Burning Desire (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter 3

~Jacks POV~

 “What?” I couldn’t believe what I just heard.

 “M-my dad” she choked the words out as if it pained her to even speak of her father.

That’s crazy. It’s impossible. Her dad used to be an abusive alcoholic but that was a long time ago. It’s been over a year since I last saw something as small as a scratch on Belle.

“He never stopped” she spoke up again, “I lied to you last year when I told you he got sober. He never did, Jack”

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to say. I just sat there as my body went completely numb. My head was spinning and I couldn't think straight.

“I was so tired of everyone at school making up stupid things about me because of the bruises. And you… you were so hurt and I could tell you were tired of having to deal with so much too. I had to do someth-“

“Stop! Just stop!” I shot out of my bed and stood up as she flinched back. “Why would you do that?! Why would you keep that from me!?"

I was actually just as surprised as her at my sudden outburst and I didn’t realize that she was pretty much covered in her own tears at this point. I was so damn angry, so full of rage. I wanted to help her and comfort her because I knew that's what she needed but I was so pissed off that she kept something like that from me.

I knew I couldn’t stay mad at her though, I never could. I was standing up in the middle of my room heavily breathing because of my anger and she had such a terrified look on her face.

"Fuck. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you." I sat back down on my bed next to her and wrapped her up in my arms as her crying began to calm. 

--

We stayed like that for a little while. There was so much shit going through my mind.

"What happened tonight?" I asked breaking the somewhat awkward silence. Belle removed herself from my arms and shifted her body so she was facing me. 

~Belle's POV~

Damn. It's been over a year since Jack and I have talked about this kind of stuff. I honestly thought we would be past it by now and everything would be okay but it seems like my dad is getting worse and I'm actually really scared that things will be like junior and senior year of high school again.

God, those days sucked. I was supposed to be having fun and enjoying my last few years with Jack and the rest of my friends but when my mom died, Jack was the only one who was there for me. He always had been. Since we were seven years old. 

When my mom died in a car accident because of a stupid drunk driver, I became so physically and mentally fucked up. The emotions and pain took over one night and I found myself standing on the edge of a cliff at the beach. I was on some anti-depressant pills and I guess I had taken too many. I was ready to jump. But before I did, I called Jack and let him know what was going on. 

"I can't do this anymore, Jack. There's no point,” I said through the phone with little emotion. I was so numb from the pain, inside and out. "Everyone at school...everyone is so fucking mean. They don't know what I'm going through. They don't know what the fuck is going on. Why do they do these things to me, Jack?

“Belle, what are you saying? What’s going on? Where are you?” He asked so many questions. There was no time to answer, only time to jump.

“You’re my best friend, Jack. I love you.” I whispered before I dropped the phone to the floor. Jack was screaming my name through the phone that was now lying on the cold rocks and sand next to me. Right before I tried to jump, I took a deep breath and a giant feeling of pain shot straight to my brain and I passed out.

Jack found me about 20 minutes later that night and took me to the emergency room. It was so crazy. The doctors said that I took way too many pills that night and they were surprised I remembered anything about the beach incident.

--

Jack was still staring at me waiting for an answer about what happened with my dad tonight.

“He hasn’t been like this in a while,” I began, “He still drinks and gets a little drunk sometimes but it was never like before. He’s barely touched me in months. I don’t know what made him drink so much tonight but when he walked into the house I smelled the alcohol right away. I tried getting up from the couch to at least go to my room but he grabbed my arm and hit me in my face.” Jack cringed at my words.

“I was trying to get away from him but he was too strong and the more I pulled away, the harder he would hit me. I was so shocked that this was happening again and I didn’t have time to react to anything. When he pushed me towards the wall in the kitchen, I could’ve easily gotten up and ran but he started throwing beer bottles that were lying around the counter and I was too scared to move. After I got a little cut up from the glass, he passed out all of a sudden and that’s when I came here.”

Jack was still sitting in front of me when I finished explaining everything and I could tell that he had no idea what to say. Everything was just as overwhelming for him as it was for me. Both of us were taken by surprise today with all the things that happened.

I got up and grabbed one of Jack’s t-shirts to wear with my shorts that I already had on. It was already almost 2 in the morning and we were both tired as hell. After I changed out of my sweater and into Jack’s shirt, I climbed into his bed with him and we both fell asleep within 5 minutes.

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Hey guys. Sorry I took a while to update this chapter. I was going to update on Friday but I was out at a school lock-in and I went to sleep right when I got back. I tried to make this chapter a little longer than the first two so I hope you guys liked it. I really wanna know what you all think so please comment and remember that I'm following all of you that do :) Vote too if you want. Thanks for reading again!