Jerk; Septiplier

Chapter Thirty: Mark

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Monday, October 31st
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I turned my head just to see Jack's eyes close and him fall forward, I stepped towards him and caught him before he fell onto the ground, I turned him and laid him on the ground, I had no idea what to do and neither did everyone who was now looking at us.

Mrs. Spence hurried over to us and immediately asked what happened, but I was staring wide eyed at Jack's pale face. Was he alright? Clearly not but was he going to be alright? I could feel myself shaking in fear, and when Jack's eyes opened back up I let out a sigh of relief. He looked around the room and appeared very confused.

"W-What's going on?" He asked quietly as he looked at us. "Mark?"

"Here, help him up." Mrs. Spence said as she began to lift him off of the ground, I helped him. "Take him to the nurse." I nodded my head and pulled Jack off of the ground, he tightly gripped my arm and I was worried he was going to pass out again when he put a hand to his forehead. I grabbed Jack's bag before pulling him out of the room, we walked to the nurse and Jack took slow steps down the hall.

"I-I told you to stay home today. That you were sick, but no, don't listen to me!" I huffed at him.

"Mark, please not now." Jack said as he rubbed his eyes.

"Why couldn't you just listen to me?" I sighed and ignored his previous request entirely. He stopped walking and I felt his nails digging into my arm as he tried to steady himself. "I don't mean to make you upset or anything, but you fainted in class and I was worried about you."

Jack stopped walking and looked down at his feet. I watched him and then I could see his eyes fill with tears, was he going to start crying? I had seen Jack cry before, but there was always reason to it but did he honestly feel this bad about it?

Slowly, he just wrapped his arms around my body and rested his head on my chest. "I'm sorry." He muttered into me. I stood without moving, but allowed my arms to fall around his body.

"It's okay, I just was worried. You looked awful and then this happened." I said. "Why are you so against staying home? You don't like school, I feel, so why are you so adamant on being here?"

"You're going to think it's lame.." Jack muttered as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall of lockers. He kicked his foot and I stood, waiting for him to say it. "I'm.. Afraid of being alone.."

I went wide eyed. "It would have just been for a day."

"But.. I haven't been by myself in a really long time and I didn't want to just be stuck by myself with my own thoughts." Jack told me, his eyes finally met my own but only for a short second. "I told you it was lame."

"Jack, if you were really worried I would've stayed with you." I told him before I pulled him along as we continued to walk down the hallway towards the nurse's office. "But you can't just refuse to be by yourself, I don't think that's good for you. Especially if you're willing to put yourself in harm's way just so you don't have to be by yourself."

"I just.. Don't want this to turn back into a Cerise moment.." Jack said and I went wide eyed.

"Cerise? What about Cerise?" I asked and Jack shook his head. "Tell me."

"Cerise was dating Bo's older brother Cy." Jack sighed as he told his story. "And, he wasn't very good to her. She was crying in band one day and I asked her if I could help. It wasn't like me to offer help to someone I didn't know, but I felt bad. She looked so miserable. We became friends and we hung out outside of school, when Cy found out, he accused Cerise of cheating on him with me. It wasn't true, I had no interest in her in that way. But Cerise told Cy that we were together and she wanted to break up with him. He approached me at school the next day and asked if it was true, I told him no, and I broke all connections with Cerise because her lying ended up with three different regular bullies. She did indeed get back with Cy too, and the group of them have tormented me ever since."

"Cerise wouldn't do that, would she?" I asked, I didn't really believe it, she seemed so nice.

Jack nodded his head. "I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to dislike her or anything because of what I told you. She was a really nice girl when we were friends, but when I told her I didn't feel the same way she did, she got mad and every time anything good ever happened to me she wants to smoosh it like a bug."

"That's why you didn't like me with her, huh?" I asked with a bit of a chuckle. "Were you afraid she would take me away?"

"Well.. Yeah." Jack nodded. "And that maybe, you wouldn't like me anymore because of it."

I cupped Jack's face and kissed his nose. "I love you way too much to ever even consider leaving you for a stupid girl like that."

With that, we walked into the nurse's office and I explained everything to the overweight middle-aged woman. She was nice to both of us, and suggested that Jack could be weak and dehydrated due to his fever, and he should be fine. She told me we would need to call his mother though to take him home.

I wonder if Jack's mom would come and get him, but before I could even offer I was rushed out of the room and back to class where half of my group still was. They asked about him, and I told them he was going to be alright to which they looked greatly relieved.

"I didn't know you guys actually cared about Jack." I told them.

"Just because he can't stand us, doesn't mean we can't be nice to him. He actually seems like a pretty good guy." Danny shrugged.

"He is, he just doesn't like making new friends." I laughed thinking about the time I had spent with him before he actually could be decent. "It just takes time."

Time, is what I had to wait for Jack to even say one word without wanting to spit in my face. Those times seem like a distant memory to me, like it never even happened at all. Without thinking I laughed a little bit, which caused Dan and Arin to look at me while I remained in my own little world. "He's just a big softie." I told them, and I could hear them chuckle as well. Maybe they didn't know Jack as well as I did, and maybe he didn't want him too. But these two seemed to really like him, I hope at one point he can accept being with other people.

~AN

My feet are cold constantly. Like someone help please. I like being a little jerk when my feet are cold and touching people with them.

Rinny!