Maybe Today You Could Put The Past Away...

Chase could feel the tension growing in the air, but she stayed put when Andrew tried to pull her away. Her eyes fixed on Vito, and she felt a cold shiver run down her spine. "Hello V Toe." She said with a small smile. "Long time no see, hows you're club? I heard you suffered a little fire damage." She said coolly, but then her eyes were torn off of Vito, onto Jack, her heart surged in an emotion she couldn't quite place.

On one hand, there was betrayal. Jack had said she wouldn't be around Vito again, she had gone off and done the exact opposite that she had told Chase she would do. But Chase knew she didn't even deserve the truth, not after what she had done. She deserved nothing less then for Jack to hate her guts, no.. she deserved to be despised by Jack, but Chase knew it was no good, especially when one word slipped out of her mouth.

"Why?"

It cut through Chase like a dagger, she even stumbled back a little, turning her head away from the group. Vito was feigning his important look, trying to bring the attention back to him, and she ignored him completely, her eyes locked on Jack now. Tears were swimming in them. "Jack.." She said softly, and reached out, before her anger took over again. "Jack... Not against us Jack? Then what are you doing with him?" She asked her eyes blazing. She took a very deep breath. "Whatever the hell he has told you about me Jack." She said acting as though Vito and Andrew weren't there, "Whatever he told you, just to let you know, I was drunk, and I've never had a sip of alcohol in my life, apparently I'm sexual when I'm drunk, and I'm sorry." She said and her eyes flickered to Vito before landing on Jack's again.

"But you told me! You said you wouldn't talk to him again! The day you apologized.. I thought it was okay between us.." She felt a tear slide down her cheek, but she ignored it the same as she was ignoring the men. "Jack.. I can't do this anymore.. you have to choose, Choose him.. the one who just might have some good in him, I don't know.. he might just like you, or need the help you offer..." She glanced at Andrew when he finished her sentence for her. "Or us.." she finished in a much kinder tone then Andrew's. She had to get him away from there soon, and the longer they stood there.. well.. bad things could happen, and she didn't want to have to break him out of that mood again, although she had a feeling she would anyway.

Vito kept his mouth shut and his focus on the cigarette he was smoking when Chase and Andrew continued to take jabs at his ego- normally he wouldn’t have allowed such things to be said about him, right in front of him, without their being hell to pay afterword, but he didn’t want to loose everything he had, everything he enjoyed, to tear off the heads of two unimportant people, who Vito could forget easily after a few drinks. It wasn’t worth it to him, even if he had to sit there and grit his teeth as he listened to what the ignorant freaks had to say about him. “I didn’t know the two of you loved me so much,” the sarcastic words had managed to escape his lips, but hey, it was to be expected; Vito wasn’t very good at keeping his mouth shut when he really, really felt like talking- or, well, ever.

Somehow, in the few minutes the four of them had been around each other, Slut and Mr. Angst managed to turn the situation into one of those moments in the movies when two different people called to an animal they each wanted, and waited to see who the animal would choose to came over to. Vito was both amused, and irritated. Teens and their drama… and yet, he couldn’t help but feel as if he needed to participate in their game of ‘win Jack over’, especially considering the fact that he was involved. “Wow, you’re actually playing this game? I thought I was the only one who treated Jack like shit and then pulled her back as if she was something I owned… but look at you two, you got it just right!” Vito mocked them, though his voice had turned rather bitter somewhere along his little speech, as if it bothered him that he was being involved in such things.

“You know”- Vito paused to blow a large cloud of gray smoke from his parted lips- “This would be a lot more fun if we had a race or something to win her,” Vito added sarcastically to prove his point, and though his words sounded rather harsh, he was still pointing out the fact that it was a rather twisted game they were all playing. “Or pin the tail on the donkey… maybe even some rock-paper-scissors!”

Jack closed her eyes, as though doing so would block out the exchange between Chase, Andrew, and Vito. She did not want to know about all of that. It made it all one hundred times worse. She did not want all of that to work into her mind, letting her imagination run off, twisting them into horror scenes that befouled her opinions of all of them. She did not need that...

