. "Okay, we'll call over before school. That way we can take your stuff as well while we're there." She nodded in agreement. "What's brought this on?"

Lily shrugged. "I was just thinking." She said quietly. "I feel ready to see them now...not Carla."

I gripped her hand tightly. "When you're ready," I told her.

She seemed happy enough with that. But I can't let her. She'll lose it, especially when she sees the state of Zack. He hasn't been eating recently; he's turning into her. But tomorrow we're staging an intervention. Me, Alex, Rian and Grieco were cornering him before school, and making him see sense. We wanted him to realise that it wasn't only affecting him, but all of us. Especially Lily, and she doesn't even know. I managed to soothe Lily back to sleep and didn't go back to sleep myself. I left for Zack's at 6 am and met the guys on my way. Mark was expecting us, as he wanted us to do this. He wanted his little boy back. Carla was away visiting Sam, as well as having a small vacation to get away from all the problems at home. Mark was waiting for us in the driveway and one by one we filed in. We waited in the kitchen until Zack's alarm went off and Mark went to get him - he slept through every alarm and actually needed to be woken up by being shaken.

"Not again, Zack." Mark cried.

We all raced upstairs, but we wished we hadn't. Mark failed to tell us that Zack hadn't left his room since Friday, not even for food. Mark brought meals up to him; the plates were all mouldy around the door. Since he stopped eating, he'd been forcing himself to be sick all the time and his room stunk of vomit. He hadn't even bothered to leave the room. I saw patches of dried blood on his sheets and the carpet, and that was enough for me. I had to be out of there.

"I can't do this, I'm sorry guys," I said weakly, heading downstairs and out to the drive. I shut the door behind me, and it was a good job I did; Lily was coming towards me.

"Hey, why didn't you wait?" She smiled.

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep so I came to get Zack."

"So...where is he?" Lily asked, looking behind me.

"He's with your mom visiting Sam." I lied. "He never said he was going, but Carla decided it'd be good for him to get a change of scenery."

"Okay." She shrugged. We headed for school and I was even more worried when the guys never showed for morning registration. They eventually showed up to music halfway through first period.

"It's a good job you left when you did." Alex breathed, shaking his head. "Zack is an absolute mess."

"So I saw," I grumbled.

"No Jack," said Rian. "It's far worse than what you saw. He can't even sit up straight he's so weak. I don't know how many smoked joints I found underneath him when we eventually got him out of bed and to the bathroom. Mark showered him while the rest of us tidied the room. It was a state. We got rid of all the sharp objects and his pot stash, even searched every possible hiding place."

"Even his acoustic guitar?" I blurted out. "Lily used to hide her stuff in his old guitars."

"Shit." Alex hissed. "I'll text Mark, he won't see it until he gets back anyway."

I pulled a face. "Gets back?" I repeated.

"Yeah, Zack's in the hospital."

"What?!" I hissed, hoping I wouldn't be heard. "Why?!"

"Mark called his therapist," Rian explained. "She said to go straight to the emergency room. Alex drove, then we caught the bus to school."

Shit. This couldn't be happening; it's just like her all over again. I had to go to him; I had to be there for Mark. I needed to know how to break this to Lily gently. "It's no use, dude." Alex sighed, knowing exactly what I was thinking. "They won't let you into the psychiatric unit unless you're family."

"This fucking sucks." I sighed. "How the fuck am I going to tell her?"

"Don't," Rian warned. "This might tip her over the edge."

The bell rang to signal the end of first period and I headed to English. Yet another lesson passed in a blur where I didn't take in a single thing; no one would think exams were close. Then third period. Fourth. Then lunch. I was late out of French class due to Rian taking an eternity talking to our teacher about his last assignment. Because of him, I was 10 minutes late meeting Lily, who wasn't in the usual place. I saw one of the girls from her biology class go by.

"Hey Jasmine," I said loudly. "Where did Lily get to?"

"She left biology early, but I don't know where she went." She shrugged. "I think I've just seen her in the cafeteria. Is something wrong?"

"I hope not..."

I immediately made my way to the cafeteria, when the principal caught me just as I walked through the door. "Ah, Mr Barakat, just the person."

"Sorry but I'm looking for-"

"Miss Merrick?" He asked; I froze. "This way, Mr Barakat."

Hesitantly I followed him down to his office. He held the door open for me and I walked in. Mark was sat in one chair, Lily in the other. "Hey, sweetie." I smiled, kissing her cheek. "What's going on?"

She shrugged. "I got called out of biology, told to get my lunch then come here."

Good. She didn't know. I looked at Mark and he looked awful. All colour had drained from his face; he couldn't look at any of us. I spotted flecks of blood on his hand.

The principal cleared his throat. "Mr Merrick, I believe you wanted to speak to Lily?"

Mark nodded, but he still didn't look up. "Yeah, um..." He began, scratching his head. "Honey, we're all so sorry. We wish we'd told you sooner, but it just wasn't the right time. Please come home. We need you. All of us, especially Zack."

Lily was looking right at him I took her hand in mine and squeezed tightly, and she then placed her other hand over mine. "I can't." She told him calmly. "I've been doing so much better since I've been away, and I can't jeopardise that. I'm sorry."

"You don't understand," Mark said quickly. "Zack is lost without you. We weren't going to tell you, but the reason Jack was at the house this morning was that the boys were staging an intervention with Zack. He's not eating, he hasn't slept...baby, he hasn't even left his room. Zack needs you. He's been admitted to the psychiatric unit again. He was begging to see you."

I was so surprised how well Lily seemed to be handling all of this; she looked so calm and hadn't even teared up once. "Mark, I'm happy." She said slowly. "I can't go back on my progress, I'm sorry." And with that, she stood up and walked out.