Homepage › Stories › Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous › Chapter 32

Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous

Chapter 32

I woke up to my phone alarm chiming gently. I quickly shut it off so it wouldn’t disturb Jack who was sleeping soundly beside me. Joyce’s flight had been delayed when we last checked, which meant I was staring at the ceiling building up the energy and willpower to get up at two AM instead of midnight.

I sighed. “Fuck.” I sat up, wiping my face with my hands. “Ok.” I heaved myself out of bed, dressing quickly. I wrote a sloppy note explaining where I was as I made a cup of coffee to take with me and left it next to Jack with a kiss to his forehead.

Twenty minutes later I stood at the airport, sipping coffee like my life depended on it. I hadn’t bothered to look in a mirror before tumbling into my car, but I was certain I wouldn’t want to see myself in that state anyway. I was half-dozing against the wall when Jack’s mother finally emerged from the crowd.

“Alex,” she tutted, placing her luggage on the floor to fix my hair. “You look like a mess, dear. Where’s Jack?”

I chuckled. “I let him stay asleep. He needed it.”

She frowned. “Are you all ok?”

I shrugged, picking up her bags and leading her to my car. “As we ever are. Was it a problem to leave work?”

“Ah, they only need me for my signature,” she rolled her eyes. “How’s May doing?”

“She’s shaken. She’s been asleep since the cops arrived, though. The crash from a sugar high plus the time ensured that as soon as she was safe, she knocked out.” I dumped all the luggage in my trunk.

Joyce surprised me by pulling me into a hug. “Alex, you are too good to me and my family and I simply cannot thank you enough for all of this.”

I returned the hug. “Don’t worry about it.”

When we finally pulled into the driveway, the sun was starting to make its way up the horizon. I kissed the idea of going back to sleep goodbye when May groggily padded down the steps as I helped her mother bring in luggage.

“Alex?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

I smiled, mostly for her. “Good morning, beautiful. Breakfast? How does chocolate chip pancakes sound?” Her eyes lit up as she nodded frantically.

“Pumpkin, why don’t we let Alex get some sleep?” Joyce suggested, trying to tame the haystack May’s hair had become.

“Can we still make chocolate chip pancakes?” she pouted.

Joyce laughed. “Of course, angel. Come on, then.”

I gave her the most grateful smile I could muster before trudging my way up the stairs to Jack’s room. I slipped in and undressed as quietly as I could, but Jack groaned, rolling over, as I got into bed.

“Where’d you go?” he whined, eyes still shut, as he curled into my side.

I chuckled. “To get Joyce, love. Go back to sleep.”

He cracked one eye open, “You went without me?”

I shrugged, closing my eyes. “You needed the rest. Plus, this way we didn’t have to worry about dragging May along.”

He grumbled, discontented.

“Oh, hush. I’m here now. Go back to sleep.”

Jack:
I woke up to a cold bed and a quiet room. I groaned, rolling over to check my phone.

There was a chuckle from my doorway. “You slept away most of the morning, gorgeous.”

“Mmm, rough night.” I lifted up the blanket. “C’mere.”

He laughed but crawled in beside me. “Yeah, I imagine it gets tough being a giant dumbass that doesn’t listen to his boyfriend.”

“Hmm.”

Alex sighed. “How are you, really?” His hand came up to twirl my hair between his fingers.

“Better now.”

“Jack,” he whined.

“Listen,” I brought his free hand to my lips, placing a gentle kiss to his knuckles. “I’ll live. The most important thing is that you and May are safe, and he’s locked up.”

He sighed, pulling me close and burying his nose in my hair. “Joyce is going to press charges. Says this whole mess should not only guarantee her custody but probably the house too.”

I hummed an agreement. “Court is going to be a shit show.”

Alex chuckled. “Yeah, but hey, I’ll give you a great blowjob after.”

I snorted. “Thanks, babe.”

He grinned. “Anything for you.”

Court was a shit show. There was a lot of screaming and crying and when it was all said and done, after the divorce papers were signed, after full custody was granted to my mother, after we sat down and explained to my six-year-old sister that her father was never coming home, after everything I didn’t know what to do. I no longer had to play parent to my little sister, because my mother was there to care for her. I couldn’t remember the last time I didn’t have to be the adult in my house. So, I did the only thing I could think of; I went to my psychiatrist.

“Jack, you’re not due back for another two weeks. Is there something wrong?” she frowned as I walked into her office.

I shrugged. “It’s not about my anger, I just…I’m looking for some direction, I guess. I dunno.”

“Why would that be?”

I relayed my whole story for her, everything from my absent parents to the previous week’s final court case. “I always thought I’d be dropping out of school before I got a chance to apply for college. I didn’t think about what I wanted to do with my life because I was so focused on what I had to do with my life, but now that I don’t I…”

“You’re a bit lost?”

I nodded. “I don’t even know where to start.”

My doctor smiled kindly at me. “Why don’t you start with that boyfriend you’re always going on about? Have you ever talked to him about this?”

I squirmed in my chair a bit. “I, er, I don’t want to tell him. He’s got so much to worry about already and I-“

“Jack,” she stopped me with a hard look, “you’ve made it very clear to me how much he means to you. If you mean even half as much to him then he’s probably already worried about you. You don’t hide things very well, dear.” She stuffed some papers into my file. “Talk to him, Jack, he may be able to help you better than I could.”