She stared at Chase as Chase earnestly tried to explain, and yet it seemed that her anger and guilt deepened equally. So Chase had not done it completely on her free will, but Jack had been drunk around Vito twice an she had never had a sexual thought towards him because her guilt from her Chase's situation stopped her from ever caring too much about Vito.

But Chase was angry at Jack, yelling at Jack, blaming her for associating herself with Vito and Jack squeezed her eyes tighter, managing to keep a pained grimace on her face in place of the weak expression of sadness that should have been there. No, she could not be weak... Not yet. When she was alone, she could break down. She was tired of breaking down, that was not her, that was not Jack, she could not cry, she could not be weak. She did not cry, she was not weak...

Jack stared between Andrew and Chase. So they had come down to that, they both thought that it was high time she chose. She wondered if there was any situation that Jack would not trade this one for. She would rather be in a coma, she would rather be fighting a dragon, she would rather be facing Nerezza again...

Her eyes opened and she shook her head. "There are no sides," she whispered. "There are not. I'm not against any of you, I never wanted to be. I might have seemed so, but that was never my intention. I never wanted any of this. There aren't sides to me..."

But that was the problem. There were not sides to her, but to them (and the rest of the world) Jack could not have it both ways. She could not continue to care for the one person she felt she could really identify with, and she could not simultaneously be friends with the only people who had ever accepted her friendship without thoroughly abusing her and throwing her aside...

Jack sat outside of Honeydukes, a huge platter of double fudge, chocolate chip brownies. There was also a few pitchers full of Butterbeer and some frosty mugs. She knew she would probably see her friends here, so she kept a pleasant expression on her face. She was looking forward to having company, which was sort of odd, but with her friends, it was usually pleasant to hang out. It made her forget about other, more daunting problems that loomed over her like a dark cloud, creating her usual nasty attitude.

Her friends...

There was a moment of complete silence after that, one that was made up of tension, frustration, and fear- but honestly, Vito didn’t have anything witty to say to break that silence; he had no insults left, no jabs at Jack… nothing. And so he did something that no one, even himself, was expecting from Vito Dee Symons; the poltergeist leaned against Jack, lying his head against hers because he didn’t have the capacity at that moment to push her away again. He just needed a moment to collect himself; to deal with his fear of being ripped out of his life and placed somewhere completely new where he would have to start over completely.

Vito...

At Vito's words, her eyes closed tightly. She was not offended by what he had said, she knew him well enough to know that if anything the words were meant to hurt Andrew and Chase, since they always considered themselves so above him. But the problem was, that was how she felt. Played, used, as though she was just the person they used to shield their failures and disappointments on, but when the time for happiness came around, she was dropped to the dround... A sheild was only necessary in the midst of battle, and it took the brunt of it. You rarely ever saw someone carrying their sheild when they lived their day-today lives. And still... the impending decision... This confirmation made it no easier....

She could feel her heart tearing. Her friends would never take her back, she was sure, if she chose Vito. But what hope would be left for Vito if she abandoned him? She did not think she was going to survive this.

You are Jack Dyllan. The infailliable, unbeatable, Jack Dyllan. You have managed in a life where you can not stand your family and you had no friends. You have made it ast the name calling and almost all of your education where you had been shunted to the bottom of the social heap, and not only did you survive, you thrived. You have managed to become an almost legendary prankster, an amazing Beater, and a good person, no mater what Vito or Chase or Andrew think. You have remained almost wholly true to youself and you had never dissolved, never sold yourself out. This is just one more hurtle, the last one, and then you can go home and give youself a break. You can break down, you can cry, you can stay up eating chocolate all night. You just have to be strong, this one last time.

You are Jack Dyllan.

She breathed in a slow, steady, ever-so-shaky breath and her eyes opned, a fierceness in her eyes that almost hid the suffering. Jack was back.

"No fighting if I choose? Everyone turns and leaves each other alone, at least for the party?" First thing was first, Jack had to at least solve the immediate danger. She knew she would not be able to funstion if they all broke down into a duel. Andrew and Chase agreed, though she was not too sure if she trusted the look in Vito's eyes... Well...all the more reason to choose the way she knew she would choose, the only way she could.

