A.N.- I have the best readers in the world. It's official. Totally official, as of now, IT IS LAW. And for all of you that went and did the teeny tiny favor I asked you to do for me, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL PERSONALLY, FOR ALL THE 1, 890 PEOPLE THAT READ THIS [on average] TO SEE!
romancefanficnerd- Thank you for being the first signed review:] I tried to set it up from the victims point of view, and to, like, really capture the feeling of what she was going through, Again, THANKS SO MUCH!
jandemes- Thank you so much! That's a huge compliment for me. I really try to put the reader in the story and get them to really feel what the character is going through. And I don't know about the Hall of Fame, per say, but that means a lot! Thank you so much:)
LIVInlifemyway- Yeah, I originally wrore it for them because I love that pairing and movie. And that is such a coincidence, haha. Thank you for the review:)
Leoh4ever- You never fail to disappoint! Double props to you, just because you're so awesome:) You're seriously one of the best readers ever! Thanks so much for the review!
Abbie Brown- Thanks, I try my best:) Thanks for the review!
FreakierThanFreaks- Oh My Paul, thank you so much! Ha, I've been in that same situation. You've reviewed every chapter, even the Author Notes, and you're one of my best readers ever, seriously!
ToTheNakedBrownEye- Thank you so much! I loved your review:) I tried my best. Again, thanks so much, I kept reading your review over and over again, it was a lot better than the usual "Loved it, update ASAP!" Most people just rush and write down, so THANK YOU AGAIN, SO SO MUCH! :)
FangirlPrincess- I'm glad you liked it! I will try to write that epilogue soon:) Thank you so much for reviewing!
irishtreblemaker- Oh My Paul, thank you so much! I'm not a professional or anything, I just write the things from my brain, haha. I'm a dancer too! I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. And thank you so much, your review was the kindest one I've ever gotten, like, EVER!
sleepuntiltomorrow- Thanks so much for the review! I will try to work bettter on my grammar next time. Thanks again:)
lalaboo- Yeah, not too fluffy, I know. But thanks so much for the review:)
emeralgreenlove- I intend on writing an epilogue soon on how everything turned out:) Thanks so much for the review! You're an awesome, loyal, AMAZING reader, and WRITER! I read your story
Brittana Forever- Thanks so much for the review! And thank you for pointing out that mistake, I will fix that. Again, thanks so much for the review:)
nclhdrs1717- Thank you! I try to write it as real as possible. Thank you so much! Your review made my day:)
Roffogable1225- Yeah, I try my best to describe it without going over-board. Thank you so much, your review made me smile:) I plan to do an epilogue since so many people want more. Again, thank you so so so much for your kind words! And for taking the time to read and review, I really appreciate it!
Livy.G- Thank you so much! I really appreciate your review:) I try my best:) Again, Thank you so much!
yellow.r0se- Thank you! Some people aren't into the whole depressing thing but I appreciate the fact that you still congratulated me despite that it wasn't your style:)
Now, I got reviews on THIS story [PAFB] saying "Update!" or "I don't review until the end." And you know what, I'm not trying to be rude, but here I am, the night before I leave, updating this. For YOU. I could be out having a Bon Voyage party with my friends. They wanted to hang out before I left. But NO, I have readers to be loyal to, and here I am, taking hours out of my night, the night before a HUGE DAY in MY LIFE, just to please YOU! THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS REVIEW! And not rush me. You're all aware I can't exactly "Update ASAP" So, please, don't just write that. Tell me what you thought! I STAYED UP TIL 2:30 WRITING THIS! I was advised to sleep on the plane anyway, so it benefits me I guess, BUT I'M TIRED AND CRANKY NOW!
TO ALL YOU AMAZING INCREDIBLE PEOPLE I JUST MENTIONED UP THERE IN ITALICS AND HOPEFULLY UNDERLINED, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU GUYS! :) So now, I will sit here and listen to La Vie Boheme on repeat while I write this for y'all:) ENJOY CHAPTER 13 OF PAFB 101!
