Take Care

“Where’d you spend the night?” Matt asked in the evening the day after Alex called Jack to help him.

“Places,” Jack replied cagily.

“What does ‘places’ mean?” Matt asked with a wink. “Got a new dude going?”

“No,” Jack said. It was the truth, even if he wouldn’t mind doing more than taking care of Alex in bed.

“C’mon, spill. Tell uncle Matt.”

“No, Matt, I just was at a friend’s place,” Jack retorted. Were he and Alex even friends? Alex had been so cold in the morning. But why else would Alex have called him to come over? Jack was confused endlessly. And slightly annoyed because Matt was so persistent.

“Jaack. I think there is more!”

“Matt! For God’s sake, if it’ll shut you up, I was at Alex’s place! And no, we don’t have anything going on, he was having problems and called me. Now, if you would excuse me.” Jack stormed into his room, leaving his roommate behind. Inside his room, he threw himself onto the bed.

He was so confused and suddenly angry about the whole Alex thing. Why couldn’t the other one just tell him what was going on?! Alex had changed his attitude so quickly that Jack was always limping behind like a handicapped dog limps behind its owner. One second he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and begged Jack to help him and stay with him, the next he wasn’t very nice in telling Jack to leave his flat.

“Jack, I’m out for work,” Matt called. He worked as a bartender which also provided him with the many opportunities of hook-ups after his shift had ended.

“See you,” Jack replied. His thoughts returned to Alex.

Jack wanted to help; he had gotten stupidly attached to the man. But at the same time, he hated when people were playing games on him like he was a fool. And he was a fool in some way, with him always tagging along. He knew he needed to stop it but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to stop it. He was just too soft-hearted. Just like when he was at the café and someone was being really annoying and he always helped them even if he felt like slapping them and crying.

The hand-shaped bruises on Alex’s hip only made Jack surer that Alex was being abused. And probably also forced to have sex. He felt a wave of nausea coming over him at the thought of Alex being raped and tears shot into his eyes. Poor Alex. And the bruises on his arms had to be from the abuser as well. Jack wanted to slap himself now, for getting emotional over Alex again, but he honestly couldn’t help it.

Why Alex had disappeared into the bathroom in the morning and had returned way happier was still a mystery to Jack. He had a strong urge to find out what had happened in there and he would do everything to know. He didn’t think Alex was doing drugs, he hadn’t found anything suspicious while washing his face in the morning. But still.

He decided to do some research on Facebook. He quickly found Alex and was surprised by the low privacy settings he had chosen. Jack clicked through the page for a bit. There were many pictures of Alex some with friends, some of just him alone. But no boyfriend to be seen anywhere. And Alex was listed as single, interested in men. Jack’s heart did a little flutter at that and he cursed himself for it. Before he knew it, he had clicked on “Add as a friend”. He looked at the little button, feeling his heart flutter some more.

“Christ, Jack, get a fucking grip,” he groaned.

He got up to clean up a bit. His room was a mess. But after a few minutes of trying to decide where to put his college textbooks so the pricey books on various language-related topics would be safe, he heard a little ‘bling’. The ‘bling’ that meant a Facebook notification. He rushed to his laptop, trying not to be overly excited and clicked the little button. His heart dropped when he saw it was only a like on a picture of him and a friend. He turned around, angry at himself for getting so excited at the possibility of Alex having accepted him as a friend.

He sorted through his laundry and then went to the kitchen to eat something. He took the apple and the toast he had made himself to his room, deciding to check Facebook again. He didn’t expect a lot after what had happened earlier, but he couldn’t deny that his heart beat a little faster when he saw that he had a new notification. He opened it. And almost had a heart attack.

Alex Gaskarth accepted your friend request.

A big smile spread on Jack’s face. Alex didn’t hate him. Or at least it was unlikely.

Jack hesitated, but then opened up the little chat window.

“Hey Alex, how are you?”

He retyped it a few times, editing it, but ended up sending the first version. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before pressing the Enter key.

He got up to pace the room, nervously chewing his lip. His skin felt itchy from the nervousness.

-

Meanwhile, Alex was getting wasted at a bar. There were many glasses in front of him, the majority of them empty. He was planning on emptying the last few ones and then he would just buy himself the whole bottle to save the hassle with the small shot glasses. He was sort of crying, his face wet with tears but his insides were filled with an aggressive kind of laughter. He signed for the bartender to just hand him the whole bottle of Jägermeister. The man complied even though he wasn’t entirely sure if it was a good decision to let the man drink even more. Alex squinted at the guy’s name tag to thank him but his vision was too blurry to make out the tiny writing.

“I’m Matt,” the man supplied.

“Thank you, m’Alex,” Alex slurred.

“Pleased to meet you,” Matt smiled. It was only when Alex stretched out his hand for the Tequila bottle that the bartender noticed that his hand was all bruised up. Matt immediately made the association with Jack’s Alex but then shook his head. He shouldn’t jump to conclusions, just because someone called Alex had a bruised hand.