She felt her heart beating in her chest and yet she kept her face unreadable and her demeanor calm. She looked at Chase and Andrew and adressed them. "I have always said that I cared about you... All of you. And I still do... And to do that, I have to protect you. Watch out for you. And now...now is no different. No matter what I may think, how I may feel... I will always protect you. And there is only one choice that will protect you and it is choosing my friends..."

And with that, she took a step back to stand next to Vito.

Her eyes could not help but soften as she realzied she had just killed her friendships. "I know you guys don't understand, but believe me. You will be fine. I just..." She sighed. "I have my place."

She was done apologizing, she could not apologize for the things she knew were right. She may be "choosing" Vito, but really she was doing this for everyone. Chase and Andrew had each other, maybe this small problem would lead to some sort of truce. She did not know, but she knew what had to be done was done...

She looked at Vito and said in a quite, almost suffocated voice, "Could we please leave?"

He couldn’t believe his ears, his eyes, or, well anything to be completely honest; Vito didn’t understand what had happened right then and there. He had been so sure, so very sure that Jack would walk away with Andrew and Chase, because that was what always happened between the four of them. He had been prepared to watched Jack turn away from him for good and never look back, because he was used to it, and that was the obvious choice for Jack to make; she was safe with her friends, but with Vito, every moment was life-threatening.

Yet somehow, something had changed, someone had messed with the balance of nature; Jack Dyllan had taken Vito’s side, knowing clearly that she would loose her friends forever if she did so- and it made Vito feel like going back to Satin’s, and having a lot of wine to drink. He should have felt proud, like he had won a game and the rights to keep Jack as his source of entertainment- because in truth, he had- but instead, he felt like he owed Jack, like she had done him a favor…

… and it made him feel sick.

She hadn’t done anything for him. Well, he tried to convince himself that, but his mind really didn’t feel like co-operating with him for some reason. She feels like she has to prove that she can fix you, Vito, you know that. Don’t start thinking that people care about you, because as you’ve learned several times in the past, pity is the only emotion people feel towards you. Hate is a good thing. Hate is good. Don’t f*ck with the balance of things or your mind will be all f*cked up in the end, his thoughts were as to-the-point as ever, well, at least that much hadn’t changed.

So treat her kindly, get her to think your going all soft, and then rip her to pieces; that is what you do, that is who you are. Vito smirked darkly; yes, it certainly was a flawless plan, wasn’t it? Let her have a room in Satin’s to call her own for a bit, give her a place to stay. Say thank you a few times, that will really confuse her. Then all you have to do is wait for the right moment, and you’ll finally win this stupid game for good.

Jack looked up at Vito, and he met her gaze, nodding once, “Alright. I have a car out front…” he replied just as quietly as she had spoken, almost speaking to her in a whisper, and slipped his hands into his pockets. “Fallow me,” he added, taking a step forward, looking back at her; a part of him expected her to breakdown right then and there in front of everyone, and he found himself preparing for it, as if it would be a massive explosion.

Chase stood frozen. She had agreed not to fight, and to just walk away with whatever the decision was. But she had been so sure that she would choose to go with Andrew and her. So sure that she had had a confident smile on her face, only to have it ripped off in a manner of seconds. Her heart seemed to freeze mid beat. Seemed to lay there dormant and gone. Jack was gone, leaving, just like that, she had chosen Vito, and she wasn't going to come back.

Staggering as though she had been hit in the stomach, she moved back and sat on a chair. Her mind still trying to grasp it. This was the girl who had gotten brownies and simply sat outside Honeydukes eating them, this was the girl she had been so scared for when she had ridden The Loch Ness Monster. She was her friend, and she was walking away with the man who had killed her family. Nearly killed her, her boyfriend, even Jack. And she was going to help him. Chase felt tears well up in her eyes, but she bit her lip and stood up so fast she almost fell over.

"Okay Jack." She said softly, her jaw set, her lips set in such a fine line it was almost hard to see them. "I understand your decision." If there was one thing Vito didn't understand, it was.. understanding, and if Jack was going with him, maybe that was what she needed to. Because she knew for a fact that Jack did have good in her, and she wasn't like Vito at all, because she was Jack, Loch Ness Monster, Brownie eating Jack. Her best friend, and she had just lost her because of her own stupid decision. It wasn't Jack's fault in the slightest, but it felt like she had just lost her family all over again.

