The Good Life

Jack

Alex had just walked through the door from their trip. I ran over to hug him before he could sit his suitcase down. I missed him so much it felt like he was gone longer than two days. I tried not to call him a lot so he could enjoy his time with his friends.

"I missed you so much!" I kissed him.

"I missed you too." He kissed me back.

He was wearing a really nice watch that I didn't remember him having before. "Where did you get that watch?" I asked looking at it in awe.

"Oh Vinny gave it to me. He gave us a lot of his stuff like some shoes and clothes that he said he wouldn't need. I didn't want to take it at first but he kept insisting that it would be thrown away if we didn't take it so we did." He yawned. He sounded and looked exhausted.

"Oh maybe he needs to buy some new stuff? But you look so tired." I told him.

"I know I feel like I haven't slept in days."

"Well did you have fun? How was spending time with Vinny?"

"Uh yeah it was pretty fun but it was also kind of weird." He frowned.

"Why what happened?"

"Vinny's like a hardcore drug addict. Like he did Coke and Ecstasy both nights we were there."

"Wow that is weird. Did you guys try it too?" I asked just to be funny and he rolled his eyes at me.

"No Jack. I feel like my heart would stop if I did drugs like that now."

"I'm glad you didn't cave into peer pressure." I said. "Other than that what else did you do?"

"We um gambled some more and went sight-seeing. That's pretty much it." He said, sounding guilty.
"Hmm okay if you say so."

"Yep. So what did you and Izzy do while I was gone?" He asked quickly trying to change the subject.

"Nothing too exciting. Just watched TV and shopped a little. We hung out with May and Evan yesterday." I answered.

"Hi Daddy! How was Vegas?" Izzy asked as she came downstairs.

"It's was fun." He said and hugged her. I looked down at his hands as they were wrapped around her and noticed he didn't have his wedding ring on.

"Where's your ring?" I questioned him.

"What?" His eyes grew wide as he looked down and noticed it was missing. "I um...oh yeah I took it off when I took a shower and uh forgot to put it back on." He stammered. If he were telling the truth he would have said it casually not nervously. Plus I don't think I've ever seen him take it off to shower.

"Okay well I know that was a lie so I'm going to give you one chance to change your answer." I told him.

"I would tell the truth if I were you." Izzy told him.

"...I'm going to stick with my story." He said while fumbling with his fingers.

"Alright, but I gave you a chance." I sighed and picked up my phone to call Rian. I knew that Oli would think more like Alex and lie for him. Rian would most likely tell me the truth.

"Um who are you calling?" Alex asked nervously.

"Shhh don't worry about it." I told him and Rian answered his phone. "Hey Rian, uh Alex told me you guys went to a strip club in Vegas and he thinks he left his license there. Do you, by chance, remember the name of it so we can call and check?" I asked.

"Rian no!!" Alex yelled but thankfully Rian didn't hear him.

"Uh yes I'm pretty sure it was called Purgatory or something like that." He sounded surprised that Alex would actually tell me that.

"Thank you so much. Bye." I hung up with him and glared at Alex. "Really?"

"Really Daddy? I told you to tell the truth." Izzy shook her head at him and walked to the kitchen.
"Can I change my answer now?" He mumbled.

"No but you can sleep on the couch for the next three nights." I knew by now Alex wasn't crazy enough to cheat on me. He was just in trouble for breaking his promise of not going to a strip club.

"Noooo isn't there anything I can do to make this up to you?" He asked.

"Yeah I just told you, you're going to sleep on the couch for the next three nights." I chuckled.

"You're an asshole." He huffed.

"I'm an asshole? You broke your promise by going to a strip club and I'm the asshole?" I questioned.

"I'm going to take a shower." He grumbled knowing that I was right.

I went back to the couch to watch TV. Alex too cranky to deal with right now. Izzy came and sat next to me with a bowl filled with sliced pickles drench in ketchup.

"What are you eating?" I asked.

"Pickles?" She said.

"No I mean why are you eating that? You hate pickles." I chuckled.

