Damnit Mr.Fischbach

Reluctant

Jack's POV

I was in his arms, shaking and fighting my tears as hard as I could. Awful memories persisted. Memories of when I was younger and every time I cried too much my father would throw me down on any flat surface available and cover my mouth and nose. Then he would stay there pressuring my only airways closed until I fainted. Basically crying was not an option for me.

I felt him pull away from me. I opened my eyes and looked up at his big beautiful eyes and felt comfort. I stopped feeling the need to cry.
"Listen Jack, you can cry with me. If we do have a relationship I need you to know that it's ok to show your feelings!" He said abruptly.
"Miste-" I barley got out before he said
"Mark"
"What?" I said with an inquisitive look.
"Please, call me Mark when we're alone." He replied.
"Mark" I said testing it out. It felt weird to call my teacher by his first name. He backed up from me, giving me some room between him and the windowless door that led to the hallway.
"Jack I can tell that you might not be very comfortable with me, but if you ever want to meet up to talk about absolutely anything please contact me." He said after a moment of silence. I could tell he was sincere. I nodded and he gave me a sticky note with his number. I noticed that the pack of sticky notes had a picture of a golden retriever on it. Interesting, I decided to ask him about it.
"Hey Miste- I mean Mark, who is this golden retriever? She's so cute!"
"Oh that?" He looked embarrassed with a hint of red on his cheeks and nose. "That's uh Chica my beloved daughter. Heheh" he rubbed the back of his neck but I couldn't hold in my giggles.
" pfft! Heheheheheh....I'm sorry you just don't seem like the, 'my puppy is my child' type." I tried to be as nice as possible. He still looked a little surprised by my actions but started giggling too. "What? You think it's funny too?" I asked, confused by his laughter.
"No-no it's just that you have the best laugh I have ever heard in my life." I felt oddly very touched by these words of his. I blushed and felt an urge to hug him so now that I knew that I could hug him I followed my urge. "Hey what's this for?" He asked gently. I tried to speak as clearly as possible.
"that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me." I said and immediately heard how lame I sounded. I shook my head and let go of him."I mean, thank you." I said shaking my head and looking down at my dirty old sneakers. I felt a thumb hook under my jaw and lift up my chin so that I had to look at him.
"Hey I just told you that you can show your true feelings."
"But what if you got tired of my whining?" I said with a slight crack in my voice.
"I'll be here no matter what. But I dont think of it as whining, I think of it as venting. And we'll get even, I've got plenty of annoying students to vent about." He explained to me, making me feel a lot better. I nodded. And told him that I needed to head to my next class. I walked out of his room and with a loud grumble of my stomach I sadly realized I forgot to get lunch!