Believe Me, I'm Lying

It’s Wednesday when Jack decides that he’s an asshole. Well, technically he already knew that, but it’s only now that he decides to do something about it. It’s nearing eight at night and he’s sitting in the passenger’s seat of Kyle’s car, biting his nails. He’s kind of nervous about what he’s going to do.

“You sure this is the right building?” Caleb asks from the back seat, leaning forward between the front seats, “It looks like it’s going to self combust.”

“It’s the address that Marshall gave to me,” Kyle explains, rolling his eyes, “I’ve only said that about eight times, Caleb.”

“Oh. Right.”

Jack sighs. He knew that Alex Marshall would be able to get them Alex’s address. His father owns the chain of coffee shops that Alex works for and it would be fairly easy for Marshall to lie his way into getting it. Marshall’s always been good at that sort of thing. So, knowing that this is definitely the right apartment building, Jack has no reason not to go inside.

“Alright… He should be home by now so I should just get this over with,” he says, unbuckling his seat belt.

Kyle grins, “Go get your guy, Jacky boy. I’m really proud of you for doing this, you know that? Shows that you’re not a complete dickhead.”

“Yeah,” Caleb agrees, “It’s great that you’re not going to be an asshole. Oh, and don’t drop the baby!”

“Thanks guys. I really appreciate the support.” Jack pushes the car door open and steps out, fixing his jacket as he does so. He waves at Kyle and gives Caleb the middle finger before slamming the door shut and making his way across the street towards the apartment building.

Caleb was right in commenting on the building’s appearance. It definitely looks like it could fall down sometime in the near future and when he gets into the lobby, he frowns. It’s not much of a lobby. There are boxes stacked in the corners and the elevator doesn’t look safe in any sense of the word. So, Jack decides to take the stairs up the fourth floor of the building. It kind of upsets Jack that Alex is living here, but he pushes that to the back of his mind. When he gets to the top of the steps on the fourth floor, he looks down at his hand where he wrote ‘4th floor, apt. 4C’ in pen.

His nerves are practically shot by the time he gets to the right door, and his hands shake as he knocks twice and steps back. He hears someone yell out “I’ve got it!” on the other side, and it doesn’t sound a thing like Alex so Jack starts to think that maybe he’s got the wrong door –hell, he might not even be in the right building.

And his thoughts are only enforced when someone who is definitely not Alex opens the door. He’s shorter than Jack, with brown hair that’s styled into a faux hawk, kind of. He eyes Jack with a curious look. “Are you-”

“Who is it, Rian?” someone calls from inside the apartment, and Jack knows that that’s definitely Alex.

“I’m here for Alex,” he starts, but the boy who is apparently called Rian shakes his head and steps out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

“You’re here for rent, right? Alex is behind again?”

Jack widens his eyes, “Uh, no, I’m not-”

“Can you tell me how much he owes? Cause I can pay you right now if-”

“Dude,” Jack cuts off, “Dude, I’m not here for rent. I’m sorry if I gave you that impression, but I have nothing to do with that.”

Rian’s face falls and he lets out a heavy sigh, “Damnit,” He says, “Sorry, man. I’ve never met the landlord so…Yeah, sorry about that. Um… So, who are you, then?”

“I’m Jack. I’m just here to talk to Alex.”

A knowing look crosses Rian’s face, and he smiles slightly and holds his hand out for Jack to shake, “So you’re Jack. I’m Rian, one of Alex’s friends.”

“Nice to meet you… Is uh, Alex inside?” Jack questions, even though he already knows the answer.

“Yeah. He’s just cleaning up from dinner.” Rian opens the front door again, stepping aside to let Jack in.

The first thing Jack sees when he walks inside is two pairs of Converse sneakers lined up against the wall. The bigger pair is clearly Alex’s, the ones that Jack has seen him wear the past few weeks. The other, smaller pair is obviously his son’s.

Jack tears his eyes away from the sneakers and looks up, finding Alex standing a few feet away from him, arms crossed and eyes set into a glare. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” Is all Jack says. He doesn’t really want to say too much in front of Rian, because the whole thing is really just between him and Alex and he doesn’t need anybody else getting involved with this. “I was wondering if that’d be okay.”

As if he can read Jack’s mind, Rian clears his throat and takes a few steps toward the door on the other side of the room, “I’m gonna get Zack and then we’ll go so you can talk. Do you want us to take Dev for the night so he doesn’t get in the way?”

“No,” Alex shakes his head, “He won’t be in the way. Tell Zack to bring him out here, okay?”

Rian disappears into the room behind the other door, leaving Jack with Alex still glaring at him. He clears his throat and smiles slightly, hoping that maybe it’ll warm Alex up a bit. But all it does is earn a scoff from the younger boy as he heads off back to the kitchen sink.

“Alex, come on,” Jack pleads, “Can you just hear me out?”

“I’m not stopping you, Jack,” is all Alex says, putting a glass plate inside one of the cabinets, “I never said you couldn’t talk.”

“Oh…right. Well, then, can you like, sit down, maybe?”

