The Good Life

*Alex*

"Oli we both know if he pushed Hannah and she had blood leaking out of her you would still have your hands around Austin's neck." I complain to Oli. We were in Jack's and me bedroom and he was trying to convince me not to go out and hurt Austin.

"I know but I would hope if that happened you would be right there holding me back so I wouldn't do something I'd regret." He said and I huffed. I was pacing back and forth and Oli was sitting on my bed watching to make sure I wouldn't make a run for the door, like I did twice already.

"He just better be glad it was just a cut because if he had seriously hurt Jack I don't know what I would have done." I vented speeding up my pace a little.

"Yeah but he didn't. Look Jack's gonna be fine and by this time next week we'll all be at some bar talking about our non-existent sex lives." Oli grinned.

I took a deep breath and nodded. I sat down next to Oli, we sat in silence for a few minutes before I spoke.

"Thanks Oli." I said quietly and he threw his arms around my shoulder.

"Don't mention it."

Oli and I always had each other's back when it came to situations like these. Ever since we started going to high school parties together. We would tell each other when a fight wasn't worth it or be tag team partners in some fights. It was kind of funny, I thought this ended when he stopped me from fighting John in that bar so many years ago.

"I should go check on Jack." I said getting up from my spot.

"I'll go with you." He said skeptically, afraid that I was lying just to get to Austin.

We walked out of my bedroom and went to the foyer to see Austin slurring to Alan about something. I didn't get to get a good look at him because everything was happening so fast but now that I could see him I could he was really fucked up. And his car was parked, crookedly, outside of the house which meant that dumbass drove here.

Seeing him did make my anger come back, but Oli placed a hand on my shoulder telling me to relax. Jack obviously wasn't here so I went upstairs to see if he was up there with Izzy, Ian, and Taylor. When we got up there I saw Ian and Taylor were sleeping together in one of the guest rooms and Izzy was sitting in her room reading a book.

"Have you seen your father?" I asked her. She shook her head no still not wanting to talk to me after what happened yesterday.

I rolled my eyes and went back down to ask Rian. I don't know why I didn't just ask him when we were down there. We went back downstairs and I went over to Rian.

"Do you know where Jack is?" I asked him.

"He's um at the hospital with Cassadee." He said making my body temperature rise.

"Why?" I asked through my teeth. I already had a feeling I knew why but I wanted to hear him say it just in case.

". . . I think he needs stitches." He mumbled.

"Alex." Oli warned and I nodded my head to let him know I heard him. I stood there pretending to be calm, I was livid.

"Alex, man, I'm so s-" Austin couldn't finish his apology because I punched him in the jaw. Since he was already almost blackout drunk the hit that I gave him easily knocked him out. Alan, Rian, and Oli all stood there staring at me shocked.

"Go get Izzy." I said to Oli and he walked upstairs to get her. I turned to Rian and Alan. "He better be out of my house when I get back." I hissed.

Oli came downstairs with Izzy explaining to her we were going to the hospital to check on Jack. We walked out of the door and went to Oli's new truck. He thought I should relax the drive over to the hospital.

I tried to call Jack when we pulled out of the drive way, but it went to voicemail after ringing. I tried Cass next but hers did the same thing. I knew that they knew I was calling. Jack probably asked her not to tell me anything about this. I settled for texting Jack instead to let him know that I knew he was at the hospital.

"Will he be okay?" Izzy asked worriedly. She worried just as much, if not more, as Jack did.

"Yeah it's just stitches, babe. He should be fine." Oli answered. She sat back relaxing just a bit.

When we made it to the hospital I went to the emergency room front desk asking for Jack. The lady would only let Izzy and I back there to see him since our last name matched his so I told Oli he could leave and Cass would take us home. He said he was going to back to help Rian and Alan with Austin. She had to make sure they weren't in the process of giving him stitches before letting us in the room.

Jack was sitting in the hospital bed with his arm laying on the bedside table. Cass was just sitting in her chair glaring at me, but that glare quickly turned into a smile when she looked at Izzy.

"Are you okay Papa?" Izzy asked him.

"Yes! I fine sweetie, don't worry about me." He lied. I could see the pain his eyes. Izzy went to take a seat next to Cass and I looked to Jack to see if he would say anything to me first. He didn't.

"Hey." I finally said breaking the silence.

"Hi." He mumbled back finally making eye contact with me.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"My arm hurts really badly." He whined.

"Let me see it." He bought his arm up and I saw a deep cut mark through his forearm. It looked really bad and gross.

"Shit." I said as I grabbed his hand to lightly pull his arm closer to get a better look.

"What happened to your hand?" He asked. It was already starting to swell.

"I uh punched Austin." I said and waited for his scolding, I didn't have to wait long. Cass and Izzy looked at me with the same expressions Alan, Rian, and Oli gave me.

"Alex! What the hell?" He yelled.

"Oh he'll be fine we don't have to talk about that. What we should talk about is why you or Cass didn't answer the phone when I called." I said and he gulped.

"We didn't get a call from you." He lied.

I clicked the circle button on his phone to see one missed call from me. "Oh is that why your phone says one missed call from Alexander the Great and Cass's phone says one missed call from . . . Asshole Gaskarth?" I said and Cass and Izzy immediately burst into laughter, but I ignored it for now.

"I just didn't want you to become more upset than you already were." He sighed.

"I understand, Jay, but I hate you being here in the hospital without me even if it's for something not so major." I told him and he nodded.

"Now you see how I felt when you got in that car accident years ago on Thanksgiving." He mumbled and I sighed loudly and dramatically. He never ever lets anything go.

"Yes Jack now I see how you felt." I admitted and he smiled.

Notes

I love Alex and Oli's friendship