When Rachel awoke the next morning, she discovered that Eric was gone. Dressing quickly, she exited her room and walked into the kitchen but there was no sign of Eric. Grabbing the bottle of pain pills that sat on the counter, she swallowed two to try and clear her head from the cloud of pain. She smiled as she passed the couch, remembering the events of the night before.
'I'll lie down' she thought to herself, 'and wait for Eric.'
******
"I slept with her Core," Eric said, his head hung as he sat at his younger brother's kitchen table. "My best friend's X girlfriend and I slept with her."
After Rachel had fallen asleep, Eric had slept out on the couch and when the first light of dawn hit the sky, he drove himself over to Cory's house.
"Bro, Jack's gone, no one has heard from him in at least a day, not even Shawn."
"I feel gilty though," Eric replied.
"Go home and tell Rachel how you feel," Topanga said.
"Maybe," Eric said as he slowly got to his feet.
******
In a city, hundreds of miles away, Jack had just awakened. He stretched underneath the covers and picked up the phone in order to get him some food for the day. This is his new life now, a life away from the people he loves, a life away from the man he loves but, it was his own life he was starting. It was a chance for him to be free, a chance to just go away where no one would find him.