I woke up to the bright sunlight peeking through the flimsy window curtains. I groaned and sat up, slowly opening my eyes, giving them a chance to adjust to the light. I looked over at the clock on the bedside table. It read 8:30 AM. I yawned and flopped back down on the bed. I was about to go back to sleep when I heard a cry coming from the other side of the room. I shut my eyes and exhaled, frustrated with the stupid doll.
"It's your turn." Jack said, half asleep beside me. I shook my head and rolled my eyes, but I still got up and walked over to where Colton sat in his carrier. I picked up and started feeding him, and he "slurped" happily on his bottle. I walked over to the bed where Jack lay, now dead asleep. His mouth hung open slightly, his hair was ruffled all over the place, and he was lightly snoring. I felt a smile tug at the corner of my lips. Not to sound creepy or anything, but he looked cute while he was asleep. He looked serene and peaceful. And as much as I wanted to let him be, sound asleep and dreaming, we had to get to the dojo soon.
I sat on the edge of the bed and nudged his arm with my elbow, since my hands were kind of full at the moment. "Jack, time to wake up." I said in a sing-song voice. He just groaned and rolled over.
"It's Saturday." He mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow.
"Yes, but we have a tournament next week in Miami that we have to train for. Now get up." I said, standing up and walked over to the other side of the room. Colton cooed and I placed him back in the carrier before ripping open the curtains, letting the sunlight land right on Jack's face. He groaned and put the pillow over his face.
"Jackson Anderson, I'm going to give you ten seconds to get out of that bed, or else..." I said threateningly. I waited. No reaction.
"Ten... Nine... Eight..." Nothing "Seven... Six... Five... Four." He was still laying on the bed. I raised an eyebrow. He was seriously pushing it. "Three... Two... One..." Okay, that's it, he's asking for it. I ran and jumped on top of him. I heard him moan in pain as his eyes snapped open and he weakly attempted to push me off of him.
"Kim, please, I'm up, I'm up!" He said, finally succeeding and pushing me to the side. He rubbed his eyes and stretched, sitting up on the bed. "Besides, it's not my fault the stupid baby kept us up until 3!" He said, his voice tinted with anger as he stood up. "I'm taking a shower and getting ready. Then we'll head over. You should get ready too." He said before shutting the door, leaving me sitting on the bed. Jack seemed rather... annoyed. I mean, sure, we didn't get a lot of sleep, but even that one time when Jack stayed up two nights in a row playing Kung Fu Cop 77, he was never this aggravated. I just shook it off and grabbed Colton before heading back to my guestroom. 'He's just not a morning person Kim, just keep that in mind. He'll warm up soon.' I thought to myself over and over as I rushed to get ready.
I ended up throwing on yoga pants and a tank top, throwing my hair up and packing my gym bag and hurrying back to Jack's room with Colton. We were running a tiny bit behind schedule, and I hadn't noticed until was sitting on the edge of his bed, tapping his foot, obviously agitated. He looked up as I stood in the door frame with everything.
"We're late." he said, getting up and walking right past me.
"Wow, thanks for offering to take something." I said sarcastically. He chose to ignore me and we made our way downstairs. His mom was sitting downstairs at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. She looked up and smiled at us as we walked into the kitchen.
"Good morning." She said, a warm smile adorning her face. I smiled back as I sat beside her.
"God morning Clara. Did you sleep well?" I asked. She nodded, and glanced over at Jack, who was rushing around the kitchen, throwing together breakfast, a not-so-pleasant look on his face.
"But... I'm assuming someone didn't?" She said, looking at her son for an answer. He placed a bowl of cereal in front of me before sitting down and starting to eat his.
"We're late. And because of that stupid doll, we didn't get much sleep either." He said, before practically inhaling his food. Clara shook her head at her son and looked at me apologetically. I waved my hand as a dismissal and began to eat my own breakfast. Jack finished before I, obviously, and threw his dishes in the sink, starting for the door with his bag. I hurried up and cleaned up, rushing after him. I barely remembered to grab Colton in the chaotic rush.
"We'll be back later Clara!" I said, before running out the door and trying to catch up with Jack who was halfway down the block. I grabbed his shoulder and stopped him, turning him around.
