Band-Aids

Smashing Pumpkins ran through speakers in the kitchen and in the living room, a flat screen TV on a low volume played a TiVo-ed Dexter episode. A sugary warmth smell floated in the house, thanks to the abundance of candles that were placed around the house for two.

“Yo Alex, grab me a beer while you’re up, man,” a young man shouted from the couch after he saw his friend get up from the couch beside him.

“It’s two in the afternoon, Jack,” Alex laughed as he disappeared in the kitchen. He dug around in the refrigerator, moving jars around to find a bottle of water for himself. Every once and a while, Alex ruffled his damp hair atop his head that he never got to finish drying. He thought back to his dick joke cracking, stubborn, obnoxious friend in the living room. Jack came over when Alex was walking to his room with just a towel wrapped around his waist after taking a shower. Alex would have thought that Jack would have taken a couple weeks to go visit friends and family after they returned from their big headlining tour. Instead, he wandered over to Alex’s house to do the same thing they did everyday on tour; sit around and do useless activities. “Fuck,” Alex muttered, bumping his elbow on the refrigerator door.

“Yeah?” Alex said distractedly, answering his phone, focused on nurturing his throbbing funny bone.

“Hi Alex,” a soft voice sounded on the other end.

“Hey Foxy Mama,” Alex greeted his mom happily, not having talked to her in several weeks. Since All Time Low was on tour, he rarely talked to his parents, so when he got home, Alex liked to catch up with family and friends. They talked a bit about what had been going on with the band and the family. “Why don’t you and dad come over Sunday and we’ll go out or something?”

Alex walked out of the kitchen empty handed; he completely forgot what he went in to do almost 15 minutes ago. “That sounds great, hun. Say around five? I think you father—”

“I’m sorry, mom. I’m getting another call,” he said after looking at the screen and seeing an unfamiliar number. “I’ll call you back later.” They said their goodbyes and Alex timidly greeted the unknown caller.

“Alex?” The voice sounded familiar, but Alex couldn’t put a face to the voice. Maybe if it wasn’t for the distress in the person’s voice, he wouldn’t have been able to recognize it.

“Um, yeah.”

“Alex, it’s Jenny.” Jenny winced silently on the other side of the phone, feeling absolutely stupid because Alex didn’t remember her.

“Oh Jenny! Hey,” he smiled. His attitude completely changed after identifying the unhappy voice. Jack whipped his head backwards once he heard the unfamiliar name of Jenny come out of Alex’s mouth. He arched his eyebrow and waited for me so he could eavesdrop. For some reason, Alex couldn’t figure out why a large smile couldn’t be wiped off his face at the thought of Jenny. Her shiny, unmethodical blonde hair, toned arms and curvy hips. Her bright white smile that sparkled when she laughed, which he noticed wasn’t in large quantities, but her eyes were what Alex got stuck on. The various shades of greens and blues swirled together in her right eye and in her left, a gorgeous mismatched brown.

Alex remembered noticing the blemish the first time he looked at her in the dentist, but didn’t pay much attention to it. It wasn’t until he saw Jenny at her house. In regular jeans and T-shirt standing in a ordinary house, that he realized how much mystery was behind her eyes. It was when Alex became more curious than he should have been. He wanted to know more about Jenny. There was something about her. She was so normal, yet there wasn’t a little string that tugged Alex along, letting him know there was something different. It was all behind those eyes. Just like her regular body, nothing seemed off balance, aside for the mismatched eyes. Jenny seemed completely normal, but Alex just had to find the mismatch eye in Jenny.

Every vibe that Jenny gave off was a trance and it just added to the mystical aura around her. It intrigued Alex. Alex didn’t know why his brain wanted it so badly, but he was determined to find the missing piece and pull it out of Jenny. So the anguish in Jenny voice immediately worried Alex. He knew he shouldn’t have cared so much, but he did. “Jenny,” he repeated. “Is everything okay?”

“I-I don’t know…I probably sound crazy but you said I could call you if I ever needed something and I knew it was just a polite thing to say and I wouldn’t have called but I just don’t know what to do, this has never happened before. My business is just taking off and I don’t—”

“Jenny, Jenny, calm down. You’re freaking out and I have no idea what you are talking about.” Alex noticed Jack’s quizzical look at turned back to the kitchen so he wouldn’t have more listening ears then needed.

Jenny shifted, a little embarrassed but urgency overshadowed it. “Sorry,” she apologized quickly. “I usually get off at four and pick up Carrigan and Daniel but I have to work late tonight. I can’t get off. I can’t find anyone to come in for me and none of my friends are free. Um... I…” Her voice cut off and Alex pulled the phone away from his ear to see if he lost the call.

“Jenny?”

“Yeah?” She didn’t like asking for help. Jenny was headstrong in that way. When it came to money, the kids and the overall wellbeing of herself and her family, she didn’t want help. Jenny could make her own money. She could take care of Carrigan and Daniel without people clawing their way in. Asking Alex seemed like begging almost and she did not feel comfortable with it.

Alex picked up on what Jenny was hinting at. He leaned against the counter and folded one arm across his chest, a smile playing at his lips. “Jenny, would you like me to pick up your kids for you today at four?” He heard hesitation, so he decided to rephrase it. “I’m going to go by Carrigan and Daniel’s daycare around four today, would you like me to pick them up?”

Jenny smiled at Alex’s playful words. “Yes,” she whispered, almost inaudible. “Please.”

“I would be happy to.”

“Oh thank you, Alex. Thank you so much. I can’t begin to—”

Alex cut her off. He didn’t want her to thank him. He wanted to do this favor. He would go out of his way to do any favor for Jenny. He had only seen her four times, but he had some sort of spell over him he felt like. “Stop thanking me and tell me the address of the daycare,” he spoke lightly. A huge relief washed over Jenny and she felt a real smile come to her lips.

She went over instructions with him on how to get to the house, what to do when he got there and how to get to her house. Alex took mental notes, noticing that Jenny was giving him way too much information. It was like a mother leaving her baby for the first time.

“I don’t know what time I will be home…so…”

“I can watch them until you get home, Jenny.”

“I don’t think that—”

“So I’ll pick up Carrigan and Daniel at 4:30, bring them home and then watch them until you get home. I’m not going to just drop them off at your house and leave them there.”

“My friend will hopefully be done with class by then…” Jenny didn’t like the idea of someone she barely knew, one, picking up the kids, and two, staying in her house with herself there, alone with Carrigan and Daniel. She was nervous when Alex and his roommate Rian went sledding with the three of them. But without her there? Jenny was put in a very uncomfortable position.

Alex pushed himself off the counter when he saw Jack wander in the kitchen to get a beer that Alex never got. A pen nervously was played with between Alex fingers as he spoke. “That is just a waste. Jenny, I swear to you I will take care of Carrigan and Daniel for you and nothing will happen to them. Please, you sound very stressed out. I can help. I’ll pick them, bring them home and we will spend a couple hours together.”

Alex was confident in it. He was confident in almost everything he did, but he was absolutely certain the three of them would get along fine. Carrigan and Daniel took a liking to Alex and Alex liked the two children more than he probably should have. Thousands of questions were crashing around in Jenny’s mind. She was not relaxed about the situation and had many other things she wanted to tell Alex, but instead, she reluctantly muttered a single word: “Alright.”

Alex smiled fully. They said their goodbyes and each hung up.

“Who the fuck was that?”

“Jenny.”

Jack chuckled at the lovesick expression on Alex’s face and popped open his beer. He took a swig and reached to get another beer and handed it to Alex. Alex didn’t accept it. He smirked and walked to the fridge to find the water bottle he was looking for earlier.