"Yeah I do but I've been craving them so badly and now it's not that bad. Especially when I pour ketchup on them.

"It must be the pregnancy cravings." I said and she nodded.

"I hope so because this looks really weird." She said as she stuffed more into her mouth. I sighed and looked at my pregnant daughter.

"What are you going to do about school? Do you want to continue to go when you start showing?" I asked her.

"I was thinking about that the other day and I don't think I can show my face at school while I'm pregnant. Can we just hire someone to home school me until it's time for me to give birth?" She sighed and laid her head on my shoulder.

"Of course, Baby." I said and kissed her on the forehead. I knew how mean and judgement kids could be and I didn't want to put her through that. "I'll look for someone this week."

We were quiet for a moment before she mumbled, "Today is Vic's birthday. Should I say something to him?"

"No remember we're pretending like they don't even exist." I reminded her.

"Well Mike is really nice, he checks on me every time we're outside together." She said.

"Yeah he's probably the only decent person in that house. Just try and keep to yourself. We don't want anything to do with those people." I said.

"I know, you told me." She looked down.

"Don't be sad, Honey. You don't need them to be a part of the baby's life. I know it sucks that it's like this but we're not going to force them to do something they don't want to do."

"Yeah I know." She said.

Alex came out a few minutes later in his pajamas. His hair was completely wet but he looked too tired to care. I saw that he put his wedding ring back on. He walked to the couch I was sitting on and stood in front of me.

"I know you're mad at me but I've slept in a bed by myself for the past two nights. So can you lay with me just while I take a nap?" He asked while rubbing his eye.

"Only because you look so cute. I'll be back Izzy." I said.

I followed Alex to our bedroom and laid down on my side of the bed and he laid on his. I rolled on my side so that my back was facing him. I knew that he wanted to spoon with me. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled my hips back to his. It felt good to feel his head nuzzling into my neck. I grabbed his hand and held it in mine. It sucked that he was going to have to sleep on the couch for three days.

"I can't stop think about Vinny." Alex sighed. "He seemed depressed and he said something like he wished he settled down and got married like I did."

"Maybe he was just having a mid-life crisis moment. I'm sure if he wanted all those things he wanted to get married or find a girlfriend he could have." I told him.

"I guess so, but it's still bothering me."

"Well just take a nap, maybe you'll feel better once you wake up."

He nodded and held my hand tighter. I decided to nap too since I wouldn't be able to move with Alex attached to me.

I woke up three hours later to Izzy shaking me awake and whispering something to me.

"What?" I asked her and yawned.

"I said what was the name of Daddy's friend again?" She asked.

"What friend?"

"The DJ one that he went to visit in Vegas?"

"Oh um Vinny Peto-Petro something." I mumbled.

"Did he go by Vinny Vegas?" She asked.

"Yeah I think they called him that in high school. It might have been his DJ name. Why?" She looked at Alex to make sure he was still sleeping.

"They found him dead inside of his penthouse." She whispered.

"Wait! What?" I whispered yelled. I sat up slightly, but Alex wouldn't let me go too far.

"Yeah it's all over Twitter." She handed me her phone.

I scrolled down to see a lot of tweets ending in 'Rip Vinny Vegas' or 'Vinny Vegas will be missed.' I didn't believe what I was reading. I clicked on an article from MTV's Twitter that read 'Vinny Vegas found dead in penthouse after drug overdose.' After reading half of the article I found out he was found two hours ago. A prostitute was doing cocaine with him and he passed out. She tried to wake him, but she couldn't so she called 911. They pronounced him dead on the scene. The prostitute said that she saw him doing three different drugs in a short period of time.

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed and handed her the phone back.

"Should we wake Daddy?" She asked worriedly. I looked down at Alex who was still asleep.

"No let's let him sleep longer."

I just wanted him to rest peacefully for a little bit. He was already blaming himself for making Vinny feel bad so this was going to make him feel worse.

Notes

The chapter title is called that because that's what they say on Call of Duty when you accidentally kill yourself. I know it's super lame lol I do feel bad for doing this to Vinny though.