Better Off Without Me

Chapter Five

"Thank you, Mrs. Barakat," Alex said as he got out of Jack's mother's car later that night. His father had told him to be home by dinner. "Oh please, call me Joyce," she replied, smiling and waving as Alex shut the car door. She drove away and Alex walked quickly up the path to his house.

"Where you been, kid?" his father shouted from the living room when Alex opened the front door. "I was at my friend Jack's house, remember? You told me to be home by dinner time, it's five o'clock." His father appeared around the corner with a beer bottle in his hand, stumbling around and holding onto the wall for support. "You don't tell me what I said, kid!" Alex dodged the fist that his father aimed for his face.

"You said it, dad! I'm sorry that you don't remember anything anymore, but that isn't my fault! Maybe if you were sober for longer than ten minutes you wouldn't be such an asshole all the time!" Alex immediately regretted everything he had just said. The next thing he knew, he was on the floor in a bleeding mess, pieces of glass from his father's bottle shattered all around him. "Worthless piece of shit," his father muttered before heading to the kitchen to get another beer. 

Alex pushed himself into a sitting position and rested his back against the wall. "Jack," he whispered, "I need Jack." His head was throbbing and blood was still trickling down the side of his face, along with tears on his cheeks. 

~

Jack was drying off from a shower  when he heard his cell phone vibrating against his bed. He flipped it open to be greeted with Alex's name. "Hello?" he answered as he put the phone to his ear. 

"Jack?" Alex said barely above a whisper. "Lex? Are you okay?" Jack began pacing nervously. Alex coughed into the phone before replying shakily, "meet me at the park." The line went dead and Jack rushed to get dressed.

Jack snuck out the back window of his house. All of the doors were locked and he had to leave them that way, or else his mother might notice. He shut the window behind him before running across his yard and to the sidewalk. Pulling his arms in the sleeves of his jacket, he tried his best to stay warm.

 "Lex?" Jack called out when he finally arrived at the park. "Over here," he heard Alex reply weakly. Jack turned and went under the pavilion where he heard Alex's voice come from. Alex was sitting on the ground with his back against one of the wooden posts that held up the pavilion. The left side of his face was smeared with dried blood, along with his hair on that side of his head and the sleeve of his shirt. He was holding an old towel on his head above his ear.

"Lexy what happened?!" Jack sat next to Alex and pulled him gently into his arms. "My dad happened," Alex replied. Jack shook his head as he noticed how cold Alex was. "You're shivering," he said, taking off his own jacket. "No Jack, I'm fine," Alex replied, "please keep your jacket on." Jack ignored the older boy and wrapped the thick coat around him, pulling him into his arms and cradeling him like a baby. 

Alex stopped shivering after a moment, and the two boys just sat in silence for a while. It wasn't an awkward silence, though. But it was broken by Alex's quiet moaning when he reached up to scratch his head. "Lex, I think we need to get you to the hospital or something," Jack pointed out. "You probably need stitches." Alex nodded as he tried to stand up, failing miserably. He got to his knees before falling forward, almost hitting his face on the cement floor except Jack caught him. 

"How did you even get here in the first place?" Jack asked as he wrapped his arms around Alex's shoulders and legs, picking him up and setting him back down on a picnik table. "I walked," Alex replied, "until I puked in that trash can and fell to the ground." Jack helped Alex put his arms through the sleeves of the jacket before picking him up again. It was like carrying a child, that's how skinny Alex was. The jacket nearly fell right off of his shoulders.

"Let's get you cleaned up first," Jack suggested as he carried Alex into the bathroom. He set him down on the counter and dampened a paper towel. "This isn't gonna hurt, is it?" Alex whispered as Jack was about to wipe the blood off of his face. "I don't think so Lexy." 

Once Alex was as cleaned up as he could be, Jack realized a big problem. "I don't have my car with me," he stated. Alex let out a dissapointed sigh. "I guess I'll just have to carry you to my house!" Jack said cheerfully, scooping up Alex  in his arms once again. He walked out of the bathroom and back onto the wooded trail, carrying Alex along with him.

"Jack, this is a little far to walk, don't you think?" Alex wrapped his arms around Jack's neck as he watched the park dissapear from view. "I'd walk a thousand miles for you, Lexy baby," Jack said seductively before stealing a kiss from Alex's lips. Alex giggled. "I was hoping we were just going to skip the whole 'corny love jokes' phase of our relationship, I guess I was wrong," he replied before resting his head against Jack's chest.

~

"Lex, wake up," Jack said softly as he tapped Alex's shoulder. The older boy lifted his head quickly before gasping in pain. "Wha- where am I?" he asked, looking around. Jack laughed a little before responding, "you're in the back seat of my car. I had to take you to the ER, remember?" Alex nodded before slowely sitting up, using Jack's arm to hold on to. But Jack quickly scooped up Alex in his arms and headed for the entrance of the hospital.

"He, um, fell into a window. The glass broke on his head," Jack told the lady at the front desk. It was an obviously made up story, but he didn't know what else to say. "Sit in the waiting room, the nurse will call for you in just a second." Jack nodded and walked over to one of the chairs, still carrying Alex in his arms. There was nobody else in the waiting room besides a middle-aged woman who didn't look sick at all. She had her hair tied in a tight bun on top of her head and she wore a boring pantsuit. She looked at the two boys in disgust.

Jack smiled at the lady. "How are you, ma'am?" he greeted politely. She turned up her nose at him and replied, "I'm alright, and yourself?" Jack smiled at the even more disgusted look that the woman gave him when Alex sat on Jack's lap and cuddled up against his chest. Jack wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's waist as he replied, "I'm about as good as I can be in this situation." He purposely added to the woman's disgust by planting a kiss on the tip of Alex's nose and asking quietly, "You doing alright, babe?" Alex smiled and nodded.

"Alex Gaskarth?" a tall blonde nurse called from the doorway beside the front desk. Jack picked up Alex and carried him toward the nurse, who led them down a hallway and into an examination room. "Well what has happened here?" the lady asked, picking up a pen and clipboard from the counter. "Well my boyfriend tripped and smashed his head into a window. I wasn't there to see it happen, but he called me and I rushed over. He bled a lot, he can barely walk and he said he threw up once, right Lex?" Alex nodded, still smiling at the word 'boyfriend'.

The nurse took notes on the clipboard and stuck the pen behind her ear. "Go ahead and set him down on the table," the nurse said with a smile. Jack did as he was told but stood beside the table and let Alex hold his hand. The nurse pulled up a chair and sat beside Alex. "Honey, can you tell me your name?" she talked to Alex like a child. Alex gulped and choked out a response. "Alexander William Gaskarth," he said barely above a whisper. 

The nurse nodded and stood up. "I'll send the doctor in," she said, walking out the door. When the door was closed, Alex reached his arms up and looked at Jack. "Kiss me," he said. Jack smiled and leaned over, pressing his lips to Alex's. It was a short kiss, because they didn't want the doctor to walk in on them. But it was just as amazing as ever. 

A/N I decided to start doing author's notes since I actually have some readers now. This wasn't originally intended to be a public story, so you should feel lucky that I decided to make it one.<3 I tried to make this chapter a little longer than the others. More to come very soon. Leave comments, please? c: