Don't You Go and Carry On With Your Life

"Happy Birthday, Cholë!" I exclaimed and kissed my niece on the cheek. We were a few minutes late to her birthday party but we hadn't missed anything.

"Thank you, Uncle Jack." She told me.

The party was in my mom's backyard. I went over to the table where all Cholë's gifts were and I sat mines down for her. I watched Kellin go say hi to all his other cousins and I picked up Kylie to go talk to Joe. He was grilling hot dogs and burgers for the kids.

"Hey!" I greeted.

"Hey, when did you all get here?" He asked.

"Two minutes ago. We were running late because Kylie wanted to play hide and seek with my keys." I grumbled and he chuckled.

"You're such a bad girl." He joked and took her from me. She easily went to Joe because he had food and she wanted some. She got a few pieces of the cooked food from Joe and came back to me.

I walked away from Joe with Kylie and went to sit next to my mom, May, and May's husband. They were watching the kids play in the bounce house May ordered. I told them all hi once I sat down.
"Can Kylie get in the bounce house?" May asked.

"Not with the other kids. I'm afraid they might hurt her. Maybe I'll take her in later while they're eating." I chuckled and she nodded.

"Isn't it Alex's weekend to have them?" My mom asked.

"Yeah. He just said they can come over after the party. So we're going to go there after we leave here." I said.

"We're?" She questioned.

"Hmm?"

"You said 'we're going to go over there' as if you're going too."

"...oh did I? I meant they're going to go over there later on." I lied. I wasn’t ready for them to know that I was with Alex yet.

"I don't know, it sounds like there's something you're not telling us." She said, and May agreed.

"Yeah Jack, I feel like you're hiding something too." May said.

"What could I possibly be hiding?"

"That maybe you're seeing Alex again." My mom said.

"Well I'm not." I said and tapped my foot.

"It's okay if you are, Jack." May joked and I rolled my eyes.

"I'm not." I repeated and they both looked at me skeptically.

"Hey Daddy do you have two dollars? We're about to play UNO for money." Kellin came over to me and asked.

"Hold on, let me see." I pulled out my wallet to check.

"Kellin, is your dad seeing Alex again?" May asked and I glared at her.

"Ummmm." Kellin stammered.

"Kellin, don't answer that." I told him.

"Why can't he answer it if the answer is no?" She chuckled.

"Because that’s such a weird question."

"You can tell me, Kells. I just want what's best for you dad." May told him. I didn't have to worry about Kellin. He wouldn't tell them anything about Alex and me.

"They've been going to couples counseling every Thursday." He said and I stared at him in shock. We all did.

"Why??" I asked him. Now I was never going to hear the end of this.

"Because you and Dad are getting pretty close. They were going to find out sooner or later." He shrugged.

"You've been going to counseling with Alex??" My mom asked.

"Shhh I don't want Joe to know." I was more worried about him knowing than anybody else. Joe was going to be the angriest to hear about this.

"Jack, why didn't you tell us sooner?" She asked in a lower voice.

"Because I wanted to see how serious we were going to get first."

"So now you two are officially back together?" May asked.

"No we're still going to counseling every Thursday. But we've been making progress." I mumbled.

"I think it's a good thing that you both are doing that.” My mom said to make me feel better about it. “I can tell that you still love him and the therapist should be able to help you two work through your problems."

"Our therapist has helped us a lot. I feel like I can kinda trust him again." I said with a small smile on my face. I was happy that my mom wasn't bothered, but I was eager to hear what May thought.

"I'm happy to see you happy with Alex after so long. But I'm just afraid that he'll hurt you again." May told me.

"I know. I felt the same way too, but the therapist has helped me slowly get rid of that fear. Also spending time with Alex helped a lot too. We're not together yet though, we're just rebuilding our friendship." I said.

"Well I think we should have a talk with Alex. How about you invite him to dinner next weekend." May suggested.

"No."

"Jack we need to make sure he's really changed. Once we see that he has then I'll feel better about you two being together."

"I think it's a good idea." My mom agreed.

"Jesus, fine okay but can we not invite Joe?" I asked.

"Jack that's not nice. We're not going to have dinner without your brother." My mom said.

"Mom, Joe would murder Alex if he knew we we're anything about this."

"You're exaggerating." She chuckled.

"I'm not inviting Alex anywhere Joe will be." I told them.

"Fine, we won't tell him." My mom agreed and May nodded.

"Thank you." I said while taking a deep breath.

"Mhmm just make sure you and Alex are at Mom's next Saturday by seven."

************

Kellin, Kylie, and I went to Alex's after we left Cholë's party. I was nervous about telling him that my mom and May knew about us. I really didn't want to tell him about them inviting him to dinner either. I wasn't sure how he would react so I wasn't going to tell him until after our movie night was over.

"Hi Dad!" Kellin exclaimed as he walked into Alex's house. He was holding Kylie as she slept and went to take her to his bed.

"Hi Kellin." He chuckled. I tried to walk in too, but Alex stuck his hand out to stop me. "Sorry, but it's ten dollars to come in and watch the movie." He jokingly said.

"I don't have ten dollars." I giggled.

"Well I guess I can let you in for free since you're so cute."

I blushed and pushed past him to get inside. I walked to the couch Kellin was sitting on and he blocked me with his legs.

"I need both of these seats so I can lay out." He said.

"Where am I supposed to sit?" I asked.

"You can sit on the love-seat with dad." He said while smiling. He just loved pushing Alex and I together, but it wasn't like I didn't love it either.

"Fine." I went to sit on the love-seat and waited for Alex.

