Laws of Attraction

“Can’t I help you? I’m bored just sitting here and watching you!”

Jack sighs in irritation as he lifts another box into the back of the car. He can see Alex out of the corner of his eye sitting on the steps, but he ignores him and goes to grab another box to put into the car.

“Stop ignoring me! Do you want me to cry?”

No, Jack decides. He definitely does not want Alex to cry. But it seems as if Alex crying is pretty much inevitable lately, considering that’s all he really does. It’s the hormones, he knows, but still. It’s frustrating. Especially when all he asks is a simple question such as, what do you want for dinner?

“No, you cannot help me,” Jack finally responds, standing in front of his boyfriend with a box that’s labeled ‘kitchen appliances’. “You can continue to sit there and not over-exert yourself, or you can go inside and watch TV or something. Your pick.”

“You know,” Alex starts, his eyes filling with water, “I would totally love to go watch TV. But I can’t – because our TV is packed away. How funny is that!”

Jack is quick to put the box right back down, as gently as he can, and sit down on the steps beside Alex. “Calm down,” He mutters, wrapping his arms around his upper body. “It’s nothing to get upset over.”

“Y-yes it is,” Alex says, mid hiccup. “I want to watch TV but I can’t and you won’t let me do anything and I – I don’t want to move!”

He knew it was a bad idea moving so close to the end of Alex’s pregnancy. But did that stop Jack from declaring their neighborhood ‘unsafe’ and actively searching for somewhere safer to live? No, not really. “The place we’re moving to is nicer, Alex!” he tries to reason, squeezing the older boy closer for a hopefully reassuring hug. “It’ll be better for us. We talked about this.”

“I-I don’t care,” Alex sniffles, wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. “I don’t want to go.”

Jack rolls his eyes and removes his arms from around Alex so he can stand up. He really doesn’t have time for this. He has to finish loading up the car and making sure they didn’t leave anything behind. The moving van is already on its way to their new apartment and Jack doesn’t really want to make the moving guy wait that long for them to get there. So he ignores Alex and bends down to pick up the next box, walking the small distance from the steps to the car.

He’s busy rearranging boxes so that they fit nicely and making sure none of them are going to prevent the trunk from closing when he feels someone tap him on the back. He knows who it is before he turns around, and he kind of wants to ignore him further. But, that will likely just make him cry more and that’s the last thing Jack really needs right now. So he sighs, making it obvious that he’s annoyed, and turns, finding Alex right there behind him, holding out an extension cord.

“You dropped this,” he says quietly, as if he’s afraid if he talks too loudly, Jack will freak out on him.

Jack wants to yell at him for getting up, because he’s really not supposed to do anything other than sit and watch TV (well, at least that’s what Jack got out of the doctor’s speech the other week) until the baby’s born. But the pout gracing Alex’s lips is enough to tell him to calm down and just let it go. He figures once the baby’s here, they’ll be fighting more than usual. Might as well save the argument.

“Thanks,” Jack says, reaching out and taking the cord out of Alex’s hands. He turns back to the box and finds a good spot to put it as he suggests, “How about you go wait in the car while I go in and make sure we’ve got everything?”

When Alex doesn’t answer, Jack assumes he’s just being stubborn again and isn’t going to answer out of spite. But when he turns back around, prepared to lecture Alex once again on why the doctor gave strict instructions to stay off his feet as much as possible, he finds that that lecture might be coming a bit too late- because Alex is staring at him with wide eyes and both hands on his stomach, clearly in pain.

“For God’s sake, Alex! Now?!”

“It’s –it’s not my fault!” he gasps, reaching out and grabbing onto Jack’s arm.

Jack’s heart is practically pounding out of his chest as he asks, “So…so hospital. Now? He’s coming now?”

“Yes, Jack! Now!”