The Good Life

Jack

I fell asleep on the couch waiting on Alex to come home. Every time I called him I got sent to voicemail. I was trying to calm down so when he came home I wouldn't yell at him too much for worrying me, but I ended up falling asleep.

When I woke up I looked at the clock to see it was almost three am. It was strange, the latest Alex ever stayed out was two maybe a few minutes after but never a full hour. I went to go check out bed room to make sure he didn't sneak in without me knowing. He wasn't in there so I went to check the rest of the guest rooms. He wasn't in any of those. There was no sign of him coming home.

I grabbed my phone off the coffee table and dialed his number. The phone didn't ring. It went straight to voicemail which meant his phone was dead. So not only was he nowhere to be found, but there was no sure way for me to contact him. I didn't want to panic and think the worse, but I was scared. I had a lot of what ifs running through my mind, but I ignored them as best as I could for now. I needed to focus on finding him first then I could panic if I needed to later.

I decided to call his friends to see if they had seen him. I felt bad it was so late, but I needed to make sure that he was okay. I called Rian first but he slept through the call. Oli's phone was also dead and Austin must have also slept through the call. Now I was starting to panic a little. He probably wasn't in a car accident or anything that required medical attention, because I would have gotten a call from the hospital. Unless he was hiding then no one would know he needed help. This is why I didn't want him going out to get drunk. I didn't want him to not think clearly and do something to himself because he felt guilty about Vinny. Hopefully where ever he was he would think about his daughter and me and not do anything stupid.

I decided to get up and drive to that bar he always went to with his friends. He said he was going to get a drink so I knew he had probably went there.

When I got to the bar I saw Alex's car in the parking lot. It made sense now, he fell asleep in his car because he was too drunk to drive home. I parked next to his car and got out to wake him. When I went to the car I didn't see him in it. The car was empty. He wasn't here.

What if he got arrested for trying to drink and drive? Or what if someone took him hostage because they knew he was married to me? He could be in serious trouble and I couldn't help him because I didn't have a clue where he was.

I called the wives of Alex's guy friends instead of worrying myself to death. I didn’t want to bother them this late at night, but they would call me too if something like this was happening to them.

Cass was first and she actually did answer her phone. "Hello?" Cass answered in a yawn.

"Hey Cass, sorry for the late call, but you haven't seen Alex have you?" I asked nervously.

"Oh no but I'm pretty sure he went out with Rian and the guys though. Why what's up?" She asked in a sleepy voice.

"He left earlier to go have drinks with them and I haven't seen him since. I'm kind of worried." I told her.

"That idiot. Okay try Oli and Hannah and Austin. I'll try to get Rian up." She said. We hung up and I tried calling Hannah since I already tried Austin.

"Hello?" Hannah thankfully answered after six rings.

"Hi Hannah, sorry for the late call, but Alex isn't with you and Oli is he??"

"Yeah yeah he came home late with Oli from the bar. He was drunk out of his mind." She told me and I exhaled in relief.

"Okay I'm coming over. I need to see him." I said and she said it was okay. I knew it was late, but I needed to see my inconsiderate husband with my own two eyes to calm my nerves.

I texted Cass to tell her I knew where he was. Then I drove to Hannah and Oli's. When I made it to their house I rang the doorbell and waited. I didn't wait long because Hannah was already by the door waiting for me. Oli was with her and looked concerned, but he was probably concerned for Alex's safety because I didn't look too happy.

"Jack, I know you're mad at him-" Oli started and I stopped him. Of course he was going to try to help Alex not get in trouble.

"-If you know I mad then you should understand why I need to talk to him." I said. "Where is he?"

Hannah pointed to a room down the hall and I went straight to it. I walked in and turned on the bright lights to wake him. I could see the outline of his body in a blanket but he didn't get up. His reflexes made him pull the cover his head to block out the light. I walked over and pulled the cover from him.

"He might still be a little drunk." Oli warned but I didn't care.

"Whaat?" Alex whined as he clenched his eyes shut because of the light.

"Are you crazy?!?" I yelled at him and he opened his eyes slightly to see if it was really me.

"Jack, don't start because I'm not in the mood." He said bluntly and I became angrier. He did sound drunk like Oli said, but I was sick of that excuse.

"I don’t care! I thought the most horrible things had happened to you because you were nowhere to be found. What kind of monster would not call his husband to let him know where he was and that he's okay."

"Ugh I told you I was going to get a fucking drink. Now quit complaining you know where I am."

"Excuse me?" I questioned.

"You heard me." He scoffed.

"Yeah but I didn't like what I heard." I said. "Do you not understand how worried I was, Alex?"

"It's not my fault that you have an overactive imagination."

"That's not the problem! The problem is you being missing for hours without answering your phone or at least texting me to let me know that you're alive." I tried reasoning with him.

"No the problem is you trying to tell me what to do." He drunkenly spat back at me.

"Okay fine do whatever you want, just don't try to lecture me when I start staying out late without telling you."

"I'm sure John will welcome you with open arms." He said bitterly. I don't even know where that came from, but it pissed me off more.

"Once again, I thought you were over that, I guess I was wrong." I frowned.

"Dead wrong." He said. "Now I'm going to back to sleep so leave."

"You're an asshole.” I snapped at him and he hummed in agreement, only making me angrier. "Don't bother coming back home!" I yelled at him and left without saying another word to him.

"Jack don't pay him any attention. He's just drunk." Oli trying one last time to save Alex. I just kept walking until I reached my car. I went home and went to bed know that my asshole of a husband was alive and sort of well.

***

I woke up still enraged. Words could not express the amount of anger I still had in my body from last night. The way that Alex talked to me was unexceptional and unnecessary. I don't care that he was drunk. I do understand that he went to drink because he was upset about Vinny's death. I felt that that had nothing to do with what he said to me though so I didn't want to hear that as an excuse either. Had he listened to me and not went to drink we wouldn't have this problem.

I was sitting in the kitchen trying to eat peaceful and watch Family Feud. I needed to take my mind off of Alex so because I was starting to give myself a headache. I didn't want to see, hear, or think about Alex right now because it was going to stress me out even more.

The main reason I felt bad about telling Alex not to come home was because Izzy was going to be upset that he wasn’t at home. I was hoping he would call begging to come home first, but not for a day or two. I needed both of us calm down too so we could talk, like adults, about the mess that happy last night. If Alex were to come home today I would not be calm enough to have a conversation with him.

I had finished all my breakfast and went to put my plate in the sink. I was making my way to the living room when I heard a key being entered into the front door lock. I thought Alex was smart enough to realize his mistakes and not come home until I cooled off a bit, but that wasn't the case. The door was unlocked and he walking in. I stopped and prepared to tell him to get out.

He walked into the living room where I was. He had sunglasses on and he was slumped over. Seeing him hungover just reminded me of how much of an asshole he was last night.

"Jack Please let me expl-" he started to say but I cut his explanation short.

"Get out." I pointed to the door.

"Wait I understand that you're-"

"I told you not to bother coming home and I meant it. Get out." I talked over him.

"We both know that you don't want me to go." He sighed. He was right but I was too anger to let him know that.

"I mean it, Alex. I want you out." I said while staring him intensely. He looked convinced that I meant it. He nodded his head and turned to leave out of the house.

Once I heard the door close behind him I sat back down. A mixture of angry and sad tears began to fall down my face. I was sick and tired of fighting with him.

Notes

It's Vic's Birthday!

So remember how I said that I had an idea for a new story? Well for the past two weeks I've been writing it so I can upload quickly. I have eighteen chapters written already and it's only going to be twenty-five chapters. I think I'm going to post it next week or the week after that!