"Okay, seriously, what is your problem today? Nobody's done anything to you, and you're being such a jerk to everyone!" I accused him. He looked me in the eyes, long and hard, before yanking his hand out of my grasp and continuing to walk. I just stood there, shocked, confused, frustrated, angry... and to some degree, even hurt. There had to be something going on with Jack. He never had a day like this, where he was angry for no obvious reason. There was always something to trigger him. And I was determined to find out what. I let Jack walk a few paces ahead. If he wants to be alone, his wish is my command. I sighed and stared up at the sky. The sky was perfectly clear, not a single rain cloud in sight. 'At least it's nice and sunny out Kim. Look on the bright side, positive thoughts. I'm sure Jack just needs some time. Hopefully training will help him.' I thought to myself, trying to keep my mind from flying through the endless list of possibilities on why he was acting like this.
We finally got to the dojo. The guys were all stretching on the mat, and surprisingly, Rudy was standing, watching his students. He turned to us as we rushed in.
"You're late." He said, rather sternly. I mean, it's Rudy. He's never stern or strict. This tournament must be big then. Jack just stormed past him and towards the boys' locker room.
"We're aware." He said bitterly, walking into the room. Rudy just put his hands up in the surrendering kind of way and walked back to his office. I placed Colton on the bench and the guys all turned to me from where they were on the mat.
"Yo, what's his deal?" Jerry asked, pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards the locker room. I just shrugged and started to stretch.
"Beats me. He woke up just like that. I haven't heard him say one nice thing all morning, not even a smile." I said.
"You'd think he'd be happier with a new girlfriend." Eddie said, walking over to the bench and grabbing his water and taking a sip.
"You would... huh..." Milton said. He got that look on his face, that look he gets when you just know he's thinking. Seriously, I could practically see the gears in his head start to turn.
"Milton, what are you thinking?" I asked. He motioned us to gather in a circle. He looked around the dojo and bent down.
"Maybe that's it! You think he'd be happier, especially everything that happened yesterday. But he's not. And that could mean either one of two things." He whispered.
"And they would be...?" Eddie prompted.
"Either one- Jack's mad at something Kim did, or two, Jack's mad he's off the market." Milton whispered, standing proudly and smiling at his "amazing discovery".
"What? No, that's insane." I said, shaking my head, refusing to believe it.
"Which point the first or second?" I had to think about it for a minute.
"Well, I guess the second one could be it, but that's not like Jack. Besides, don't you think it's a little extreme to get this angry over something as trivial as that?" I asked. The boys nodded, seeing my point. "On the other hand, I know for a fact the first one is completely invalid." I said, grabbing my own water bottle and drinking it.
"And why would that be dear old Kimberly?" Milton asked, walking to where I was, as did Jerry and Eddie. I blushed and stammered, trying to think of any reasonable, believable excuse.
"Weeeeeeeeellllllll... last night, some... words, were exchanged, and some... things occured, and THAT is why the first reason is totally false." I said, trying my best to avoid the subject.
"What kind of words and things?" Eddie asked, finally catching on to the truth behind all the blubbering babble I was giving them.
"Oh, you know. Words... and things. Normal stuff, the usual." I said, walking back to the mat. Jerry looked as confused as a lost puppy and opened his mouth to say something when low and behold, Jack stepped out of the locker room, ready to train. Rudy came out of his office a matter of seconds later.
"Okay, I feel that the best way to train for this is to do some one on one sparring. This tournament is a big deal, so I want you guys to focus. No distractions, no excuses, nothing. I have faith in you guys, we can do this!" He said. Rudy isn't a man of many words, at least sensible words anyway, so this was a rather pleasant surprise coming from our sensei.
"Awww, Rudy-" I started, but was interrupted by him.
"ENOUGH OF THE JIBBER-JABBER, LET'S GET A MOVE ON IT PEOPLE! GO GO GO!" He yelled, clapping his hands. Milton raised his hand uncertainly.
"Uh, Rudy, you never told us our sparring partners." He said. Rudy's features immediately softened and he smiled a childish grin.
