Believe Me, I'm Lying

“Daddy?”

Alex looks up from his textbook that’s lying in front of him on the kitchen table. Across from him, sitting on the chair and leaning his elbows on the table, is Devyn. There’s a confused sort of expression on his face as he stares at his father.

“What’s up, Dev? Is your movie over?” Alex questions, looking over his shoulder to see the TV in the living room is still playing Shrek.

The little boy shakes his head, his hair falling into his eyes as he bites his lip, and at that moment Alex’s heart tightens as he sees just a small glimpse of Nicole in his features. “No. It’s not. But I want you to come watch it with me.” He pouts and whispers, “I don’t like the dragon part.”

Alex’s eyes land on his textbook again, the words on the page glaring up at him. He’s supposed to be memorizing definitions for English, because he has a test on Monday night. But, after looking back at Devyn and seeing how badly his son wants him to watch the movie, he decides that he can just study tomorrow. It’s Saturday. He should be spending time with his son and relaxing.

“Okay,” he shuts his book and pushes his chair out so he can get up, “Let’s go watch it. You can hold my hand when the dragon comes on.”

When the dragon does appear on the screen, Devyn is, by that point, curled up on Alex’s lap and covering his eyes. Alex laughs quietly, squeezing his son closer to him and resting his chin on his head. “Baby boy, you know it’s not real, right?”

“Dragon’s aren’t real?” He turns around in Alex’s lap, eyes wide and a look of disbelief on his face. “What about Dragon Tales?”

“Well…”

Fuck. Alex blinks a few times, his brain struggling to come up with an excuse. He doesn’t exactly know what to do – does he just let Devyn go on believing that dragons are real and that what goes on in Dragon Tails is legit? Or does he squash that belief now? Fuck. If Rian were here, he’d know what to do.

But thankfully, Devyn seems to have to attention span of a goldfish (Alex is pretty sure that it rubbed off on him from Zack) and is quickly moving on to another subject – although it’s really not much better. “Daddy? Why do you and Jack hold hands?”

“Because… because me and Jack like each other. When two people like each other, they hold hands.”

“Like when I hold your hand?”

“No… I mean… When they like each other –”

“Like Rian and Zacky?”

Alex, amazed by his son’s ability to be so observant, nods, “Yes. Like Rian and Zack. Rian and Zack love each other and they hold hands.”

Devyn shrugs and rests his head on Alex’s shoulder, “They kiss too,” he states, “Do you kiss Jack?”

In an attempt to change the subject, Alex sits up a little straighter and says, “How about you go get the cookies we bought at the store yesterday and you can have one?”

As expected, Devyn’s eyes light up and he hops down from Alex’s lap. Alex watches him move quickly into the kitchen, straight for the snack drawer. Normally, the drawer is pretty empty. Not because Alex thinks that snacks are unhealthy, or anything. It’s just that most of the time he can’t really afford to buy anything extra for him and Devyn. He usually can only buy the basics. But yesterday he got a few extra tips at work so he figured he would spoil Devyn just a little bit.

Devyn appears in front of him again only a few seconds later, holding up the package of store-brand chocolate chip cookies that they picked out. “How many can I have?” He asks sweetly, handing the package over to Alex, “Ri-Rian told you I was good yesterday.”

Alex’s lips turn upwards into a smile as he rips open the package, ignoring his son’s slight stutter – he’ll grow out of it. Of course Devyn would mention that, though. He’s too smart for his own good. “You can have three. But you also have to drink a glass of milk with them, too.”

“The whole glass?” the little boy grimaces as Alex hands him the cookies, “I don’t like milk.”

“Yes, you do. You drink chocolate milk, don’t you?” Alex stands and takes the cookies back into the kitchen. “It’s just one glass, Dev. I’m sure it won’t kill you.”

Devyn sighs, making his distaste for the beverage known as he sits down at the table. Alex hands him a glass of milk and then goes over to his cell phone that’s charging on the counter. He has a new message, and when he sees who it’s from, he smiles.

Jack: mobile
Sent: 2:47pm
Hey would you wanna come over tonight? You can bring Devyn if you want. 6?

At first, Alex thinks it’s a little weird that Jack’s inviting him over to his house. Won’t his fiancé be around? Wouldn’t that be a little bit risky? He feels like it might be and he really doesn’t want Jack to get into any trouble. But then he decides that Jack really wouldn’t put himself at risk like that – if he’s inviting Alex over, and Devyn too, then he must think it’s alright.

After texting Jack back with a confirmation, Alex calls Zack and Rian’s home number, hoping that maybe at least one of them will be home right now. Even though Jack invited Devyn over as well, Alex kind of wants to hang out with Jack alone tonight. If it’s possible.

“What’s up, Alex?”

“Rian! Hey! I uh… are you home?”

“Yeah. I just got in, actually.”

“Oh, really? Where’s Zack?”

“He’s at some art gallery downtown. It’s part of a project or something for work. He won’t be home until late. Why? What’s up?”

“Well,” Alex starts, biting his lip. He hates how often he has to depend on Rian and Zack to watch Devyn. But sometimes it’s inevitable, “Jack invited me over to his house and-”

“You want me to watch Devyn? What time are you going out?”

“Around six, so-”

“I’ll be there around five thirty. Should I bring dinner for him?”

“There’s a frozen pizza in my freezer that you can heat up for him… Thank you so much, Rian. I owe you-”

“Come on, Alex. You don’t owe me anything.”

*

At five after six, Alex is standing in the lobby of Jack’s apartment building, staring around him in awe. The floors are shiny and clean and probably made of a very expensive marble. The man sitting at the security desk over by the mailboxes seems friendly enough as he reads a tabloid magazine. So different from Alex’s building. But, he’s not sure why he’s so surprised – Jack has money. Jack can afford this type of thing. Alex doesn’t He has to take what he can get.

