Deadly Sins by Lucy Rue

Author:Lucy Rue [Rue, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

Jackson and I sit in silence, basking in each other’s breaths before he lets me go. His hands, now gone from my body, go limp against his knees. We sit there, Jackson with his back agains one wall and mine against another, staring at each other, missing the feeling of our entangled arms around one another.

"I grew up in the foster care system—a group home, really, with seven other kids. Some the same age, a couple a few years older, and one straggler that was younger.” Jackson sucks in a deep breath. “I wasn't always living there. I had parents—great ones as far as I can remember. When I was sixteen, my case worker finally had the authority to tell me more about them. Caroline and Nathaniel Hughs, a schoolteacher and engineer with the cleanest record in the world.”

“Do you remember them at all? Like what they looked like or what they were like?”

Jackson closes his eyes. “When I close my eyes and think really hard, I see my mother’s eyes. They were a mirror of my own—”

“Jade,” I cut him off. “Like the clearest of cuts.”

“Yes, jade. And my dad, I can’t remember much about him. I try a lot to, but I can’t. They both died in a plane crash.”

Oh God, no wonder he’s like this.

“Jackson. I'm so sorry.”

Jackson swallows. “And to make matter worse, I was on the plane with them when it happened.” He scratches his jaw. “My memories of it are a little fuzzy but I remember the loud noises. That sinking feeling of my stomach as we went down and all that heat from the fire around me.”

"God . . . how did you survive it?"

"That’s the funny thing. I don't know. The police and ambulance crew said it was a miracle. I was only twelve. When I looked up photos of the wreckage because I was curious, there was only one chair intact. One minute my mom was telling me she loves me, then the next, I was at a police station crying for my parents.”

"Jackson.” I lift myself from the ground, bringing us face-to-face before I say, “I'm so sorry that happened."

"It’s fine. The plane crash was nothing but a mechanical error that cost me everything. I started going to therapy the moment it happened and stopped when I was sixteen. When I started this lifestyle, I finally got on a plane and I just lost it—my best friend, thank the stars for him, was there for me—coaxing me in the bathroom like you are but it never stopped. So, I got a special prescription of the Xanax and medical marijuana for these situations.”

What Jackson went through is so heartbreaking. His happiness was taken from him before he even had a chance.

“So that's why I have these panic attacks when I get on a plane,” Jackson says shamefully. “It’s so pathetic; I'm so weak," he laughs.

Weak? Pathetic? How could such words ever come out his mouth? He survived a plane crash and watched his parents die and he’s still sitting here, in front of me on a plane.

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