Standing Out
Chapter 18: Jack in the Box

I was feeling feverish and I just wanted to sleep, but Jeanne didn’t care. She just had to tell me about how Jack had been treating her lately.

“Yeah, Jack’s just gorgeous and all, but he’s started acting strange.” She nudged me and scolded me for drifting off. Do I really need to listen to this?

I glared at her, but then thought better of it. I decided to play along, “How so?”

“Well, he’s been avoiding me and spending a lot of time with Clara.”

“Who’s Clara?”

“Oh, she’s Jessabelle’s older sister.” Suddenly, I cared a lot more about the conversation.

“Did you ask him why he was spending so much time with her?” I sat up, leaning over in earnest.

“Yeah, I did. He just said that she was a good friend and that I was being controlling by monitoring him.” She frowned. “Maybe he’s sick of me and is cheating on me again!” Rather concerned, Jeanne rushed out of the room. My guess was that she planned to spy on him again. I was starting to feel really sorry for him.

Unfortunately, since Clara is related to Jessabelle, this means that Jeanne’s problem is also mine. Jessabelle made fifth grade absolutely miserable for me, so there was no way that her sister was getting off easy.

Now that I was fully awake, I almost wished that I asked Jeanne to take me with her for some sweet revenge, but it was too late. She was gone.

I knew her well enough to know that it was in her nature to fill me in later. In exhaustion, I watched my eyes blur until all that was left was darkness, an empty pit of oblivion.

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“Mya, Mya, wake up!”

I groaned. I was right. She had returned to drench me with her gossip. For some reason, I never drowned.

“Mya, Jack is all mad at me!” She gave me those sad puppy-dog eyes. I was trying not to gag. This better be worth it.

“Why is that?”

“Well, he was hanging all over Clara and I got suspicious.”

I narrowed my eyes. This was all too predictable and relatively disappointing. “Let me guess. You went up to him and called him out for it. Now he thinks that you don’t trust him and is upset that you keep getting angry with him for talking to other girls.”

She frowned. “That’s exactly it.”

“Wait, seriously?”

She ignored me. “You have to help!”

“No, I don’t. I’m in the hospital for heaven’s sake. The only reason I would consider your request is that Clara is related to Jessabelle, but I can’t just leave the hospital. You know that. Now stop talking stupid and leave.” I had it. I needed rest and Jeanne once again found it appropriate to burden me with her problems. As much as I would have helped considering the situation, I obviously couldn’t for aforementioned reasons.

At this point, I was rather confused as to why Jack hadn’t dumped Jeanne yet. She was too controlling. Every time Jack tried to pop out of his box to tell her how he felt, she’d shove him right back in. It was moments like these where I wondered how she hadn’t broken her sensitive little toy. Oh, poor Jack-in-the-box.