The Good Life

Jack

I was half asleep as Alex got ready for work this morning. He and Izzy were going back to work/school today. They both complained yesterday about having to go back, but I promised they could take the longest nap when they got home this evening.

We arrived yesterday afternoon and now everything was getting back to normal. Alex seemed like he was coping a lot better with Vinny's death. I knew the funeral would help with it.

I began drifting off back to sleep as I listened to Alex humming a song as he did his hair. Then I heard Izzy calling my name as she walked in our room.

"Papa!" She whined.

"Yes Izzy." I yawned.

"I can't fit in my jeans! They won't button up!" She cried.

I opened my eyes and looked at her unbutton jeans she had on. I took a look at her stomach that was pointing out more than normally.

"You're starting to gain weight because of your pregnancy." I told her.

"Noooo I can't! That means I'm going to have to wear maternal clothes."

Alex cut in from the bathroom, "That's what usually happens with pregnant women."

"Izzy it's fine. We'll go shopping for some clothes later on." I said.

"I don't want new clothes! I want to keep my same clothes I have now." She complained.

"Your credit card begs to differ." Alex shouted from the bathroom.

"Alex you're not helping. Honey, I can't do anything about your weight gain. It's just something you're going to have to deal with for the rest of your pregnancy."

"I hate my life!" She yelled angrily and stomped off. I was going to call after her, but I was too tired to do it.

"Don't stress yourself out. That was probably pregnancy hormones mixed with normal teenage hormones." Alex chuckled.

"Yeah I know." I sighed and he leaned down to kiss me on the forehead.

"I wish I could lay in bed with you right now." He said.

"If you quit you could."

"Nah I'm going to stick it out. Plus I only have to work for three more days then it's the weekend."

"That sounds so depressing." I joked and he rolled his eyes at me. He walked to his side of the bed and sat down to put his shoes on.

"Oh I'm probably going to kick Emilio's ass today so be prepared for that." He said causally.

"What? Why?"

"Because he's been staring me down and saying things out loud when I'm outside. So if he does it again I'm going to have to go over and hit him."

"You literally don't have to! Just ignore him Lex. Ignore everyone that lives in that house." I scolded him.

"You don't understand, Jack."

"Yeah I do. I know it's annoying but I ignore them. I don't let anything they say or do get under my skin."

"Well you're stronger than me." He chuckled.

"You can calmly talk to him if he says anything else, but no hitting. Is that clear?"

"I should go. I'll see you when I get off." He said quickly and tried to walk off, but I stopped him.

"Alex!" I called after him and he reluctantly turned to me. "Is that clear?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." He mumbled.

"Good! Now go have a good day at work. I love you." I said.

"Love you too."

I smiled to myself and fell back asleep.

I woke up at ten am and got out of bed. Today was going to be pretty boring for me since I didn't have to work. I went to take a quick shower then I went to the kitchen to make myself breakfast.
I made pancakes and just as I sat down in my seat, the doorbell rang. I debated with myself on whether or not I should get up because I literally just sat in my seat. The doorbell rang a second time and I grumbled to myself as I went to go answer it. Whoever it was better had been worth my time.

I made it to the front and opened the door. Vic was standing there staring sheepishly at me.

"Hi Jack-" I quickly cut him off.

"Mr. Barakat...Gaskarth." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh sorry. Hi um Mr. Barakat-Gaskarth. I was wondering if we could talk?"

"I can't imagine there's anything we need to talk about." I said stubbornly.

"I uh was hoping we could talk about everything with Izzy, you know."

"What about her?"

"I just wanted to apologize for everything I did. I know I really fucked up and I take responsibility for everything that's happened. I'm really sorry." He apologized.

He seemed sincere and sorrowful. My first instinct was to tell him that I understand it was an accident, but then I remembered what we were actually talking about. This would have never of happened had he not slept with our, underage, daughter anyways.

"As nice as it is for you to come over and apologize, it's not going to change anything. My daughter is still pregnant because of the reckless choices you both made. But thank you for stopping by." I said and begin closing the door, but he stopped it.

"Wait wait! Ja- I mean Mr. Barakat, do you think that you could tell Izzy and Al- Mr. Gaskarth that I'm sorry too?"

"Why can't you tell them yourself?" I asked curiously.

"I tried to apologize to Izzy but she wouldn't hear me out. And I'm completely terrified of going anywhere near Mr. Gaskarth." He said, making me chuckle.

"I'll tell them that you stopped by." I said.

"Thank you, and I'm sorry again." He left to walk back to his house and I closed the door. It was so weird to talk to him about this. I remember him as a sweet little boy and now it felt bad to look at him.

I went back and finished eating my breakfast. While I ate I got on my laptop and checked a few emails that I had from work. The summary report for the Jagk office in London showed that we made more money than we projected. Maybe that meant I would be able to open up in more cities and maybe even other countries.