"Oh right. Jack with Kim, and then Eddie, Jerry and Milton. You guys have to rotate every round." He said, before strolling back into his office. We all just shook our heads, but followed our instructions. As much of a freak-ball as Rudy is, he's our sensei, and our friend, and we couldn't ask for more from him. He wasn't like the typical boring old Chinese man with no emotion or communication with his students. He gave the word sensei a deeper meaning for me. Especially after years of training with Ty, I was glad to have Rudy as my sensei.
I stood across from Jack. We both bowed before taking our stances. We started sparring, and it took all but 10 seconds flat for Jack to win. And that's how it continued for the rest of practice. Each round lasted seconds before I ended up looking at the ceiling, my back on the mat. After a while, I started to get tired, and Jack was anything but. As far as I could see, he was even more riled up and angry than before.
"Jack, I need a break. You can work on the dummies or something." I said, walking over to the bench and sitting down, my body sore. I may be a black belt, but Jack was a third degree, and when he's got something bottled up inside, karate is the way he gets it out. And it looks like I'm the rag doll he took it out on. I gulped down my water and stood, ready to go back to sparring when Colton cried.
I groaned and sat back down, taking care of him. I changed his diaper and got him all settled back in the carrier, before turning to Jack, who was knocking down practice dummies like there was no tomorrow, completely unfazed.
"Wow, what a great husband and father you are Jack." I said sarcastically. Jack turned to me then and I saw his eyes. There was no more frustration or anger or rage or anything of the sort. There was one single emotion his brown eyes held. Hurt. His eyes which were usually so bright were dull and full of hurt. And he walked out off the mat and out of the dojo.
Okay, right about now I was seriously confused. One comment and he storms out? Whatever reason he was like this for, it ran a lot deeper than me and him. I looked back at everyone. The guys looked just as shocked as I was. Rudy came out of his office, with a solemn look on his face.
"Uh, Kim. Clara's on the office phone. She'd like to speak to you." He said, motioning to his office. I walked to his office, all eyes in the dojo on me. It felt like one of those walks of shame, but I had nothing to be shameful for. I saw the phone on Rudy's desk and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hi Kim. This is Clara. Listen, there's something you should know about today. Jack has a valid reason for acting up. I should've told you sooner." She went on, rambling to herself.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Oh right. We today is... special. It marks the sixth year that Jack's father has been... gone." She said. I should've known. You don't wake up one day and suddenly feel enraged and upset over nothing.
"Oh My God." I whispered, mostly to myself. The pieces started falling together. That's why he was in such a rush. He wanted to get out of the house. He wanted to get all his feelings out here, while training. And then... I made that comment, about being a husband and father, even though it was a fake assignment. And under the circumstances of today... 'Oh gosh, I'm a horrible person.' I thought to myself.
"Hello, Kim? You still there?" I heard Clara say.
"I gotta go Clara, bye." I said, throwing the phone back on the desk. I ran out into the dojo. The guys asked me what was wrong but I just burst out the dojo doors. And surprise, surprise, it was pouring. It had gone from blue skies and sunshine to grey skies and freezing rain. I ignored the icy chill of the rain and wind and I ran out of the mall courtyard. I knew Jack. I was his best friend. And there was only one place in all of Seaford he could've been. So I ran. I ran all the way to the outskirts of town, near the town boundary line. I didn't care about the possibility of pneumonia, or the fact that my clothes were soaked, I was drenched to my core, and my hair was sticking to my face. I ran for Jack, because he needed me. And I wouldn't let anything get in my way to be there for him.
And sure enough, there was Jack, sitting on the floor of an old gazebo in the old, abandoned park. I quietly walked underneath it and sat beside him, placing my hand on his knee, waiting for him to speak.
"Six years Kim. Six years." He said, staring at the wooden floor, his eyes glued to one particular spot. I nodded, despite the fact he wasn't looking.
"I know." I said, waiting for him to say more.
