The Good Life

*Jack*

One text message. Literally one text message just started a war between Alex and me. I had recently started talking to Zack again because we were friends for the longest and I missed him. I knew Alex wouldn’t like that news so I thought it would be best if I neglected to tell him about it, but of course he found out anyways. I guess it did look kind of suspicious for me to go behind his back to talk to Zack but I’m a grown men who shouldn’t have to ask permission to talk to a friend. And besides Zack doesn’t like me anymore, he said he’s gotten over his feelings for me and now he wants us to start over. He has a convention for his job here in San Diego this week and I thought this would be the perfect time for us to see each again. We haven’t really talked to each since the day he confessed his love for me like two years ago. I wasn’t going to tell Alex until after I meant up with Zack so he wouldn’t worry about something happening, but he saw a text message Zack sent me and all hell broke loose.

“How long have you been talking to him behind my back?” Alex snarled at me. Thank god Izzy was in her room taking a nap or else we would have woken her up with all the yelling.

“Oh my god, Alex, stop overeating! You’re acting like I’m cheating on you!” I yelled angrily back at him.

“You were deliberately trying to hide the fact that you were talking to him again for a reason?!?” He was getting angrier by the second, but I didn’t back down.

“I wanted to avoid this.” I gestured between us. “You overeating and us arguing.”

“And how did that work out for you?” He asked sarcastically.

“Pretty damn well until you went through my phone and what the hell were you doing going through my phone anyways?” I asked curiously.

“You left it open on the table and I looked down and saw the message.” He said, but I didn’t believe him.

“Bull-fucking-shit!” I screamed.

“That’s exactly what happened, but that’s not important. Right now I want to know why the hell you really wanted to hide this from me. Be honest with me Jack…were you planning on cheating on me with Zack?” He narrowed his eyes at me. I could see this was hurting him, but I was offended that he could even think I would ever cheat on him.

“You’re out of you damn mind if you think I would sacrifice my family for a one night stand.” I shook my head at him.

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re bored with me. Maybe you want to see if you made the right decision by being with me and not Zack.” He thought out loud.

“Where is this coming from? Do I seemed bored with our relationship?” I chuckled at how ridicules this situation was.

“No! I just want to know why you couldn’t just come to me and say ‘Hey Alex, Zack is coming here for a few days and I’m going to hang out with him.’” He said using that dumb voice every uses when they imamate someone.

“I didn’t think I had to ask for permission to hang out with friends.” I said defensively.

“I didn’t say you had to ask for permission. I was just saying you could have given me a heads up so that it wouldn’t look like you were trying to fuck him.” He yelled and I rolled my eyes at him.

“You know what? You’re a fucking hypocrite. It was okay for you and Lisa to be friends, but now I can’t be friends with someone who USED TO like me?” I questioned.

“I knew it, I fucking knew you were going to try and find some way to make this about me and Lisa. I haven’t talked to her in ages. I have no reason to. You were uncomfortable with me talking to her so I stopped.” Alex said.

“Don’t make it seem like you stopped talking to her as soon as I asked. I had to practically beg you to stop.” I told him.

“What? Do you want me to beg you?” He said, sounding like a smartass.

“No! I want you to get over it.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“There’s no damn way that's happening. I don’t want you to talk to him again.” He said and I scoffed.

“Well that’s too fucking bad.” I said and walked into our bedroom. Of course Alex followed me.

“I’m so serious, Jack.” He stated.

“So let me get this straight…I can’t see Zack because you said so?” I asked.

“Not because I said so, but because I don’t trust him. I don’t trust that he won’t try to pull something. I don’t trust…” He trailed off trying to think.

“…You don’t trust me?” I finished his sentence for him.

“I didn’t say that.” He said looking down.

“You didn’t have too.” I mumbled. I walked out of our bedroom with Alex calling my name and went to Izzy’s room. I needed some fresh air and I was taking her with me. I went upstairs, without Alex following me, and I picked her up from her crib making sure I didn’t wake her up. I grabbed her diaper bag and went downstairs to grab my car key.

Alex was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with his head laying down on his arms. I felt bad for leaving, but I need to be away from him for a bit. He looked up when he heard the jingling of my car keys.

“Whe-Where are you going?” He had a look of fear in his eyes, as if I was taking Izzy and never coming back.

“I need some air, I’m going for a drive.” I said and he shook his head.

“Why are you taking Izzy with you?” He asked.

“Because I can?” I said slowly.

“Whatever Jack.” He sighed and walked to the living room.

“I’ll be back later.” I mumbled but I sure he didn’t hear me.

I called David to make sure he wasn’t busy. Izzy and I were going to spend the rest of our day at his house ranting about Alex. Also David will be honest with me and tell me if he thinks I was wrong for “lying” to Alex about Zack or not. I don’t feel like Zack and I becoming friends is a bad idea, but Alex is making it seem like I’m the worst person ever. Maybe we argued a little bit more with each other because Izzy was keeping us up all night and we’re becoming restless. We knew what we were signing up for when we became parents so we’re going to have to work hard to move past this.

Notes

This is my favorite argument because Jack can kind of feel how Alex felt when he accused him of cheating with Lisa. But you guys should tell me how you feel about it!!