All I Ever Wanted

“Does Jack just suddenly go missing often?” I try to ask for maybe the third time. Alex runs around the room, throwing on clothes and brushing his teeth somehow at the same time.

“No, but he’s done it before. He’s probably just passed out at the bar here or something, but shit, he needs to stop doing this.”

I nod, mostly to myself and sit down on the bed. I would help, but I don’t even know what to do.

“Stay here, okay? Me and Rian and Zack will go look for him. Hang out with Luke or whoever. Don’t leave, though.”

He pulls a sweatshirt over his head and waits for my answer. I just shrug.

“Please, Lex. You don’t need to come with us. And besides, we’re probably only going to be a little while. Maybe an hour tops.”

“Okay…Fine.”

Alex leaves about 2 minutes later after grabbing his cell phone and wallet. I wait a minute before heading down to Luke and Max’s room. I knock really loudly so that I know they heard me. Max opens the door and pulls me inside.

“Where’s Luke?” I ask, looking around the room for him. Unless he’s under the bed, he’s not here.

“He went to get breakfast downstairs. But thank God you’re here, because it’s just really awkward.”

“Awkward? Why?”

“Cause like… he’s so… confident and I’m so new at this. I know it’s been a month and whatever, but it’s still a little weird to me.”

“Oh…” is all I say, because honestly, what do I say to that?

“But whatever. So Jack’s missing… of course he is.”

“Alex said it’s happened before. He’s probably just passed out somewhere. They’ll find him in time for the show, hopefully.”

We sit in silence for a few minutes, just watching the TV. It’s on mute but I don’t know why.

“Hey, Lex.”

I look at the door and wave at Luke. He’s holding a plastic bag.

“What’s in the bag?” Max asks.

“I brought some bagels,” he answers with a shrug.

Tension, much?

**

An hour passes and I haven’t heard from Alex yet. Luke, Max and I have played every possible game, from Go Fish to Blackjack. I lost every game. I suck at most card games.

At 8:30 I hear a commotion in the hallway. It sounds like someone’s fighting.

When I open our door and look outside, I see someone down the hall. They’re in front of Jack and Rian’s door. And she’s holding up Jack, who looks completely trashed and knocking on their door. Oh, he’s so dead.

“Is that Jack?” I hear Max ask behind me and he steps around me to start walking down the hallway. I follow close behind. “Hey!” he shouts and the girl looks our way. She looks so pissed off.

“Do you know this guy?” she asks, pointing to Jack.

“Yeah, where has he been?”

“He was at the club I work at until 2:30, and then when I went in to set up for the band that’s performing tonight, he was wandering around outside, and he looked lost. I figured I had to help him,” She pauses and looks down at Jack whose eyes are half closed. She gently helps him stand up straight. “But he’s so uncooperative.”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry about him. We’ve been looking him,” Max says, helping her support Jack who is now pretty much out cold. “How’d you know this was his hotel? And his room?”

She holds out Jack’s room key and hands it to me.

“I think he’ll be okay. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody drink as much as he did last night, but he isn’t showing any signs of alcohol poisoning.”

“Thanks for bring him back,” I say and Max attempts to support Jack’s weight all on his own, but Max is on the small side, so I call out to Luke to help him.

“Thanks again,” I tell the girl.

“Oh, no problem. It happens all the time, believe me. I’m Juliette, by the way. Are you guys like, visiting Kingsdale? Because there really isn’t much to visit-”

“Actually,” I cut her off. “Um my boyfriend’s band has a show here. I’m Alexis.”

“Oh, well that’s cool. Anyway, I better get back. I have to do some work and shit… Nice meeting you. I hope he doesn’t give you as much trouble as he gave me,” she says and she turns to walk away.

I look into Jack’s room and see him sprawled out on his bed. Max and Luke are just looking at him.

I pull out my cell phone to call Alex, and he answers on the first ring.

“Shit, Lex, we can’t find him!” he says immediately. “Apparently a few people have seen him but-”

“He’s here, Alex. Some girl brought him back. He was wandering outside the club she works at.”

“Are you serious? Thank God, just… I’ll be back in ten minutes. Love you,” he finishes, and before I can respond, he’s already hung up.

*

“So why aren’t you guys in there yelling at him?” I ask Rian and Zack and pull a water bottle from the mini-fridge in my room.

“That’s Alex’s job,” Zack answers, and Rian nods in agreement.

The shouting in the room next door only gets louder, and I notice that it’s mostly Alex who’s doing the yelling. His voice gets louder and then softer, and occasionally I hear Jack put a word or two out there, but it’s quickly covered by Alex.

There’s no reason for Alex not to be pissed off. I mean Jack shouldn’t have stayed out all night and cause his best friends to panic over his whereabouts. But I think that maybe Alex should talk to him about it in a calm fashion, and preferably when we get home. He actually woke Jack up the second he back to the hotel and started tearing into him with all of us there. I think he should wait until Jack is 100% sober, and there’s no trace of a hangover. But hey, it’s not my decision.

The yelling suddenly stops and I look over at the rest of the guys and Cat. Rian shrugs again, and then we hear a door open and then slam shut. Guess he’s done.

