The day they thought would never come

Prequel 6 - The gathering storm

Cassie POV---

I can't help crying a little after hanging up the phone. I am so happy that she sounds so much better. Gab didn't sound like she was using the happy act I have been noticing for a little while now.

Ok, be serious. I have been noticing it for a long time now. I just shrugged it off and ignored it like everyone else that did.

We were all so right about everything. We knew what was for the best. It would just take a little more time. Gabrielle was going to be in a better place now that she was away from Jack. He was the cause of all her problems. He was the reason that she felt so much pressure with everything.

Well it's been a year and we can see how that is working out. My God, how judgmental we all are. How holier then thou.

I mean, we weren't totally wrong right? They were having a lot of fights. Most were small, but still. Jack was snapping at her more often with rude comments that hurt her. We could see the pressure on both of them and it just seemed like it was to much for them the handle together.

But was it really all Jack's fault for everything? Did we really need to just place the blame on him and do everything to drive them apart like we did? Did we ignore that Gab would snap at Jack almost as much?

How did we also forget to remember that after every fight or comment Jack would do or say something to soothe the hurt. That he would find ways to make her so happy when he realized what he had said was so wrong.

I know most of the crap was small things meant as a sarcastic joke that just didn't sound right. But after a while you stop caring. You just stop listening to good things he said. You remember the quick jab when they were leaving the house. You ignore the comment Gabrielle made back. You don't care about what Gabrielle is saying six hours later when she is telling you how sweet everything was on their "date" and how happy she was because of Jack.

You even start reading the comments on their videos and see people agreeing with you about how bad he treats her. You ignore Jack talking about how he edits out most of the mean things Gabrielle says to him in them. You ignore Gabrielle agreeing with him, that he makes her look like an angel in the videos when she isn't. God knows she isn't. I know that. You ignore him saying that he does it because he doesn't want people to think the wrong things about her. He was the sarcastic ahole. She was the sweet angel.

That really was how he saw her. No matter what she said or did to him. He deep down saw her as his angel. It really was cute in a way. A crazy, sometimes fully wacko angel, but still his angel.

None of that mattered to us, to me. We just thought she would be better away from him and on her own.

So the little things started from all of us. Little comments to Gabrielle when she wasn't with Jack about things. Little comments about how he was treating her. Little comments about how it didn't look worth it. Downplaying the loving things he did.

I could see what it was doing over time. It gave her little doubts. I could see it. It made things slowly get worse for them. Which of course allowed us to push more doubts into her thinking.

I remember how happy she was when they came back from that first youtube retreat thing they went to. She was glowing. Jack was glowing. They seemed to have so much fun out there away from here.... away from us. That really should have been a wake up call for us but we didn't see it.

As soon as they came back we kept it up. We downplayed how much fun the trip must have been. We even started trying to keep them apart.

No, I don't me we stopped her from seeing him or anything. We all just started trying to pull on her time more and more. Wanting her do do this with me, or go here with Madalyn. Little things. We would throw wrenches into their plans as much as possible with out seeming obvious.