He decided to text Jack and ask him for a description. Only a few minutes later, the man replied.

From: Jack
Light-brown hair, brown eyes, a bit of a beard, skinny. Why?

To: Jack
I’ve got a dude here who’s getting wasted and his name’s Alex and he has a bruised hand…

Matt’s phone rang almost immediately. It was Jack.

“Does he fit my description?” Matt heard Jack almost screaming into the phone.
“Hello to you too, Jack. Yeah, he does.”

“And… Is he like really drunk? Did he say anything?” Jack sounded concerned.

“He didn’t say anything related to you, if that’s what you mean. He just ordered massive amounts of shots and now a bottle of Jäger and told me his name.”

“Oh God. Is he in a bad state? Should I come?”

“I don’t know…” Matt glanced at the customer. He had started to cry. “He’s crying?”

“You know what, man, I think I’ll come over for a drink,” Jack said, trying to sound casual. Obviously, Matt did not fail to realise why Jack really wanted to come.

“Jack, it’s his life… You barely know him.”

“Let’s just call this ‘I wanna see my best friend Matty and I want a drink’,” Jack said. “I’ll be over in a few.”

And with that, the conversation was over. There was nothing Matt could do when Jack was set on doing something.

He looked at Alex again. The man had put his face in his hands and it looked like he was pulling at his hair.

“Hey, Alex, everything alright?” Matt tried asking.

Alex just groaned in response. Matt shrugged it off. He was used to things like this. But when Alex started to smash his head onto the counter, he was forced to do something. He stared at him in shock before acting upon it. He tried to stop the guy by putting his hands between his head and the counter, but that just resulted in his hand getting hurt when Alex didn’t stop. He got a small towel to put it between Alex’s head and the counter. Alex hit the counter once more before breaking down and sobbing. Matt was shocked. Sure, aggression happened when people got drunk, but aggression against themselves? He had never seen that. He just hoped that Jack would arrive soon.

He tried to put his hand on Alex’s shoulder in an attempt to calm the hysterically sobbing boy.

However, Alex almost fell off of his chair from the fright that the simple act gave him. He started to cry harder.

Matt sighed and went back to drying off some shot-glasses. He looked up when he heard the front door open. It was Alex.

“Thank God, Alex. He just… hit his head on the counter multiple times.”

“What?!” Jack replied, shocked. “Alex, hey, it’s me, Jack,” he whispered soothingly in the older man’s ear. Alex was still crying but he looked up.

“Hey Lex,” Jack said, hugging Alex very carefully. “Matt, what the fuck? How much did he have?” he asked the bartender. He didn’t even bother to whisper, Alex was too drunk anyways.

Matt just pointed at the pile of shot glasses and the open bottle of Jägermeister before them. Alex stared at him, looking livid. Matt shrank back.

“He asked for it!” he tried to excuse himself.

“You have a certain responsibility! Look at him! He’s all bloody on his forehead!”

“I’m sorry…”

“Jesus Christ… Don’t beat yourself up because of this, okay? I’ll take care of him and then we can talk,” Jack said. He felt like punching Matt in the face but Alex in his arms kind of hindered him.

“Do you need any help?” Matt asked slowly. He knew he was going to get his ass kicked because of this.

“Just call us a cab, please.” Jack rubbed his forehead.

“In a second.” Matt tried to smile at Jack, but the man just stared at him mercilessly.

“Hurry up, Flyzik.”

Since Jack knew the address to Alex’s place, he just quickly told the driver where to go and then made sure that Alex did as well as possible. The older one was leaning up on him.

“Alex, we’re going to your place. I’m with you,” Jack said quietly.

Alex hummed which Jack took as approval. He caressed the injured one’s hand, careful not to hurt his bruises.

It hurt Jack to see Alex like this. He genuinely liked the boy and wanted him to be okay. He thought of the night before and realised that he still didn’t know what had happened to make Alex call him and come over. But he would be careful with him.

At Alex’s place, Jack helped him strip again and cleaned the wound on his forehead with water and disinfectant which he had conveniently found in the cupboard in the bathroom. It wasn’t too bad; the blood had made it appear bigger than it was.

He made Alex drink some water and put a bowl next to the bed in case he’d have to puke. He thought about it briefly but then decided to spend the night. Better be safe than sorry. And his intention was to keep Alex safe.

“Is it okay if I stay here?” he asked Alex. Alex nodded and stretched his arm out for Jack. Jack quickly took off his pants and slipped into the bed. Alex grabbed his hand and held onto it. And when Jack was almost positive that Alex must have been asleep, the older one sat up, leaned towards Jack and pressed the lightest of kisses to Jack’s forehead.

“Thank you.” It was nothing more than a whisper but Jack felt his heart being lit up by a million suns. And Alex was the brightest of them – his star.

Notes

Wow! I'm sorry this took AGES but things were stressful!

For anyone who might think "whoa this is moving fast", please keep in mind that the two have known each other for a while (from the café) plus Alex is drunk ;)

Please please please give me comments! They are honestly so motivating :)

-Laura