"Zack! Zack! Zack!" Jack whisper-yelled as he ran from the doorway of the back lounge to the kitchen/living-room/dining- room/hangover-recovery-area/party-room/manager-office/whatever-else-people-could-do-in-a-10x4-area-room. Jack was eavesdropping on Alex, Rian, and Cassadee's conversation when he heard something he maybe shouldn't have. Half an hour ago Jack was in his bunk sobbing into Zack's shoulder, now he had a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

Zack was sitting on the lounge couch eating a salad. God damn that health conscious man. Jack didn't even know that they had the ingredients to make a salad, he's been living off of pizza rolls for the past month.

The muscular man was quite content sitting on the couch, munching on his bowl of greens. He looked up at the smiling Lebanese man and couldn't help but be happy for his friend who has been so sad all week. "Calm down Jacko. What's all the excitement for?" Zack had to say that with a laugh because Jack looked like he was ready to explode with glee.

"Alex! He doesn't hate me! I'm still his best friend!" Jack was talking loudly, but still keeping in mind that Alex could hear every word he said if he was too loud.

Zack's smile lessened when he heard the news from the skunk-haired man. Zack didn't want to admit it to anybody, not even himself, but he liked Jack coming to him, despite the tears usually welling up in the man's eyes. Zack loved the time he spent comforting Jack, and honestly, they've never been so close throughout their ten years of friendship. Zack knew deep down that once Jack and Alex made up, him and Jack would start to slowly drift part, and that killed the big, muscular man.

"That's great." Zack said with fake enthusiasm and tried his best to smile, and had a feeling he failed. Jack didn't notice because he was too busy practically dancing with happiness.

"Do you think I should talk to him? Should we go for lunch? Wait what about Matt?" Jack was practically squealing as he talked at a million miles an hour. "What movies are out? We have a day off on Tues-SHIT!" Jack was running around at the same speed he was talking and tripped. Even though Zack was completely disappointed at how excited Jack was that he and Alex would be making up soon, but he had to laugh at the grown man writhing on the floor.

"Shut up! That really fucking hurt!" Jack spat at the slightly older man.

"Hey! It's not my fault you're clumsy!" Zack laughed. Zack put his salad down and got off the couch. He walked over to the fallen man and extended his tree-trunk like arms, "Here, get up you moron."

Jack took Zack's hand, and instead of pulling himself up he pulled Zack down. Zack was pretty much built like a brick wall, which meant when he fell, he fell like brick wall too. He tried to avoid falling right on top of jack, but it was too much of a surprise to avoid it.

"Ugh! Fuck!" Jack groaned after Zack fell directly on top of him. After the initial shock wore off for both boys, they both began to laugh. Zack rolled off of Jack, so now they were lying next to each other on the carpeted bus floor, which was all but sanitary. The floor was stained, cleaned, and stained again by alcohol, flood, sweat, drool, and some.. other bodily fluids.

After laughing for a while, Zack caught his breath by breathing in deeply through his nose. Bad idea. Lying on the carpet included being closer to whatever fumes were omitted from it, and after breathing in deeply, Zack choked a little. "Ew... Good GOD what the fuck is wrong with this carpet?" He quickly got up to escape the horrible smell as he continued to cough lightly.

As Zack stood above Jack he began lightly kicking the man lying on the floor, who didn't seemed to be phased by the ungodly smell coming from the carpet. But the smells coming from the carpet maybe weren't so bad, knowing that in the four years of high school, Jack did laundry once. So let's just say Jack was 'that kid' in High School who always smelled repulsive or drowned in Febreze. "So tell me, what was that supposed to accomplish?" Zack asked as the stared down at Jack.

"You laughed at me, so I wanted you to see how bad it actually hurt, but... my plan kinda backfired. Anyone ever yell you that you're really fat?" Jack emphasized 'fat' because he was looking to see how far he could actually push the man standing over him.

Zack didn't even dignify Jack's comment with a response, he merely cocked an eyebrow as if to say "You're fucking joking, right?". Jack quickly mimicked Zack's face. Zack just smiled and bent down and picked up the younger man with ease. He lifted Jack all the way up to his chest, adjusted his hands quickly, and lifted Jack until his back was press up against he ceiling.

Both men were laughing, and soon Jack was getting impatient. "Zaaaaaaaccck! Put me dooowwwnnn!" Jack cried as he began to squirm, which caused Zack to only press the other boy against the ceiling harder.

"I'm too fat to put you down!" Zack retorted with a smile.

"That doesn't even make any fucking sense!! Now put me down!" Jack laughed out, as he flailed his arms and legs.

"Nope. Not until you apologize," Zack said, readjusting his hands slightly. He worked hard for his body, eating right, working out, reducing on alcohol (which was hard when you toured with Jack and Alex), and Zack wasn't going to be mocked by a man who has never worked out in a gym and has eaten three salads in his whole entire life.

Despite his frustration, Jack was still hysterically laughing as he thrashed his limbs in attempt to get free. "NEVER!" Jack screamed.

"Well then I guess you're gonna be stuck up there," Zack said with a smirk.

Both caught up in what laughing and poking fun at each other, neither boy noticed a rather sad looking Gaskarth that appeared through the doorway into the front lounge.

Alex's eyes were still slightly puffy and he continued to look like a sad puppy that has been kicked to the floor. Alex cleared his throat, trying to get the attention of the boy who was currently pressed up against the ceiling and quietly said, "Hey." Startled, Jack looked to see the where the noise had come from and Zack quickly spun around, almost dropping Jack.

"Oh, hey Lex," Zack said awkwardly with a slight tone of pain in his voice. He knew what was next, and knew that he just had the last few moments of the new found friendship he established with Jack. Zack slowly lowered Jack back onto the ground and decided it was best, for both him and the friends who were about to make up, for him to leave the bus. "I'm gonna go help the crew set-up." And with that, Zack left the bus, with a feeling that things were going to be a lot different when he entered the bus again.

On the inside, Jack was just glad that Alex was in the room, but kept his composure calm, knowing the emotional state of the man standing in front of him. "Hey, Lex." Jack went over the fridge, which contained beer, condiments, salad (for Zack), and more beer. He pulled out a beer and turned to Alex who hasn't moved since he entered the room, "Want one?". The man shook his head. So Jack closed the fridge and sat down on the couch.

It put Alex to ease slightly, noticing that the boy sitting on the couch wasn't in the same mood he seemed to be in before. Alex, still nervous and upset, slowly made his way to the couch across from Jack and sat down uneasily.

Jack noticed that Alex was still avoiding eye contact with him, and tried to figure out why. Then he remembered what happened earlier that day when he first woke up. Feeling horrible that the way he treated Alex had this huge effect on the boy, Jack got up and sat next to Alex. Not even saying a word, Jack put his arms around Alex and squeezed tightly. Alex seemed shocked, he wasn't expecting Jack to do anything remotely close to giving him a hug, Alex was thinking more along the lines of screaming and cursing. Alex could feel that his eyes were getting watery, but he didn't care, he lifted his arms up and hugged Jack back.

"I'm sorry, Lex." Jack whispered into the older man's ear. Those three words was enough to send Alex over the edge, and soon silent tears were streaming down his face as both men sat in silence, embracing each other tightly.