Jack and Angie

Chapter 13


Angie slammed her way into her house and collapsed on the floor in the kitchen. After a long crying spell that gave her a headache, she went to the bathroom upstairs without turning on the lights. She stared at her reflection in the moonlit mirror as she wondered if she had just made a mistake.

Yes, Jack was being unfair. He was forgiving her, not because he truly forgave her for what she did, but because he was jealous of her going out with another man. Angie snorted, imagining him putting up a sign on the front lawn of her house that said ‘Property of Jack Mercer’. The humor quickly fled her as she got dizzy. She put a hand on her head and swayed for a moment before suddenly retching into the sink.

Hurriedly cleaning her mess, she washed her face, brushed her teeth and rinsed out her mouth before moving to the bedroom and deciding to just go to bed and think about all of the events of the night in the morning. Stress had always had the effect of making her throw up, so she knew that a good nights rest would calm her and her stomach down.

She climbed into her favorite pair of pajamas, consisting of one of Jacks old t-shirts that had stretched out because she had stolen it from him before he left for New York and worn it all through her pregnancy with Sebastian, and a pair of boy-shorts. She brushed out her hair and lay down in the cushy bed, burrowing under the covers.

Carefully keeping any thoughts about the night and about Jack out of her mind, she stared at the new coat of paint on the walls. Instead of going with the white that had been there before, she and Sofie had decided to paint it a more soothing lilac instead.

Still consciously keeping thoughts of the mess that was currently her life, she fell asleep.

Back at the Mercer house, Jack stayed on the porch for more than an hour as he simply sat there with his head in his hands and his arms on bent knees. After a while, Angel had gone back inside, not knowing what to say to make Jack feel better.

Camille had come out soon after. Jack guessed that now Ma was gone, Camille was the woman of the family, not that Jack minded. He liked Camille a lot and he knew that she loved Jerry. If she hadn’t, she would have broken it off with Jerry way back in high school, yet Jack could not think of a single time that Jerry and Camille had ever broken up. Not like Angel and Sofie, who had busted up at least once a week, but then again, Camille was not a drama queen like Sofie and she had a way of getting Jerry, actually all of the Mercer men, to do exactly what she wanted without whining until they went crazy, also unlike Sofie.

“Jack.” Camille said softly and waited for Jack to raise his head from his hands. When he did, she smiled at him reassuringly and said, “Come into the house before you freeze to death.” When Jack merely shook his head and laid it back into his hands, she added, “At least put this on.” She held out his jacket.

He shrugged into the leather jacket and resumed his miserable vigil. She sat silently next to him for a long while before saying in the same soft tone, “I know that you are hurting right now Jackie, but just keep remembering that that girl loves you.”

Jack shook his head without looking up as he choked out, “Not anymore Camille. You heard her…she doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore.” He sniffed. He felt like the fairy that Bobby was always calling him, but he just couldn’t find it in him to care at this point.

Camille took his face between her hands and made him look up at her as she said firmly, “She still loves you, trust me, I know. She is just mad right now…do you even know why?”

“Because I’m a major fuck up?” Jack said bitterly.

She smiled a little and nodded, “Well, yes, but that’s not all.”

“Then what Camille?”

“Because you were too stubborn to forgive her when she was feeling so much shame and guilt for not telling you that she had had your baby.” She said in that firm voice Ma would sometimes get when any of them had screwed up, “And because you were to stubborn to admit to yourself, let alone anyone else, that you had forgiven her until you got jealous about her going out on a date.”

When he just looked at her uncomprehendingly, she sighed and explained, “She thinks it was only because you don’t want anyone else to have her, not because you really forgive her and want her.”

“But that’s just stupid Camille!” Jack exclaimed with wide eyes, “She knows that I love her.”

Camille laughed and let Jack go as she glanced at Angie’s dark house, “But that’s how women think Jack.” She looked at him again, “You have to prove to her that you really want her in your life. Not because you don’t want some other guy to come along and not because she is the mother of your child, but because you forgive her with your whole heart and you can’t live without her.”

“She knows that Camille.” Jack said wearily, scrounging in his pocket for a cigarette.

Camille stood up and patted him on the shoulder as she said calmly, “I know. You just have to remind her of that.” And she walked back into the house.

Jack sat on the porch long into the night, staring at Angie’s house as he smoked and thought.

Bobby came out of the door at five in the morning and bullied Jack upstairs to his own bedroom. Before he left though, he told Jack gruffly, “If you need anything…” Bobby stopped and shrugged his muscular shoulders. Man this pansy love stuff was making him feel like he wanted to crawl out of his skin, “just—uh—just …go tell Jerry!” he finally said as he started to leave the room. He stopped in the doorway as he said without turning around, “I know you love her Jackie, you’ll get her back.”

Jack smiled a little, but it felt foreign on his face. “Thanks Bobby.” He said as he settled back onto the bed with a sigh. Within minutes, he was asleep.

Angie woke up the next morning feeling like a truck had hit her, backed up and then hit her again. Her head felt wooly and her stomach still rolled as she sat up carefully, and then lay back down as she groaned when the room started to spin again. Deciding that moving was just not worth it at this point, she blindly reached for the phone next to her bed and dialed the Mercer house, praying that Jack wasn’t the one who answered.

