Author's Note:
I told you guys I'd be updating by the end of the week! And I'm glad with the reactions that came out of the last chapter. You don't know how difficult it was to make that kind of decision, but it is all a part of the plan.
This chapter isn't your present. That will be coming soon.
On with the story.
As always, read, enjoy, review, and share. I'm still waiting for that share button…
Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Kickin' It.
What Jack did not understand was why Kim was taking the situation to the extreme. Not only did she break up with him, she also did not talk to him. There was not even an exchange of eye contact. It was as if Jack had completely fallen off the face of the earth. And all he did was keep a secret from her. Everyone is entitled to a secret, and that's the one Jack chose. Kim out of all people should understand that. She kept her lip locking with Jerry a secret from Jack, and he found it in his heart to forgive her. He just wondered why she would not forgive him.
Jack tried to go to Donna to see if she could be a messenger for him. But Donna just shut him down, saying that what he got was what he deserved. Jack tried to knock on Donna's door once again but it resulted to another door in the face. All he wanted was to see if Kim had anything to say about him (other him being a scumbag asshole of a jerk or whatever). So Jack tried one more time, hoping he caught Donna on a good day.
"Donna, can we talk?" He asked from the other side of her door. Jack prayed that Donna had lightened up to him at least a little bit. After all, it had been nearly two weeks.
"With you? Dream on," Jack heard from inside of the dorm.
"Please? Just two minutes? That's all I ask for."
There was laughing from the inside. "That's funny," Donna retorted.
"Please? I'm willing to get down on my hands and knees to beg just to talk for a few minutes!" Jack pleaded. And Jack felt as serious he could get. He would do anything to get Kim back. And if that meant a little bit of embarrassment, so be it.
There was silence on the other side of the door. Then an unlocking sound. Then the sound of a door swooshing open, bringing a slight zephyr to Donna. "You have 60 seconds. Go."
"What has Kim been saying to you about me?" Jack started. Jack felt as if he had so much more to say in a one-minute conversation. He felt as if he could ask questions for about an hour.
"Nothing," Donna shrugged her shoulders. She had a blank stare on her face but with a slight showing of annoyance. And the brunette-haired boy in front of her caused the annoyed part.
"Nothing? Why?" Jack asked worried. He was worried because Donna and Kim tell each other everything, but mostly worried because his one minute was running up.
"I don't know. We have not talked for a week or so. She's been very distant." Donna did not want to talk, and Jack could tell.
"Distant? What kind of distant?" Jack asked quickly. He needed as much information as he could receive in a minute, and he had a lot more questions to ask and information he wanted to soak in.
Donna tilted her head back and groaned. She was too tired to be dealing with someone else's teen love. "Like a busy distant. She's been working more. That's the only thing I know with what's going on with her right now." Donna shook her head and grabbed the door, getting ready to shut it.
"Why would she do that?" Jack asked, looking behind himself at Kim's door. He swallowed the lump in his throat and turned his attention back to Donna.
"How am I supposed to know?" Donna exasperated, throwing her free hand up. She calmed herself down a little and continued. "You have 15 seconds. Wrap it up," Donna twirled her finger around in the air. She was actually a little interested to hear Jack's last question, because she knew it would be something stupid or something she would not know the answer to.
"What am I supposed to do?" Jack asked. He had the lost puppy dog look on his face and a tear on the rim of his eye. "I love her so much," He whispered, feeling like he was at the bottom of the barrel.
"Go talk to the counselor or a friend, I don't care," Donna said with a sharp tone.
"But I-"
"Time's up," Donna cut in and shut the door in Jack's face.
Jack turned around and stared at Kim's door again. "We'll be together again. You mark my words," Jack said in a low voice to himself.
Jack started walking down the hall and repeated Donna's response to his last question. Go talk to the counselor or a friend… He really did not have any friends at Otai, and he never went to the counselor. What was he supposed to do?
As he walked into his dorm, he saw his laptop on his desk. An idea started to form in his head. Jack quickly whipped out his phone and sent a text saying "911. Get on Skype NOW!" Jack logged onto his Skype account and waited for the person he texted to accept his chat request. Jack tapped his fingers on his desk while waiting, feeling like it had been 20 minutes until the bushy-haired Latino's face popped up.
"Hey, Jack. What's the emergency?" Jerry asked with a worried look on his face. Jack rarely called for emergency Skype meetings, so this had to be important. "Are your grades going downhill? Do the teachers not like you? Are you injured?" Jerry asked even more worriedly.
"No, no, and no," Jack responded. "It's something else." Jack did not expect Jerry to guess his problem right away, because, well, it's Jerry.
"Man, I can only be on here for about five or ten minutes. You're gonna have to get right to the point," Jerry stated. Jerry saw Jack's face looking a little lost, maybe unaware. "Is it about you and Kim?" Jack nodded, looking down at his hands.
Jack felt very guilty for calling him like this. "Dude, I'm sorry if I interrupted anything. I should not have called on such short notice. We can talk some other time."
