There for You

Silent Suffering

It's normal to wake in the middle of the night, especially if it's the summer season, wanting a glass of ice cold water. What's not so normal is walking into the kitchen and finding someone whom you care dearly about to be sitting on a countertop, in the dark, when they should be in bed.
---
Without a word I switched off the lights. It wasn't too dark, could make out shapes and remember the general layout of the kitchen, so I went about getting myself a glass of water. Drink in hand I set it aside on the countertop, taking a sip every now and again with my arms crossed resting onto the counter.

"Penny for your thoughts, Jackie?"

I was met with only silence. No surprise, but I wasn't about to force him to speak. When he's ready he'll tell me. For now, we stay as we are. The clock on the stove read 4:45 am.

"...You don't have to stay." His voice is barely above a whisper and almost too quiet to hear. I don't have to see him to know he's hurting. His voice tells it all.

"I know." Was my reply. There was a lot of things that I didn't have to do for him, but I wanted to do them.

"You have a early class at 6."

"Uh huh. M'aware of that."

The kitchen falls back into silence. Early morning light pours in from the backyard sliding glass door, indicating just how long we've been sitting here. I run a finger over the rim of my empty glass, keeping myself busy as to not rudely fall asleep. At the same time jack shifts his position on the counter to shyly move closer.

There is then a sudden weight leaning against my arm. In turn, I lean against him.

"..thank you."

"For what, sweetness?"

"..everything."
---

It's currently 6:30 in the morning. That early class jack was so worried about should be starting soon. Cultural journalism is hardly a class that requires you to be there, so instead, I'll work from home. My fingers skim across laptop keys with ease even with the steady rhythmic up and down motion of the screen. Jack's back may not be ideal to sit my laptop on, but it's only temporary.

The fiery red head himself lays spread out on his stomach, head resting on my lap while my back is to the bed's headboard. We make quite the sight, but it's not what others would think. Despite what he tries to be, a bad boy evil genius, Jack, is..very affectionate. An by the way he hugs me, scared that I might disappear, he's touch starved.

I don't mind it though. He's getting well needed sleep and my work is being done, so it's a win win for both of us.

Just wish he'd stop bottling up his feeing and let it get to such a point that he breaks like this.