The Good Life

*Jack*

“Jaaaaack!!” I heard Alex whine from my bed. I was making oatmeal for him and trying to get ready for work at the same time. I guess since its April, spring time, the weather has been getting making him really sick because he’s been coughing ever since yesterday.

“I’m coming, Alex!” I sighed and grabbed his bowl of oatmeal.

“Eww! I don’t want oatmeal, I want pancakes.” He pouted when he saw the bowl in my hands.

“And I told you that you don’t need pancakes because the syrup would make you feel worse.” I scolded at him while trying to tie my tie.

“If I can’t have pancakes *cough cough* then I don’t want anything.” He complained sounding worse than he did last night.

“Alex, please eat this! You need to get better and this is the only thing I can make for you right now. My meeting is in an hour and I can’t be late.” I told him as poured some cough medicine in a cup and handed it to him.

“Fiiiiine! I’ll eat it.” He looked at the oatmeal with disgust still. I handed him to cup of cough medicine and he gagged as he swallowed it down.

“Awww I know it taste horrible, babe but helping you get better.” I kissed his forehead and went my bathroom so I could fix my hair.

I styled my hair the best way I could, put on my cologne and the watch Alex brought me. When I finished and walked into my bedroom I saw Alex finishing the last of his oatmeal. I smiled at him as I put my suit jacket on and grabbed my phone and keys.

“Alex, I’ll be back at around one okay? And I called the school for you and told them you won’t be able to come in today.” I said and went to kiss him on the forehead.

“Okay. Thank you!” he smiled up at me.

“Call me if you need anything” I assured him and walked to the front door. I wanted to stop for coffee, but I didn’t have time to stop.

***

“Good morning, Mr. Barakat!” My secretary, Cindy, told me as I walked into my office.

“ ’Morning, Cindy. Can you ask David to meet me in my office please?” I asked her and she quickly said yes and left.

“Yes sir!” David sang as he walked in two minutes later. He was too much of a morning person for me.

“I just want to make sure you had all the designs ready for today’s meeting.” I told him as I rubbed my eyes trying to wake up some more.

“Yep! I have everything right here on this flash drive.” He cheered.

“Alright let’s get this over with.” I mumbled while gathering my papers together since we only had five minutes left. David and I walked into the meeting room and sat next to each other like always. The room was already filled with investors, CEO’s, and others who made sure my company sure my company wasn’t failing.

“Hello everyone! How are we doing today?” I asked, trying my best to sound like I wanted to be there. Everyone in the room grumbled a response before I started talking again.

“Alright well why don’t we have James, our Marketing Director, come up here and start us off.” I ask as I sat down and James stood up getting the projector ready to show his presentation. He talked for ten minutes straight about things that haven’t changed within the company since it started.

“The main customers of Jagk are ages fifteen to twenty-three and I was thinking we should try and expand that to ages twelve to thirty. We should start off by-“

“-If I could just cut in for a second, James.” I cut him off. “I don’t think that it is a good idea to try and expand our age group of buyers. I doubt any thirty year old man or woman would want to wear the same clothes as a twelve year old, right?” I asked, probably coming off a little harsher than I intended. Some of the business men and women nodded while others looked at James to see the sad expression on his face.

“Right, Sir… It was just a thought.” He muttered sadly and sat back down in his seat. I felt so bad, but we had to keep the meeting going since some CEO’s had a strict schedule they had to stick to.

“Let’s just move on and look at some of the new spring designs David has created.” I gestured to David and he stood up from his seat to present.

“I was thinking we could go with traditional spring colors like: Turquoise, rose, yellow, and light orange. Colors that could go for both sexes. I have dozens of ideas ready to be made as soon as you guys say the word.” David started to flip through slides of the designs he just described to us. I loved every single article of clothing he showed to us except for the flip flops for guys, but that’s because I don’t really like guys in flip flops. David never fails me on new designs for Jagk, he always knows what’s best.

After another hour and a half of sitting in that room and listening to how I could improve the business, I was finally free. I shook everyone hand and told them I would see them next month for next meeting. I tried to give James a friendly smile when we shook hands, but he wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. I shrugged and walked to David’s office hoping to catch him before he left so I could tell him how much I really liked his designs again.

