With You // J.G

Chapter 19

Gabrielle's POV

Later that night, a few minutes before I can take these dreadful bandages off, Jack comes into my room.

"Hey, do you wanna go get your stuff from your house?" I look up from my notepad. I slowly nod and follow Jack down the stairs, making sure to keep my distance. Jack tells his mom that we're leaving and she tells him to be back by 8:15. We hop in his car. The cold breeze tends to make its way into the car. Jack turns the heat and radio on. A song with the lyrics, "Count out all the ropes and let me fall. My my my, my my my, m-my my, m-my," is playing. I turn the song up.

"You like this song?" I nod. "It's called Skinny Love." I like that. I sit back and listen to more of the song.

"And in the mornin' I'll be with you, but it will be a different kind." It's a beautiful song and all I want to do it listen to it all day. It's like the singer is me. The singer, she can read my mind.

We pull up to my house. I'm dreading going in there. I take a deep breath and then begin to get out of the car. I can feel the anxiety building inside of me like air in a balloon. I'm sure I'm going to pop any second.

"I can go. You, stay in the car. What do you want me to grab?" I exhale the big breath I didn't even realize I was holding. Jack hands me his phone and I slowly type.

I can go in. I don't want my parents to show up and hurt you.

I hand him the phone. His eyes can the screen and then he looks up at me.

"That's why I want to do it myself. So your parents don't hurt you." He gives me back his phone. I think hard about what I want. I mean, I don't have much but I don't want him to get too much and waste time.

Three t-shirts, two leggings, old black vans, school bag.

I hand the phone back to him and then get back in the car before he can say anything. He stares at me through the windshield but I just look away from him. I watch as he climbs up the ladder into my room.

About ten minutes later I watch Jack slowly make his way down the ladder with one full schoolbag. He probably stuffed everything into the bag.

Ten minutes is long enough for my parents to do something to him. I stare at him making sure there is no marks on him that weren't there before. There's an average sized cut on his left calf. It looks fresh.

He hands me the bag when he gets into the car and then doesn't say a word to me. I smile. As we drive back to Jack's house I notice how he furrows his eyebrows when he's concentrated.

"W-what happened?" I choke out. I've been wanting to know that since the second I woke up. I guess Jack didn't know exactly what I was talking about but he knew I wouldn't want to talk again. He just ended up telling me everything. How I almost died from blood loss, how he got busted for drinking but he lied to his parents. "D-did y-you encounter m-my-y par-rents?"

"I did." What if they hurt him? What'd they do to him? I want to ask him but no words seem to come out.

When he finishes up filling me in, we pull into the driveway with 5 minutes to spare. He was in my room collecting my things and then my father came in with a small kitchen knife. As Jack finished finding everything he tried to fight off my father. Jack punched my father and he fell to the ground because he was so drunk. As jack tried getting away the knife cut his leg. Not too bad but bad enough for it to be noticable.

I throw my bag over my shoulder and then wait for Jack to open the door.

I get upstairs to the guest room and empty out everything. Jack brought exactly what I asked him to. Except the blades. I expected that to be the case. I'll just find another one somewhere. I take my bandages off my arms and throw them in the trash. It feels good to be able to move my wrists now. The bad part is, it hurts when I move them. I guess they still have to heal.