The elevator doors open with a *ding* and Alex steps inside, continuing to be amazed by how professional and classy this building is. He presses the button for the seventeenth floor and shoves his hands into his pockets. He’s wearing his favorite skinny jeans, the ones that make his ass look even better than it normally does (he’ll be honest and say that he knows he has a nice ass) and a checkered flannel shirt over a white t-shirt. He thinks he looks alright – both Rian and Devyn told him he did, so he’ll take their word for it. He just hopes Jack thinks the same.

When the elevator gets to the right floor and the doors open, Alex steps out, feeling very out of place. The halls are nicely decorated with flowers and small fake trees and awesome paintings by well known painters. He tries his best to ignore them all and focuses on the numbers on all the doors, finally being able to find the correct one – 1742. He takes a deep breath and brings his hand up to knock on the door.

It takes a minute, but finally Jack is standing in front of him, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. He smirks at Alex, looking him up and down before saying, “Don’t you look extra sexy today.”

“Well… I figured I should dress to impress.”

“Where’s Devyn?”

“Oh,” Alex bites his lip, realizing that maybe Jack didn’t actually want to be alone with him, “Rian’s watching him… I thought maybe-”

Jack grins, though, wiping all doubts from Alex’s mind, “That works so perfectly.”

“What about Ashley?” Alex finds himself asking, not sure he really wants to know the response.

“We had a fight. She’s pretty pissed off at me, apparently. So she won’t be around. Here, come inside.”

Alex’s heart flutters as Jack takes his hand, pulling him into the apartment. He kicks his shoes off near the door, breathing in deep and noticing that it smells pretty similar to an Italian restaurant in here. “Why does it smell so good in here?” he questions, following Jack into the living room.

Jack shrugs, “I might be cooking us dinner. Of course, by cooking I actually mean heating up a meal for two that I ordered from Little Italy down the block. Cause I can’t cook, really.”

“Aww, Jack!” Alex throws his arms around Jack’s neck, pressing their foreheads together, “That’s sweet of you.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Jack mumbles, “I thought maybe you’d think it was lame, or something.”

“Definitely not.”

Alex presses their lips together, one hand moving to the back of Jack’s neck. He feels Jack’s fingers dig into his hips and he can’t help but love it – it feels too good to be so close to him like this. It’s been a while since he’s been like this with anyone, boy or girl. Sure, he’s been on dates since Devyn was born but they were just simple things – like bowling or dinner. He’s never been intimate with anyone since high school.

“Alex,” Jack says quietly when he pulls away only slightly, “Come over here.” He leads them both over the couch, pressing Alex down by his shoulders. Before he moves in to kiss Alex again, he pauses, “This…this is okay, yeah?”

Alex responds, breathlessly, “Yeah. Of course. But what about-”

“The food will be done in twenty minutes. It’s fine.”

Alex smiles, nodding and bringing Jack’s lips back to his. It’s not long before Jack’s pressing one leg between his, his fingers trailing down to the waistband of his jeans. With Jack’s touch on him, Alex’s brain is clouded and maybe if it weren’t, he’d be stopping this, saying it’s too soon. Or, maybe he wouldn’t. Because Alex has never really been one to ‘wait’ until the right time for something – he’s just always sort of let it happen as it happens. And that’s really just what he’s going to do now.

“Wait,” Alex says as he tugs on Jack’s jeans, feeling them stretch considerably more than normal jeans, “Are you…are you wearing jeggings?”

Jack groans and pushes himself off of Alex, “They’re not jeggings,” he says, “They’re just…they’re like jeggings –”

“They feel like jeggings,” Alex laughs lightly, pulling the jeans again, “But you can’t tell.”

“They’re just… they’re really stretchy material, but not quite the material of leggings, okay? Different brands make them differently and just – fuck –”

“Jack, I’m not judging you, I don’t care what you wear. Besides, you look good in them.” Alex leans back in, but before he can press his lips to Jack’s neck like he intended, the both hear the sound of a key in the front doors lock.

“Oh shit,” Jack hisses, pushing Alex off of him and shoving him towards the other end of the couch, “Oh God, I think that’s Ashley. Fuck, what-”

“I thought you said you were in a fight!” Alex hisses back, just as the front door is pushed open.

The girl that walks in is everything that Alex thought she would be. Tall. Thin, but not too thin. Blonde. She’s gorgeous and Alex will admit it. The jealousy burns inside of him as she grins at Jack and hangs her jacket and bag on the coat rack near the door.

“Hey, baby!” She exclaims, rushing forward and wrapping her arms around her fiancé’s neck, “Are you cooking dinner?”

Jack stutters out, “Oh, y-yeah, I am-”

“Oh, so you got my message, then!”

“Right. Yeah, I did.”

“Oh, good – I thought maybe you didn’t. Anyway, I brought over a few things that we need to look at for the wedding – we need to pick the color of the tablecloths, and stuff.”

It’s more than obvious to Alex that no, Jack didn’t get the message. And the mention of the wedding makes his heart twist painfully. But, he stays quiet as Ashley’s eyes land on him.

“Who are you?” She asks, her voice as sweet as possible, “Are you a friend of Jack’s?”

Alex opens his mouth to respond, but Jack gets to answer before he can, “Actually, he’s a student. We’re working on his portfolio for my class – he just needs the extra credit and couldn’t come by during my office hours. He um. He was just leaving, actually.”

It’s like a slap in the face, really. But at the same time, Alex knows that that’s really the only thing Jack could have said. It still hurts, though, more than anything and all Alex wants to do is crawl into his bed and stay there forever. Or, at least until Jack calls his wedding off.