Unveiling J.A.C.I.E. (All Time Low Fanfiction | Jack Barakat)

Chapter 5

"Okay, so..." I put my phone down again, letting it continue to charge, "we got married..."

"I think so," Jack responded.

There was a silence between us. It was clear that this had been the most obvious answer since the start. But it was still a shock to see it confirmed. Especially since neither of us had any memory of it occurring. Those pictures were pretty fucking real though.

"How do we feel about this?" I asked, finally turning to look at Jack who was still sitting next to me on the edge of the bed.

"I don't know..." Jack breathed out, staring ahead before finally making eye contact with me.

We both looked into each other's eyes for a second, trying to figure out our emotions and feelings. This obviously wasn't what we had intended to come out of this evening. We just wanted to celebrate and have fun. But it seemed like we celebrated a little too hard.

'I mean..." he finally started again, no longer just giving me three word answers, "it's not the worst thing that could have happened. We could have had an orgy with twenty people for all I know."

"I guess," I agreed, still conflicted. "But we never even talked about getting married before."

"Well, I know I want to get married. Getting married to you is... something I hadn't thought about much , but would be very open to."

"Present tense, not future."

"Right."

"I haven't really thought about marriage," I admitted, suddenly feeling incredibly young and naive. "Maybe in a few years it would have become more of a reality for me. But I have thought about being with you a lot and I can't imagine ever not being with you."

Jack slowly took hold of my left hand with his, our rings conducting our body heat faster than our skin ever could. I was worried, I was scared, but being with Jack felt safe. No matter what.

"Then, maybe, we should take this time to think before we do anything drastic again," he suggested with a small smile.

I took a deep breath in and nodded. "Okay. But I can't keep this ring. I can't do that to you."

He sighed and looked at his own hand. "I kind of want to keep mine though."

"That's okay. But this," I pulled my hand from his and put the ring in his face, "this is extreme ."

"That I'll admit," he chuckled and intertwined our fingers again.

After a quick Target trip to get us some more comfortable clothes and some food, we made our way to the address on the receipts for the rings. It was a medium size shop. Not big enough to seem like they were purely there to take advantage of people, but also not small enough to have been closed in the middle of the night. Then again, it was Vegas, business boomed at night.

Jack and I walked inside, myself feeling a bit out of place in my sweatpants and hoodie. They had a whole range of sparkling jewellery in glass display cases: necklaces, bracelets, broches, and obviously rings. Some were gold, others were silver. There were more gemstones than I could count. It really didn't make sense that they'd let us buy things with how drunk we were.

A shop employee was standing behind one of the displays, watching us come in.

"How can I help you?" He immediately asked, a customer service smile glued on his face.

I took initiative, stepping up to him and taking off the ring to put on the counter. "We need to return this ring."

"Oh." He frowned, looking at the silver ring in front of him.

Jack rummaged around in his pocket. "I have the receipt."

After Jack put the receipt next to the ring, the employee picked it up and looked over it. He took hold of the ring and inspected it, comparing it to some kind of information on the paper. When he was done, he smiled back at us.

"I hate to ask this question, but I have to for administration purposes," he told us. "What's the reason for the return?"

"Just not the right... vibe ..." I gave an answer, not wanting to tell him that it was absolutely hideous and much too expensive.

"And the other ring?"

"Oh, no," Jack shook his head and showed the ring still on his hand, "keeping that one."

"Alright..."

I left Jack to deal with the whole refund process and let myself have a look at one of the display cases. There wasn't much I could do anymore to help anyway. The display was full of an assortment of gold jewellery. Gold was definitely more my colour than silver, but I wasn't looking for anything. The necklace with a green pendant was cute, though. So was the gold chain bracelet.

But what really caught my eye was a simple little ring. It wasn't much. Just a gold band with a small clear pear-shaped gemstone on it. And that was all. It was nothing compared to the dramatic ring I had woken up with, but so much better in every single way

I noticed the employee walk to the back with the ring, leaving Jack to come check up on me.

"Find anything you like?" he asked as he looked over my shoulder.

I chuckled softly and shook my head. "No, I'm good."

After all, I wasn't here to get a new ring. I was here to make sure Jack got his money back. But that ring really was beautiful. Everything was just a little out of my price range. Jack must have noticed, though, because he did something unexpected.

When the employee came back, he pointed his finger against the glass. "How much's that one?"

The employee gave us a value that was much more reasonable than the ring we came to return. It was in the three figure range and was something I could have probably gotten away with asking my dad for if I combined my graduation, birthday, and Christmas gift for the year. Still, it was too much for Jack to spend on me because of a mistake.

"It's cubic zirconia, though," the employee added as if a lab grown diamond was bad. "Would you like to try it on?"

Before I could deny, Jack already answered for me, "yes."

I was hesitant trying it on. My rational mind said to leave it, but I secretly did want to see what it looked like. I must have been lucky, because it was the exact size I needed. The little diamond sparkled in the sunlight entering through the store's windows, the gold contrasting gently against my rosy skin. Part of me wanted to keep it in mind for a future engagement ring... but I was already married.

"We'll get this one instead," Jack said with a big grin.

"Jack–" I started to decline.

"Just let me do this."

And I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get out of this one. So, Jack and I left that store, both with a ring adorning our left ring fingers. It felt right. Right, but still so unsure at the same time.