One Night - Forbidden Hearts Series Book 1

22. Time

Two Weeks Later

I got back to New York five days ago and still haven't heard anything from Jackson. Or Ryan. Neither of them handled Everly's death very well. Understandably, so. When Jackson and I had returned from getting ice cream and she had passed, he lost his mind. He and Ryan both were extremely distraught and angry.

The first few days that followed, I tried to help as much as I could. I made sure they had something to eat, I made sure Jackson's place was clean. The day after she passed, all of us we're in shock. The following day is when it hit the boys the hardest. Ryan had called his dad to tell him the news and they got into an argument when his dad said he couldn't fly out for the service because of work.

Ryan had stormed out of Jackson's apartment once he hung up the phone. I tried to calm him down, but it was like he couldn't hear me. Jackson had spent most of that day locked away in his bedroom. I knocked on his door a few times to check on him and barely got a response.

After Ryan had been gone a few hours that night, I started getting worried. I was getting worried about both of them. I went and opened Jackson's door when I heard a crash. I'll never forget the sight I saw...

I paused as soon as I stepped into Jackson's room. My mouth dropped open as I took in the sight in front of me. There was broken glass littered around the room, things thrown everywhere. It looked like a tornado had come through here.

I heard water running from Jackson's bathroom and carefully tiptoed my way around the glass in that direction. I opened his bathroom door and he was leaning over the sink. I gasped as I saw the bleeding cut on his hand.

I immediately grabbed a cloth and pushed it against the wound on his hand. "What happened?" I asked him.

He let out a sarcastic laugh. "Life happened. It's so fucked up. She- She was..."

When he didn't finish, I placed my hand on the side of his face and gently turned him towards me. He opened his eyes and I could tell he had been crying.

I cleaned up his wound before I covered it with a bandage. He obviously had cut himself on some of the glass. In that moment, I wanted to take away every single ounce of pain that he felt. But, I knew I couldn't. There was only one thing I could do at the time. So, I stepped into his body and wrapped my arms around him.

He kept his arms at his side as he asked, "What if Ryan walks in and sees?"

"I don't care," I answered honestly. And I didn't. For some reason, I felt the extremely strong urge to comfort Jackson.

After he hesitated for a moment, I felt his arms wrap around me and he buried his face in my neck. We stayed like that for awhile; and I could slowly feel some of the tension leaving his body. We went to the bed after that; I sat against his headboard and he stretched out next to me, putting his head in my lap.

I started stroking his hair and it didn't take him long to fall asleep. I think this is the first time he's actually slept in a while. While he was sleeping, he wrapped his arm around my legs, pulling me closer as he whispered my name is sleep.

The timer of my microwave went off, bringing me back to the present as it let me know my dinner was ready. I pulled out the leftover pizza I was heating up and sat at my table. Thinking back on that night, a wave of unknown emotions went through me. Something happened in London between Jackson and I. After that night I comforted him, it was almost as if he crawled back inside himself.