Chase spun on her heel, and without waiting for Andrew, without caring where she was going, she walked away. Walked away from it all, ready to go off and cry. She needed to break down somewhere, the small part in her heart she had managed to fill with her friends after she had lost her family was open again. Empty for all but Andrew, and at that moment, her mind was so far away, her mind wasn't even on Andrew. Her parents were gone, and she had just lost her best friend to the man who had killed them. Tears started to slide down her cheeks the second she was out of view of Jack and Vito.

Let him gloat, Vito would be happy, and if that made Jack happy... well, Chase would be happy to. One day. She pushed through the crowd, some people asking what was wrong, but she just continued to go farther and farther away from where he had said his car was. Hoping to just.. get away and go, get out of there, run away for good. The spot in her chest was so wide and empty, she felt like she could have fallen to the ground and sobbed for days. But she couldn't yet, not at the party, at that time, she needed to go home, curl up next to Andrew...

Andrew....

Chase spun around and ran back through the crowd, searching blindly for him. "Andrew!" She called out, having just realized what her mind had made her do. She had walked off so fast, she soon found herself back at the table. "Andrew." She whispered and fell into a chair, covering her face with her hands. "I"m sorry.. I can't.. can we go home? I just wanna.. I wanna leave." She looked around for him, hoping he was around and not to far away. She had just lost someone who was like her family, and now.. all she had left was Andrew.

Jack felt a flood of relief as Vito seemed to understand and did not play any more games. She had been half-dreading half-expecting him to stay and make a scene or do something to make her feel more horrible than she was already feeling... She did not feel bad about what she had chosen, but she still hated the fact that she had had to...

She followed Vito and when he glanced back she realized she had been lagging. Trying to act as though nothing was wrong, she quickened her pace and fell into step behind him, walking in silence as she did, though with every step she felt something inside of her shed from her and shatter to the ground... Heart, soul, whichever was in tact seemed to be collapsing now, no longer able to keep up the fight.

She could not believe she had to do that. She would have never expected, never would have dreamed that she would be forced to choose... And now she had. She knew that, for herself, she had made the right decision, no matter what anyone else thought. Jack may have found she did not have a lot of things figured out, but when it came to this, she knew what had to be done. Still it did not make it any better.

She forced all emotion of her face. Not yet, you can not break down yet... You are so close, you have hung in for so long, just awhile longer now... You are almost there, just a few more steps. You are going to make it...

She sighed and reached the car that had to be Vito's... She just had to make it Satin's... She accepted the fact that that was where she was undoubtedly heading, and she found that she really did not mind.

Andrew felt his anger suddenly drop on the scale. It was mostly replaced with sadness, at the fact he couldn't be friends with Jack anymore...not while she was still with that thing she called Vito. It was a monster, and yet she wanted to protect them?! That was just downright stupid. "Fine Jaquellene," he said in an angry tone, his hands turning into two solid fists. They weren't made into fists because of Jack, but rather that Vito had won the round. He had managed to get Jack to submit to him, and Andrew couldn't do a damn thing about it. "Stay with Vito and try to 'protect' us. As you could already tell, we don't need your protection. Maybe you need ours." And with that, he turned to look back at Chase, yet noticed that she had already fled.

"By the way Vito," he said, taking a few steps forward, the pace starting to steadily increase "be sure to get insurance for your bar...I may come for another visit!" After he said those last words, he went into a speedwalk, trying to get towards Chase. Things were already bad enough, but now Jack had chosen to go with the thing that had hurt her before...why was that? Why was it that she was acting like such a fool? If he were in her position, he probably would've ran away from Vito. Yet she didn't. After passing through the crowds, he managed to find Chase he quickly wrapped his arms around her, embracing her as the sadness began to evaporate. "Chase..." he said softly "we'll head home now...let's just forget this god awful mess."

Chase let herself sink into his embrace and shuddered. "It's our fault.." She whispered suddenly. "She could still be our friend if we weren't so stupid.. Jack is such a kind person.. and that's why she's doing this, that's why she feels the need to protect that.. that.. thing." She whispered her eyes drifting into the general direction of the cars. "I just don't understand.." She said with a burst of anger. "She said she wouldn't be by him.. she apologized for it, said she realized how much of a.. of a..." She let her sentence drop there, unable to find another word to describe Vito.

