The Good Life

Izzy

I finally got my phone back today before Daddy went to work, after being grounded on Saturday. Daddy and Papa were pretty serious about me leaving a lesson this time. I guess I should get pretty serious about it too, like Papa said it wasn't fair that I wasn't treating Bass like my actual son. Maybe Vic was doing a better job than me.

My tutor had just left and I went downstairs to eat and watch TV. Papa had to go check on an emergency at one of his stores so I was home alone. I would have had Bass here to keep me company if he wasn't still with Vic and his family. He was coming back home today, I just didn't know when. And I didn't have my phone to text and ask Vic either.

"Great." I said to myself. I laid on the couch about to take a nap but the doorbell rang.

I quickly got up to get it, seeing anyone was better than laying on the couch alone. I opened the door and Vic was there with Bass in his arms.

"Hey!" He said when he saw me.

"Hi! How was he?" I asked and moved over to let him in.

"Okay I guess. All he did was cry except for when he was sleeping." He chuckled.

"Yeah he's just one big crybaby." I joked.

He handed Bass to me and we sat on the couch together. I kissed Bass on the forehead and he opened his eyes for me.

"I knew you weren't sleeping you faker." I fake scolded him and he began to cry.

"Aw you upset him." Vic scolded me and took Bass back.

"You're both crybabies." I said and he laughed.

He put Bass over his shoulder and rocked him until he stopped crying. He kissed the top of Bass's head and I smiled. It was kind of cute to see him act fatherly with him.

"What?" Vic asked when he noticed I was staring at him.

"Nothing." I shrugged. He playfully rolled his eyes and looked back down to Bass.

"Where is your hair, man? Your mother and I have hair where's yours?" Vic asked Bass.

"Leave him alone. He can't help that he's still bald. And look he has patches of hair that's starting to grow." I showed him the spots where hair was starting to come up.

"That's not good enough. I want him to have long hair like mines." He said and Bass cooed.

"He says he's sorry he can't live up to your high expectations." I chuckled.

"It's okay. I'll give you a few more years."

"You'll probably be a huge rock star by then right?" I asked and he playfully rolled his eyes.

"I'm a huge rock star right now. Didn't you see all the paparazzi standing outside of my door?" He jokingly asked.

"Oh I thought those were pigeons."

"Shut up." He laughed and we heard Bass cough. Vic's face fell as he felt warm liquid go down his shoulder. "Please tell me he did not just spit up on me."

"I um wish I could." I tried not to laugh but the look of disgust he had made it impossible.

"I'm glad you're getting a kick out of this." He said sarcastically and handed me Bass.

"I'm sorry! Bass is sorry too!" I continued to laugh and Vic sighed. "Okay I'm finished. I'll help you clean up."

Vic thanked me and pulled his shirt off so we could see the mess. I wasn't exactly looking at the spot up though, I couldn't take my eyes off of his body.

"It's just his formula so it won't be too hard to clean out." He said and I snapped my eyes up to him before he could notice my staring.

"Mhmm. I'm uh going to grab a shirt for you really quick." I went to my parent’s room and took a deep breath. Vic still managed to get me worked up. I went to Papa's closet and grabbed one of the million Jagk shirts he had. I walked back to Vic and gave him the shirt to put on.

"Thanks." He said and I nodded.

"Here I'll go get that stain out for you." I took his shirt to the washroom. He lived right across the shirt and was more than capable of doing it himself. I needed an excuse to keep him here because I didn't want to be alone. He followed me to the room and watched as I scrubbed the shirt in the sink.

"Did your family absolutely love him?" I asked, trying to make small talk.

"Oh my god yes. I forgot to bring the stuff they bought him but I can go run and get it later. It's so many toys and clothes, they spoiled him to death." Vic chuckled.

"Aw that's was so sweet of them."

"Yeah they wanted to meet you too, but I didn't think you'd be up for that yet."

"That would have been a little awkward." I agreed.

"Maybe the next one. It's going to be at my aunt's house next year."

"Sure I'll go next time." I promised.

I put his shirt in the washing machine for fifteen minutes and started it. We stood in silence watching his shirt swirl around in the machine. Bass began to cry loudly and Vic tried to calm him down.

"You puke all over my shirt and then you cry about it." Vic told him as he rocked him back and forth.

"I think he's crying because he's sleepy." I said.

"Yeah that makes sense. I packed his crocodile in his diaper bag if he needs that. Your dad was right about him not being able to sleep without it." He chuckled.

"Yeah he won't rest until it's snuggled into his arms."

We walked out of the wash room and I grabbed the crocodile out of the diaper bag. I held it and told Vic to follow me upstairs. I was hoping that Bass would fall asleep so we could place him in his crib.

