stockholm syndrome - tracob

six

Jacob eyed Troye as he tapped away on his phone. He was sitting in the bureau chair again, though he wasn't sitting as close to Troye as he had been the first time. He was leaning back, and the back of the chair touched the wall.

It wasn't like he didn't want to talk to the kid, it was more like he didn't know how to start. The last time they had seen each other was when Curt had been taunting him and Troye had suddenly drifted off, seemingly lost in his own mind without being able to get pulled back.

Maybe he had autism or something. Whatever. The kid should still know his place, had to learn he would have to do as Jacob said. Or mostly he would have to do what Curt said, but as Curt had to take off pretty often and didn't have the time to stay here, Jacob would be the person the crew officially answered to.

Jaacob looked back at his screen again where he had beaten another level of candy crush. He loved this game, hated the fact you had to buy more lives if you failed a level often enough. Stupid companies with their stupid capitalism. As if me had the money for that kind of bullshit. Anyway.

He looked at Troye again, but the boy was in the same position as he had been; on the chair, arms behind him and looking down, his curls falling a bit in front of his face. Would his family be searching for him? Jacob swallowed. His dad still hadn't reacted to the picture they sent. Hm. What if Troye was right and his dad really didn't care about him?

Well, at least his dad stuck around... Jacob his father had left when Jacob was only fourteen, not long after his first sister was born. It had been hard on him, but it had been even harder on his mum.

She had always been a nice person, his mum. Always had another story to tell from something she had experienced, or something someone once told her. Always managing to make Jacob happy when he felt down. And she knew him through and through, sometimes even better than he knew himself. For example, he had told her he was gay at twelve years old and she had merely nodded and said "I know baby." His dad... He never dared to tell his dad. Their connection just hadn't been as strong as it was with his mum, and Jacob figured there would be time when he came home with his first boyfriend to tell his dad about how he felt.

And then his mum got pregnant, and the fights were over for a little while, but after the birth of Angelina in December his dad rarely came home at night and if he did, he smelled like beer and cigars. And then he left. In the same month, right before Christmas his dad had packed his bags and left a note on the dresser, saying he was with his other friend whom Jacob was sure was a woman. He never told his mum about his suspicions but a few months later Jacob would've sworn the man he had seen walking with two other women in the park – linking arms with the both of them – had been his father.

His mother was never the same after he had left them. She had lost her happy atmosphere; even though she tried to hide it Jacob knew something was wrong, and he tried to help her best he could. He didn't know where she got the money from to buy groceries. The only thing he got from her when he went grocery shopping were some crumpled up banknotes. Honestly, he didn't even think he would want to know where she got her money from.

Then one day, a few months later, his mother came out of the bathroom crying. She told Jacob he was going to be a brother again. Jacob was fifteen when she gave birth to Jessica, and although he wasn't sure he understood why she was crying while she told him this, he did know it wasn't going to be a daughter from the same father.

He helped his mum as good as he could but shortly after giving birth to Jessica she just... Lost all spirit and lust for life. She rarely ate, loosed weight rapidly and slept all day. Jacob's world crashed, and the only thing really keeping him going was the love he felt for his two little sisters, and the need to protect them from the world's harm.