Alex grabbed two bowls of popcorn, two beers for us, and a Sprite for Kellin and brought it over. He sat on the couch next to me and handed me a beer.

"Thanks. What movie did you pick?" I asked.

"Ouija: Origin of Evil ." He said and pressed play.

"I hope it's really scary." Kellin said.

"I don't." I mumbled and Alex laughed.

"You can hold on to Dad if you get scared." Kellin teased and I glared at him.

"I'm going to move to the floor." I threatened and they both laughed.

I reached over to grab some popcorn out of the bowl. Then I turned my attention to the movie. I was scared within the first two minutes of the movie. I jumped at a sudden loud noise in the movie and Alex turned to make sure I was okay. I don't know why I agreed to watch a scary movie. Alex reached down and grabbed my hand and turned his attention back to the movie. A butterfly mash pit started up in my stomach, as I remembered why I agreed to this.

*******

"I'm not going to sleep tonight." I said as the credits from the movie started rolling.

"Eh it wasn't that bad." Kellin said. Nothing scary could scare him, he probably got that from Alex.

"I thought it was a little scary. I liked the story line though." Alex said.

"Well I thought it was terrifying. What time is it?" I yawned.

"It's twelve O' four." Kellin answered.

"It's late. I should start heading home." I said and picked up our small mess.

"Are you sure you want to leave this late?" Alex asked and I smiled at how concerned he was.

"I've driven this late before, Lex. I should be fine." I assured him.

"You probably shouldn't stay at home by yourself. What if there's demons in the house." Kellin teased.

"Shut up, there isn't anything in our house...I hope." I said worriedly.

"I'm just kidding, Daddy. But you should stay here with us. I don't want you driving this late." Kellin said and I looked over at him. He didn't care if I was driving late or not. He just wanted me to stay here with Alex.

"Alright alright, I'll sleep on the couch." I said.

"No take my bed. I'll sleep on the couch." Alex offered.

"It's fine, I don't mind sleeping on the couch."

"I'm sleeping on the couch and you're sleeping in my bed." He demanded.

"Maybe you two can share the bed and keep each other warm." Kellin jokingly suggested.

"I'm going to bed." I said without responding to his comment and he laughed.

"Me too." Kellin said and went upstairs to his room.

Alex followed me into his bedroom and went into his dresser drawers. He pulled out some clothes and held them up to me.

"Basketball shorts or do you still just sleep in your boxers?" He chuckled.

"I still don't like wearing pants to bed." I answered and he nodded and threw me one of his t-shirts. I thanked him and switched my shirt with his loose fitting shirt. The shirt smelled exactly like Alex. I just wanted to bring it to my nose to inhale it, but I didn't want to be weird.

"Okay is there anything else you need before bed?" He asked.

"Can you check the closet for monsters?" I asked just to see if he would actually do it. He chuckled and walked into his closet to look.

"There's nothing in here."

"What about under the bed?" I asked. He got on his knees and looked under his bed for me.

"Nope I still see nothing, but sometimes things can come out in the middle of the night. Maybe I should stay in here to protect you." He said slyly and I playfully rolled my eyes.

"I'll take my chances with the monster." I joked and he pouted.

"You'd rather have monsters eat you than me to protect you?" He asked.

"Ugh fine you can stay in here, but only until I fall asleep."

"That's fair." He said and grabbed his own pajamas. He got out of his pants and put on basketball shorts and changed to a more comfortable shirt. I didn't have the urge to stare since I saw him naked the last two times we had sex.

Once he finished he turned off the light and closed the door. He got in on the left side of the bed and I got in on the right. This was our normal sides we slept on. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on for background noise. I needed the noise to fall asleep. I turned to the cooking channel and sat the remote down.

"Do we have to watch this before bed? I'm gonna be hungry in a few minutes." Alex said and I chuckled. He would even complain about this when we were married.

"It puts me to sleep." I told him.

"Ugh okay." He laid on his side facing me. "How was Chloë's birthday party?" He asked.

"It was alright." I answer nervously, remembering that I needed to tell him about May and my mom.

"That's good." He said. Alex turned to lay on his back and stare at his TV on the wall. I figured I should go ahead and tell him to get it over with.

"Hey Lex?" I said.

"Yeah?" He turned his head towards me.

"What are you doing next Saturday?"

"Nothing. Did you wanna do something?"

"Um kinda. So my mom and May sort of know we've been going to counseling now and they want to have dinner with you next Saturday to see if you've really changed." I told him.

"How'd they find out?" He asked.

"Your son, of course." I sighed and he chuckled.

"Okay. Yeah I'll go." He answered and I turned to look at him.

"You'll go?" I asked. I thought he we be scared or nervous like me, but he was confident.

"Yeah I don't mind. I understand why they're worried and I really want to show them that they have nothing to worry about. Plus I didn't hear you say Joe so I'm assuming that he's not going to be there?" He asked.

"Yeah they promised not to tell him." I said.

"Cool then we'll have nothing to worry about. Except...what do we tell them when they ask are we together?" He asked.

"I told them that we're just friends right now." I shrugged.

"I think we're way past the point of 'just friends now.'" He laughed.

"Well what are we then?" I asked.

"Umm I think we're at least dating now. Like we really like each other and it's safe to say we're exclusive. Only if you're okay with that." He said and turned towards me.

I didn't even give my brain time to think before answering. "Y-yeah of course. I'm okay with that." I said and he smiled. This is almost the exact way Alex asked me out in high school.

Alex leaned down so that we could kiss goodnight. Then I rolled over so my backside was facing him. He cuddled behind me and kissed the back of my neck until I was sound asleep.

Notes

There are only three chapters left!! This is like the quickest I've finished writing a fic lol