I See Sparks Fly Whenever You Smile

"Alright, Mr. Barakat, it looks like you're very lucky. After going over your X-Rays, it doesn't look like surgery will be necessary for your foot - just this cast and plenty of rest." The doctor explained to Jack.

"Ugh," Jack groaned. "Call me Jack. Please. Mr. Barakat is my dad."

"Of course! Jack. My apologies." The doctor corrected himself. "Buy did you hear what I said about rest? I assume from your line of work, rest is not something you get a lot of."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Doc. Plenty of rest. I heard ya..."

The doctor sighed, seemingly losing his patience with Jack.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure he takes it easy for a while," Jenn said from her seat next to Jack's bed.

"Thank you," the doctor nodded in her direction before excusing himself from the room.

"Jack," Jenn smacked his arm slightly. "You can't be such a beat to the doctor like that."

Jack sighed. "I'm sorry," he said, shifting a bit so he could face her.

"It's okay," she said, squeezing his hand. "But I'm serious. You're going to take it easy for a while."

"I know," he groaned. "It's gonna suck."

"It will. But I will do my best to keep you entertained." Jenn smirked.

Jack smiled and wiggled his eyebrows up and down. "I bet you will."

Jenn rolled her eyes. "Relax."

"How are the others?" Jack asked. It was a question he had been wanting to ask for a while. But he was afraid of the answer. He realized he hadn't seen any if the guys, besides Matt, since they had gotten to the hospital.

Jenn shrugged. "I'm not really sure. Before they let me in here there really wasn't much to know," she lied. She didn't want to be the one to break the news to him about Alex.

Jack nodded. "I still can't believe this all happened," he said, seriousness taking over his tone.

Jenn nodded sadly. "It's amazing how fast everything can change, huh?"

"You can say that again," Jack agreed. "One second in sitting up front in the van with Alex. And the next..." Jack shook his head and loomed around. "And the next, I'm here."

Jenn smiled sadly and gave Jack's hand a squeeze. "Do you remember how it happened?"

"I think so," Jack said and suddenly seemed distracted.
***


All Time Low had just finished their set at a Pittsburg radio station Holiday concert. After doing some interviews with the station, taking some pictures and hanging out with some fans, the band and crew got their stuff together and piled into the van.

The snow had started to come down. Matt insisted that they just stay the night in Pittsburg. Everyone else decided they should just head home. Matt was exhausted and didn't feel well and definitely didn't have it in him to argue.

Alex, who had clearly not been himself for a while, managed to convince everyone that he was fine to drive home- driving helped him relax and clear his mind. As his best friend, Jack claimed the passenger seat up front and decided to use this opportunity to get Alex to really talk about his feelings. Ever since things with Brook seemed to come to an official end, Alex shut himself down and really didn't speak to anyone - unless it was All Time Low related.

Jack was impressed that Alex could get on stage tonight and be himself seemingly without a care in the world. No one could tell deep down he was a wreck - except his friends, of course.

"Hey Al?" Jack said after they had been driving for almost thirty minutes.

The other guts were either already asleep in the back or in their own world with headphones in.

"Yeah, Jack?" Alex replied. All the energy he had earlier on stage was gone.

"Are you okay, man?"

Alex nodded. "Of course. I'm fine."

"Liar..." Jack mumbled.

Alex sighed. "If you want to take about Brook, just say so."

"I do... But not if you don't want to..."

Alex sighed. "There just really isn't anything left to talk about. It's over. That's it."

"Are you okay with that?"

Alex had to laugh. "Of course I'm not okay with that. But there's nothing I can do. If one person wants to break up, that's just how it goes."

Jack frowned. "There's got to be a way to get her to change her mind. I mean... It's you guys..."

Alex shrugged. "I feel like I've done everything I can. The only thing left would be to throw myself to my knees in front of her and beg her to take me back... Which I've actually pretty much already did."

"Im sorry, man," Jack said quietly.

"She came to see me on my birthday." Alex confessed. He hadn't told anyone about that yet.

"She did?" Jack asked. "What happened?"

Alex sighed. "She came to give me my presents that she had ordered long before we broke up. She tried to leave right after but I convinced her to hang out so I wouldn't spend my actual birthday alone."

"What did you guys do?"

"We made dinner. We watched a movie. We waited for the meteor shower. Brook drank a lot of wine. We were genuinely having a good time - like we could be civil and function as just friends."

"Why do I feel like there's a major "but" coming?"

Alex nodded. "Well - yeah. It was all going great. But I ruined it by bringing up feelings and emotions. And since Brook drank about two bottles of wine, it just got a bit intense - and - long story short, we slept together."

Jack gasped loudly. So loud in fact it was a shock no one in the back of the van was disturbed.

"But how am I only hearing of this now?"

"Because when I woke up the next morning, she was gone. I showed up at her apartment and we had it out at her front door. And at that point she pretty much made it clear that we were done. For good. I haven't spoken to her since."

"Maybe she just needs some time to let everything process. She'll come around. She had to." Jack said, trying to be optimistic.

"I hope so." Alex sighed. "It just sucks so much. Do you have any idea how hard it is to go out there and sing all these new songs that are about her?"

" I can only imagine. But we do appreciate you faking it tonight."

"Yeah..." Alex trailed off. "I really thought that she was the one. I really thought that somewhere down the line we were going to be together forever. But I was so very wrong..."

There was a crack in his voice that Jack had very rarely heard before - but he knew it meant Alex was getting really upset. He knew it was time to change the subject.

"Alex, we don't have to -"
***

"I don't think I ever even finished that sentence. The van hit the black ice and I don't remember if we hit the other car or the median first. It was all kind of a blur at that point." Jack explained, coming out of his memory.

"So it's my fault."

Jack and Jenn snapped their attention to the door where Brook was standing. Neither of them had seen her walk in.

"He was upset and he was talking about me... And then... It's all my fault."