FIX YOU.
꒰ real life ꒱

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

JACKIE stares at the floor, having to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying something she'd end up regretting. see, the man was still getting beat when mr cleveland came out of his office, startled by the noise. he ignored everything happening around them, deciding to pull jackie away from the scene. he took her into his office and has been giving her. lecture ever since — talking about how she shouldn't be acting so impulsively, blah blah.

she admits that she had acted irrationally and should have thought things through more than she did. but jackie refuses to apologize. the man deserved what he'd gotten. plus, she wasn't the one who did the majority of the damage. jackie only landed one punch before it all went up in flames. chris must have done a hundred times worse than she did, at bare minimum.

"you can't be wearing a uniform that represents my club if you act like this." mr cleveland says, his voice coming out so sharply that it sends shivers down jackie's spine.

"are you firing me?" she asks.

she'll be upset, of course. she enjoys her job here, and will miss the experience of being a barista and getting to know so many customers. but if he decides to get rid of her, she won't blame him for it. honestly, if she were him, she would have been fired the moment she punched a customer. regardless of the situation, that's not okay.

"no." he says, taking her by surprise. "however, if you happen to step a single toe out of line, i won't hesitate to leave you unemployed."

jackie nods, "understood."

"good." he replies, sitting across from her at his desk. his arms are crossed over his chest the way they always are as he wears his signature scowl. the only source of light in his office comes from a dull, yellow lamp sitting on the surface of his desk. the lack of light causes his face to be even more scary looking. it highlights every single crease in his skin, seeming to deepen his glare further than she'd thought was possible.

with that, he waves a dismissive hand at her — which signals that she's free to leave. jackie hops out of the chair without hesitation, rushing out of the room quickly.

but when she's back out in the bar, the club looks completely calm. she assumed that most of the customers would have been scared off due to the fight, but she didn't expect it to be this empty. she scans the crowd for chris, but he's nowhere to be seen. jackie's not sure if she should be relieved at this or not, so she just returns to the bar.

mabel is still sitting at her stool. she must have seen the whole thing, deciding it's best to stay put. when she notices jackie, a grin broadens across her face. jackie can't help but smile back despite her sour mood.

"so," she drawls, "did you know that guy? the one who protected you?"

"he didn't protect me. i had it all under control." jackie replies with a scoff, straightening her skirt and flattening a hand down her tank top. "he just happened to be there at the right time. and also happened to take my side."

"riiight." mabel says, suspiciously, not sounding very convinced. "anyway, back to the important point, you still haven't answered my question. do you know him or not?"

jackie pauses for a moment. unbeknownst to mabel, this is a very loaded question. jackie isn't sure whether or not she knows chris, anymore. less than a year ago, she'd known him better than anyone. but who knows how much has changed since then?

she didn't get a very good look at his appearance, so she's not sure if any of his features have changed. his personality seems to be in good shape, though. he's still as impulsive and fiery as he'd been before. and for some reason, jackie finds herself feeling relieved at this — like she'd been subconsciously hoping that he'd stayed the same after all this time.

"yeah," jackie responds, "i think so."

mabel sighs before continuing. "well, if he's a friend of yours, you probably won't be very happy to hear where he is right now."

"what?" jackie questions, straightening her back as she's suddenly become extremely invested in what her friend is saying. "mabel, what are you talking about? where is he?"

"jeez. calm down, calm down." mabel says quickly, holding her hands up to that show she means no harm. "everything is fine. well, kinda. let's just say that someone must have called the cops when the fight broke out. the police didn't arrive until after your boss pulled you away, but by then the perverted dickwad was already bloody and bruised. when they saw your friend on top of him, they made the assumption that he was the one in the wrong, so they handcuffed him and he was taken down to the station."

