Five Years

I sat in my bed with music my record player going. Zack was out at the gym and I was left at home to do whatever. I rolled out of bed and went down to the kitchen to make some breakfast. There really weren’t many options in the house, mostly fruits, vegetables, and other various healthful options. It was a nice change for me to live around someone who’s so in shape and healthy, but at this point I just want some junk food in my body. I texted Jack and surprisingly, he was awake. He offered for me to come over later and pig out with him while we watched movies. I smiled to myself and made a smoothie, just something to tide me over until I was able to eat everything in the afternoon.

The morning went by surprisingly fast; there was almost nothing for me to do at the house because all of the housework was already done. Instead of being productive I just watched Netflix all morning until Jack texted me to tell me to come over. I wasn’t going to dress up, after all it was just going to be Jack and I. I was already wearing a pair of pink sweatpants and a JAGK shirt that Jack had sent me when his new line came out. I threw on my black converse and went into the garage so I could drive over to his house.

When I pulled into the driveway, his car was sitting right in the middle, almost making me have to pull into the grass. I laughed to myself and went up to the front door, not even bothering to knock first. Jack was standing in the kitchen with bags of food and there were bottles everywhere.

“Holy shit Jack,” I furrowed my brows and took in all of the items. “You take junk food seriously.”

He shrugged with a smile on his face. “What can I say? The ‘J’ in Jack stands for junk.”

“Then what does the ‘S’ in Shay mean?” I asked.

“The ‘S’ stands for secure, because you’re well-grounded and you know how to handle a lot of bad situations.” He poked my nose and grabbed a few bags before heading out to the living room. I grabbed a bag of Doritos and a Sprite from the counter before going out to join him. He flipped through the movies that he had on a shelf and turned back to me with Step Brothers in his hands. “How about this one?”

I nodded and he put the movie in the player, coming to sit next to me a moment later. We sat and ate, the occasional conversation would come up but not during the important parts.

“So what’s the deal with you and Alex?” Jack asked while he got up to switch movies.

“What do you mean?” I furrowed my brows.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, a while ago you mentioned that he had to win you back after everything happened. And then he told me that the two of you went out on a date, I’m just wondering how that’s going.”

“Well it went pretty great, he took me out to a really nice restaurant and we had some wine.” I smiled at the thought.

He laughed and shook his head. “All right then, as long as you’re happy.” He smiled and came back to the couch.

It was a couple hours later now and we had already finished our second movie. Now it was close to dinner time and Jack had his phone pulled out of his pocket to order some takeout. I figured that he was just going to order some pizza but he did so much more than that. He ordered a small pizza, small orders from a Chinese place down the street, two burritos and sides from a Mexican restaurant, and then some sandwiches from Jimmy John’s. I laughed and shook my head. I guess he’d be living off leftovers for a while.

It wasn’t long after that when the first round of takeout came to the door. Jack answered and paid, telling me to tackle the other round and then we would switch again. Soon we had all the food and Jack put in a third movie. I rationed out the food and we chowed down during the movie. It wasn’t a surprise that neither of us actually finished all of it, I wasn’t expecting us to. But Jack seemed pretty upset.

“What’s wrong Jacky boy?” I patted his shoulder.

“I am weak.” He laughed. “Damn, I couldn’t finish this. I’ll never be a champion.”

I rolled my eyes and leaned back into the couch. “Whatever Jack, just wait a while and try to tackle it again later.”

After the third movie the sun was setting. I didn’t want to go home because I haven’t had a lot of one on one time with Jack in a long time, and that was upsetting. I texted Zack to let him know that I wouldn’t be home until later, just so he wouldn’t worry.

“So do you want to keep watching movies or should we do something else?” Jack turned to me as the end credits rolled across the screen.

I flopped onto his lap and smiled. “This is a movie marathon Jack; we have to keep it going!” I laughed. He pushed me off of him and ran back up to the television to put in another disk, coming back moments later so we could keep our marathon going. It was quiet for a while; nothing was said beside the dialog in the film. It wasn’t a problem really; it was just unusual for Jack to be so quiet. Even in a movie theater he would say stupid things or make comments on what was happening.

By now it was completely dark, the last movie was finished, and I was started to yawn a little. Jack had gathered up some blankets and pillows and we sprawled out on the ground instead of sitting on the couch.

All of the food was put away and now we each had a beer in hand and a big bowl of popcorn sitting between us. It was kind of nice to be treated like a princess, I didn’t have to do anything because Jack just got up and got the food and drinks. The only thing I had to do was go to the bathroom. Even then, I didn’t get up often.

He didn’t bother to get up to put in another movie as the end credits rolled. Instead he just stared blankly at the screen and shoveled some popcorn into his mouth.

“Do you want me to put in another movie?” I asked and twirled my fingers in the top of his fauxhawk. He nodded and blinked his eyes; no emotions seemed to show on his face. I got up and changed the disks, feeling my phone buzz in my pocket. I checked the message as I walked back to my spot and the movie started to play.

From: Alex

What are you doing tonight? I really want to show you something.

I frowned a little and looked down at Jack, his face lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw that I put Home Alone in the DVD player.

To: Alex

Can’t, I’m watching a movie with Jack right now.

We finished the movie quickly, by then my eyes were becoming droopy and it was hard for me to stay awake. I was nearly asleep when Jack spoke to me again.

“Shay, are you awake?” He whispered and I nodded. “Um there’s something that I kind of need to tell you, it’s been burning inside me for a while now.”

I yawned and nodded while my eyes were shut. “Go ahead Jacky, I’m listening.”

He took a deep breath. “Shay, I love you.” I was almost asleep, these words didn’t faze me at all, Jack is my best friend.

“I love you too Jack.” I smiled.

He ran some fingers through my hair and sighed again. “You won’t understand. But I’ve been watching from the sides for years and it hurt me so much when Alex broke your heart.” He lowered his voice to a whisper and got closer to my ear. “I want you to be with someone who would love you and appreciate you in a way that you deserve, I want you to be with someone who wouldn’t break your heart like he did, more than once.” He kissed my ear and I felt myself slowly drift off.

Notes

So I always read the comments but I don't really respond anymore because I'm a complete asshole but the idea of a prequel is pretty rad. Unfortunately, I don't know how well that story would work out considering the direction that this one is going in... But I'll definitely keep that in mind and play around with it because I think I would have a lot of fun!
As always, thank you so much for reading my shitty story, it means a lot :)