Project Meyburn

3

Jack

"Why are they making us do freaking online school when there is a pandemic going on? Who does that?"

He heard laughter on the other end of the phone. Evie and him had been talking for like an hour about this whole situation. Schools had been closed for two days now, and they were already giving them online assignments.

"It's so annoying. My parents wont even let me ride my bike to the park, cause apparently all parks are closed too. Everything's closed, Evie. This is crazy," he replied. Jack heard rustling on Evie's end of the phone, like she was moving stuff around. "What are you even doing?"

"I'm cleaning my room, that's what I'm doing. There's literally nothing to do around here."

"I know the feeling."

Looking around his room, Jack spotted one of his guinea pigs, Stewy, sniffing around his crate, so he opened it and scooped him up. Jack sat on the floor of his bedroom, resting his back against his bed, and set Stewy in his lap. He put his phone back to his ear.

"...like how am I supposed to socialize if I can't leave my house, huh? Nobody understands what it's like having two sisters. I can't, I just ca—"

"Look at it this way, and least we don't have to go to school. Nothing is being graded anyway, so it's not like we actually have to do this crap."

There was no answer on the other end, so he figured Evie had just put her phone down to organize something. Jack laid his phone on his lap next to Stewy and put the speaker on. The door to his bedroom was closed but he could still hear the daily news blaring from the TV. Jack's parents were babbling on about when they should make a run to the store and what they need to get. They were taking this thing way too seriously in his opinion, but he would very much come to regret saying that in the weeks to come.

"Bro, Jack you're not gonna believe this! There's a military dude at my door right now talking to my parents. Oh. My. God. I must be losing my mind."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Uh, yeah, I think you are. It's probably some advertisement guy or something."

There was a loud knocking noise on Evie's end and he could make out the sound of two other voices, maybe her parents? They were talking for a while, but he couldn't make out much of the conversation. Jack let it play out without interrupting and passed the time—which turned out to be a long time—by petting Stewy. He began nibbling Jack's fingers, so he rummaged around for a bag of guinea pig treats. Eventually he found them buried under a pile of laundry he hadn't put away in like four days.

Eventually he put Stewy back in his crate where he happily chewed on his new delicacy. From then on Jack stared at his phone. He just stared at his phone. Like who even did that? He guessed people who were stuck in quarantine with absolutely NOTHING to do, did that. Well I'm tired of doing nothing.

Jack picked up the phone and put it to his ear. "Hey Evie? I don't know where you went but—"

"Jack I gotta go—like, uh, now. Sorry bye."

The phone went silent—for good this time. At that moment he got this sinking feeling he still can't describe to this day. But all he knew is that he should've taken it more seriously. Hell, he should've taken everything more seriously. But he didn't. So here he was, just a normal teenaged guy, dreading the dog days of this stupid quarantine and not wanting to do school. Typical, right?

Maybe if he had stopped complaining and listened better, he would have understood. If he had just taken a minute to observe what was happening around him, he would've known. Jack would've noticed that things were going to be different. He wouldn't have needed to ask himself dumb questions when all he had to do was watch the news. He wouldn't have needed to question his sanity, or his parents', or Evie's.

And he wouldn't have ignored that sinking feeling in his gut that told him that everything was changing.

That night, Jack didn't sleep much. Evie's voice just kept echoing in his head. Her last words had struck him. Honestly, he didn't know why. It was kind of like...He had known this girl pretty much his whole life. They had been at the same school since first grade. She was one of his closest friends, especially after she stopped hanging out with Amber and Megan, but... she sounded like a stranger on that phone. She sounded—and this is the only way he could describe it—she sounded numb.

It took him many months after that day to realize that was the sound of fear.