“Ava?” A familiar voice seemed to echo in the distance.
“Oh, Jack.” My voice cracked again and I found that I had more tears stored away.
“What’s wrong?” He stroked my hair and led me into his room. It was much the same as mine, though his held a lot more character due to objects and possessions he had acquired over the years he had worked at the manor. Jack sat me on his bed (which was much less itchy than my own) then sat beside me, putting a comforting arm around my shoulders. This embrace was nice and friendly and I did not hesitate to rest my head on his shoulder. This was someone I knew and cared about. My friend. My first real friend and I owed it to him to be honest. Before I could stop myself I was crying again, and Jack held me close as I began confessing everything to him.
I told him about Helena, and how she had no Powers. I told him about the scars I had given her, the nightmares that plagued me; how I was so scared that I would accidentally kill her one day. How I worried that the Realm of Mages would discover that my family was hiding her and they would take her away. I told him that I had run away to protect her from myself. I told him everything, everything except my evenings with Noah. Not that anything to cause alarm had happened, but Jack was perceptive and would see how I felt about one of my Masters. Forbidden, is what he would say if he found out. And he would be right of course.
Once I had finally fallen silent, Jack continued to comfort me and spoke in a low voice.
“I wondered when you would tell me.”
“You knew?” I croaked.
“No. But I could tell something was bothering you.”
I sighed, “Please don’t tell anyone Jack. I don’t want people to find out about Helena.”
“I promise.” He smiled at me, “I’ll take it to the grave. I’m very flattered that you chose me to confess to.”
I chuckled, “You’re the first real friend I’ve ever had. My best friend.”
“I feel the same.” He gave me a squeeze.
“Jack?” I began, suddenly inspired. Perhaps my weak state would bring his guard down, “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.” He promised.
“Who is it that I look like? Who do I remind you of?”
“Anything but that.” He dropped his arm.
“You said it, Camryn said it, and even Noah said I reminded him of someone-”
“Noah?” Jack said sharply.
I realised at once that I had slipped up.
“Well he mentioned it in passing-”
“That’s where you’ve been!” Jack said jumping up from the bed and pointing an accusing finger at me, “Charles refused to tell me where you’ve been going.”
“No, no. You don’t understand. It’s nothing like that!” I said panicked. Was this really such a big deal?
“Ava, don’t you believe me when I tell you that hanging around Noah Forsythe is a very dangerous thing to do?” He hissed at me angrily.
“Jack.” My bottom lip trembled, “If you would just explain it to me, maybe then-”
Jack glared at me furiously. I had never seen him so angry.
“You’ll understand soon enough. Don’t be shocked when I tell you ‘I told you so’.”
And with one swift movement he jerked his door open left, leaving me quite alone.
I assumed our trip for the night was cancelled. I couldn’t understand why this made Jack so angry.
I spent the next half of an hour fighting back tears in my bedroom. By the time eight o’clock rolled around I composed myself enough to tend to duties around the manor. I felt extremely fragile like fine china, and that the slightest knock would shatter me. I hated holding back the tears of fire. They made my body shake. I released some of the tension by exerting extra fire from my body into an open grate. It helped slightly but my stress levels were still shaky.
By the time nine thirty took its place upon the clocks I was shuffling to my bedroom, quite depressed and sleepy. Today really hadn’t been fun at all.
As I pushed open the door to my room it creaked loudly and it took me several seconds before I realised there was a figure sitting on my bed.
“Jack!” I said shocked, my heart pounding and a burst of flames shooting from my fingertips from surprise.
After patting out my bed which had caught alight Jack stood and swaggered towards me with his head bowed. In his right hand were the two tickets which he passed to me. Looking at them curiously I waited for him to say something.
“I’ll understand if you don’t want to go with me anymore, after the way I behaved when you needed a friend.”
“These are you’re passes, Jack.” I frowned, trying to push them back in his hands.
“They are for you.” He insisted.
“Jack, I still want to go with you.” I said slowly.
“You do?” His head snapped up.
“Who else would I want to go with?” I said incredulously.
Jack smiled and I cracked a small smirk, “I’m sorry.” He said sincerely, “I over reacted.”