Series: Jericho
Rating: G
Once upon a time an angry young man ran away from home...
Most of what I write is AU stories, and I hope I captured that moment when goodbye is all thats left.
Leaving
Jake was halfway to the door when the lights came on. Across the room, Johnston Green was waiting.
"You'll need these," said his father, holding the car keys.
Glaring, Jake checked the set in his jacket. It was the wrong one.
"You can't stop me from leaving."
"No, I can't stop you from running away like a coward."
Jake slipped his bag off his shoulder, letting it land with a thud on the floor. "I'm done with this town."
"I can't keep you from leaving a mess behind either."
He couldn't stay. Chris was dead and Emily wouldn't talk to him. The only choice was to escape.
"You're better off without me," he snapped.
"You're probably right, for now."
Jake didn't want to ever see anyone or anything from Jericho again. Maybe somewhere else he might have a chance.
Johnston moved towards his son, standing a few feet away, keys in his hand.
"I wasn't in on it," said Jake.
"Then why run?" Johnston asked, staring. "Face it now. Then its over."
His father didn't believe him. "Chris died because I quit."
"Chris died because he was robbing someone. You might be dead too if you'd been there."
Maybe that would have been better. Jake stared at the keys because it was easier than looking his father in the eyes.
"Maybe I should be."
Johnston slipped the keys into a pocket. Jake followed them.
"You wouldn't do that to your mother."
He was cornered. "I quit because I didn't want to see that look in her eyes anymore." He supposed he wanted his father to approve. Or at least acknowledge that his little punk of a son was trying. But he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"So now you were going to just disappear. We wake up in the morning and no Jake."
"It's easier that way," he shot back.
"For you." Johnston sat the keys on the end table behind him. "All Jake worries about is Jake."
"Nobody else does."
Johnston directed a piercing stare at his son. "And the way you're going that's eventually going to be true."
There was a silence where neither could deny it.
"Staying here won't solve anything," but Jake's voice had lost all the anger.
"Except maybe growing up."
Neither could allow the other to win this argument.
Johnston held out the keys for Jake.
Jake picked up his bag. Then sat it back down.
"I'll wait until morning. Mom . . . "
"Leave her out of this. And your brother. Go find yourself."
Jake took the keys. He waited by the door.
Johnston walked away, then turned back, watching the son he was about to banish.
"When your ready to be my son, then you can come home."
The kitchen door shut and the room fell dark. Jake stepped outside.
The black car slid quietly out to the road and past the house before he gunned the engine and ran as fast as he could.