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

Chapter 16

"Psst! Jacie!" Jack stage whispered from the doorway to the shared dressing room.

I looked up from my phone to see his head poking around the corner. I was sitting on a couch, sharing it with Alex. My semi-dry hair was up in a bun and I was wearing mismatched sweats – grey sweatpants and a dark blue hoodie. It was half an hour since All Time Low finished their set and we were all hanging around, taking showers and decompressing.

Alex also looked up at the noise disturbing our peace and quiet.

"No, not you," Jack waved his hand to shoo away Alex's gaze, "Jacie."

"What?" I asked, not wanting to leave the comfortable position I was in.

But he beckoned me over. When I didn't immediately run over, he made the gesture more dramatic. I rolled my eyes and reluctantly got up. Once I got close enough, he pulled me out of the room to come face to face with him in the hallway.

"Alex, can you make sure both mine and Jacie's stuff gets on the bus if we're not back in time?" Jack shouted back into the room before dragging me along with him.

"Not back in time?" I repeated as I frowned, following his steps. "You want to go out like this?"

"You look fine." He quickly checked over my appearance and smiled. "Come on."

"You know there's probably people waiting out back, right?"

"So what?"

He continued leading me towards the back entrance. I had no clue what was going on, but he seemed extremely determined. As expected, there were a handful of fans who had decided to wait out around the back to see if they could meet the guys. But Jack just apologised and didn't stop to talk to them, instead he held my hand and continued to pull me along.

"Alright, where are you taking me?" I finally inquired. It was late, the moon was shining, reflecting off the slightly wet roads. There was nothing that could possibly be open except for bars and clubs.

Jack shrugged and looked around. "Anywhere, really."

"You dragged me out to go anywhere?"

"Yup."

"Okay," I accepted.

I wasn't one to turn down a spontaneous unplanned date with Jack. Even if it was only a short one until we had to be back at the venue to go to the last show of the tour. But what was there to do in an empty city after hours? I mean, we could talk for ages, simply lying in bed, so walking wasn't any different. But I still craved some kind of adventure.

"How about we try to find the quirkiest street art in the neighbourhood?" I suggested, hooking my arm around Jack's to get a little closer.

He smiled down at me. "That sounds like a fun little game."

In the next hour, we roamed around the streets, trying to find anything we could classify as art. There had to be some hidden gems around. After all, we were in a more industrial area of the city we had played in. These places were full of creative people looking to make their world a brighter place.

Initially, we only spotted the usual scrawny tag on benches and trash cans, but soon things started to evolve. I spotted a row of sunflowers painted on somebody's closed living room window. Jack picked out a bike that could have either been a wreck or an elaborate art piece. The handlebars were bent out of shape and the wheels were missing. Somewhere else, a bright jellyfish hologram danced around behind a window.

It was the large mural painted on the side of one of the buildings that impressed us the most. Maybe it wasn't as quirky, but it definitely was impressive. It was some kind of dreamscape, where reality and imagination blended together. Blues and deep purples replaced the usual greens you'd expect in a forest. Behind one of the trees, a mischievous fox peaked out with bright emerald eyes. It almost reminded me of the way Jack compelled me to come out.

And then our night had to come to an end.

As we were making our way back, Jack suddenly dropped my hand and stopped in his tracks. I took a few more steps before stopping as well, expecting him to fix an untied shoelace or something. When my eyes fell on him, he was indeed kneeling on the floor. One knee was down on the cold tarmac, the other leg was bent at a 90 degree angle, his boot flat on the ground. But the lace wasn't untied.

He fumbled around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a large red ring pop.

"Jack!" I laughed and walked back up to him, fully intending to pull him back up.

"Lemme do this!" he argued back.

I raised my hands up to show I was not interfering. He held out the ring pop, his fingers holding onto the plastic ring tightly. It was cute how his hands were actually shaking a little.

"Jacie," he started, his voice trembling ever so slightly, "from the moment we met, I knew that life would be an adventure with you by my side. It's been even better than I could have ever expected. You've brought so much joy, love, and inspiration into my world, and I can't imagine a single day without you in it. We've already taken the big leap together, but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't give you this experience as well. Jacie–"

I cut him off before he could ask me the actual question. "Do you want to do this with my actual ring?"

His eyes lit up. "Can I?"

I nodded and carefully slipped it off. He quickly put the ring pop onto one of his other fingers and held my delicate band carefully between his fingertips instead.

And then he continued. "Jacie, will you marry me... again?"

He didn't have to do it, but the fact that he did made my heart swell. His compassion and thoughtfulness was more than I could ever have asked for. I hadn't even mentioned feeling like I missed out on this. He came up with it all by himself.

"Of course I'll stay married to you," I chuckled.

He grinned brightly and stood back up. I held out my left hand for him to slip the ring back into place.

"On one condition," I added once his hands dropped away from mine again.

"Oh, there's conditions now, are there?" He raised an eyebrow and gasped in mock surprise.

"You still give me that ring pop."

"Deal."

We leaned in and sealed our playful yet meaningful engagement with a kiss. It was almost as sweet as the candy used to share this moment.

As we pulled away, I told him, "you know you didn't have to do that, right?"

He softly smiled back. "But I wanted to." 

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It's the final chapter of this sequel! On we go to the next one, which I'll start posting on Thursday. Be ready for 30 new chapters and a whole lot more of Jacie as she figures out what marriage actually means.