My Toxic Valentine

Jack tiptoed across Alex's room, shedding layers as he went. He'd just finished working the shitty shift at the diner; 10pm through til 6am, and he was beat. He'd had to walk home too, because the bus run didn't start until 8am and he didn't want Alex to have to get up stupidly early on a Saturday to come get him, even though he totally would have done it. He threw all of his dirty work clothes into the laundry hamper and pulled on a pair of plaid pyjama pants before climbing carefully into bed next to his boyfriend.

He snuggled up to the older boy who, despite still being mostly asleep, instinctively wrapped his arms around him.

“G'morning,” Alex mumbled sleepily, nuzzling his head into Jack's neck.

“Morning,” Jack said quietly and he was just about to tell him to go back to sleep when he noticed that Alex was already snoring softly again. That boy really wasn't a morning person, he thought with a smile, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep himself.

It was several hours before either of them woke again; much needed rest on Jack's part, pure laziness on Alex's, and they didn't wake out of free will.

A loud knock on the front door disturbed them both from their sleep at about 10am, causing Jack to just about jump out of his skin; he was still pretty nervous but was beginning to relax and feel at home. Alex groaned before throwing off the blankets and climbing out of bed, not bothering to make the effort to be presentable.

“Go back to sleep. I'll deal with it,” he told his boyfriend, giving him a quick kiss and then padding downstairs in nothing but his pyjama pants.

“Yeah?” he said, his voice still thick with sleep as he opened the door.

He was somewhat surprised to see a middle-aged man in a suit on the other side of the door, but it didn't really surprise him that one of his father's business associates would be waking him up on a Saturday morning.

“Mr. Gaskarth?” the man said, reaching into his shirt pocket for what Alex assumed was a business card of some description.

“No, he's out of the country on business. He'll be back in a couple of weeks.”

“Mr. Alex Gaskarth?”

“Oh, no... that's me,” Alex replied slowly, starting to become concerned. He could only think of a handful of reasons why someone who looked official would be at his house late on a Saturday morning, and none of them were good.

“Detective John Bailey, Baltimore police,” the detective said, holding up a badge and ID.

Alex would have preferred him to pull out a business card. He felt sick to his stomach. He was pretty sure that there was no instance in history where a detective showing up unannounced was good news.

“What are you... did something happen? Are my parents okay?” Alex was struggling to not ramble as all of the worst-case-scenarios in his head tried to voice themselves at once.

“To the best of my knowledge your parents are fine, Mr. Gaskarth. I've actually come to see you about something else. May I come in?”

Thinking that it probably wasn't in his best interests to say no, Alex stepped aside and gestured for Detective Bailey to come in. He lead him through to the living room where they both sat, Alex dreading what he was about to be told.

“I'm here about the fight you were involved in that took place at your school last week.”

Alex's eyes grew wide. “What?”

“Do you deny that you were involved?”

“No. It happened, I was suspended. I don't understand why you're here.”

“Mr. Graham, under his parents advisement, has decided to press charges.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Alex said after a few moments of shell-shocked silence.

“No, Mr. Gaskarth. This is quite a serious matter.”

“So... what, do I have to go the station? Am I being arrested? I don't understand,” Alex said honestly, trying to wrap his head around the different stereotypical cop shows that were playing out in his mind.

“No, you're not under arrest,” the detective said with a slight smile “You will have to go to court, but as a minor that can't happen without your parents or a legal guardian present. We'll have to contact them and go from there.”

Alex groaned inwardly. The last thing he needed was his parents being told they needed to come back to the country because their son was being charged with assault.

“Is there anything I need to do?” Alex asked quietly.

The detective shook his head. “It's up to you whether you want to contact your parents yourself or if you'd prefer for us to do it. But if you choose to contact them yourself, you have to do it within a week or we will contact them and the severity of the charges may increase.”

Alex sighed. “I should do it myself... they're already gonna be pretty mad.”

The detective gave him a sympathetic look. “Honestly, it's surprising to me that a school fight has eventuated to an assault charge. Boys will be boys, and I strongly suspect that it was Mr. Graham's parents who opted for it to come to this.”

“I wouldn't count on it.”

Bailey frowned. “Well, with Mr. Graham's record at the school in regards to fighting, it seems a particularly strange result.”

Alex shrugged. “I don't know. I guess I'll just have to deal with it.”

“Alright. Well, you need to get in touch with your parents as soon as possible and we'll take it from there. I'll need to get a statement from you as soon as they're aware of the situation, as well,” Bailey said, standing up.

Alex nodded and walked him out, taking his card before he left. When he'd closed the door behind the older man, he sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily. This was not a great start to the Saturday he'd planned with Jack.

Speaking of his boyfriend, Alex heard him clear his throat quietly behind him.

“Hey,” Jack said quietly “What was that all about?”

“Sean's pressing charges against me.”

“What?”

“The fight, at school. He's pressing charges. I hit him first and he didn't fight back. It's assault, apparently.”

Jack bit his lip and crossed his arms over his stomach nervously. “I'm sorry.”

“What?” Alex asked with a frown.

“This is all my fault. You only got in that fight because of me.”

“No.”

“But you-”

“No,” Alex said sternly, cutting the younger boy off. He walked over to him and wrapped his arms around Jack's skinny frame “They hurt you. For no reason. And what they did to you was a hell of a lot worse than what I did to Sean. I'd do it again if I had the chance. In fact, I'd love to. You have nothing to apologise for. I'll deal with it.”

Jack sighed but relaxed into the hug.

“I'm not looking forward to telling my parents, though.”

“Will they be mad?”

“Furious. But probably mainly that I'm cutting their holiday short,” Alex said with a sad smile.

Jack tightened his arms around him and kissed him softly on the forehead.

“Love you,” he said quietly.

Alex couldn't help but smile. Even though he knew he was about to face a complete shit storm, hearing that made it a little easier to deal with.