The Good Life

Jack

I woke up with the biggest headache I've had in years. On top of that I couldn't breathe out of my left nostril and my throat felt extremely dry. I was fucking sick. I hardly ever got sick, but when I did it was bad. I blame my employees who have little kids at home. Their kids probably brought germs home every day from school and they were bringing those germs to work.

It was Saturday so I was expecting to see Alex next to me in bed, but I was alone. I got up and went to the bathroom to blow my nose. I saw Alex was in his closet looking for something. I blew my nose and went to see what he was looking for.

"Hey." I sniffled.

"Are you sick?" He asked sounding amused.

"Yeah I think I have a cold." I said and a smile grew on his face. "Why the hell are you so happy about this??"

"Because you almost never get sick and now that you are I get to take care of you like you always do for me." He was so sweet sometimes.

"Aw that's sweet!" I exclaimed.

"I know! Now go lay down. I'll make you something to eat." He told me.

I went back to lay down in our bed and he went to the kitchen. I turned on the TV not shocked to see nothing good was on. I settled for some random movie playing on the Syfy channel.

I must have dosed off in the middle of the movie because Alex was calling my name and shaking me.

"Are you okay, Jay?" He asked worriedly as he sat my tray of oatmeal to the side and put the back of his hand to my forehead.

"Yeah I just dosed off. Can I have that now?" I asked pointing to the bowl and sitting up.

"Oh yeah." He handed me my breakfast tray and I thanked him.

I noticed that he brought me a glass of water, but I really needed orange juice. "Hey can you bring me a glass of orange juice instead?" I asked.

"Yeah of course." He grabbed the glass of water and left. I wondered how long he would be okay with doing everything I asked.

He came back with my glass of juice moments later. "Thank you, and can you bring me some cold and flu medicine from the medicine cabinet?" I asked and his face fell.

"Sure thing, honey." He said through a forced smile. I covered my mouth to stop myself from laughing. I did feel really sick and need all those things I asked him for but I also wanted to show him how annoying he was when he was sick.

"Anything else?" He asked as he handed me two pills to take.

"Nope!" I said. I waited for him to comfortably lay in our bed before saying, "well actually I-"

"-No I'm not doing it. You are so needy!" He complained and I laughed before going into a coughing fit.

"I was just kidding, Lex! I just wanted to show you how annoying you get when you're sick." I told him.

"I'm not that annoying when I'm sick." He pouted.

"Oh really?’ Jack can you rub my back' 'Jack can you come bathe me' 'Jack can you make me a sandwich' 'Jac-"

"Okay okay I get it! Maybe I can be a little annoying-"

"-ha a little." I interrupted.

"Buut you have better patience than me so you're better at handling those kinds of things." He said.

"Excuses, excuses." I said sarcastically and he rolled his eyes at me. "Did you go check on Izzy?" I made sure to check on her every morning and throughout the day, especially on weekends when she didn't get up until noon.

"Yeah I brought her some oatmeal too. She told me to tell you that um her boobs are really sore." He said awkwardly and I chuckled.

"That's common. She told me last night that she has been constipated so I wanted to buy her some fiber supplements."

"Ew!" He said.

"You're in trouble if that grosses you out because she's going to push a full sized baby out of her in like eight months."

"I honestly think I might pass out if I see that. Like I probably will pass out just being in the delivery room." He said.

"You don't have to look if you don't want too, but you should be in the room to hold her hand and comfort her." I told him.

"Yeah I will, but I still might pass out so be prepared for that." He was so dramatic.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. What do you think it will be? A girl or a boy?" I asked.

"Hmm I'm not sure which one I think yet."

"Well I hope it's a girl because raising Izzy was so much fun, but I'll be just as happy with a boy!" I exclaimed and Alex narrowed his eyes at me. "What?" I asked.

"You're enjoying this! I bet deep down inside you're happy she's pregnant so you can satisfy your weird obsession with babies." He accused. He was kind of right.

"That's ridiculous! Of course I'm not happy that she got pregnant this young, but since it happened there's no reason to not enjoy this." I said.

"God I can already see what's going to happen. You're going to treat the baby like it's your child and Izzy's going to let you because it's less work she has to do."

"Nu-uh that won't happen." I lied. That's exactly what was going to happen. I love Izzy, but she is nowhere near capable of taking care of a baby by herself. I was just going to intervene until she got the hang of everything.

"Sure Jack." He said in a knowing voice and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Did you find what you were looking for in the closet earlier?" I asked.

"Yeah I was just searching for my yearbook. Vinny Petrocelli from high school, added me on Facebook and it just made me want to look through the book." He chuckled.

