The Playmate vs. The Lead Singer

Alex and Jack’s relationship has been strained these past couple weeks and it was making the entire recording process that much more difficult. Adding to that is the fact that Jack has taken all the free time outside the studio to go and visit Holly.

Therefore, the only time the two boys spent together was in the studio so it was hard for Jack to even attempt to talk to Alex. Even worst is the fact that Holly was going to be in Los Angeles for the day and against his better judgment he had invited her into the studio.

He had a feeling he would regret this decision later, especially the fact that he didn’t tell Alex that she was coming. Everyone new except for Alex and Jack knew that this was going to back fire in his face really bad.

They were all currently sitting in the studio watching as Alex tried to perfect a chord progression on his acoustic guitar. Jack kept nervously looking from Alex to his cell phone, waiting for Holly to text him and let him know she was here.

His phone vibrated and he jumped about a foot in the air before looking down at the new message to see it was from Holly.

“You okay, bro?” Rian asked from next to him.

“Yeah,” Jack answered, “Uh, Holly’s here. I’m just going to go outside and get her.” He left the room quickly and purposely avoided looking at Alex.

“Did you guys know she was coming?” Alex asked as the grip on the neck of his guitar tightened.

“Yeah,” Rian answered. “He told us the other day.”

“He didn’t tell me.” Alex mumbled just as the blonde and Jack re-entered the room.

Alex quickly decided to pretend that everything was fine and plastered a fake smile on his face before standing and accepting the hug that Holly surprisingly gave him.

“How are you guys?” She asked, genuinely interested.

Alex let Zack and Rian take that question as he watched the way that Jack looked at Holly. Alex knew that he felt strongly for her; it was written all over Jack’s face. He looked down to their tightly entwined fingers and tried to contain the jealousy that was bubbling in his stomach.

“You guys want to grab lunch?” Holly asked.

“Were—“ Alex started to say. Wanting to say that they didn’t have time for lunch because they had a job to do, but Jack interrupted him.

“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.” Jack smiled at her and kissed the side of her head before looking around the room at his band mates. His eyes lingered on Alex and he knew that the elder definitely didn’t want to go to lunch and was hoping he wasn’t about to cause a scene over it.

“Sounds good.” Was all Alex said before he set his acoustic guitar down and followed the others out of the room. He only agreed because he didn’t want to make a scene in front of Holly. As well as not wanting to strain Jack’s and his relationship worse.

Lunch was horrible and Alex was so glad when it was finally over and Holly and the band went their separate ways. But not before watching Holly and Jack swap spit for five minutes.

Lunch was horrible because Alex wanted to hate Holly, but he just couldn’t. She was a genuinely nice person and she was truly interested in what they were doing and didn’t fail to ask Alex a lot of questions about the new album. He answered everything she asked him and by the end of lunch his fake smile had turned into a real smile. Alex was pissed off that he didn’t hate her because he really wanted to.

Back in the studio Alex was angry. He was a ticking time bomb and was on the brink of exploding. Luckily, he wasn’t needed in the vocal booth and today’s focus was on drums.

He opted to sit in the corner by himself and try to distract himself with his computer, but there was only so much he could do to tune out Zack and Jack’s conversation.

“So, Holly and you are getting serious then?” Zack asked.

“Yeah,” Jack answered without hesitation. “I really like her and I haven’t felt this way about someone in a long time.”

“That’s cool, bro.” Zack answered. “She’s a really nice girl.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “Were going to take it slow because we both have very busy schedules and don’t want t rush into a relationship.”

“That seems reasonable.” Zack shrugged. “But you can tell she really likes you.”

Jack just smiled a small embarrassed smile, but the smile was enough for Alex to know that the younger boy had completely fallen for the fake blonde and there was nothing he could do about it.

~x0x~

It was another weekend spent without Jack and Alex wasn’t taking this weekend particularly well. These feelings had been building up inside of him for over a month and he wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

He rolled over and grabbed his iPhone off the night stand and unlocked the screen. It was approaching two o’clock in the morning and he couldn’t sleep. Making a decision quickly before he could talk himself out of it he found Jack’s name in his phone and sent him a text.

It read a simple: I miss you.

Alex rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling while clutching his phone tightly in his hand. He wasn’t expecting an answer. It was two in the morning and Jack was either still out at the clubs or boning Holly.

So when his phone vibrated he jumped about a mile in the air before fumbling with his phone before he was able to read Jack’s text message.

I miss you too. Is everything okay?

Alex stared at the screen for several long minutes before deciding not to lie to Jack.

No, I cant sleep and I wish you were here.

He pressed send and squeezed his eyes shut and fought back the tears that suddenly sprang to his eyes. That was the problem, he needed Jack with him. They hadn’t had a proper conversation since the first weekend he went to see Holly and Alex missed him, a lot.

In Las Vegas, Jack read Alex’s text and sighed. He couldn’t decide if he should tell Alex that he wished he was with him at the moment because he didn’t know. Sure, at the moment he was just sitting around some club where he had been for hours waiting for Holly to turn up. He was bored and tired and wanted nothing more then to just go t bed.

He ran his hand over his face and let his fingers hover over the touch screen keyboard on his iPhone. Jack wanted to tell Alex that he wished he was with him, cuddled up against him in bed and talking about their high school days, but something was stopping him.

Just as he finally almost mustered up the courage to text Alex back, Holly found him and informed him that they were leaving. Jack didn’t even realize that he had sat there for the better part of an hour staring at his phone and cursed himself for not texting his best friend back, but he figured it was to late now.

And back in Los Angeles, Alex was crying softly into his pillow as his silent cell phone lay next to him on his bed; taunting him.