Dear Jack (Visual Story)

Chapter Twenty

Piper

What just happened? What the hell?

I stood, walking to his door and pounding it as hard as I could. Of course he locked it. Brat.

"Tyler open the door." I said.

"No, go away." His voice was muffled, he was probably face down in a pillow.

"Open the door, come on we need to talk about this. I'm done running okay?" I pleaded, trying a new tactic.

"Go the fuck away Piper." His voice was more defined now, and it sounded like it was just on the other side of the door.

"Tyler Jonathan Scott open the door right this second, we aren't done talking." I yelled, my last option for getting in there.

A loud laugh barked through the door like a seal, spreading a smile across my face.

He was laughing, that was a start.

I slid down the door, pulling my knees to my chest. I couldn't leave, my shirt was in his bedroom. My purse, my keys, all in his bedroom.

Of course the one time I drove my car here I would be stuck on the other side of a locked door without my stupid keys.

Like you would leave anyways.

"Okay if you won't open the door I will just have to talk through it, though I'd rather be looking at your face for this." I sighed, taking a breath and readying myself for what came next.

I could feel the door shaking as he slid down it on his side, and a thump as his head fell back against it. I laid a hand on the door, pressing my cheek into the wood beside it.

It's now or never Piper.

"My name is Piper Page and I've been living with PTSD since I was almost thirteen years old. I watched my father kill my mother right in front of me, and then himself. I sat there alone and afraid for two days wishing he had just killed me too." The tears ran down my face, dripping to the door and down to a small puddle in the floor.

I took another deep breath, fighting back sobs that threatened to rack through me.

"Please Ty, open the door."

"I can't Piper, I can't look at you." His voice sounded broken, like he was crying just as much as I was. "It's too hard, I want you so badly. I can't watch as you reject me again. I can't watch as you tell me you could never love me the way you loved him."

I sighed, and more tears fell.

"That's the thing Ty, I didn't come back here last night to reject you. I came here to tell you I've realized something, and I would really like to say it to your face." My fingers traced the intricate carvings on the door, trying to force myself to keep it together just a little bit longer.

The door opened a crack, and I quickly stood to push it the rest of the way. Tyler was sitting in the floor with his back against the bed, knees drawn up to his chest, and his arms wrapped tightly around them. His face was buried between them.

I sat down beside him, resting a hand on his arm. He glanced up at me for a moment, eyes red and rimmed with tears, before turning away again.

I reached out, grasping his cheek and turned him to look straight at me.

"The thing is, I realized I didn't know what love was. I didn't know until I met you." My eyes burned into his, watching as the words washed over him without truly sinking in. "I realized that all along I didn't love Jack, he was my crutch. He was a way to put the past behind me and focus on something else instead of dealing with the pain by cutting myself."