Adopted by Rilex (Jalex)

7

"Hey, how was school?" Dad asks as I get in the car.

"Good." I say as I wipe the sweat off my forehead. It was only the third day of school and they are already putting me to work.

"It's not hot outside, why you sweating?" Dad asks.

"I have gym as my last class." I inform him.

"Ah, I see." He nods as we drive past the house, "We're going to Jack's place today, he's getting over a breakup and I want to cheer him up." Dad explains.

"Oh, I didn't know that." I say sadly.

"Yeah, he's not handling it well." Dad sighs.

"Oh." I say as we pull up to Jack's house. I've never seen Jack's house before but it was nice. It was about the same as our house.

We exit the car and make our way to the door. Alex knocks and waits a minute or two for the door to open, "Oh, hey, Alex, hey, Stella." He greets me and dad. He smiled at us but his smile seemed somewhat forced, he had tired eyes and he was holding a beer bottle in the hand that wasn't holding the door open. Alex does not say anything he just pulls Jack into a hug. This hug was not a bro hug, it was more meaningful, he wanted to tell Jack that he's here for him without actually putting it into words. Jack hugged back and seemed like he was about to start crying, he didn't cry.

Jack always seemed like a happy person or comic relief. I've never thought about the fact that he can be sad as well. His happy demeanor and positive attitude have crumbled, and it scared me. He was the light in the dark, the hope for a happy life but now it seems as if no one can really be happy anymore. It hurt to see him like this.

When Alex and Jack break apart from their hug Jack steps aside to let us in. I look around at his house, it was a mess, nothing near the cleanliness that Alex and Rian like to keep their home. The thing that scared me the most was all the beer bottles covering the tables and the few tipped over bottles on the floor. These all must be old because Jack didn't seem drunk, possibly a little tipsy. It's only three in the afternoon, I guess you could say that it's five o'clock somewhere. However, that's just a bad country song written by an alcoholic, I think.

Jack flops down on the couch and takes another drink of his beer. "Jack," Alex says as he looks around the messy living room, "It's worse than I thought." He say as he takes a seat next to Jack on the couch.

"I'm fine." Jack mumbles into the bottle before he throws his head back to take a drink.

When the bottle leaves his lips, Alex takes it from his hand and sets it down, "Why don't you lay off of these, Stella and I will clean off the table and we can play a card game or something." Alex tries to reason.

"I can drink and play." Jack argues.

"No, you need to be on top of your game to beat Stella." Alex explains.

"Okay." Jack pouts like a child. Definitely tipsy.

"Stella, help me clean up a bit." Alex says as he stands up and gathers some bottles in his arms.

I don't say anything I just pick up the bottles and bring them to the kitchen, seeing the trash can already full of trash and beer bottles. I sigh before setting the bottles down on the counter and pulling the bag out of the trash. I take it outside and throw it into the bigger trash can, luckily that wasn't also filled with bottles, just regular trash. I was about to close the lid when something caught my eye. I picked up the broken picture frame to see a picture still in the frame, the picture was of Jack and a girl I've never seen before. I pieced together the situation and assumed that the girl in the picture was his ex-girlfriend and they had a messy breakup.