I emailed some of my employees to have them began planning on expanding outward. Then I emailed David to ask him how the new summer collection was coming along. Initially Izzy was going to model some of the clothes for us, but she became pregnant so that was a no-go. My clothing line would probably get so much backlash from having a pregnant sixteen year old modeling the clothes and 'setting a bad example for teenagers.' I already had plenty of trolls on Twitter bashing me for small things like being gay or taking something off the market. Once they find out my sixteen year old was pregnant I'm sure I'll never hear the end of it. Thankfully I'm not well known enough to be in the mainstream media or we would never be able to escape the torture.

Of course Izzy was sad to hear that she wouldn't be able to model for the company any more. I kind of thought of it as a punishment for being reckless. Maybe I could talk to the team about starting up a baby line and we could get my grandson or granddaughter to model it.

David messaged me back telling me that the summer collection was coming along great and that he would be able to show me prototypes during the next meeting. He also told me that Ashley Benson agreed to be the new model for our summer clothing. I had never heard of her, but my marketing team said that she was on some show called Pretty Little Liars and would appeal more to teen shoppers. The male model was going to be some teen heart-throb from Australia.

By the time I finished checking on everything, I still had a few more hours until Izzy and Alex were coming home. I laid out on the couch watching TV bored out of my mind. I watched TV and messed around on my phone for an hour, then I accidentally fell asleep.

I work up two hours later, I didn't think I was tried enough to sleep for that long. I went to the kitchen to fix food for Alex and Izzy so they could eat as soon as they walked in. I spent the rest of my time alone, making homemade chicken pot pies for the each of us.

I rushed a little bit thinking that I wouldn't be finished by the time they came in, but they didn't walk through the door at the time I was expecting them to. I thought maybe they were stuck in traffic or running behind at first, but then I heard a loud commotion going on outside. I quickly walked to the front door and opened it. Alex and Emilio were yelling at each other in the street while Izzy and Vic tried to calm them both down.

"Why don't you mind your own fucking business?!" Alex yelled at Emilio.

"Her business became our business the second she accused my son of getting her pregnant!" Emilio yelled back.

"It's not like she's falsely accusing him! He did get her pregnant! And you're not entitled to know anything going on in our household!"

I should have known something was going to happen today. I walked out to the street and also tried to help defuse the situation. Our other neighbors were coming out to see what was going on too. I felt so embarrassed to be 'that' neighbor that always has something bad happening at their house.

"We won't know that for sure until he takes a DNA test. She could be saying it's his for attention or because she knows he's going places! She's probably doing it just for his money!" Emilio accused.

"Dad no." Vic said.

"So what? Now you're calling my daughter a gold-digger?!?"

"Hey what's going on?" I yelled over them. I moved Izzy back so she wouldn't be in the middle of them just in case anything happened.

"The same thing I told you this morning. This asshole started talking shit as we tried to walk in the house." Alex said and Emilio rolled his eyes. Vicki walked out of house and walked over as Emilio talked.

"I wasn't fucking talking to you I was talking to my son." Emilio explained.

"Well you were speaking loud on purpose so we could overhear. So either you can willingly apologize to my daughter right now or I can kick your ass and force you to apologize." Alex said and I sighed. He was literally always ready to fight anyone.

"If you place a hand on my husband I'm calling the cops." Vicki threatened.

"Oh yes please call the cops! Make sure you explain that your son got my daughter pregnant and tell them the age differences." Alex said sarcastically and she narrowed her eyes at him.

". . . Emilio apologize." She said while tapping her foot.

"What? I'm not apologizing! Especially not to them!" Emilio yelled.

"They can call the cops at any time and have Vic arrested, so apologize and go back inside." She demanded. I don't think we would ever call the cops on Vic for this, but it was nice to threaten them with it.

"I'm sorry that she was given shitty parents like you that let her run wild." He snarled and turned around to go back to their house. I held Alex's arm just in case he got any ideas about running behind him.

"You all aren't allowed to come anywhere near the baby or any of the rest of my family." Alex told Vic and Vicki.

"Alex." I sighed. It seemed a little extreme and he was still angry.

"But that's not fair!" Vic objected.

"Vic let's go." Vicki told him.

"No mom, it isn't fair that I'm punished for how dad is acting." He complained.

"No what isn't fair is my daughter having to go through emotional distress from your dad. I don't care who caused the problem, but I'm ending. We don't exist to you and you don't exist to us." Alex told them.

Vic opened his mouth to argue, but he didn't. He just turned away and he and Vicki angrily went back to their house. I grabbed Alex and Izzy's hand to pull them in to our house too.

"That was intense." Izzy said.

"Yeah. From now on just ignore them like I said. Don't let him get under your skin anymore, Lex." I told Alex.

"There's no way I'm going to let him get away with talking to me or about Izzy like that." He said.
"I understand, but that situation could have been so much worse."

"I don't want to be the bigger person." He said stubbornly and I sighed.

"Did you really mean what you said about them not being able to see the baby?" Izzy asked.

"Every last word."

"Vic seemed really upset by that." She mumbled.

"Yeah he stopped by today to apologize to us." I added.

"He can cry us a fucking river, but they still won't come anywhere near that kid when it's born."

Notes

Does anyone think Alex is being a little unfair?