"what the fuck!?" jackie exclaims. "they can't fucking arrest him like that! he didn't do anything wrong! he was protecting brynn and i!"

mabel grins, "i thought you said he didn't protect you."

jackie ignores the teasing, too focused on the way her head is beginning to spin. she imagines chris alone in a cell somewhere, facing charges despite being completely innocent. the old, gross man is the one who should be locked up. or, if it comes down to it, jackie would gladly take his place. she's the one who picked the fight and threw the first punch.

her shift technically ended during the lecture from mr cleveland, so she's free to leave whenever she wants. jackie reaches behind her back, untying the knot of her waist apron. when it's finally undone, she drapes it over the hook where the next employee will come in to take her place by tomorrow.

then, without another word to mabel, she leaves the club in a hurry. she needs to get to the station. she isn't exactly sure what she plans to do when she gets there, but she knows she needs to do something.

CHRIS wants to die.

he's currently stuck in a cooped up holding cell, charged with something that technically wasn't even his fault. and to make matters worse, there's a woman in here with him who is very clearly on some sort of drug. she keeps bursting out into song, smacking her fists against bars of the cell. the noise echoes annoyingly in the small room, making chris's head throb with an oncoming headache.

there's a bench situated along the back wall of the cell, but chris doesn't trust it. the wood is old and stained with some sort of filth. to add onto that, he's pretty sure he saw the woman sticking her gum on the side of it earlier.

so, chris decided to sit on the cold, stone floor. the woman's antics provide a decent amount of entertainment, but she unfortunately isn't enough to distract him from thinking back to what happened before he was brought here. his mind continues to replay the scene over and over on an endless loop.

the way jackie's hair has clearly grown out in the past year, looking to have gained over five inches in length. the way her brown eyes narrowed at the man with a sharp scowl. the way she seemed to be working at the club. i mean, seriously. she used to go on and on about how much she hated places like that, and now she works there?

but what shocks chris the most is the fact that she actually punched someone. the jackie he knew would have never hurt someone, regardless of how much they deserved it.

she and wilson were both the epitome of kindness. it's a known fact that everyone in their high school adored the twins. and this adoration was because of how positive they were. not a single bad thing could be said about either of them.

well, until the accident.

after that, jackie had turned into a brand new person. she argued, lied, and fought. it was hard to blame her for it, seeing as her best friend just passed away. but it was even harder not to get mad at her. within a week, the school had turned against her. nobody wanted anything to do with her. and she didn't seem to even care.

but when she told chris that she was moving, she'd said that she wanted to become a better person. she wanted to fix her life. he assumed that meant she would return to the person she used to be. but apparently not.

he knows that change was inevitable, but he was still desperately hanging onto that hope that she'd returned to the person that he fell in love with.

"what might yer name be, darlin'?" the drugged woman asks, suddenly. her strong country accent takes him by surprise. chris looks up from the floor to see that she's no longer standing. she's making her self comfortable on the ground beside him.

"jack." he lies, not feeling comfortable giving his actual name to a complete stranger. especially a stranger who probably doesn't even remember her own name.

"howdy there, jack." she smiles, flashing her yellowed teeth at him. "i'm poppy. nice to meet ya."

"mhm." he hums brusquely.

he tries to discreetly scoot away from her, but to no avail. she doesn't seem to care about his attempt to get away as she slides over to get close again. "what're ya locked up for? you ain't look like the type to get sent here often."

she sniffs, wiping her nose with her sleeve. chris cringes at the action, staring at the disgusting shirt covered in filth and grime. there's no fucking way she just wiped that on her face.

"got into a fight." he tells her.

when the cops handcuffed him, there was an immediate uproar in the crowd. most people were shouting at the police, saying he was innocent. but there were still others saying he was guilty, so they took him in for questioning anyway. this didn't do much, though, seeing as he insisted he wasn't the one in the wrong.

they eventually gave up on questioning and stuck him in the cell until someone came to pick him up. they said he'd be charged with a third-degree misdemeanor for assault as well as a fine of a hundred bucks. he accepted this, knowing it could be worse.

"ah!" poppy barks out a laugh, tipping her head back and smacking it on the wall behind them. she winces, rubbing her skull with the same dirty sleeve she wiped her nose with. "don't worry, though, jack. they probably won't be keepin' ya here for very long. they've got more important things to be dealin' with."

"more important things?" he questions, beginning to enjoy the way she's distracting him from getting lost in his own head.

"ooh!" she shrieks excitedly as she moves to scoot closer, causing their shoulders to touch. chris quickly moves away again. but she moves closer with wide eyes, continuing to speak. "like what?"