"I remember it, crystal clear. It was a cold, cloudy day in late winter. He had gone to Walmart to pick up a few things. He called the house. I answered. He told me to give the phone to my mom. And I did. I watched as she listened. She hung up and din't even say anything. She just put me in the car and we drove to Walmart. And I remember, we drove through every single red light we came to. We got to Walmart, and my mom dragged me over to our car, the one our dad had taken. It was empty. So she sent me inside to look for him. So I did. And it was before there were these huge super Walmart's everywhere, so it was rather small. And I must've gone around the whole store 3 times. And nothing. But I remember everyone lining the sides of the aisles, and I was the only one walking through them. And then the P.A. system came on. And it called any medically trained personnel out to the parking lot.
"I was a curious 8 year old, and I hadn't seen my father, so I ran outside. And there was this big circle of people. I made my way over and pushed my way through to the front. And I recognized the car. It was my car. And there was my dad. Being pulled out and loaded onto a stretcher. Less than five seconds later, I was thrown into a car. It was one of my moms' friends. They brought me to their house. Wouldn't tell me a single thing either. And I was there for hours before my mom came to get me.
"It went that way for three days. My mom would drop me off at school, I'd get dumped onto someone she knew, and the next day the same thing. I remember on the third day though. The people dropped me off at home. My mom didn't come get us. And I saw all our families cars on the street, and me, stupid 8 year old me, thought, 'Oh, they must be having a welcome home party'. So I get out and I walk inside and I'm blabbering away, on and on about how much fun I had. And I'm just so stupid, I don't notice the looks on their faces, the dried up tears. But I finally do.
"And I ask, 'Well, where's dad?'. I look upstairs, thinking he's going to pop out of his room and surprise me. But there was nobody in the hallway. And my mom said... 'He's in a better place now' and I just knew. I just knew he was gone. I finally got it. And it's been six years, to the day, since that night. And it still replays in my mind, more vivid than any dream or thought I've ever had.
"And it sucks. Why did he have to go, of all people? We needed him. I needed him. Just like that, he was gone in the blink of an eye. And it seems like a dream sometimes- well actually, a nightmare. Sometimes it feels like I'm just going insane, that he's still here. And he's not. He's gone and he's never coming back." Jack finished, looking out at the rain as it splattered against the pavement. I felt tears sliding down my cheeks, hot and fast, but I didn't care. I'd never heard anything like that before. And Jack was sitting there, staring out at the rain, not a single tear in sight.
"I know what you're thinking." He said, turning to face me. I saw all the emotions in his eyes- pain, sorrow, and grief. "How is he not crying. Am I right? Well, the answer's simple. When you tell the same story over and over and over again for the past six years, you tend to get used to it. Comfortable, almost." He said. I nodded and looked down. I felt him put his hand over mine. I looked up and he smiled. As weak and broken as it was, it was still the same smile I loved, and Jack was still the same boy I... really really really liked.
"Sorry about that comment earlier. Sarcasm and all, but under the circumstances..." I trailed off. Jack nodded, leaning back on his hands.
"It's okay. Sorry for running out like that." He said. "I should've helped you with Colton." He said. Then I remembered something and I groaned, putting my head in my hands.
"Oh my God... we left Colton alone... with Jerry, Rudy, Milton, and Eddie."
A.N.- TADA! The ending will play in with the next chapter and one of your suggestions:) And I'd just like to put this out there, you know how I went in depth to describe Jack's fathers' last days? Well, it happened. In real life. To me. That's exactly how my mom died, more or less. Throwing that out there. Thank you all so much for sticking with this, putting up with me, and all that. Thank you for reviewing. THE ONES WHO REVIEW ARE MY FAVORITES AND I GIVE THEM VIRTUAL UNICORNS! I added a Rudy blurb on their friendship/sensei relationship because I've been lacking on my Rudy. He'll come in, eventually. Now, I'm not going to update until the end of the month, because I kinda can't in Europe. Now, review, tell me what you thought. ADIOS, I'M OUTTA HERE! Wait, that's Spanish. i'm not even going there... awkward... well, then, BON VOYAGE. And for all my lovely readers, remember this... LA VIE BOHEME!