"No. We are going to talk about this now, because it is obviously bothering you a lot. Besides, we haven't spoken to each other in a while. So start talking," Jerry pushed. He hated seeing Jack like this. Jack looked so alone and…miserable.
"Kim found out that I was hiding…a secret from her. She got mad, and broke up with me. Now she won't even look at me. She is acting like I don't exist. And her best friend and my really good friend won't help me."
Jerry stayed quiet after Jack talked, thinking about what he should say. "Couple fights suck. But the way to get her back is to remind her why she fell in love with you in the first place. Woo her. Make her look at you."
Jack's eyebrows furrowed. That was actually some good advice. "How am I supposed to do that?"
Jerry shrugged his shoulders, "That is for you to figure out."
Jack nodded his head and heard some noise in the background. Then he saw Milton appear on his screen. "Milton?"
Milton looked up. He was wearing a towel around the bottom half of his body and his hair was wet. "Jack? Hey, buddy! Long time, no see! Or any contact for that matter." Milton walked closer to Jerry's computer to get a better look of Jack. Jack put on a fake smile so he would not have to make Worry Wart Milton such a worrywart.
"Yeah. Sorry about that, man. I've been really busy. How have you been?" Jack tried to make his voice sound a little cheery.
"Pretty good. You?"
"Same. Why are you at Jerry's house?" Jack asked.
"Oh. My parents are out of town for a cruise on the Pacific, my house is going through fumigation, and Julie is seeing her grandparents in Iowa. So here I am."
Jack's stomach dropped at Julie's name. "How are you and Julie doing?" Jack asked with a cracked smile.
"Awesome! We're getting really really serious now," Milton bragged. Jack was happy for Milton and Julie's happy relationship, but he could not help but feel slightly jealous of them.
"That's great," Jack said. "Hey. I have to go. I promise I'll talk to you guys by summer vacation," Jack said before Milton could ask how him and Kim were doing.
"Okay, Jack. Have fun," Milton said before disappearing into Jerry's bathroom.
Jerry shook his head. It was not necessarily a disappointed head shake, just a overwhelmed kind of head shake. "You've got to woo her," He reminded Jack. "Have a good time," Jerry said before logging off.
Jack sighed and rested his head on his desk, wanting to fall asleep just without delay. He lazily got up and stripped out of his clothes to fall asleep, when suddenly an idea hit him.
Kim was at the library looking over the brown-haired girl's shoulder. "Yep. That's the correct answer!"
Grace looked up with piercing eyes. "You aren't tutoring me anymore. Why have you been helping me with my homework for a week now?"
Kim looked down and fumbled around with her hands. "I-I…I just want to get my mind off of some things," Kim admitted. She was trying so hard to stop thinking about Jack, but she was failing miserably. She shouldn't had gone off and yelled at him like that, but she kept reminding herself that he kept a big part of his life hidden from her, and that is not worthy of taking back.
Kim would see Jack out of the corner of her eye and act as if he was not there. She just did not want him to be everywhere she was so she could have some sanity for a few moments. Kim literally thought she was going crazy because his presence kept reminding her of his existence.
"Well, I would appreciate it if you would leave me alone and not use me for your personal issues," Grace spat out.
"Why do you hate me so much?" Kim asked. She was already sad enough; she did not need someone openly disliking her to add on to that.
"I have my reasons," Grace said generally.
Kim sighed and grabbed her bag that contained a little amount of school supplies and books. "I won't bother you as much anymore," She said as she left the building.
Kim started walking towards her dorm and felt overly tired. Her head pounded and she just did not want to deal with anyone else for the rest of the night. As Kim walked inside of her room, she took off her shirt and jeans and put on the first pair of pajamas that was in her drawers. She had not been doing many laundry rounds lately, since she had been working three times as much as she usually did. Therefore, it left little clothing for her to work with. Little did she know that she was wearing the lingerie she had bought a couple weeks ago. Kim annoyingly sighed and mentally reminded herself to start doing her loads of laundry by tomorrow. All that was left were a few pairs of shirts, shorts, and a pair of panties.
Kim went through her drawers and pulled out a sweatshirt, shorts, and leggings for tomorrow. That was the cutest outfit she could pull together with what was left clean.
Kim walked into the bathroom to brush her hair and teeth. Once finished, she admired herself in the mirror. Well, more like the lingerie. Kim's heart felt like it had been skinned, squeezed, juiced, crushed, and ran over when seeing the lingerie. A tear barely left her before she could quickly swipe it away. Kim laughed a little to herself and fanned her eyes with her hands.
She shook her head and sniffled a little bit, trying to collect herself. Kim sighed and looked at the lingerie on her body. That was the only thing left in her drawers that she could wear to bed, and she mentally punched herself for putting it on. She then mentally, beat the shit out of herself for not doing at least one load of laundry so she could wear something else to sleep in.
Kim swallowed and walked to her bed. She was about to get in it, but she heard her door open, a hand placed on her shoulder, and was turned around.