When You Look Me in the Eyes

[Layla Harlow]

With Nicholas off at school, Patch at work, and Layla having her own day off, she figured it was best to not be alone. When she was alone is when things came back to haunt her, memories and fears. And when she was alone she knew she wouldn't eat. She was working on her eating disorder a lot harder now that she had Patrick worried and Nicholas catching onto something being wrong with her. Add onto that her parents popping back up into her life, she was too stressed to handle being alone.

One quick call to her best friend/brother, Jack, and she made plans to just chill at her apartment with him, watching movies, laughing at cat memes and doing whatever else they could before Nicky got back home from school. It was bound to be fun, her time with Jack was usually full of laughs and jokes, even if they were at his expense. The last time they'd been together was when she'd stopped him from taking off to Africa. And she felt that they had both needed it. Drinking themselves silly, Layla attempting to nudge a few cougars Jack's way, it had all been fun and games until Jack's ride showed up and was none too pleased.

Sitting on the couch in her living room, she leaned back and waited for the doorbell to ring. She was impatient to see him. After so long without him, it was like she couldn't stand not seeing him more frequently. And Nicholas had been asking about him so much lately that she couldn't wait for her son to get home and see his uncle Jack.

[Jack McCarthy]

It would be fair to say, that Jack was having a shitty damn time recently, opening his heart up timidly only to have it repeating stomped right in front of him. Tended not to be a lot of fun. Which is why Jack had come to a conclusion that he was done with women. After his heart was burned up by Onnie and the non-stop nightmare carnival ride that was his feelings for Lux, he now has come to the conclusion that he was better off without ladies. Maybe he might go gay. Why not? Franc wasn’t doing anything these days, maybe he can go have a gay old time with him. Ok, sure he wasn’t attracted to men in the least….like at all. But it had to be a lot more fun than this shit.


He never wanted to have any kind of romance EVER again, they always ended in Jack on the ground getting his teeth kicked in by emotions.


Which is why he was hanging out with Layla more often these days. She didn’t try to hang him or tell him everything was alright. She was happy to enable his self-destructive behaviour and they both tried to slay the horrible monster that was Jack’s feelings together


Both Jack wasn’t walking in just yet…..no he wanted to try something out first he thought as he stumbled across the oh so familiar front door…..He had read that morning that there was a group of Tibetan monks that opened doors just by blowing into locks…


…….Jack couldn’t resist..


With reckless abandon Jack leaned forward and began blowing gently into the lock convinced it was going to open

[Layla Harlow]

At the sound of feet coming up the stairs towards her door, Layla jumped up, too excited to contain herself. She'd been waiting long enough, even if it had only been about an hour since she texted him to come bug her. But he knew she wasn't the most patient person, she never had been. And today was not about to change that. So as she leapt up from the couch, she darted over to the door and opened it swiftly.

As it opened, she found her best friend leaning down...and she couldn't exactly figure out what he was doing, except...wait, was he blowing...the lock? Weird as it was, Layla figured this was Jack and she was certain he'd done weirder things. "What the fuck are you doing, you dork?" She laughed and placed her hand on his forehead, pushing him off balance. "I swear, after all these years of knowing you, you should not be able to surprise me with your weird ass ways." Four years they'd been friends, and yet, he could still surprise her. Maybe it was an Irish thing?

Stepping back from the door, she turned around and headed back into her house and to the couch. "C'mon in Jacky, the door is unlocked and open, I don't think you need to practice blowing anymore." Maybe the relationship stuff had finally made him crack. Maybe he was practicing to suck off guys? She wasn't sure if she wanted to congratulate him for coming out of the closet or to be worried about him and shove him back in.

[Jack McCarthy]

Come, on come on, if bald fat guys dressed in PJ’s can do it it should be a piece of piss for me. Mind over Matter. Mind over matter” Jack muttered as he focused all of his energy his face slowly growing red with the contraction -Looking like he was on the toilet- in the process, willing himself to open the door with the power of his mind alone…


….and sure enough he saw the door start to unlock and swing open, he had time to let out a gasp wonderment in his victory before he was hit square in the face with the door. He snarled a little in pain as he held his cheek in his hand his eyes watering in pain “Jaysus!” He groaned “I was TRYING TO BE A TIBETIAN MONK! I was almost there, I could feel my third eye opening up on my head…..Dick” he scowled quickly regaining his stance, he’s been hit in the head enough , he might as well be numb up there “W-Weird? Hey maybe I’m normal and you’re weird? Ever thought about tha-OH I CALL THE SOFA! “ Jack called out loudly as he ran into the old familar house making a beeline for the sofa jumping up and landing on the sofa longuing on it. Streched out totally relaxed “Sooooooooooo. You summomed me?”

[Layla Harlow]

A Tibetan Monk. Where did he get these things? Layla was sure he didn't read much, or watch the news, other than maybe the news about what was happening on the mutant front because who wasn't paying attention to that? Still, Jack managed always to find something random and out of the blue to learn about or try, like...blowing on a lock?

Layla hadn't meant to hit him with the door, God knew he couldn't afford to lose many more brain cells. She did cringe at the redness that she'd caused, but it could very well have been worse. She didn't break his nose at least! "Oh quit bitching, you weren't getting anywhere with that lock and you know it." Her eyes rolled back in her head and she snorted, "You? Normal? Are you yanking my leg or like actually serious?" She wasn't even surprised when he cut off mid-sentence and flung himself onto her couch. A little slower, she found herself plopping down right beside him, stretching her legs out over him.

"I did, Almighty Jack the Monk. I found this thing, okay? And it's ridiculous, probably the dumbest thing I've ever come across, but it makes for some entertainment. So I figured you and I could try it to see if it can work some crazy magic like you blowing on a fucking lock," She snorted a laugh again and waved her hand. "Never mind that part. Anyway. You in?"

[Jack McCarthy]

Jack was a great many things, a loser, a weido. A paranoid ridden fool of a man child with way too big a mouth among other things but one thing he certainly wasn’t was self-aware. To him all of his behavour was totally normal, it was just the way his mind transcriped certain information and reacted to it. It was just the way his brain worked, which was normal to him but certainly not so with anyone else in his life so, he could only regard Layla with raised eyebrows and a tilted head of cute curiousity “....I’m always serious” he blinked coldly as if he stating cold clinical facts


As Jack raised his head a little his curiosity peaked from Layla’s words as he tried to figure out what this so called “stupid thing” could be,She certainly had Jack’s attention just a little…


Until something occurred to him


“Oh wait….It’s not crack right? Like I don’t think I have the money for the dentists for when your teeth all fall out and you turn into Gummy Joe the hobo living on the railways, singing songs on a banjo”