Jack was surprised that Blake knew that. But then, the baby and their mother had always had a very, very attached bond. The other kids didn’t joke about Blake still having an umbilical cord somewhere without reason. Good reason, too. “Let me tell you something, Blake… I cried, too. I mean, I didn’t cause mom bodily harm in order to keep her to stick around, but that first day? I freaked out a little bit. And freaking out for someone like me is always a bad idea. Especially when I was a kid and still didn’t really know how to control my impulses. So, don’t think that you were the only one with those feelings. You were just the only one who took them to the extreme that you did.”
There were moments when someone’s attempts to comfort someone else just sort of fell apart. “You… danced… too? Blakey…” and he just shook his head. No. Just no. Words could not really express the bewilderment. It wasn’t disappointment. Jackson was just flabbergasted. “I think you would have saved yourself a whole lot of trauma if you would have kept quiet… but, again, what’s done is done and can’t be undone.” He pondered telling Blake that he was better of knowing that Bunny did not reciprocate those feelings, but had a feeling that would open a can of worms that should have remained closed.
“We are pretty lucky that we have each other,” Jackson agreed. “I think we’re luckier that we’ve managed to share a room in that house for as long as we have without having the urge to dismembering each other.” But Blake’s attempts to make him feel better about his far too long time at Scarlet Oak high? That just made him laugh. “I don’t think I was too cool for high school… I just think that I was easily fed up with all the stupid crap that goes on in them. Especially in a place like Scarlet Oak, where everyone knows everything about everyone else.” Somehow, Jack doubted that the promise Cheers made about everyone knowing your name was really all it was cracked up to be. “I miss the madness of Casa de Lowell a lot… including you and Myra’s spats. I have the chance to come home whenever I want, so I take it. I don’t regret that. I’m thankful for it.”
“You’re just going to piss yourself off a little bit more… I hope you know that.” It was kind of hard not to. Not since Super Mario 64 had Jackson wanted to launch a game against the wall in spite. Back then, he actually ended up breaking a vase when he got so close to getting a star and failed at the last second. It wasn’t fun.
Jack let out a sigh of relief when Blake told him that they weren’t, well, going to make him an uncle any time soon. Or do something that could potential make him an uncle. He only had one sister, and maybe it was a little sexist of him, but he kind of wanted her to stay innocent forever. Or at least until he got some action. What happened to sequential order? “If that’s what they want, and it makes them happy, then that’s fine. But you guys are really going to need to make up another name for it… because once it happens I’m never going to look at the actual pop tarts in the same way again. And I need to retain my love of cherry ones, thanks!” Those who deprived him of the sweet nectar known as the cherry pop tart would feel his wrath indeed.