Once Alex is sitting in a chair at his kitchen table (after making a slight scene about it), Jack stands in front of him, fingers wringing together. He’s never been so nervous in his life. Actually, he can’t even remember the last time he was nervous about anything at all.

“I’m really, really sorry about the way I reacted in the park the other day,” he starts off. “I just… I’m not the greatest guy when it comes to caring about things other than myself. I’m selfish and irresponsible... Probably the last person you’d want to be around your…your son. To be honest, I don’t even like kids all that much.”

“Then why are you here, Jack?” Alex asks, leaning forward, “Why should I even be listening to you right now?”

“Because I like you. A lot. I… I’ve never felt this way about anybody else before. It scares me, Alex. But… For some reason, I’ve decided that I don’t care. I want to keep seeing you… And I want to be there for you.”

“But you don’t like kids. And I have one of those.”

“I don’t care. I’m okay with that now. It took a few days for it to actually sink in but… I’m already kind of used to it.”

“Used to it? It’s not just something you ‘get used to’-”

“Alex, this brings me completely out of my comfort zone. You have to understand that I’m going to do my best with all of this, alright?”

Already, Jack has said far more than he intended. He never thought he’d be trying so hard to get Alex to see his way (actually, he never thought he’d be trying so hard for anyone). But, he decides that it doesn’t really matter, because he wants Alex and if this is what he has to do, then whatever. He’ll do it.

“Alright, Jack,” Alex finally says smiling slightly, “We can give us another shot, I guess.”

The weight that seemed to be taking residence in Jack’s chest throughout the conversation disappears. He had started to think that maybe Alex wasn’t going to want to try again – that he was going to ask Jack to leave. But thankfully he’s a little more understanding than Jack gave him credit for.

Jack pulls Alex up from his seat and puts both hands on his lips, “So am I allowed to kiss you? Or is it too soon for that?”

“Our relationship is anything but quintessential, Jack.”

Jack, even with his college degree, has no idea what quintessential means, exactly. But Alex is smiling so he figures it can be taken as to mean ‘yes’ and he leans forward, briefly pressing his lips to the younger boy’s, initiating their first kiss. He keeps it short and simple not really wanting to press his luck. Just as he pulls away, he hears a door opening and more footsteps, signaling Rian’s return with Zack, and Alex’s son.

He’s not exactly sure what he expected Alex’s kid to look like, but Jack is almost positive that he wasn’t expecting him to be a toddler. But, the kid in Rian’s arms is most definitely a toddler and Jack’s heart starts racing, because shit. Babies he can handle. They don’t talk and complain.

“Okay, we’re going to get going,” Rian announces as he steps up beside Alex, “Do you wanna take him or…?”

“Thanks, Ri. I’ll take him.”

Jack stares at the little boy in Rian’s arms. Devyn, if he recalls the name correctly. It scares Jack how much he looks like Alex. Same eyes, same nose. Same hair color, too. He’s leaning into Rian’s shoulder, staring at Jack as if he’s some sort of infectious disease. And Jack thinks that he’s probably looking at him the same way. If only he had a mirror. The second the boy is in Alex’s arms again, he pouts and reaches his tiny arms out to Rian.

“You’ll see Rian again tomorrow,” Alex reminds him, “You see him pretty much every day.”

Rian laughs, slipping his hand into Zack’s and starting to walk towards the door, “Well, see you tomorrow, Lex. And it was nice to meet you Jack.”

Jack lifts his hand in a slight wave as the two of them leave, kind of sort of maybe wishing that they would come back. Because he wants to prolong the inevitable as much as he can.

“So, um… You wanna sit over there and I can introduce you two? He’s really shy at first but once he knows you a little bit, he’ll love you.”

“R-right. Okay.” Now Jack is starting to kinda freak out, but he goes over to the couch and sits down anyway, watching as Alex sits down right beside him with Devyn in his lap. “His-his names Devyn, right?” He questions, just to double-check. Because he was only told once and that was nearly four days ago now.

Thankfully, Alex isn’t offended by the question, and he laughs lightly and nods, “Yeah. This is Devyn. He’s four. Right, baby?” Alex nudges his nose against his son’s cheek and smiles when he holds up four fingers, but hides his face in Alex’s shoulder. “He might seem sweet and innocent but trust me. He’s anything but.”

Jack smiles, not really having the confidence to laugh.

“Devyn, I want you to meet my friend Jack. Can you say hi to him?”

Devyn finally looks at Jack again, but keeps his fingers tightly closed around the fabric of Alex’s shirt. “Hi,” he says quietly, eyeing Jack with suspicion.

“Hi Devyn,” Jack tries to make his voice as child friendly as possible. He’s not sure, but he might just sound like a pedophile. Whatever.

“He hasn’t tried to hit you yet, so I think that’s a good sign,” Alex says, a grin spread across his face.

“Does he normally hit people he’s just met?”

“Yeah. I’m working on it.”

Jack laughs, shaking his head as Devyn slides off of Alex’s lap and walks over to a toy box in the corner, “Well. I’ll do my best to help you work on that.”