“Good your still here!” I said as I walked into his office.

“What are you going to yell at me like you did James?” he asked laughing. “I thought he was going to shit his pants when you stopped him” David said laughing even harder.

“You are just the worst kind of person.” I tried not to laugh, but his laugh was contagious.

“I’m sorry, but everyone fears you when you’re like the nicest person ever.” He continued.

“I can be pretty mean when I want to be.” I said and he shook his head at me. “Anyways I came in here to tell you I really liked your designs. I don’t know how you do it.”

“I was just born this awesome!” he gloated.

“Oh god you sound just like Alex.” I complained.

“How’s he doing?” David asked.

“He’s been sick and I’ve been taking care of him. It wouldn’t be so hard if he wasn’t being so difficult.” I pouted and David laughed.

“That’s so cute! Poor baby, he probably just needs you to bend over backwards for him. That always worked for my ex-boyfriends.” He giggled.

“Ew! TMI! And no he’s actually sick, he needs medicine, soup, and rest.” I said as we walked out of his office and toward the front door together.

“That will work too, but I like my idea better. Shouldn’t you be running home to take care of him?”

“I want to, but I usually go randomly check one of my stores in the area to make sure they’re doing everything their supposed to be.” I said and he nodded understandingly.

“Well I’ll see you later, Boss-man.” He said as he unlocked his car and got in. I hurried and walked to my car because it seemed like it was going to rain soon.

I went to go check on one of my stand alone shops in a small outlet mall. They were doing great, no lazy workers or slacking managers everything was actually running smoothly. It was around noon now and I was on my way back home to take care of Alex again. I decided to call May since we hadn’t talked since Alex’s birthday party. Every time I tried to call, her phone would go to voice mail and I would get a text from her saying she would call me later.

“Hello!” She answered.

“Hey May!” I was surprised she actually answered her phone.

“Jack! Wow we haven’t talked in forever!” She said as if it was my fault.

“Yeah I know, but every time I call your phone goes straight to voice mail.” I said trying not to sound annoyed.

“I know…it’s really hard for me to explain…But I will… I promise. I have to call you later, Jack.” She said and hung up before I could protest. I frowned at my phone before I sat it down. I drove home trying not to stress about whatever was going on with her.

“Alex” I called out when I stepped through the front door.

“I’m in bed still.” He mumbled and went into a coughing fit.

“Were you okay here by yourself all day?” I asked him.

“Yeah. Cass came over about an hour and a half ago *cough* to bring me soup. I didn’t want to bother you while you were at work.” He sounded like he was in so much pain and you could hear him wheeze when he breathed.

“Honey, sit up I don’t like the way your breathing sounds.” I went to his side trying to help him sit up.

“I’m okay, Jack. *cough cough cough*” He grabbed his chest every time he coughed so I knew something was wrong.

“You’re not Okay.” I debated. “Let’s take you to the doctor.”

“I can’t randomly go to the doctor. I have to have an appointment.”

“Well let’s go to a health clinic or something. I don’t like seeing you in pain and I highly doubt you like being in pain.”

“I don’t want to go to a *cough* health clinic! *cough cough* There’s sick people there!” he exaggerated.

“You’re sick too, idiot. Now try to get up because you’re going.” I helped him sit up and put his house shoes on. The whole time I listened to him pout about how much he didn’t want to go.

I helped him step into my car and headed to the nearest clinic, which was eight minutes away. The entire drive all I could hear was Alex wheezing and whining about wanting me to turn around. When we walked into the clinic I helped him sit down and then went to sign him in at the front desk. There were only two other people in the waiting room, so I was hoping there wouldn’t be a long wait. I sat in a chair right next to Alex and watched him as he tried to answer his phone.

“Hello *cough*” He answered. “Oh hey Cass.”

I heard Cass talk back to him, but I don’t know what she said. “No! Jack dragged me to a clinic to see what was wrong with me.” More talking. “Yeah I know. I told him I was completely fine.” I could hear Cassadee yelling at Alex through the phone, I knew she wouldn’t agree with his nonsense. So I grabbed his phone from his weak grasp and started talking to her.

“Hello?” I tried to hold the phone away from my face so I wouldn’t catch what he had if it was contagious.

