A Condemned Haven

Chapter 27

Jack's shift at work had finished at seven and he was exhausted. He knew he promised Clarke that he would check in with her, but he really had no energy. He hadn't slept in days. Dreams of Amy kept him up all night and during the day he worked after school. It felt like he was an empty shell, just going through the motions. When he finally got home his mom was asleep on the couch. As soon as she heard the door shift however, her head popped up from the couch like he was a murderer or something.

"Guess what J?"

"What?" His exhaustion was beginning to take over. He loved his mom, but talking to her was way too much of a chore right now.

"Let's go into the garage."

"Um okay?" Why was him mom being so weird? Maybe all the long overnights were finally getting to her. She practically dragged him to the garage with her and when she opened the door, his heart filled with excitement. Sitting inside was a Chevy Impala, the one his uncle had promised to give him.

"Do you like it?" Jack didn't move, he was speechless. He had completely forgotten about the car with everything that had been going on. His exhaustion was quickly forgotten.

"Are you serious? I love it. Oh my god thank you so much mom." He hugged his mom with a huge smile on his face.

"With everything that's been going on I thought it would be something to lift your spirts. Why don't you go check out the inside?" Jack released his mom and hopped in the driver's seat. The interior was a gray cloth, but he liked cloth way more than leather. It had a new stereo and an aux cord already attached.

"This is awesome."

"Your uncle just put in a new radio and he left this cord thing for you. He also just got the air conditioned fixed, new tires, and an oil change before he brought it over."

"Thank you so much mom." Jack couldn't remember the last time he was this happy.

His mom left him with his car for a while as he played music through the speakers. He decided the first song he needed to play in this car to christen it was Amy's favorite song. He listened to Secrets by One Republic about ten times before he finally turned it off. She had always loved that song and it felt wrong not to share this moment with her in some way. They had been talking about getting their first cars together for as long as he could remember. All the places they would go with it and all the stupid stuff they would do. He would never get the chance to do that now. He needed to remember her, but he needed to move on too. He decided he needed to take his first trip with his car. He told his mom where he was going and immediately took off.

When he pulled up outside Clarke's house, he was so excited to tell her about the news, except her car wasn't there. Where could she be right now, it was almost dark? He decided to go tell James the news instead. James came to the door looking like he had just woken up. His hair was all disheveled and his clothes were wrinkled. It looked like he had just rolled out of bed.

"Hey man what are you doing here?"

"I got a car today." James face lit up, like he hadn't been sleeping just a second ago.

"You what? Holy shit man where's it at?" Jack pointed behind him and into the driveway. His car was red, and he loved it. The exterior was sleek and looked practically brand new, even for a car that was a couple years old.

James just sat there caressing it for a moment talking about how nice it was. Jack wasn't listening though as soon as he saw Clarke pull into her driveway. She didn't get out of the car for about five minutes. It was starting to concern Jack until she opened the door finally and stepped out. She leaned against the car for a second, almost as if she was collecting herself.