I sighed. “Alright, I’ll talk to him.”

And that’s how I found myself pacing across Alex’s front porch, debating whether or not I had the balls to ring the doorbell and tell my boyfriend I’m afraid of the future I didn’t plan for. I was about to retreat to my car with my tail between my legs when the door opened.

“You’re going to wear a hole if my fucking deck, mate,” Tom laughed.

I felt heat rush to my face. “Shut up. Is Alex home?”

He rolled his eyes, but leaned back into the house to call, “Hey tall dark and moody, loverboy’s here!”

A distant shout of, “Get fucked!” echoed back shortly before Alex appeared at the top of the stairs. “Jay? What’s up?”

I scratched the back of my neck. “I, ugh…Can we talk?”

He motioned for me to follow as he disappeared back towards his room. “This is a pleasant surprise.” He kissed me. “Something on your mind?” I shrugged, fiddling with sleeves. He took my hands in his, pulling me over to the bed and forcing me down so he could cuddle up to me. “Talk to me, babe. Something’s wrong.”

I sighed. “I, ugh, I went to see my psych today.”

His brow furrowed. “I thought you went every three weeks because you’ve been doing so well. Did something happen?”

“No, no. I, um, I do, but I, er…I wanted to talk about something.” I swallowed. “I don’t know what to do.”

Alex traced invisible patterns across my collarbone. “Whatcha mean?”

“I was so sure I’d be dropping out next month when I turn eighteen. I was so sure that would be it because I’d have to take care of May and now I…” I buried my face in his neck.

“Jack,” he sighed. “You’re stressing out, too much.” He pressed a kiss to my hair before his fingers started to twirl in it. “You don’t have to be a full-time parent anymore, and that’s ok. It doesn’t mean your life has lost all meaning. Take a deep breath, Jay. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, Lex. I never thought it’d be like this.”

“Oh come on, There has to be something.”

“I think,” I held tighter to him, “I think I want to go to college?”

“That’s a good start, baby. Is there anything you’re interested in studying?”

I shrugged. “I-I don’t know. I have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life, or what I could do. Oh god, I probably can’t even get into college.”

“Shh,” Alex chuckled. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. We have some time before we can even start applying.”

“I want to stay with you,” I blurted out, immediately regretting it. Alex laughed. “God, that sounded stupid and clingy.”

“I want to stay with you, you giant sap.” He lifted my chin to kiss me.

“I just…You bring out the best in me and I don’t want something like going to different schools on opposite sides of the country to make us drift apart.” I hugged him tightly. “With everything so up in the air I don’t think I could handle losing you.”

He chuckled. “Alright you big teddy bear, tell you what, why don’t you open your birthday present early?”

“What?”

“C’mon, just trust me.”

I grumbled my discontent but allowed him to get up and cross the room to his desk. He placed a small box on my lap as he sat next to me. “You’re not trying to propose to me, are you?”

He snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. Open it.”

Curious, I did as I was told. Inside was a black ring with a thin silver band around the middle. “I thought you said you weren’t proposing?”

He chuckled. “I’m not, promise.”

I turned the ring over in my hands, finding writing on the inside. Love Always, Lex was engraved into the ring and filled in with the same silver as the center band.

I hadn’t realized Alex was staring anxiously waiting for my response. “It’s gorgeous, Lex, but why?”

“You’re so worried about losing me, so I’m giving you a piece of me to keep with you all the time.” He smiled at me, even though his eyes began to tear. “That, um, the metal between the onyx and on the inside,” he swallowed, thickly, “that’s my last one.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Your last what?”

He let out a short laugh as tears spilled over. “That’s my last razor.” My eyes widened. “I stopped cutting years ago, shortly after I broke up with him, but I had a few relapses before I was ok again. I always kept a few around, just in case of…I don’t know. They were always a security blanket I guess.” He wiped his face with his sleeves. “I only took two when we moved. Tom took one the night we had our, er, fight, I guess you could say, but I kept that one.” He shook his head. “No one ever checked my phone. I don’t know why. It seemed so obvious to me.” He looked down. “Sorry, I’m rambling. I, ugh, I had the jeweler melt it down and use it for that. It was hard to give it up; harder than I thought it would be, but I wanted you to have it. That was my closest kept possession, but I don’t need it anymore.” He sniffed. “God, this is ridiculous that I’m crying, but it was just such a huge chapter of my life that I’m finally closing by letting that go. I’m giving it to you because I want you to be there for my next chapter, and hopefully the ones after, too, but that’s another ring for another time.”

I stared at the ring in my hand, still trying to wrap my head around it. I couldn’t even form a coherent thought, much-a-less a spoken sentence.

“Do, um, do you like it? I thought black and silver went with just about anything and I know how important your appearance is to you and– Oof”

I cut him off by tackling him in a hug. “Oh my god, Lex, this is too much. I love you so much. Oh my god.”

He laughed, though it was still thick with tears. “I love you, too Jay.”

I wasn’t certain what my future would bring, and that still terrified me, but I knew I’d have Alex there beside, and that was really all I needed.