Six Feet Under The Stars

"Please, please, please, don’t tell Alex that I told you about that. He said that you were so happy when you were talking about John so he didn’t want us to break it with that shitty story!” Jack begged. He saw me gripping the bench hard as I tried my best to not cry. But as hard as to not cry in front of Jack, I finally let it all out and let my body fell into Jack’s embrace.

“Sssh, Carly! Don’t cry, please! That badass doesn’t worth your tears,” Jack started to stroke my back smoothly and keep telling me to stop crying. He sounded so worried that time and for some moments, he’d stop stroking to look around before going back to calm me down.

“Carly, would you please stop crying?” Jack finally begged me. “Alex is coming here, I don’t want him to find out that you knew about that already.”

I sniffed for several seconds before getting up from Jack’s embrace and found his shirt was wet from my tears. “I’m sorry,” I slowly mumbled as I kept looking to his shirt.

Jack didn’t seem bothered. He showed his famous big grin to me and said that it’s alright as long as I felt better and stopped crying. “I know Alex is still mad with John about Lisa even though it happened a year ago and he seems never give a fuck about it. Let’s not talk about it today so no one’s day will be bad, okay?”

“You told me that story; it’s a bad day for me!” I exclaimed and punched Jack’s shoulder lightly.

“Aww, Caroline! I’m sorry, okay? I really am! What can I do to make you feel better?”

“Hug me, please?” I showed him my puppy eyes as Jack aww-ed again and hugged me tight. He stroke my back gently and it made me feel much better.

“Yo, guys, why are you hugging each other?” Someone suddenly asked making Jack stopped. He threw my body off of him and told the voice owner that we’re fine.

“What did he do to you, Carl?” That voice asked again as the owner sat across us. It was Alex. When I looked up to him, he looked so worried about me.

“Nothing,” I answered shortly. “I just wanted Jack to hug me. Are you jealous?”

“Yes, I am.” Alex answered. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Shoo, Jack, go away from her,” Alex then moved to sit beside me and rounded his arm around me protectively. Jack then moved to where Alex sat before.There was no one talking. I was still trying to calm myself as Alex kept his arm around me. Jack on the other side lazily drummed his fingers on the table as he looked at us. Only Alex’s gulps of beer, Jack’s fingers, and Zack’s and Rian’s shouts that filled the air so it wasn’t really quiet.

Rian then suddenly ran to the front door and came back with Claire who wore red tanks and brown shorts. She had her hair tied up and her eyes covered with sunglasses.

“Hey, you all!” Claire walked to us after talking with Rian and left him to play again with Zack. “What happened to you, Carl? Did you just cry?”

I glared at her and felt my cheeks got warmer. Alex arm then got tighter around me as he made me look at him. “You’re crying? Why?”

I didn’t say anything but kept glancing at Jack. Jack there couldn’t help me too. He hopelessly looked at me as he motioned that I had to tell them the truth. I slowly shook my head to Jack and took a deep breath. As I exhaled, I looked at both Alex and Claire and told them that I was fine.

“You are not,” Claire argued as she sat beside Jack and gave him a short hug after that. “So, what happened to you, Carl?”

“I am fine, Claire,” I told her with an emphasis on ‘fine’ word. “Do I look like I’m just crying?” I asked everyone on the table as they quickly and surely answered yes. I wasn’t sure that I could tell Claire and Alex about why I was crying, remembering that Jack told me that it supposed to be a secret he kept from me. But everytime I looked at Jack, he gave me that look which said that it’s fine to tell them about John. So then I told them right away.

“John cheated on me, last year, on a bar, when All Time Low and The Maine toured together. Well, that’s what I heard so far. I haven’t talk to John since yesterday afternoon.”

Everyone gave different responses to what I just told them. Jack’s face was uneasy as he kept glancing to Alex and me while Claire gasped and said some swears. Alex beside me didn’t say anything but he hugged me tightly. He stroked my back just like how Jack did it before. His face got closer to me as he whispered that he was sorry and told me that everything would be alright.

“Did he call you, Sweetheart?” Claire asked nicely as I just nodded.

“I didn’t answer it. Since that, he hasn’t called me again yet.”

Not so long after that, my phone rang again. Everyone looked at its screen and saw that it was John calling. They then looked at me with a question on their face: Would I answer it or not. Unfortunately, I didn’t do anything but look at my phone’s screen, waiting for it to shut.

“Why didn’t you answer it?!” Claire asked with a high voice. I only looked at her helplessly as Alex kept stroking my back.

Several minutes after that, John called again and Claire immediately told me to answer it. I looked at her again with a helpless expression on my face. She only sighed and pulled her sunglasses out of her head.

“I’ll answer it,” Alex then said as he took my phone and answered John’s call.

“Yo, scumbag,” he started, “Caroline doesn’t want to talk to you right now. I think you have some time to figure out what bad things you’ve just done last year. It’s me, Alex, you remember me, huh? Yeah, yeah, whatever, Man, if you’re really sorry, don’t just call her. Be gentle, Man!”

Alex hung up and sighed as he put down my phone on the table. “Done, done.” He said.

“Thank you, Lex,” I said almost whispering. He only gave me a reassuring smile and said, “You need some drinks. No, not beers. I’ll get you something else.”

“What do you think he’ll get me?” I asked to Claire and Jack.

“Juice?” Claire tried to answer.

“Smirnoff, or wine,” Jack grinned to his answer as I looked at him weirdly. “I bet twenty bucks for Alex brings you wine or Smirnoff!”

“Deal!” Claire and I both exclaimed. We waited for Alex to come back with a cooler box on his hands and opened it immediately as soon as Alex put it on the table.

“I win! Jack, you owe me twenty bucks!”

“No fucking way, Claire! Dammit, Alex! Why didn’t you bring Smirnoff or wine? They definitely make you feel better when you’re down!”

“Not at all, Jack. It’s not good for Carol’s emotions if I got her more alcohol.”

“Where’s your twenty bucks, Barakat?” Claire laughed as she put out her hand to take twenty dollars from Jack.

“No, Sweetheart, I have something better, actually.” Jack then rounded his arm around Claire's waist and pulled her closer to kiss her.