Fear of Falling Apart

"Hey, Alex, look, we're here," Jack said, gesturing towards the bus window.

I groaned and rolled over. I was currently sleeping with Jack on the couch. My bunk was getting a little too cramped for the two of us and there was no way he was leaving my sight to sleep in the spare. So we moved to the bunk a while ago.

I glanced out the window and saw the New York City skyline illuminating the otherwise dark, night sky. It was pretty of course, but it was also about three o'clock in the morning, meaning my main priority was sleep. I don't even understand why Jack was awake.

"It's great Jack," I mumbled, my words coming out slurred and almost indistinguishable.

"Lex!" he whined, "Why aren't you excited? It's New York! The Big Apple! The City that Never Sleeps! Get pumped!"

"Babe, it's three o'clock in the morning," I reminded him, "The only thing I'm excited for is seeing the inside of my eyelids."

He sighed heavily before saying anything else, "Fine, go back to sleep. I'm gonna go sit by the window then. Lemme go."

"No," I yawned, "You stay here. Sleep. You'll be tired in the morning if you don't."

He sighed again before tucking his face in my neck, "Fine," he whispered, his breath making me shiver, "G'night baby. Love you."

"Love you too."

It was about twenty minutes of not falling asleep before Jack was shaking my shoulder again.
"What do you want now?" I complained, sitting up in bed-err, couch; keeping my eyes closed.

"M'sorry Lex," Jack said, biting his lip, "But your phone's ringing."

I opened my eyes to see he was holding my phone-which was lighting up the entire space. I internally sighed, "Just let it go."

"But Alex," Jack said, "The caller I.D. says it's the hospital in Baltimore. You should probably answer, something could be wrong."

I shrugged, "It's probably just my dad. Sometimes he calls from the hospital after his shift if his phone died or something."

"Well," Jack responded, "I still think you should answer it. It's pretty early for him to be calling just to check up on you."

I shrugged again before holding my hand out to take the phone from Jack.

"Lo?" I answered.

"Good morning Alex!" my dad exclaimed from the other line, "How are you?"

I rolled my eyes at his obviously caffeine induced chipperness before answering, "Tired. Why are you calling so early?"

"I wanted to know if you guys are home yet. And if you are, do you want me to bring home food?" he asked.

Oh fuck. I forgot today was the day we were scheduled to come home. I'm going to have to remember to remind the guys to call their parents later. Oops.

"Um, I forgot to tell you this but, we're taking a detour to spend a couple days in New York before coming home," I explained, "We didn't really explore the city when we played there."

"You mean you didn't explore the city?" he asked, "You're forgetting that I visited you guys in New York. I went on a tour of the city with Rian, Zack and some of the crew. You stayed at the bus and sulked."

"Whatever," I sighed, "Either way we're going back for a couple of days."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked, "You guys already have a lot of work with the tutors to graduate in the spring. Do you really want to wait even longer?"

I sighed, "Why does it even matter? This is our career. We're doing it just fine without graduating."

"Alex," Dad said, sounding annoyed, "We've talked about this before. You don't know if the band's going to work out like you want it to. You guys can't do as much as you think with only three members. I'm all for chasing your dreams and whatever, but you have to have a back up plan."

"Well, it's a good thing we don't have three members then," I argued.
Dad stayed quiet for a moment before saying something else, "I didn't know you guys were replacing him..."

"It's a long story," I said, "But I can't really coherantly tell it right now, so I'm going to hand the phone to someone who can. See you in a couple days dad."

Before either person could reject the idea, I tossed the phone to Jack. He rolled his eyes at me before pressing it to his face:

"Hey Mr. Gaskarth..."

"It's Jack?"

"Yes that Jack.

"Like Alex said, it's a long story. Just, ask my mom tomorrow, she knows more."

"Yeah pretty much."

Jack started laughing, "Ok I'll tell him."

"Thank you. I'll see you in a couple of days."

Jack hung up and handed me the phone, "Your dad took it better than anyone we've told."

I shrugged, "Since he works at the hospital he probably at least heard about a dead patient coming back to life. He probably didn't think it'd be you though."

"Maybe," he said, "Oh, your dad said to have fun in New York but to be ready to start working with the tutor when you get back," I groaned, "Also he said, and I quote, 'use protection and go easy on me.'"

"He didn't," I groaned, blushing wildly.

Jack chuckled, "He did. You know, we never got to finish what we started all those months ago."

If possible I blushed even harder, "Well, we'll be staying in a hotel while we're here..."

Jack raised his eyebrows at me before leaning down to nip at my ear, "Can't wait."

~

I took a sip of my hot chocolate and sighed. Jack and I were supposed to have met Rian and Zack for lunch 30 minutes ago. But Jack got recognized by some medical students who had read an article about his miraculous recovery. They've been asking him questions ever since.

"Jack," I said quietly, nudging his arm, "We were supposed to be at the restaurant half an hour ago. Rian and Zack are probably worried."

"I'm so sorry," one of the students said, "We didn't mean to take up so much of your time."

"We just got kind of excited," the other said, blushing slightly, "Let's go Lisa."

The other girl- Lisa, nodded sheepishly before saying, "Thank you for talking to us though. What
happened to you really is amazing."

Jack smiled at her, "Of course."

After the girls walked away, Jack pulled me into him, "I'm so sorry about that baby. I can't believe I made us late."

I shrugged, "It's fine, like that girl said, it's amazing that you're even here right now. I can deal with sharing for a bit."

He smiled before leaning down to kiss me, "How would you feel about skipping lunch all together and going back to the hotel? You know, Alex and Jack time."

I smiled, "I'll text Rian."

Notes

This chapter is 95% dialog and for that I am eternally sorry.

Title Cred: Cassadee Pope- Original Love (<3)

xoxo Mary