“Jack, thank you for taking him to some kind of doctor. I told him that he needed to go somewhere so he could see how sick he actually is. But he said that you said he was getting better?” She questioned.

“Did he now?” I glared at Alex while he tried to look anywhere but at me.

“Yeah, but I knew he had to be lying. Anyone can see that he’s really sick.” She continued.

“He’s just being really stubborn as always, but I’ll be sure to call you whenever we get results.” I assured her.

“Okay thanks!”

“Bye” I hung up the phone and handed it back to Alex.

“Are you mad at me?” He asked staring at me with his big brown eyes that always made me weak.

“No. I just want you to get better and you’re making that really hard for me to do.” I softly said to him. He nodded and laid his head on my shoulder until a nurse called him back. He asked me to go back with him so I got up and followed them. The nurse took his height, weight, blood pressure, and temperature. She left after taking down his symptoms and told us the doctor would be in shortly.

“You don’t think they’ll have to give me a shot right?” Alex asked shortly after the nurse left.

“No. You just have a cold or something and they never give shots for that.” I said hoping I was right about him just having a cold. Twenty damn minutes later we finally heard the doctor knock on the door signaling to us he was coming in.

“Hello! I’m Dr. Casey!” He extended a hand out for us both to shake. “I see Mr. Gaskarth isn’t feeling too well today.” He said and Alex shook his head. Dr. Casey checked Alex’s breathing and heart rate.

“I think what you’re dealing with is an upper respiratory infection. So what I’m going to do is prescribe you with an antibiotic that you’ll just have to take for a week.” He proposed.

“See no shot!” I exclaimed to Alex. But Dr. Casey cut him off before he could cheer.

“Actually I do need to give him a Cortizone shot. It’s just a simple steroid shot to help boost his immune system a little so this doesn’t turn into pneumonia.” Dr. Casey clarified. I turned to look at Alex, who looked paler than he did a few seconds ago.

“Don’t worry, Alex! It’s just a little shot that will go into your hip. It’ll be over before you know it!” Dr. Casey said after he saw the scared look on Alex’s face. “I’ll send one of my nurses in to do it for me.”

“Alex-“ I tried after the doctor left the room.

“NO! NO! *cough cough* NO! I’m not getting a *cough* shot. They can take that needle and shove it up their asses!” He cried. I couldn’t believe him and Cass could be this dramatic about a little shot.

“Why are you and Cassadee so afraid of needles? You won’t even feel it, babe.” I tried to calm him down, but he shook his head.

“No.” he stated.

“Alex-“

“No.”

“Alex Plea-“

“No.”

The nurse walked in before I could try again with the supplies in her hands. “Are you ready Mr. Gaskarth?” She asked so sweetly.

“Um Dr. Casey made a mistake. It turns out I don’t need a shot.” Alex lied really quickly.

“Alex, stop!” I told him and he crossed his arms. “He’s just a little afraid of needles.” I assured the nurse.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of sweetheart. It’ll be over before you know it.” She grabbed the alcohol pad and walked towards Alex.

“Lady if you so much as touch me with that thing-“ Alex scoffed.

“- I think we’ll just take the prescription and go.” I sighed while pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Fuck yes.” Alex said and found the strength to walk out the door. I apologized ten times and took the prescription Dr. Casey wrote for Alex. When I walk out of the room, Alex was standing at the checkout desk waiting for me. He gave them his insurance card and took care of the small co-pay. We didn’t say a word to each other until we got inside my car.

“Jack I’m sorry-“ He started, but I cut him off by laughing really hard. “What’s so funny?” He asked.

“You! The look on that ladies face when you left was the greatest thing ever.” I grabbed my stomach cause it hurt from all the laughter. He started to laugh along with me before he broke into a coughing fit.

“Okay let’s go get your prescription filled.” I wiped away a few tears before driving to Walgreens so they could fill his prescription. I texted Cass to tell her, Alex just had an upper repertory infection.

“That’s how I know we’re perfect for each other.” Alex said. “I embarrass both of us in public and instead of you being mad at me, you laughed.” He coughed throughout the sentence.

“I love you too much to stay mad at you.” I smiled at him. He tried to kiss me but I moved away before he could. “No! You’re still sick. Maybe if you would have gotten the shot you would have been better by now.”

Notes