Our door opens and Alex walks inside. He looks so pissed off.

“Okay,” is the first thing he says, and he’s standing with his hands on his hips and is staring at the ceiling. “Now that that’s dealt with, we should start getting ready.”

“…Alex, is Jack okay?” Rian questions with a hesitant tone.

“Jack is fine. He’s sleeping off the hangover. He’ll be good by 4, which is when we have to leave.”

“Oh… Okay. Well then I guess we should start getting ready. I’m gonna go shower,” Zack tells us. “See you guys in our room at 3:30?”

Alex nods and Zack leaves the room, Cat and Rian and the rest of them following close behind, leaving me and Alex alone.

Alex walks over to our bed and lies back on it, putting his arm over his eyes.

“I just wish he would grow up sometimes,” he mumbles.

I walk over and lay down next to him. I slip an arm over his stomach and get as close as I can.

“He just… he doesn’t get how worried that we get about him.”

I stay silent because I don’t know what to say. I don’t know jack as well as Alex or Rian or Zack, so I don’t think I should say anything. So instead I just kiss him gently, and soon it turns into a heated make out session on the bed. The fact that we need to start getting ready is all the way in the back of my mind until his hand slips under my shirt.

“Shit, stop,” I manage to get out. “We should get ready.”

“Oh.” He pouts and tries to bring me in for another kiss. But if I don’t start getting ready now, I’ll never do it in time. It takes me forever. “Alright, fine. You can shower first. Unless of course you would like me to join you.”

“I don’t want you joining me, no.”

“Fine, be that way.”

“I will. And don’t even bother coming in while I’m in the shower. I’m locking the door.”

“I would never!”

*

After my 20 minute shower, Alex complains about me using up all of the hot water. But it’s a hotel so that’s really not possible, so I just ignore his complaining and dig through my bag for the outfit I packed.

I pull out my black skinny jeans and a cute black, blue, and white top and get dressed quickly. My black converse are in the corner of the room so I slip them on just before Alex yells out “You used up all of the free shampoo!”

*

“This place seems really…busy,” I observe. Cat, Max, Luke and I are sitting at a table near the club’s stage, awaiting the band’s performance. The club is called ‘Sub Zero’, which is a pretty cool name for a club, I guess.

“I can’t believe they have waiters at a club,” Cat says.

“Yeah, that’s kind of weird. But convenient, too,”

“Hi,” someone says from behind us. “Can take a drink order?”

Cat turns around and gets herself a drink, because she’s the only one of us over 21. And besides, I really don’t feel like drinking anyway. I had enough last night…

“Alright,” the waitress says, and when I turn around I can’t help but be a little shocked. It’s Juliette, the girl who brought Jack back.

“Hey, I know you three,” She says, pointing to me Luke and Max. I smile and wave and Luke thanks her, again, for bring Jack to the hotel.

“Oh, so you’re the girl who saved him,” Cat says and she introduces herself. “We were going crazy looking for him. I was sent to look at all the bars nearby. I could’ve sworn that’s where he would be.”
Juliette laughs and shakes her head. “No, he was here the entire night. And then I saw him outside this morning and I was like ‘this kid is probably lost’.”

“Well thanks for that. Hey, you’ll actually get to see Jack,” Max tells her, and she gets a worried look on her face.

“He’s here again?” she asks, looking around for him.

“He’s in the band that’s performing tonight.”

“Oh, wow. That’s pretty cool. Well maybe I’ll see him later. I gotta go now, though. Gotta take some more drink orders.”

She waves before leaving and I can’t help but laugh.

“That poor girl. Jack won’t be leaving her alone tonight.”

“Jack hasn’t had a girlfriend in a while. Maybe something will happen between them?” Cat suggests. Not a second later, Juliette is back with Cat’s drink. I’m really hoping she didn’t hear that comment.

*

Throughout the entire show, I find myself watching Alex’s every move. He voiced his concern about a panic attack right before we left the hotel, and now he’s got me worried, too. I’m just hoping it turns out okay. But he has Jack up there with him, so he shouldn’t be too concerned.

When they finish their last song, I can’t help but let out a sign of relief. No panic attacks, no problems whatsoever. It’s now 9:30, and there’s another band scheduled to go on next. I don’t remember what they’re called.

“You did so great!” I exclaim when Alex appears at our table. He grins and takes the drink I was holding.

“Can I have this?” he asks and downs it without waiting for my answer.

“It’s only water, but okay.”

“That’s exactly what I needed. I am seriously so pumped right now. Come dance with me,” he says and grabs my hand. I manage to get off the seat without him having to pull me off and we go over to where everyone’s dancing. We stay on the outside because the middle seems to be a little bit much. Jack proves that we’re right.

“Oh, my God. You have no idea what it’s like in there,” He tells us when he emerges. “I have no doubt in my mind that there’s a baby being made in there. No joke!”

I laugh and Alex rolls his eyes.

“You know what, Jack? Lex told me that the girl who helped you out this morning is here.”

“Seriously?! Where? She was so hot!”

“She’s serving drinks, Jack.”

“That was such a bad move,” I tell Alex once Jack runs off. “He’s going to bother the fuck out of her.”

“Yeah, but at least now he’s not bothering us.”