Chapter 3
By: MysticFantasy
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Jack had hoped to spend the day in his room but Evelyn didn't give him the chance today.
Ten days had gone by since Jack had come to live with Mercer family but he hadn't changed at all. The only time he had talked to any of them was when he thanked Bobby for saying he would help him through his rough past.
Other than those little two words, Jack hasn't said a thing to any of the Mercer's.
He still ate very little which worried Evelyn because he was losing weight faster than he was gaining it which wasn't what he needed. He was already nearly eleven pounds underweight and had been told that he needs to gain every pound but his suspisions hadn't gone down a single knotch even though he wanted to trust the people he was with now.
They seemed trustworthy but Jack kept remembering all of the other people he had been forced to live with who had seemed trustworthy at first and turned out to be the opposite.
Right now he sat in his room and felt like a lecture or punishment was about to be placed upon him.
Evelyn had come in a few minutes ago asking for his laundry and found his bag still hadn't been unpacked. Needless to say she had seemed very surprised and unhappy that he hadn't unpacked his bag even though he had few pieces of clothing.
Like everday he had yet to say anything to her when she asked why he still hadn't unpacked and he noticed that she didn't seem surprised or angry that he still wouldn't talk. Like she had gotten use to him being so quiet or was just giving him time to speak.
Jack wanted to trust her, he really did, but his issues with trusting her, an older and sweet woman, was because of a sort of grandmotherly type woman who had taken him in about a year ago.
She had been very sweet and caring at first. Then one day her son had been kicked out of his house for reasons unknown and he came to live with her for a while. Jack hadn't liked her son and thought that she would keep him safe but he was proven wrong.
The woman's son had done whatever he wanted to Jack whenever he wanted and the woman hadn't even spared a glance to help him.
Because of her Jack couldn't get himself to consider trusting Evelyn.
"My goodness, they didn't give you any descent clothing." she muttered mostly to herself as she looked at Jack's clothes that had been given to him as hand-me-downs from previous homes or given to him from the foundation without consideration of his size.
"Well, we're going to change that right now." Evelyn declared and turned to the child sitting on the bed. "Come on Jackie. Let's go get you some new clothes."
Jack didn't move. He wasn't sure he could believe what she had just said.
In other homes he had heard the parent's take their real children to buy new clothing but he was never allowed to go or get anything for himself and when they returned he would see the children putting away their brand new clothes while he just had his hand-me-downs.
"Come on Jackie." Evelyn encouraged.
Silently, Jack got to his feet and followed Evelyn downstairs. He froze on the step he was on when he saw Bobby, Jerry and Angel gathered together in the living room. He still wasn't use to being around all three of them when they were together.
"Boys, I'm taking Jack to the store to get him a few things." Evelyn announced putting her coat on. "Can I trust you three to behave while I'm gone?"
"Of course Ma." Bobby answered.
"Bobby."
"We'll behave Ma." Jerry said in a tone that Evelyn seemed to believe.
"Ok. If your keep your promise then we can order pizza for lunch." Evelyn said.
"We'll be good." The three said in a tone that made it obvious they wanted pizza.
"Ok then. Come on Jack." Evelyn said turning to the child still frozen on the stairs.
Jack snapped out of his trance when Evelyn called his name. He shakily made his way down the last two steps and followed Evelyn out the door.
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The scents of different perfumes mixing in the air was instantly noticable as soon as Jack entered the store with Evelyn. He crinkled his nose a bit because of the strong scents and tried to ignore it.
"This way sweetheart." Evelyn said holding onto a shopping cart and turned to head down the aisle.
Jack quietly followed her and soon found himself in the section of the store for children's clothing.
He saw all of the nice shirts and pants and saw Evelyn looking at them too.
"These are nice and your size Jackie." she exclaimed with a smile. "Let's take a few. Now let's look at a few shirts."
Jack watched as Evelyn placed three pairs of jeans and two pairs of slacks in the shopping cart before heading over to the shirts.
To be honest, he had just been expecting to get one pair of pants and a shirt. But now he was standing there watching as Evelyn placed six shirts in the cart and then put two packs of socks and underwear.
"Let's go see if we can find you a pair of shoes too." Evelyn said.
If Jack wasn't having trust issuses so much he'd ask her to stop gathering all of these things for him. He already felt like a burdon. He didn't want to feel like he was making her spend her money on him.
"Jackie?"
Jack snapped out of his thoughts when he heard her call him. He right away saw her concerned face and lowered his eyes.
"What's wrong sweetheart?" she asked in a concerned voice.
Jack slowly turned his face away from her. Now he was looking like a cry-baby.
"Jack, what's wrong?" Evelyn asked kneeling down to be eye level with him.
The young child looked at her before turning his eyes to the floor.
"No one...ever got me new clothes before." he muttered quietly.
Evelyn felt sympathy inside.
How could someone as young as Jack have never known the simple pleasure of getting new clothes to wear? Has everything he had ever worn been given to him without any kind of consideration?
"Oh Jackie, don't feel bad." she said holding his good hand. "I know that you've had it hard before you came to me but I promise that you won't ever have to worry about things like that again. I won't let anything bad happen to you again. Udnerstand?"
Jack lightly nodded, although deep down he felt he shouldn't believe Evelyn. He had heard the same promise before and they were always broken or forgotten.
"Look at me Jackie." Evelyn said with a soft tone.
Jack lifted his slightly quivering blue eyes to meet Evelyn's. He saw a spark in her eyes that he had never seen before and didn't know what to make of it.
"I know that you've heard promises like that before but I keep my promises and I'm going to make sure that nothing horrible happens to you again. You'll be taken care of as long as you're with me."
"What about when I leave?"