When we made it to his room, Vic was still rocking him. He stopped when he saw Bass's breathing slowdown. He gently sat him in the crib and I eased the crocodile next to him. His eyes continued to stay close once he was in the crib and I cheered. I grabbed the baby monitor and we left before accidentally waking him.

"Do you want to hang out while we wait for my shirt to finish?" Vic asked.

"Yeah that's fine. Let's go to the media room." I said.

He followed me down the hall to the room. Then we sat on the couch next to each other. He threw his arm over my shoulders and I laughed. He was so corny.

"I texted you yesterday and you never replied." He told me.

"Yeah sorry I just go ungrounded today. I haven’t responded to any of my messages yet." I said as I read a message from Lynn asking me to help redecorate her room.

"You’re always grounded for something." He chuckled.

"I know. What did you text me about?"

"I was telling you that the guys and I are going to start touring next week. I didn't want you to think I didn't want to see Bass all week."

"No it's cool. Where are you guys going?"

"We're just going to tour in California. So we're going to go up north and then come back. It's just to get our name out some more before warped tour this summer."

"Oh cool! I didn't know you were playing warped!"

"Yep all summer long!"

"I'll have to go see you guys if you play here."

"I'm pretty sure we will." He said and I nodded. "But I was also wanted to tell you that Mike and I were going to be looking at places in Los Angeles."

"Really? You're going to move there?"

"Yeah and I know it sucks because I'm going to be like two hours away from him and you."

"Yeah it sucks big time." I agreed.

"I would try to see you as much as I could. Maybe during the summer you both could come visit me."

"Um yeah that's fine." I said sadly. The thought of Vic being far away made me feel empty inside. We finally sorted everything out and got on good terms and he was leaving.

"Hey we won't leave until sometime over the summer so I still have time to spend with you two."

"Not really because you're going to be touring." I said and he sighed.

"I feel bad Izzy, I really do. I need to do this so I can make a living out of this and provide for you and Bass one day."

"Me? I understand Bass but why do you need to provide for me?" I laughed.

"Don't play dumb. I still have feelings for you." He said as if it was so obvious. I honestly thought he just wanted to stay friends with me and have a healthy relationship for Bass.

"Oh… I feel the same way about you too." I said shyly. He pulled my face closed to his and kissed me.

"You and Bass can move with me." He casually suggested.

"Vic I'm only just about to turn seventeen." I chuckled.

"Well yeah but next year when you graduate you can go to school in L.A and stay with me."

"Sure okay." I said just to make him happy. As nice as that sounded, I knew my parents would never let me live with him straight out of high school.

"Then it's settled, I'll go touring and live with the guys until you graduate then I'll find us a place in L.A."

"Sounds like a plan."

"You don't sound too happy about it. We don't have to if you want to. I was just talking." He said, sounding embarrassed.

"No no I am happy." I smiled and he exhaled. "Let's go put your shirt in the dryer." I told him. He grabbed my hand and walked with me.

***

Jack

"Can you listen to me while I'm talking to you??" I scolded Alex.

"I'm listening to every word I'm saying." He mumbled while looking at the Ravens game.

"No you're staring at the TV."

"I don't have to look at you to listen to you."

"That's the only way I know you're listening!"

"Ugggh fine. What were you saying?" He asked quickly taking his eyes off the screen to look glance at me and then turned back. I glared at him, I knew he wasn't listening to me.

"I said help me plan what we should do for Izzy's birthday."

"We can just go out to eat and call it a night."

"No we have to have a party here for her again. We're going to have a nice Halloween party." I said.

"She has a Halloween party every year. Let's just do something simple."

"Like what?"

"Um maybe an um...NO!! What the hell are you doing?!? Just run the damn football!!" He yelled at the screen.

I grabbed my iPad and opened Pinterest to look up party decorations. Alex didn't even try to finish his sentence he knew we were having this party. I loved having Halloween parties for Izzy anyways. We would all dress up and sing karaoke, play games, and eat so much food and candy. Plus it was great to kill two birds with one stone and celebrate Halloween and her birthday at the same time.

"Alex look at the way this house is decorated." I tried to show him the picture.

"Mhm it looks nice." He didn't even glance at it.

"You didn't look at it."

"Yeah I did I saw the um webs and stuff. It looks nice."

I rolled my eyes at him and continued to like things so I could reference them later. Cass usually helped me set up the parties but she had to go out of town for a few days for a funeral so I was stuck with Alex. I could have asked May but she hated decorating anything. It took her a year to put a painting up in her living room.

This was the only time we could plan with sneaking around because Izzy wasn't home. She was out helping Lynn redecorate her room. We kept Bass while she did that, but so far he slept the entire time she was gone.