"That's nice. Did you guys talk any?" I asked.

"We messaged each other all last night while you were sleeping. He actually lives in Las Vegas now. He's always throwing wild parties at the clubs there. He's a DJ so all he does is party." He told me.

"That sounds like an uh busy lifestyle." It seemed a little weird for a man in his forties to throw parties every night for a living, but he was probably doing what he loved.

"He says it can be too demanding sometimes but the sex with different ladies every night makes up for that." He laughed.

"I take it that he's not married?" I asked.

"Nope. He's single and has a bachelor pad and everything. He actually invited me to one of the parties he's throwing next Saturday. I was thinking of taking Oli, Rian, and Austin with me."

"Oh you already decided that you're going?" It's not that I didn't want him to go have fun with all of his friends, I just didn't want him to go and get a taste of Vinny's lifestyle and decide he liked it better than being at home.

"Yes, there's nothing wrong with that is there?"

"Um no I guess not." I shrugged.

"I'd rather you tell me about it now than holding it and exploding on me later." He sighed.

"Fine. I'm just a little worried that you're going to enjoy the Vegas lifestyle so much and it's going to make you resent your life here with me." I whined.

"Jack I got all of the craziness out of my system in college. I just want to go enjoy my time with Vinny nothing more than that." He kissed me on the cheek.

"So you won't look at or flirt at all with the younger girls there?" I asked and he chuckled.

"No I have no reason to look at other people when I'm married to the most gorgeous man." I wanted to kiss him but I didn't want to get him sick too.

"And you promise not to go to any strip clubs?"

"Um yep I promise."

I didn't believe him, it was impossible for a bunch of guys going to Vegas not to go, but I just nodded.
"My head still hurts." I whined.

"Aw if I could make you feel better I would." He told me.

"I think a hot bath would help."

"Is that your way of asking me to run you a bath?" He asked and I laughed. "I'll be back."

"Thanks." I called after him.

Izzy came down to our room and took Alex's spot while he was in the bathroom. She looked as sick as I did but for different reasons of course.

"I feel horrible!" She complained.

"Me too." I agreed and she saw how pale I was.

"Ew you look sick. What's wrong with you?"

"I have a cold." I chuckled.

"Hey that's my spot! Move!" Alex said to Izzy.

"Alex be nice she doesn't feel good either." I said and Izzy smiled victoriously at him.

"You said your chest was tender that doesn't mean you're sick." He said.

"No I feel bloated now." She whined. "Can you get me some water?"

"If you guys ask me for one more thing I swear I'm going to jump out of a window." He sighed.

"We're on the first floor." Izzy and I said at the same time and he glared at us. He left without saying anything to us and went to go get Izzy’s water.

The doorbell rang, but I figured Alex would get it since he was closer to it. Lynn came in with Alex behind her and sat in our bed next to Izzy. I patted the spot next to me telling Alex to come sit on my side of the bed since they took his side.

"Hey Mr. Gaskarth!" She greeted me.

"Hey what brings you over?"

"I was bored at home alone." She shrugged.

"Are your parents out of town again?" I asked her.

"Yeah they went to Hawaii for three days for a friend's wedding."

"Well stay as long as you like." I told her.

"Thanks!" She exclaimed. "Did you ask them yet?" She questioned Izzy.

"Ask us what?" Alex said before Izzy could answer her.

"I was waiting until they were in a good mood, but Papa, Daddy can I go to the Big Sean concert next Saturday?" Izzy asked.

"Who is that?" Alex asked.

"He's a rapper." I told him.

"How do you know who he is?" He asked me.

"He modeled my summer collection a few years ago." I said. "But Izzy I don't think it's a good idea for you to be in a large crowd of people. You might get sick or worse and it'll be hard for them to get help to you." I told her.

"But Papa I'm only a month pregnant! I doubt anything serious will happen." She whined.

"I don't want to take any chances, Izzy."

"Daddy help me!" She told Alex.

"You're crazy if you think I'm gonna go against him." Alex chuckled and Izzy pouted.

"You two are so unfair." She got up and stomped out of our room.

"She's so dramatic." Lynn chuckled and followed behind Izzy.

"I'm think that's the first time I've ever heard you tell her no to something like that." Alex said sounding amazed.

"Shut up. I just don't want anything bad to happen to her." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Maybe once I'll be the good cop and you'll be the bad cop." He joked.

"Well since you're such a 'good cop' then you won't have a problem washing my back for me in the tub."

Notes

I bet Jack gets really cute and annoying when he's sick in real life lol