"And yet... now she just, pulled away, she doesn't want to be our friend.. protecting us, from what? I don't know.." She could feel tears sliding down her cheeks. "We should have told her." She whispered still hugging Andrew. "We should have told her we were dating.. she's my best friend, and I didn't even tell her, I'm a horrible person.." She felt the sorrow seep into her bones and she hugged Andrew harder. "Lets go home.. just.. just.. I wanna go home." She looked up at Andrew an touched his cheek. "I miss her already.." She said softly and tucked her head against his chest, anger and sorrow filling her core to the point where she could have just fallen down and cried, just like she had after her family had been murdered.

Andrew placed his left hand on Chase's back and his right hand on the back of her head, trying to console her as she began to cry on his chest. He was still amazed by the fact that Jack had made such a decision like that, thinking that she would be protecting them. With a statement like that, it seemed like she was giving up at her life right there. And it scared Andrew. "It's not our fault," he said his sadness only increasing as Chase began to cry more "we had nothing to do with any of this...Vito had messed it all up...or maybe even Jack, for even wanting to socialize with that thing. Monster even."

He continued to hold onto Chase, thinking very much about never letting her go. Things had just spiraled out of control and now everything was set on the table. Jack knew that Andrew and Chase were dating, and they found out where Jack's loyalties really lied. With Vito. He closed his eyes at the thought, trying his best to not think about the worst. That Vito would end up killing Jack and come after them...it seemed to be the 'Vito' thing to do at that point for him to get peace and quiet. "We'll head home," he said softly, almost a whisper "we'll head home and watch a movie or something..."

He moved himself away from Chase by a fraction of an inch to move her head upwards, so that way she could look into his sincere eyes. "This isn't the end of things Chassy," he said again, a smile on his face that looked natural "it's almost the end, but things will work out. I promise." All the feelings in his body made him feel like he could keep that promise...and he believed it as well. Yet he knew that he would think twice about it eventually. It was what he did most-in fact it was the only thing he did.

Vito had only once seen Jack so fragile before, and just as he had then, Vito felt as if he needed to break her, to make her shatter into a million pieces because he didn’t like seeing her like that unless it was because of him; it was almost as if he had claimed all rights to Jack, and he was the only person with permission to shatter her heart. Vito frowned and looked away from her face, curling his fingers into fists inside his pockets, walking slowly down the front steps of the place

“We’re going to Satin’s,” he stated simply in order to make her realize that she really didn’t have a say in the matter; she had decided to leave the party and she hadn’t left on her own, so if she was going to leave the party with Vito, she was going to go where Vito wanted to, and that was his home. His home…Vito inhaled slowly as he opened the car door on the passenger side; it was still hard for him to think about how close his club has been to being ruined forever when Andrew had lit the place on fire.

Vito flicked an eyebrow upward; when he ducked his head down and prepared to slide into his seat, he realized that the driver was no longer in the car. He couldn’t keep himself from groaning; everything was just working out so well for him that evening… so much for a good day- were good/lucky days even possible if you were a poltergeist? Vito walked around to the other side of the black car, pulling the door open, “Tell me if you see a tall, scrawny man with brown hair and a rather odd beard. I'll run him over,” Vito ordered Jack in an irritated tone of voice before sitting down in the driver’s seat. It had been quite a while since he had driven a car, but knew how to, nonetheless, and other than it being quite the burden, Vito could manage.

“Get in,” Vito told Jack, but it almost sounded more like a question because of the way he said it, than it did an order; he was still rather shocked that she had made such a decision, and was having a bit of trouble wrapping his brain around it all. Vito leaned forward against the steering wheel, staring straight ahead at the road as he listened for the sound of a closing door, which would indicate that Jack had joined him in the car. He was trying to think of something witty to say, something to make everything that had happened that evening to sound a bit more amusing- but no insults came to mind, to jokes, nothing that would amuse Vito in the slightest.

He raked his hair backward, dragging his fingernails along his skull rather roughly, “Well that was fun…” but his words were too emotionless for them to sound the way he had intended.