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There was a knock at the door.
There was a knock at the door, and for one stupidly hopeful moment, Jack thought that JJ might have been stood on the other side, that she had come back to him like she should have weeks ago. But, as he stood from his place on his cluttered sofa, kicking empty beer bottles out his way as he stumbled towards the door, reality came crashing down on him once more— Jasmine wasn't coming back to him, she'd made that abundantly clear each time she answered his drunken phone calls.
"It's better off this way," echoed in his head, the sadness that leaked through the words where they shouldn't have— Jack always had to remind himself that she was hurting, too.
He curled his hand around the door handle, yanked it down with one, jerky, movement, and pulled it open to reveal Cara O'Brien— face twisted with concern, her arms crossed over her chest as her eyes searched every inch of him. Neither of them knew what she was looking for, but Jack supposed she never found it, because, with a sigh, she was stepping closer to him, pushing herself up onto her tiptoes, and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Come on, sweetheart," she said, and with a sob he realised he was crying into the crook of her shoulder. "It's okay." Cara pulled away from him, instead taking his hand, and then they were walking — stumbling, really, because Jack refused to let go of Cara, his sister, the girl that loved him and never intended on leaving him, though she had — backwards into his apartment, then falling onto the sofa with a groan.
Cara looked around the room, her nose scrunching up in disgust as she took in the mess he'd let accumulate over the last few weeks of pathetic self-torture. He sniffled, once, and then she was looking back at him, lifting her hands to cup his cheek, using her her thumbs to wipe away his tears like he had seen her do so many times— to her children, to her sister, to Paisley and Spencer, even Dylan, and now him. Jack leaned in to her touch, feeling very much like a child being comforted by a mother, but really just a man being comforted by his friend ( Sister, he reminds himself, because Cara O'Brien is just that. ).
"Jack, talk to me," she urged, letting her hands drop down to his. "Talk to me. What happened?"
"She left me," he said, and it's the first time he's said it out loud. "JJ— she left me."
"I guessed that part, Jack," she said, a frown tugging at her lips, as she lay back against the arm of his sofa. Jackson Bryant loved fiercely, that Cara knew— for that reason, she knew that the only thing that could get him this down was a heart broken as fiercely as he loved. "I'm asking why she left you— I thought she was invested this time? Did she— did she cheat on you again?"
Jack shook his head, and his shoulders fell. "She left because— she said I could do better― that I deserved more— more than a failed musician— more than the girl that made me realize what love was— more than the girl I was gonna marry— more than— more than the girl her father beat her into." He dragged his hand along his face, rubbing tears into his skin. "He used to beat her, Cara— she did all those stupid things to me because she thought 'he can't hurt me if I hurt him first'. It's why— it's why Eli's not around anymore, Aniyah's dad. He came back at some point after she was born, tried to worm his way into their lives again, but JJ— she saw the bruises on his knuckles, and she thought back to all the times she'd had to wash her own blood from her father's clothes, so she sent him away, because she didn't want that for her baby girl— and he never came back, never cared after that." A sob tore its way up his throat, and Jack found himself lying sideways on Cara. "I thought— I thought if I kept going back, if I kept forgiving her, she might realise that not all boys are like Eli, like her Dad was. It's not that she wasn't good enough for me, I wasn't good enough for her."
"Jack, you are plenty good enough," Cara said, quite fiercely, as she wrapped her arms around his shaking body. "You are a beautiful, kind, wonderful man, and you deserve the whole world— Jack, you can't fix everybody. Some people have to heal by themselves, and that's exactly what JJ needs to do. She needs time to heal— she needs time to stay single, to focus on her little girl, to come to terms that not all guys are like Eli or her Dad, but she needs to do it by herself." She pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "She— This doesn't have to be the end for you two, this can always be another chapter. Take a page from mine and Spencer's book, reach out to her— talk to her like you would a friend, and if something more comes of that down the line, then so be it. But, if nothing happens, that's more than okay, too— in fact, it'd be brilliant. She probably needs a friend more than she does a boyfriend, Jack— and if she does meet someone new, you support her like she should do you. It's always better to have a friend than a lover."
"What if I never stop feeling this way?" He asked, quietly, through his sobs.
"You will," Cara said, "I'm going to make sure of it— Jack, I will go to the end of the universe if it'll help heal your heartbreak, okay?"
"I love you," he said, then squeezed his eyes shut. He was afraid, even now, even after all she had said, that she would reject him.
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