Izzy came home an hour later. She kicked her shoes off and laid out on another section of the couch. Alex gave her her phone back today so she wasn’t as social as she usually was with us.

"Hi Daddy, hi Papa." She said.

"Hey babe." I said and Alex muttered something that sounding like hi. "Izzy I was looking at decorations for your birthday party. Pinterest has so many ideas."

"Birthday party? I don't want to do a birthday party." She said.

"Oh. Then what do you want to do?"

"I was thinking of just going out to eat." She shrugged.

Alex glanced at me telling me "I told you so" with his eyes.

"But you couldn't pay attention to me when I was talking." I said and he chuckled. "That's fine, Izzy I can make a reservation for dinner for all of us. Where do you want to ea-"

"-Actually Papa I just wanted to go out to eat with my friends. Nobody my age has parties with their families anymore." She said.

"Oh...okay." I mumbled sadly. Maybe she felt that way because she was getting older and that made it hurt so much worse. "I guess we'll just find something else to do for Halloween." I closed Pinterest and sat my iPad down. Alex watched me as I stood up and went to our room.

Hearing Izzy say that made me feel old and like she didn't need us anymore. I just needed a bubble bath and a few glasses of wine. I ran a hot bath for myself and then went to the kitchen to grab my favorite wine and a glass. I took off all of my clothes and stepped into the tub. I poured a glass of wine, laid back against the back of the tub, and closed my eyes.

A few minutes later I heard footsteps. I could tell it was Alex by the sound of his ankles popping. I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me.

"Do you want me to join you?" He asked and I chuckled.

"Sure get in."

He undressed from all of his clothes and stepped in behind me. I moved forward and let him sat down behind me. He pulled me back to lay against his stomach and chest. Then he kissed the side of my neck.

"What's a'matter?" He mumbled against my skin.

"Nothing. I just felt like taking a bath." I picked up my wine glass and took a sip.

"I know when you're upset Jack, you can't hide it from me." He began kissing down my shoulder, giving me shivers. "Was it what Izzy said?"

"Yeah kind of. It just sounded like she didn't need us anymore. She used to love us throwing birthday parties for her and now she thinks too old for it." I complained.

"She's just going through a phase. You know the one where we would act older than we actually were. When in reality we were still relying on our parents to take care of us." He said and I laughed thinking of myself when I went through that phase. I gave my mom such a hard time.

"Yeah but she still is getting older. . . And so are we."

"Jack we're still in our forties, we're still young. I still got a good forty years to live and you still have fifty."

"Why am I going to live ten years more than you?" I laughed.

"Because I'm probably going to die some stupid way like having a heart attack trying to have sex with you or something." He joked.

"Shut up. I wouldn't make it ten years without you. I'd probably take my own life if anything ever happened to you."

"Don't talk like that." He scolded me.

"It's true." I shrugged and he sighed. I couldn't even imagine waking up knowing I wouldn't see him ever again.

"I want you to live your full life." He kissed me on the cheek.

"Does that mean you want me to remarry if something happens?"

"Hell no. No one else will be allowed to touch you. You're mine even from beyond the grave." He said and I laughed.

"You're dumb. But there's no one that can ever take your place."

"Good. Same for you, I wouldn't remarry after you."

“I figured you would immediately find some younger girl to blow threw my millions with."

"I mean I could do that without marrying her." He said jokingly and I reached back and hit his side. "I'm kidding, I wouldn't marry or date anyone after you."

"You better not. I would haunt both of you."

"I meant it when I said forever." He reached down and played with my wedding band under water. I smiled and relaxed more into him.

We sat quietly enjoying each other's company for a few minutes. Then he picked up my wine glass and downed the rest of the wine before speaking. "How about we throw our own Halloween party." He said, trying to make me feel better.

"Really??" I asked excitedly and turned around to face him.

"Yeah! We can invite everyone over and use those ideas you found on Pinterest. We can even dress up Bass in a costume."

"Oh that's sounds perfect! Thank you!" I kissed him repeatedly.

"You're welcome." He chuckled and slapped my ass. I kissed him again and turned around to sat back down and lean back on him.

I closed my eyes but kept the giant smile on my face. I felt Alex try to slowly reach for something without disturbing me. I opened my eyes and saw home reach for the remote to the TV in our bathroom.

"Are you trying to watch the football game still?" I asked and he nodded. I grabbed it for him and handed him the remote. He turned the TV on and to the football game.

"Woooo another touchdown!!" He yelled in my ear when he saw the score. I shook my head and closed my eyes again. My smile grew bigger as he wrapped his arms around me.

Notes

I feel bad for Jack, he doesn't want his little girl to grow up.