7 years later
"Jack, take out the trash will you"
"I got it" a tall black haired boy screams walking out of the house
The street is dusty and crowded as usual. Hammers smash metal pieces in every stall, people scream over each other to get what they want, someone is fighting, which means someone is chanting. The sounds fill his head as he walks past angry people with a boxes and bags on his hands. The village is what you would call a mecca village. Everyone there are there for the sole purpose of making machines.
Its always dusty and polluted, but Jack is already used to that smell and can breathe normally. The sky is always orange here, the ground is always dusty. People die because of the environment frequently, but they have no where else to go so they cling to these jobs like monkeys to their branches.
As Jack throws the boxes and bags into the trash truck he hears his name.
"Jack!"
The voice is very familiar. It's cheerful no matter what. That voice belongs to Jacks best friend, a blond girl with dark skin. She is an orphan so she had to start working early. She works under an old man who makes cars.
The girl is running up to Jack, waving her screw driver. She is wearing baggy military pants and an oversize black t-shirt.
"Hey Alex" Jack responds
Alex isn't like the other girls at school. Usually Jack would hate to have to talk to them because they all end up drooling over him but Alex never did. She didn't like what other girls liked, she played football with the guys in elementary school and is completely obsessed with mechanics. Jack liked that she knew exactly what she wanted to do in her life and never changed.
"Do you wanna go THERE today?" Alex asks
"THERE? Why wouldn't I. What's the occasion?" Jack asks wiping his hands on her sleeve
"IT'S YOUR 17TH BDAY FOR FUCKS SAKE" Alex screams, making sure everyone around them would hear "Oh, and it will also be your last if you keep using me as a towel"
"Right, sorry. I'll tell Roman and we can leave"
"Hurry up"
Jack runs through the narrow gap between two buildings where the trash is located and makes his way through the crowd of angry and tired people. When he finally reaches his house he kneels down to take a breath after the run.
The house is a small one story building that looks like it will topple over at any minute. It is yellow from the years its been serving and the roof leaks a lot. There is a garage built by Jack and Roman to be able to have a working space for their business.
Jack called this town home, the people his own, and Roman his family.
Huffing, Jack finally stepped into the house to find a bunch of Romans drunk friends laughing about something. The laughter dies down when he steps into the room and they all look at him with angry eyes.
"Look who showed up, none other than the hero himself! What do you want, Superman?" says the big man at the left side of the old table with a beer in his hand as the rest of the men laugh
This man is Shuben, a man Jack had a particular dislike towards and has tried to talk Roman out of inviting to their house many times.
"Where's Roman" Jack asks coldly
"Why you need him?" Shuben replies
"None of your damn business"
"Hey, hey" Shuben stands up, poking his finger at Jacks shoulder "Don't disrespect your elders, alright?"
His voice is drowsy, his breath reeks of alcohol.
Jack pushes past Shuben, not wanting to talk to him anymore but Shuben pulls the collar of his shirt and forces him to stare into his eyes.
"Listen here you ungrateful piece of shit" Shuben breaths hard onto Jacks face "You disrespect me one more time and I'll beat the shit out of you so hard you won't be able to use that damned mouth of yours"
They stare at each other for a moment before Shuben lets Jack go. The reason that Shuben picks on Jack is, as you may have guessed, the fact that he isn't scared of him. That he dares look him in the eyes boldly and say disrespectful things even though Shuben is significantly stronger and could break half of Jack's bones in one throw.
Can we call this bravery? Maybe. Can we call this stupidity? There is a fair chance, but one thing is for sure; Jack is reckless to a dangerous degree.
Jack stumbles a little when Shuben lets him go and wipes his mouth. Making his way through the small corridor of his house, looking into every room as he passed. He hears a crash from the room at the end of the hall which is their supply room. When Jack looks inside he finds Roman on the floor with buckets and tools around him, rubbing his head.
Roman is a medium sized man in his 30's. He has blond hair that is loosing its color and a muscular body that is loosing it's power. At the age of 30 people in this town are already considered old and out of it, and even though Roman certainly didn't want to leave his job he could already feel the gas taking it's affect.
"You okay?" Jack says, leaning against the door frame
"Yeh, yeh I'm fine" Roman says picking up the buckets only to drop one, then trying to pick the other one but dropping the one in his hand
"Need help?" Jack says awkwardly
"Ah" Roman stands up and puts his hands on his hips "Yeh, yeh I need help" he confesses like it's the worst thing he could ever say.
Jack walks up to him and picks up the buckets and puts them up to the top shelf with ease even though they are quite heavy.
"Thanks Jack" Roman says
"No problem Roman" Jack replies
There is an awkward silence between them before Jack speaks again.
"Hey Roman me and Alex wanna go THERE today. I just wanted to tell you in case you had something planned"
Romans head snaps up to look at Jack "Yeh, yeh no problem. I didn't have anything planned. She your girlfriend yet?"
"NO, no, Alex is a friend and she will always be" Jack says.
When he walks out of the house he is a bit disappointed to hear that Roman has nothing planned for his birthday. He never did anything special for Jack because he believed that birthdays are not worth celebrating because there is nothing special about getting older, but 17 is when he finally becomes an adult, so he hoped...
"Hey, why so down?" Alex rides up to him in her motorcycle
"No reason" Jack says smiling
"Did Roman not give you anything? That's fine, I have a surprise for you, get your bike"
Jack grabs his blue motorcycle and follows Alex's green one. They ride through the town to the stone bridge that leads to a mountain. Crossing the bridge is the hardest part, it is so thin you can barely ride through with two motorcycles.
When they cross the bridge they start riding up the mountain in a spiral until they reach the top. Both the mountain and the bridge gave away such a depressing feeling. The mountain is plain stone and the bridge is crumbling down. The sky is black here, outside the town which is surrounded with red clouds because of the intoxication.
They get off their bikes and look down from the top of the mountain at the bare, dusty and dying land. They sit at the edge of the mountain and look up at the clouds.
The clouds are grey, there isn't an inch of the sky seen.
"I'm sorry Jack, I guess it wasn't meant to be today" Alex says, putting her hand on his shoulder "I promise we'll see the sun some day, together on this mountain!"
Jack signs "Yeh, hope so"
They sit there for a while, in silence, wondering how the sun looks like, how it feels like and where they could see it.
"I remember when Roman brought you to our house" Alex laughs "He wanted my old man to take care of you. When he refused he got pissed. You were so CUTE"
Alex pinches his cheeks as they both laugh
"What, am I not cute now?" Jack asks, still laughing
"Nah, you're a grumpy old man" she pouts.
"Hey, um, Jack?" Alex says, fidgeting with her fingers "I know you hate to talk about this but, I mean its your birthday, and I was wondering if you could..."
"No" Jack cuts her off
"Why?You didn't even hear me say it!"
"I know what you're gonna say"
"WHY WON'T YOU TELL ANY OF US WHAT HAPPENED?" Alex shouts "10 years of your life is a mystery to us"
"We should head back" Jack says getting up
"Yeh fine you big meanie"
"Someday I'll find out" Alex mumbles to herself.
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