A Love Like War

JACK

"I don't wanna be alone, I don't wanna die alone.. I could fall apart here and now."
I could hear Taylor's angelic voice singing a Sleeping With Sirens song outside of the front door. The one thing that I pleaded with her was to not bring what I like to call 'Emo Garbage; into the house, but this particular song tugged on the corners of my mouth.
"I don't wanna die alone, I wanna be with you, you, you, you, I only wanna be with you, you, you," she crooned fumbling with her keys.
I ran to the door and opened it for her.
"Hey!" she said, looking up startled, "Could you help me out here, babe? I picked up Mushu Pork, General Tso's Chicken, Shrimp fried rice, Orange chicken and some beef and brocolli from Wok This Way. OH! And some sushi!"
"Salmon Nigiri and Spicy San Antonio roll, I hope," I smiled, taking the bulk of the seraphic scents of Asia into my hands.
"Of course," She closed the door behind her, "Where's Alex?"
"In his room."
"Well, I wanna talk to him and you, about the relationship!" She proclaimed, bursting with energy.
"Shh!" I quieted her, "He's on the phone with Sydney.
"Ohfuck!" Taylor put a hand to her forehead. "I forgot all about Sudsy."
"Relax love," I patted her back and walked her back to Alex's room." I knocked.
"Hold on, Syd," he said into the receiver. "Come in."
As we walked in, he continued their conversation, "Yeah, Yeah, I know. That sounds great, hun."
I held up the plastic bags full of chinese take out to urge him to hurry.
"Yeah, I know, Sudsy, but I'll talk to you later, Syd. I'll explain later. Tay just brought home dinner and we all need to talk, it's very important," Alex frowned and sighed at whatever Sydney had to say after that. "It's about rent. Why do you have to be so goddamned nosy all the time, Suds?"
And with that, the other line clicked and then there was dialtone.
"Glad that's over," Alex sighed, throwing his phone down on the bed. "Let's eat."


"So," I said in the midst of chewing down my peppered beef. "We gonna talk about this or what?"
"Oh, yeah!" Taylor pipped up, "I have no problem with this arrangement on the condition that there is not jealousy present. No jealousy and the polyamorous relationship is a go."
"Poly-Wha?" Alex asked, flipping his hair out of his eyes.
"Polyamory. It means to have multiple partners in a relationship or sexual setting." Explained Taylor.
"OKay," I said happily, "We're all dating, we need to set some ground rules though."
Alex cleared his throat, "Agreed."
"Okay," Taylor spoke up once more, "Any thoughts?"
"Well, this would be kind of hard to explain to my parents, could we hold off on telling people for awhile?" Alex asked.
Perfect. That's exactly what I wanted out of him.
"Jack, what do you think?" Taylor asked, rubbing my back.
"That's fine with me, I feel the same way. I'm not afraid of telling anyone... Nah, Nevermind, I take that back. I'm afraid of telling Sudsy, No one can tell her. Ever. She can never know. She'd massacre us."
"And dance on our graves," Taylor joked, "But seriously, she's my best friend and I don't wanna lose her."
"But.." I interjected, "This is going to be only us three. Me, you and Taylor. Anyone else without consent.."
c"His consent, I don't care," Taylor said, scraping together the last of her rice.
I shook my head at her naivety to my reasoning.
"MY consent, is considered cheating... are you gonna be alright with letting Syd down?" I asked concerned.
I knew Alex really liked Sudsy a lot, and now he'd had the chance to date her.

Notes