"no, i was asking you. you just said-" he sighs. "never mind."

"well, this conversation is gettin' boring. whaddya like to do?" she asks him, conversationally. "like, for fun. got any hobbies or somethin'?"

"no."

"liar."

"excuse me?"

"i said yer a liar." poppy repeats herself. "ya definitely have hobbies. actually, ya look like the type to have lots and lots of hobbies." she nudges him in the side with with her elbow. "c'mon, don't be shy. i won't judge ya."

"quit acting like you know everything about me." he tells her, scooting away again only to find that he's run out of room to move away. his shoulder comes into contact with the dirty bars of the cell. "it's fucking weird."

she laughs, opening her mouth to say something. but her words are interrupted when they hear the sound of keys ratting against metal. he looks up and sees a cop unlocking the cell. chris feels such a surge of relief that he genuinely laughs. but he quickly shuts himself up, worried that he'll look just as insane as poppy.

"christopher, you're free to go." the cop announces, holding the cell open for him. chris hops to his feet.

"sorry to disappoint, officer sir." poppy says, shakily standing up as well. "but we don't have anyone named christopher in here. it's just jackie and i."

chris whips his head to look at her, but quickly realizes she's not talking about the real jackie. she's talking about him. the weird woman must have decided to give him a nickname. he shudders, ignoring her as he exits the cell with the cop.

poppy doesn't even seem to care that chris left her. she simply shrugs and returns to singing and banging on the bars obnoxiously, just as she had been beforehand.

he follows closely behind the cop as they walk down the hallway. it's narrow with whitewashed brick walls and tiled floors. nobody else is in the halls except for an occasional cop standing at the corners, just to keep watch.

"didn't mean to put you in a cell with her." the cop says as they walk together. "we try not to stick anyone with her seeing as she's a complete nut job. every time we release her, she manages to get arrested again within less than an hour, so we just keep her here until the drugs wear off. we eventually get called again, but just pray that it takes at least a day or two."

chris doesn't know what to say, so he just nods and changes the subject. "uh, are my brothers here to pick me up?"

"yeah, but you shouldn't technically be getting released for another hour or so. we have lots more paperwork to fill out." the cop explains, getting caught up on another long rambling. "the guy you punched is true pain in the ass. he's demanding you to be taken to court, but nobody's got time for that."

"so why you're letting me out, then?" chris asks.

"your assault charge isn't very severe, all you did was punch some guy at a club. we see this all the time." the cop shrugs, turning another random corner. "so we decided to just let you go. plus, your girlfriend is causing complete chaos out in the waiting room."

chris almost asks what he means, but decides against it. he's probably just talking about brynn. that girl can't be taken anywhere without 'causing chaos' at some point. chris just hopes that matt has managed to keep her anger to a minimum. they don't need another person getting arrested tonight.

as the cop unlocks the door to the waiting room, holding it open for chris, he reminds himself to thank brynn for it later. apparently all of her annoying complaining can prove to be useful for something.

however, the girl who's shouting at the man behind the front desk isn't brynn. it's jackie.

"don't tell me to fucking calm down!" jackie argues. she's still wearing her barista uniform, just without the apron. a short black skirt is still paired with a tight white tank top. "how about you do your goddamn job for once and arrest the person who actually deserves it!"

he glances over her shoulder and sees brynn, jace, and his brothers. they're all shooting apologetic looks at the man getting yelled at. well, except for brynn, who appears to be enjoying this more than anyone else as she watches jackie with a prideful smile.

when he looks back toward jackie, the yelling has stopped. their eyes meet and everything around him blurs into the background. he wants to run and hug her, but knows that wouldn't be appropriate anymore, so he stays in place.

suddenly, she breaks the eye contact and spins around. she hurries out the door, heels clicking loudly against the tiled floor. and just like that, she's gone. again.

chris had thought — rather hoped — that seeing jackie again would be like putting a bandaid on the wound that she'd left. but instead, it felt like she'd poured an entire bottle of salt onto it.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

sorry abt the cliffhanger, they're too addicting i can't resist 😪😪

anyway ! the way he used her name without even realizing it is SO. UGH.