She was in luck as Angel picked up the phone on the second ring, “Hello?”

“Angel?” she asked as she sniffled.

His voice grew immediately concerned as he answered, “Angie? Are you all right?”

“Not really.” She gave a small laugh, but before she could get to the point of the call, she heard Angel talking to someone and then a small tussle taking place, and then Bobby’s voice came on the line.

“What’s wrong Ang?” Bobby asked urgently.

“Nothing.” She immediately replied, wanting to put his mind to rest, “I think I caught a cold last night, so I was wondering if Sebastian can stay there for the day. I’ll come and pick him up this afternoon.”

“Don’t worry about it babe. We will keep him till you feel better and we’ll have Sofie make you some chicken soup and run it over there okay?”

She almost sobbed in gratefulness as she answered honestly, “That would be great Bobby, thanks. I don’t really want to take the chance of him catching anything from me.”

“Not a problem Pipsqueak. You don’t have to thank us, Sebastian is a Mercer and we take care of our own.” He stated.

“I know Bobby.”

“I’ll run by your house later after work to check on you.”

“You don’t have to do that.” She said.

Bobby told her sternly, “Didn’t I just tell you that we take care of our own?”

“Yeah, but I’m not a Mercer Bobby.” She pointed out.

“As good as. I’ll send Sofie over there in a couple of hours. She is already starting to make the soup.” Bobby explained.

“Okay. Tell her I said thanks.” She smiled.

She heard Bobby relay the message and Sofie shouted, “Not a problem chica.”

After assuring Bobby that Sofie had a key, she said goodbye. She then called both Johnny G and the restaurant and told them that she would be out due to sickness. Collapsing back onto the overstuffed pillow behind her, she pulled the blanket over her head and went back to sleep.

Jack woke up suddenly as Sebastian barreled into his room and jumped on his back as he lay on his stomach. Looking groggily at the clock, he saw that it was almost three in the afternoon. Groaning at the weight of a child bouncing on his back, Jack suddenly flipped over and tickled Sebastian until he squealed in delight and gasped that he had to pee.

While Sebastian went to the bathroom, Jack lay in bed for a moment before getting up with a groan. As he shuffled into the kitchen yawning, it was to find La Vida Loca stirring something in a pot on the stove. Jack took a sniff and realized it was chicken soup.

As he glanced questioningly at the Latina girl, she said, “It is for Angie. She called to ask if we can keep your son for a while because she was coming down with a cold.” She smiled slightly.

Jack knew that Sofie and Angie were friends and after he looked into the living room to find Sebastian now playing Nintendo with Angel, he sat down at the table after pouring a cup of coffee. Before he could start to question Sofie, she said without turning from the stove, “Jeremiah said when he left last night that you could have the day off so we didn’t bother to wake you up.”

“That’s good.” He said lamely. The problem was that he had never actually sat down and had a conversation with the girl, so he had no clue on how to get her opinion of how to approach Angie. He felt guilty and a little ashamed as he thought that he had never given the girl a chance before automatically disliking her just because Bobby did.

Alright, that was not entirely true. Since Ma had adopted him, healed most of his wounds and showed him what it meant to have family, he had always had a hard time trusting anyone that was not named Mercer. It had even taken him a very long time to trust Angie with the nightmares of his past.

He had seen the volatile relationship his brother had had with the fiery girl and he had been sure that she would end up breaking Angel’s heart at some point, while ignoring all the times that it had been Angel who had broken hers. Sure, Angel had been one hell of a man-whore, as Angie once put it, but he had never been able to stay away from Sofie for long. Even after their mom had died, Angel had barely unpacked his bags before going out to find her. Their arguments and break-ups were always about Angel’s looking at other women or some sort of bullshit, but never once had Jack heard anything from anyone about Sofie cheating on Angel.

With all of this in mind, Jack examined his bruised knuckles for a minute before clearing his throat and asking, “Sofie? Can you sit down for a minute?”

Sofie looked at him apprehensively before complying. When she was seated, Jack said, “I want to apologize.” Sofie looked at him a little shocked, and he went on, “I realize that I have never given you a fair shake. Instead, letting Bobby’s opinion of you form my own and I want to say that I’m sorry.” He looked at her with sincerity in his blue eyes, “I guess that I thought that because you and Angel fought so much, that it meant that you didn’t care about him as much as he did you. I can see now that I was really wrong about that and I wanted to tell you that I am happy that you and my brother love each other and that you are going to be my sister.”

Sofie burst into tears and flung her arms around his neck as she muttered something in her native tongue as she sobbed. Jack looked around for help and found Angel standing in the doorway. He had obviously overheard what Jack had said and couldn’t have been more pleased by the huge smile on his face. Taking pity on Jack, Angel pried Sofie off of him after Jack gave her a couple of awkward pats on the back and pulled her into his own arms.

“Thanks little brother.” Angel said with a smile as his fiancée sobbed on his shoulder while muttering incomprehensively, “You don’t know how much it means to us that you welcome Sofie into the family.

Jack blushed a little as he said, “You did Angie. All of you have always accepted her because you knew that I loved her, so it’s the least I can do for you.”

Jack got up from the table and went to go watch TV with his son as he plotted on how to get his girl back.