the Prince and the Punk

Jack is awoken at noon by a message from Rian. He squints at the bright light of the screen, which illuminates his dark room (thank God for dark curtains).

Rian: check this out:

Jack follows the link, and he finds himself at some celebrity gossip website. He blinks several times as he tries to process the headline. There was that Alex dude from the prior night and . . . himself? Jack shakes his head once more, hoping it was just a mistake made by his brain. It wasn't.

"Bartender refuses to serve Alex?" He mumbles the headline aloud. "Last night singer Alex Gaskarth was spotted in a local bar having a run in with an unnamed bartender. Sources tell us the barkeep refused to serve Gaskarth . . ." Jack brow furrows, and he has to read it over. "What the actual fuck?" He exclaims, any hint of sleepiness that had occupied him earlier was gone now, instead he is awake and upset.

Jack hops out of bed and scoops a pair of clean looking skinny jeans and a shirt off the ground. He throws them on and brushes his hair with his fingers before throwing on his shoes and heading out the door. He digs in his pocket and finds a twenty dollar bill, for coffee and a muffin he decides. Jack crosses the street to the convenience store, if he was going to be angry he needed to at least do it on a full stomach.

Jack skirts into the store and heads straight for the back where they kept the coffee machine. He gets himself a cup and head for the front of the store where the muffins and cashier were. A tabloid catches his eyes, and he narrowly avoids dropping the coffee. Smack dab on the front page was himself and a picture of Alex. Damn the gossips worked fast. Why the hell was this even news worthy? He was literally only following the rules.

Jack grabs up the magazine and a muffin and pays for his stuff. The cashier gives him a funny look, and has to look at the tabloid then him two or three times. Thankfully they don't say anything, just give Jack his change and let him leave. Jack sips his incredibly hot coffee and opens up the magazine to the article, it essentially says the same thing the website he had looked at earlier did, just worded a little differently.

Jack frowns, and rolls the magazine up. He wanted to show Rian, but he really did not want to see it right now. Jack makes the walk to Rian's twice as fast as he normally does, and especially considering he had barely woke up twenty minutes ago. He enters Rian's home without being invited, though he doubted Rian would even care.

"Rian!" Jack calls, waiting for his short haired friend to come out.

"Please knock before you come in!" Rian calls back, appearing from the kitchen. "Did you see the article?" Rian asks, judging by the angry look set on Jack's face.

"Yes," Jack respond, holding up the magazine. "They work even fast than I thought they could."

"No shit?" Rian says, grabbing the magazine and examining it himself. "Wow, that was fast. I don't even think it was tabloid worthy. Well maybe the angry drunk celebrity part, but not a bartender refusing to serve him . . ."

"I know right?" Jack collapses onto the couch with a noisy sigh. "I can't believe this! My face is on the front of the tabloid, and it's not even because I'm famous!"

"Well, you kind of are," Rian points out.

"For being a 'dick' that refused to serve a famous prick?" Jack snorts. "Not for being an awesome guitarist."

Rian shrugs. "Well, you could always be one of those people who gets famous off of other peoples fame." Jack throws a pillow at Rian, who dodges it easily.

"Is your face on the front of a tabloid right now?" Jack asks, a serious look on his face. Rian shakes his head. "Then you don't understand."

Rian sits on the couch beside Jack. "Whatever, have fun with the whole 'pre-teen girls hating you for being rude to their favorite celebrity' game. I didn't want to be involved in that shit anyway."

"Ugh, I really hope this doesn't take off," Jack says with a frusturated sigh. "Anyways, did you ask Cass out?"

"No," Rian responds. "I'm probably gonna wait a while."

"Why not do it now. Maybe she'll put out, you've been friends forever now."

Rian frowns at Jack. "Fuck you, Cass is classier than that."

Jack smiles at Rian, and defends himself from a thrown pillow. "I was just sayin'."

-

Four hours later Jack finds himself at work, he had walked in the back when he saw the group of people waiting for the club to open up. That never happened, and he really didn't want to find out why there was such a crowd today. The doors open and the crowd spills in, half of them heading right for the bar. Jack prayed a second bartender would show up out of the blue and save him from the fact he was about to be drowning in orders.

"What can I get you?" He asks a small woman with a camera hanging around her neck, he knew that had been a bad place the start the minute she spoke.

"Are you the bartender that refused to serve Alex?" The woman asks, aiming her camera at him. She takes a picture, and Jack finds himself momentarily blinded by the flash.

"I'm sorry, I don't know an Alex. But if you are referring to the douchewad from last night, than yes," Jack respond, turning to try and serve another customer. Jack cringes as several other flashes go off, and he attempts to find a legitimate customer to serve as the security starts to haul paparazzi out.

Took them long enough. Jack thinks bitterly. He could not wait for this night to get over with.

Notes

7.0 rating?
I am hurt. Cx
Granted that the first chapter was incredibly shitty, I am not surprised though.

Chapter Title Credit
"Big Shot" by Billy Joel

I live for comments.

xoxo
Dewey