Don't You Go and Carry On With Your Life

Jack

Once I got off of the phone with Alex, I called Kellin's cellphone. I kind of didn't expect him to answer since he had snuck out, but he did.

"Hi Daddy." He answered. I don't think he knew I knew he wasn't with Alex.

"Hey Kells, I was just calling to see how it's going at your dad’s house so far?" I asked casually.

"It's okay. I'm just staying in my room all weekend like I said." He lied.

"Mhmm. Kellin do you remember that talk we had, a few days ago, about earning my trust back?"

"Uh yeah of course." He quickly answered.

"Okay well I'm going to ask you again, how is it going at your dad’s house?" I repeated the question. I was giving him one last chance to tell the truth.

". . . I told you, it's okay I'm just going to stay in my room all weekend." He said, continuing with his lie.
"I really tried to help you, Kellin." I sighed.

"Help me with what?"

"We know you're with Vic. I'm gonna give you ten minutes to get back to your dad’s house." I threatened.

"Daddy please don't make me go back there! I don't want to stay with him!" He begged.

"Staying with Vic isn't an option. Get your ass back to Alex's house, I’m not going to repeat myself a third time." I threatened. I wouldn’t have been so harsh if he didn’t lie to me again.

"Yes sir." He mumbled.

As much as I didn't like forcing Kellin to go over there, I couldn't help but be annoyed with how he was being. Just because he didn't want to be there didn't mean he could go to his boyfriend or whatever's house. Especially not after he came home with hickeys after spending time with him.

I didn't want to see Alex right now, but I wanted to talk to Kellin in person so I drove over to Alex's. I was strictly going over to talk to Kellin or about what Kellin did, nothing more nothing less.

When I made it to Alex's condo I saw Kellin's car in the parking lot. He was lucky he beat me here. I got out of my car and walked over to building 1214 which was Alex's. I knocked on the door and seconds later Alex opened it for me. He looked completely shocked to see me standing there. I guess I could have called before coming over.

"Where is he?" I asked Alex before he could say anything.

"Upstairs in his room." He told me.

I followed him and Kylie up to Kellin's room. The door was shut and I opened it. Kellin was laying on his bed facing the opposite direction of us. I could hear him sniffle a few times which let me know he was crying.

"Give us a few minutes." I told Alex. He nodded and picked up Kylie and left.

I closed the door and went to sit on the bed by Kellin's legs. He wouldn't look at me, he just continued to look straight ahead at the ground. I rubbed his leg for comfort as I began to talk.

"I'm not forcing you to stay over here because I want to. It's court ordered, Kellin." I told him for the millionth time. "It's set in stone, the only way we can change it is if Alex gives up his parental rights over you and that won't happen in a million years. He loves you too much to do anything like that.” I told him and he continued to look down, not saying anything.

“Look sweetheart, I know your dad did a really messed up thing. Trust me your "hatred" for him doesn't come anywhere near mine, but it doesn't change the fact that he's your dad too. Even though he's a lying cheating piece of shit, he's still your dad. He cares about you just as much as I do. I can tell he's really trying to make things right with you. And I'm not saying you should or even have to forgive him. I'm just asking you to try to be more civil around him. Maybe it would help if you talked to him about all the pain he's caused you instead of bottling it up inside. You never know, hearing an official apology from him might actually relieve you. I'm just asking that you try, please for me. I hate seeing you like this and I hate it more when you act out against us because you haven't been able to express your emotions properly. So just try talking to him and if you honestly can tell me you don't feel slightly better afterwards then I'll talk to Alex and see if we can work out something."

"Okay." He sniffled.

I pushed his hair back and kissed him on the forehead. "I’m going to send him in, okay?" I asked and he hesitated before nodding. "Okay, I'm going back home. I’ll call you before you go to bed tonight."

"Okay, bye Daddy." He told me.

"Bye." I hugged him before getting up to leave.

Alex was sitting downstairs with Kylie when I walked out of the room. I walked over to him and he stood up.

"How'd it go?" He asked.

"You two are gonna have a talk." I told him and he smiled.

"Thank you so much, Jack!" He exclaimed.

"Don't thank me, I'm not doing this for you." I said and he nodded understandingly. "Make sure you're completely honest with him. He’s heard enough of your lies." I told him as I walked towards the door.

"Wait, do you think it's possible that I can talk to both of you really quick? I hav-"

"-No." I cut him off.

"Jack please, I at least deserve a few m-"

I cut him off as soon as I heard him say the word ‘deserve’. "-You know what you really deserve? You deserve to stay miserable for the rest of your life. You deserve to lose sleep at night knowing that you've hurt your family. And you deserve to rot in hell." I spat at him. He stopped talking and stared at me in shock. It was kind of hypocritical of me to ask Kellin to have a civil talk with Alex and to not do the same myself, but I didn't care. I couldn't imagine any reason I needed to actually talk to Alex besides it being about the kids. I didn't want to hear an apology again from him and I didn't want to hear his explanation. I just wanted to go home and clear my head before my date tomorrow.

