Untangle Me.

"Hey!" Jack shouted in confusion as the sheets he'd previously been lying under were suddenly whipped away. "Dude, what?" He said, looking up to see an apologetic Rian peeking out from behind Caleb who looked nothing short of victorious. Asshole.

"Bro, you haven't left this place in forever." The ginger man exclaimed, waving around the arm that wasn't holding Jacks covers violently.
"I've been working at the coffee shop for like two weeks... With you... You were there." Jack replied impatiently, chuckling as Rian dodged Calebs flailing arm and then sympathising slightly with the memory of his own (now bruised) eye becoming victim to the same arm just three days previously.
"That doesn't count, though."
"Yes it does!"
"No, I mean like outside of work." Caleb half-moaned, sounding like an impatient child.
"What's the difference?" Jack asked, confused.

"The difference," Caleb began with a sneaky smile on his face, "Is that at work there is no alcohol or grinding girls, dude!"
"He tried to talk Matt into it, but he said no." Rian said, laughing and shaking his head slightly.
"And that is why Flyzik sucks ass." Caleb concluded with a grin.
"You're gay." Jack said suddenly.
"Good observation, hombre." Caleb replied, with confusion written all over his face.
"No, like you're gay. Why do you care about grinding girls anyway?"
"Because Jack-o, I think with my dick, not my head. Which, I might add, is a lesson that you sir need to learn." Caleb replied, grinning again.
"Duuude." Jack said with a snort. "No."

"Okay okay, so no clubs or alcohol or grinding girls but can you at least do me a favour?"
"If you promise to get out my room and warn me in advance so I can get dressed for the next shitty invention you guys are going to hold."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure." Caleb said waving his hand again impatiently, before putting on his best serious expression, "Me and Kyle have fallen out-"
"Again." Added Rian with a laugh.
"Yes, again. He's making me sleep on the couch dude, which sucks... Or, more like it doesn't, and-"

"How does this affect me?" Jack interrupted, already knowing enough about Calebs' sex life without more information.
"The other terms is that I do the school run every day."
"And?"
"And... I need you to pick up Oscar for me tonight."
"No."
"Jack, please, man. I've got to finish writing up the orders for Flyzik by closing tonight." The ginger man practically whined.
"The orders that you got asked to do a week ago?"
"Yes, I suck I know but please do this for me, everybody else is busy, man."
"Rian?" Jack asked, now looking at the other man.
"I'm driving up to meet Cass' family, sorry dude."
"See? You are my only hope now Rian is pretty much Cass' bitch. Please Jack." Caleb said, begging now.

"What if I see Alex, again?" Jack asked, sounding just as desperate.
"You won't, he's never there when I pick up Oscar because Ja-" He coughed awkwardly before continuing, "Jake stays late on a Wednesday."
"Caleb." Jack half-begged.
"Dude, please. I'll owe you forever." The ginger man begged, giving Jack puppy eyes.
"Fine. But you're not wrong when you say you owe me."
"Dude, I love you." Caleb said, relief clear in his voice.
"Of course you do." Jack replied with a chuckle before pulling himself up and out of bed.



When Jack pulled into the school gates, he was reminded of the last time he was there and physically shivered at the memory.
"Fuck." He mumbled to himself as he pulled the car into the nearest available space. After cutting off the engine, he rubbed his eyes with both hands and let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. He's pretty sure that he broke about six traffic laws on the drive there just from not focusing but Caleb said Alex wouldn't be there so he didn't even need to be nervous. That didn't stop him from internally freaking out, though.

When he finally convinced his stubborn body to get out of the car and go inside, it took a good ten minutes just trying to find the right classroom. When he finally did, he wasn't sure what to do so opted to go and talk to the all-too-friendly looking teacher with bright red hair who was wrestling a tube of red poster paint off a little boy all the while with a huge false grin on her face. She looked more like she wanted to punch this kid then smile at him.
"Hi." Jack said, causing her to look up.
"Hello?" She replied, clearly confused about not recognizing him.
"I'm Jack, um Jack Barakat. I'm here to pick up Oscar Turman?" Jack said, sounding more like he was asking than telling.
"Are you a relative?" The woman asked, looking suspicious.
"No, I'm a friend of Calebs and I'm doing him a favour."
"Oh, you're the dude that's staying with Rian, right?" She said, enthusiastically.
"Yes?" Jack replied.
"I'm Hayley. I'm a friend of Cass' It's good to meet you." She said, happily. "Oscar's in the sandpit, I'll go clean him up. His coats hanging on one of the hooks over there if you want to grab it."
"Thanks." Jack said, heading over to the row of labeled coat hooks on the wall she'd pointed at.

When Jack finally found the right label with Oscars name on - and a glittery orange octopus, no less - and retrieved his coat and bag, he turned around to see Hayley half-dragging the wiggling little boy towards a sink in the corner. With a shrug he decided to wait by the door and it was only then that he noticed the large display on the wall with a huge glittery - seriously, what is with the glitter at this place?- title "My Family."

He could see Oscars' picture stuck onto a painting of a stick-man with Kyle and Caleb on either side of him. He almost laughed thinking about how much fun he was going to have teasing Caleb about it before he saw something that caught his breath. Below Oscar was the face of a boy that he nearly recognised. It was labeled "Jake Gaskarth" and showed the smiley faced, brown haired boy standing between two men. One of them was Alex, smiling happily and the other had curly hair and was also smiling. The labels named them "Daddy" and "Zacky." Zacky. The very name felt like it stuck in Jacks throat and cut off his oxygen supply.

He turned around quickly, trying to regain his breath as the door opened behind him but he couldn't focus on that when the same smiling boy from the picture he'd just been looking at was standing right in front of him.
"Excuse me, mister." The little boy -Jake- said, voice sounding nasally like his nose was blocked or something.
Jack wordlessly moved out of the way and watched as the little boy ran past and jumped into the arms of whoever had entered the room.
Alex.

"Hey buddy, you not feeling too good?" Alex asked, looking down at the little boy in his arms who shook his head in response.
It was then that he looked up and saw Jack stood there not knowing what to do.
"Jack." He said, barely making eye contact but looking both shocked and confused.
"Hi." Jack replied, waving awkwardly.
"Why are you-"
"I'm picking up Oscar for Caleb." Jack responded, cutting him off.
"Oh... right." Alex replied. A tense few moments followed before Alex finally said. "I think we need to talk."
Jack just nodded knowing he probably wouldn't be able to form coherent words if he wanted to.
"Here, pass me your phone." Alex said, holding out his hand.
Jack reached into his pocket, confused and passed his phone over into Alexs' waiting hand.
After typing in a few keys, Alex passed it back and said, "You should call me."
"I will." Jack said.
"Okay... Cool." Alex replied, before turning around and walking out the door he came through.



It was only when Jack got back to Rians' after dropping Oscar home that he took his phone out of his pocket again and went into his contacts and there under the letter L was the word "Lex" and possibly the most important 10 digits in his life.