𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐰𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 | 𝐙𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐥/𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐲

22. His Bench

Jack's p.o.v.

I had been looking for Zach all over the park, a deep concern for him troubling my mind. The sky was beginning to turn grey as if threatening to rain at any moment. I began to give up looking as he didn't seem to be anywhere in the park until I recognised a similar small figure in the distance. I squinted my eyes, making sure it was Zach. There he was, sitting on a bench at the top of the park.

I began to run in his direction for what seemed like a long distance, finally slowing down to a jog once I had reached close proximity.

"Zach..." I breathed out, cautiously taking a step towards him. He looked away, wiping a tear from his cheek stained face.

"Please talk to me" I insisted, approaching him. I took a few steps closer, until I noticed something on the bench. I adjusted my vision to read the engraved words on the gold plaque - and that's when it hit me.
Daniel Seavey...

I took a step back, my eyes widening. Of course, it all made sense now. Wow, I really fucked up by taking him here. I nervously bit down on my bottom lip, looking at the broken boy before me. I'd taken him to the one place he'd been trying to escape, and resurfaced memories he'd tried so hard to forget.

I slowly took a seat beside him, not minding that he still wouldn't look at me. "Zach... I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I..." I trailed off, at a loss for the right words of condolence.

"So you know then?" Zach asked, finally breaking his silence. He lifted his knees to hug them close to his chest. I hesitated to answer his question. "Only enough to put the pieces together."

Zach sighed, finally turning so that his body was no longer facing away from me, although his wandering eyes still refused to take me into their view. "I'm sorry" I blurted, my voice laced with regret. Zach let out a sarcastic snort. "What're you sorry about? Sorry that I'm a fucked up person? How would you have known, Jack? It's not your fault" Zach reassured.

"You're not fucked up - and even if you are, you deserve to be" I argued. Zach shrugged. "Life is bleak, that's just how it is... but sometimes it takes the piss." He let a long pause of silence fall, until he finally spoke again. "Do you know how it happened?" He asked, turning to face me. His eyes were red and watery. "No..." I quietly replied.

"Yknow, it's kind of ironic actually. When Daniel was 15, he was diagnosed with cancer. Fucking cancer. All his life he'd been the most selfless, optimistic guy on this planet. And look where it got him. Just wait till you hear the next bit - this parts really gonna get you. Right before he turned 16, the doctor told him that the treatment was working. His cancer was being cured" Zach ranted. I could see the rising anger glint in his glossy eyes.

"Wait, so he was getting better?" I asked, confused. If his cancer was being treated then how did he die? Of course I never proposed that question to Zach.
"Now you're wondering how it happened, right?" Zach asked with a strange hint of amusement. I didn't reply.

"Few days after his sixteenth birthday the two of us were out late at night, and we were messing about. I was standing in the middle of the road - it was one of those old ones where cars never go, and then a car came. I tried to move out of the way but it was coming at me at full speed. It was as if it was chasing me and I didn't know what to do. And then I felt my body hit the ground, but I didn't feel the car hit me."

Zach paused for a second, his voice cracking. There were tears welling in his eyes, and I wanted to tell him to stop but he continued to speak. "Daniel pushed me out of the way and he got hit by that stupid fucking car. It drove off and left him there, sprawled out on the road when it should've been me. I was the one who was supposed to be hit but Daniel risked his fucking life to protect me even though he was the one who deserved to fucking live!" Zach yelled, raising his voice as anger took over him.

"It wasn't your fault" I reassured, trying to calm him down. Zach wasn't paying attention. I noticed him clench his fists as he fought back tears that had already begun to fall. "Zach, listen to me" I commanded. He finally turnt to face me, his expression softening. "Don't blame yourself. It shouldn't have been either of you, it was the car's fault that anyone got hit in the first place" I reassured.

I pulled Zach into a hug as he finally let the emotions he had been holding back go. He wrapped his arms around me as he shook from his crying, and I rubbed his back to soothe him. "But it should've been me. Daniel had so much more to live for. He was such a better person. I don't deserve to be alive..." Zach sobbed.

I hushed him as I continued to hold him in my embrace. "You can't change it now, Zach. I know it sucks but he's not coming back. What you can do now is make sure you go on living a life you can be happy with, otherwise Daniel's sacrifice was for nothing. It's what he would've wanted for you - to move on and be happy."

Zach nodded, pulling away from the hug. "I'm sorry that you had to hear all that. I- I don't know why I told you all of this... I never tell anyone about him" Zach admitted, averting his gaze away from me.

"I'm glad you did. You keep believing that you're some fucked up person who can't move on or ever be happy again... but you can. Don't let what happened to you affect who you become, otherwise it becomes less of what others did to you and more about what you're now doing to yourself. You can't keep yourself in this dark hole forever, Zach. There's people like me who are here for you. I want to be here for you."

Zach gave me a short smile. "So you're saying you're not gonna up and leave now that you know just how fucked I am?" He asked sarcastically. I gave a small laugh. "No" I replied with a soft smile across my lips.

"Then I guess you can stick around..."