Kiss and Sell

Jack looked dead when Alex saw him. His chest was barely moving, and if Alex's eyes weren't practically zoned-in on it, he'd say it wasn't at all. His skin looked papery, thin, and ashy. His hair was flat, shaved shorter than normal in the back and sides because he had required staples from falling down the stairs seven days prior. It was surreal to Alex, seeing him lying there with tubes shoved down his throat, a machine breathing for him. He didn't know what to say, what to do, he didn't even know where to sit or how to.

It was like everything that had once came naturally to him just disappeared, and now he was almost as brain dead as the boy laying in front of him. He had been expecting to see everything, the machines, the beeping sounds, the motionless body, had been preparing himself for it for the past three hours while they drove to the hospital in New York, but for some reason when he finally got there, finally saw Jack laying there like how he was, it was just shocking.

Maybe a part of him had told him nothing like that could possibly happen in either of their lives. Maybe he thought it couldn't really be happening, that he'd get there and Jack would be sitting there a-okay and with a smile on his face, but he was in a coma, his back was fractured, his skull stapled, and his life hanging on a cord of a machine.

It's not real, Alex told himself, This is all a nightmare.

Of course, no matter how much he pinched himself Alex wasn't waking up from the nightmare. He was just staring at Jack and how hejust laid there. He was scared, scared he'd never wake up.

He turned to Joyce slowly, the woman dabbing away tears in her eyes as she too mused about her son, and asked, "How long do they think he'll be in here?"

She sniffled -shaking her head as she bit her quivering lip and said, "They say it could be months, years, or even days, but they don't really know... He could n-never wake up." Her voice was weak, breaking and cracking as she talked. Alex never wanted to see the woman so broken up, so pained ever again.

She smiled weakly at him, tears forming in his own eyes not that it would be the first time, and quickly said, "Don't worry. I know he'll wake up soon. He's strong. He'll make it through." She nodded firmly.

As if her words were some kind of law, like whatever she said rang true even if it broke the law of physics, Alex simply dropped the subject of Jack never waking up and moved on to when he did by asking, "What're you going to do when he wakes up?"

"He's getting therapy." She stated without hesitation, sniffling up the last of her tears that she wiped away as she said, "I don't care if he fights me. I'm not making the same mistake again." She then turned to Alex slowly, a disappointed look in her eye as she whispered, "Why would he do this to himself, Alex? Why would he hurt himself like this?"

"I-I don't know... Honestly, Mrs. B, he's my best friend and I don't know a thing about him, not like how I should. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for him... This is all my fault, and even if you say it's not I'm telling you that it is. I told him I hated him... It triggered him. He did this because of me." Alex confessed -blinking away tears as he looked down at his fingers that clumsily twiddled in his lap. He was ashamed to have treated Jack like that, caused him to do that to himself.

"Alex, this isn't your fault. I'm telling you." Joyce reassured, "Jack is a very sensitive boy, but that is not the reason he did this." She turned the younger boy to face her, taking his nervously fiddling hands in hers comfortingly as she said, "What happened to Jack isn't something a boy as young as you need to be weighing on your shoulders, okay?"

"But it was my fau-"

"No, Alex." Joyce cut the boy off -swiping her hand in front of him to completely dismiss the thought from his head, "Tell me right now that you will not let this eat at you, promise me you wont carry this around even if Jack... even if he doesn't make it. Promise me?"

Her voice was desperate and it only made tears weld in Alex's eyes all over again. The tears Alex had been trying to keep back once again for the past few minutes. The fact that she didn't want Alex to shackle himself to the guilt, to drag around the thought of killing Jack, how she wanted him to be happy despite it being his fault her son was in the hospital more than obviously made Alex feel so cared for, so loved. He couldn't help beginning to cry.

He whimpered as he nodded his head slowly -Joyce grabbing his tiny, shaking shoulders and pulling him into a comforting hug as she shushed him quietly, allowing him to let everything out and sob into her shoulder. Alex had never felt such motherly love, not since he was ten, maybe even before that. He couldn't explain how he felt, but he suddenly felt closer to Joyce, like he could go to her for anything and she'd be able to help him, give him advice, and take care of him better than his mother ever had.

It was weird, this woman he hadn't known for more than a couple of weeks, was suddenly like apart of his family somehow. They had bonded in that moment, in the moment at the house, and Alex hoped they'd continue to bond. She was almost replacing his own mother, and maybe that kind of love, a mother kind of love, was exactly what Alex needed. Maybe she was fixing things Alex didn't even think were broken inside of him simply by comforting him as he wailed into her shoulder like a child. Maybe all along all Alex really needed was a mother, a loving, nurturing parent who would love him unconditionally.
He needed love.

Notes

Weh r so baed @ updetin ;-;

We are seriously gonna try to find a schedule that works for both of us to update more often or at least more than we have recently lawl. xD. We just like to procrastinate.

I don't think anyone understand why Jack has to be in the hospital so I wanna kinda explain.

ALEX HAS TO REALIZE THAT HE LOVES HIM YA DUMMIES

That is all