Jonnor, Please!

Chapter 11

Chapter written by benji2795 and originally published on AO3 on March 17, 2016

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Jack is absolutely stunned. Bittle was always so...calm wasn't the right word, but he was always so...collected. He only ever yelled when he was excited, and he didn't cry unless he was overwhelmed in a good way, or really physically hurt. In fact, the only time Jack had heard him yell was after the first time Jack came at him in their checking practices, and the only time he'd seen him cry was on the loading dock after the coaches had told him he might get cut.

Bittle had just been pushed too far.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Jack barks, spinning around and advancing menacingly on Ransom and Holster, the ones responsible for bringing Bittle to his breaking point.

"Jack bro, I swear we weren't trying to upset him!" Holster says, throwing his hands up defensively, and Jack can see the fear flashing across Holster's eyes. He's probably way too angry about this, if Holster is afraid, but Bittle didn't deserve the pressure they put him under, to be pushed to the point where he got angry and upset.

"Yeah, we just wanted to help," Ransom adds weakly, and he's trying to position himself so that Holster is between him and Jack, using the other boy's larger frame to shield himself slash hide from Jack.

"Bittle made it very clear that he wasn't interested in having Jude meet his parents. What part of that translated to 'continue to pressure him into it' for you?" Jack growls, fighting a strong urge to smack both d-men silly.

"We didn't realize—"

"No, of course you didn't!" Jack snaps, and he's practically shouting in Holster's face, and despite the fact that Holster has nearly four inches on him, it feels like he's much smaller as he cowers in the face of Jack's fury.

"That's exactly the problem!" Jack continues on. "You two both push and pressure, but you don't know where the line is! You always go too far, and I've had enough of it! I don't want you doing this ever again! You don't get to mess with other people's romantic affairs if you can't figure out how to do it without crossing the line!"

"But—"

"No, there isn't a 'but'," Jack retorts angrily. "You're banned. Period."

"Okay," the both reply quietly, slinking away in defeat when Jack turns around to face the rest of the room that's been watching on in shock.

"That should be rule for all you too," Jack says, calmer this time. While a few others in the room certainly deserve some ire for taking part in pushing Bittle so hard, Ransom and Holster earned the majority of the heat for being the instigators. "Shitty, remind me to get that in the bylaws."

"Yeah brah, of course, that's great but...you might want to hold off on that for just a hot second," Shitty answers, putting a hand on Jack's shoulder and guiding him to the foyer.

"Why should it wait?" Jack quips, stopping and turning to face Shitty. "Bittle isn't here, but we still have a majority of the Haus here, we could—"

"No, it's not about that," Shitty sighs and shakes his head. "It's because I'm going to give you some romantic advice right now brah."

"Oh you are?" Jack challenges, glaring at Shitty threateningly.

But Shitty is used to it by now and doesn't flinch. "Yep," Shitty nods. "Bits just ran out into the night, crying and upset, and brah, I'm thinking that now might be your chance, if you get what I mean."