I kissed Kylie on the cheek and told her bye before leaving.

********

*Alex*

I watched as Jack kissed Kylie good bye and walked out of the door. He was definitely still furious and not ready to talk to me, but I deserved it. He was right, I did hurt my family and now I had to pay the price for that.

I really wanted Jack to stay so I could tell him and Kellin about Tay together. I didn't want to just blurt it out because he would have thought I was lying to get him to talk to me. I was going to have to find a new way to get him to talk me.

I sighed and locked the door behind him. Then I grabbed a glass of water to take to Kellin. I was kind of stalling for time because I was nervous. Actually having to have a face-to-face talk about this subject was nerve wrecking. It needed to be done though, so I took a deep breath and climbed the stairs with Kylie. Kellin's door was open but I knocked anyways. He looked over his shoulder and sat up, signaling I could come in. I saw his eyes were red and puffy from all the crying. He just looked physically exhausted. Kylie climbed into his bed and in his lap, making him lightly chuckle.

"Hey, I um brought you some water." I told him and handed him the glass.

"Thanks." He mumbled.

"So Jack said we should talk." I said and he nodded. "Any particular thing you want to start off with?" I asked.

"Why did you cheat?" He quickly asked. I should have known that would be first.

"I um well I guess I thought I wasn't happy in Jack’s and my relationship. All we were doing was arguing or ignoring each other, which is no excuse for cheating of course, but it just made me want to spend less time at home. And I ended up staying late at the office one night with Tay, who was my secretary at the time, and . . . Yeah. It was mostly off of impulse. I didn't plan on cheating or anything." I explained shamefully.

"So you stopped after one time?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Well no, I used Tay as a way to take out all of my anger and frustration. And Jack and I stopped arguing as much, but we were barely talking."

"How did Daddy catch you?" He sounded curious now, I guess Jack never told him any of this.

"He uh answered my phone and heard Tay say some things that basically gave it away. I'm not exactly sure what she said, but Jack just knew."

"So that's when he asked for the divorce?"

"Yeah it was a few days after that phone call." I nodded.

"And when did you find out that um Tay was pregnant?"

"She told me the day I tried to tell her that I wanted to stop seeing her. Which was convenient enough to get me to stay with her." I shook my head, thinking about it made me angry all over again.

"What do you mean?"

"Tay came here drunk today and accidentally told me that she isn't really pregnant. She just said she was so I wouldn't leave her. So I kicked her out. I was trying to tell you that today before you left." I said and his eyes grew wide.

"You're not having another baby??" He asked.

"No I just have you two." I said and he reached over to hug me. It caught me off guard at first but I wrapped my arms back around him. He began crying all over again into my shoulder.

"Shhh it's okay." I tried comforting him by rubbing his back.

"Sorry, I just couldn't imagine having to share you with someone other than Kylie." He joked and I chuckled.

"I'm sorry I even put you in this situation. I know I made some really dumb mistakes Kellin, but I really want to fix all of this." I said.

"I know, Dad. I'm sorry I've been so rude to you lately." He apologized.

"No you don't have to apologize for anything. I deserved to be treated like that. I did a horrible thing and it wasn't fair for me to expect you all to forgive me so quickly. I don't expect you to forgive me now either. I just wanted to explain everything to you so I could say that I tried."

"Hearing the full story did help a little. I don't forgive you for cheating on Daddy yet, but I don't feel like I have to ignore you anymore." He giggled.

"Thank god! I was going crazy not being able to talk to you for so long." I told him. "I wanted Jack to stay so I could tell you both about this, but he won't even look me in the eyes."

"Yeah he's not too um fond of you right now." He stated.

"I have to think of a way to fix that. I really want to make things work with him again." I sighed.

"You want Daddy back?!" Kellin asked, sounding surprised and happy.

"Yeah, I still love him. I never even wanted to get the divorced. Maybe I can go to the house and try to talk to him tomorrow."

"I don't think he'll talk to you." He told me.

"I know, but I need to just get him to listen for a few minutes. I just want to talk to him about Tay and hopefully apologize a few more times so he knows how shitty I feel about this whole thing. I'm sure once I explain to him everything I've just explained to you, he'll be open to talking more."

"Maybe you can talk him out of grounding me too?" He asked hopefully and I laughed.

"Well either you can be grounded for the next week or so or Vic can wake up without his kneecaps." I suggested and he pouted.

"I liked you better when you were trying to win me over."

Notes

Alex is slowly making progress, but he still needs to figure out what to do with Jack.