I Can't Not Love You

[Alex]

“So are you coming back to my bus with me for a little while?” John asked, a little smirk on his face. The show had just ended and everyone was still in the venue except for Jack, who had gone back to the bus.

“I don’t know, John. I kind of want to head back to my bus and check on Jack...” I trailed off, biting my lip as I looked up at him.

John sighed and kissed my forehead, “He’s fine, Alex. You can check on him later; after we go to my bus and have some fun.”

I giggled softly when he started kissing along my collarbone, then moaned quietly when he attached his lips to mine. It was extremely tempting to go back with him.

“Come on, usually you’re the one trying to seduce me,” John murmured, running his fingers down my chest lightly.

“Fine. Let’s go,” I agreed between kisses, latching our hands together and heading out to their bus. Our hands were all over each other as we got into their bus, groping and grabbing everywhere. We managed to make it into the back lounge without falling, and John pushed me onto the couch before straddling me. I moaned when his lips attached to my neck, already getting turned on.

I was highly enjoying all this, but I couldn’t keep the thought about Jack out of my mind. I really should go back to the bus and check on him. He was really tired on stage and looked even worse after the show. I finally pulled away from John, looking at him apologetically.

“John, I’m sorry. I just... I really want to go back to my bus and see how Jack’s doing,” I said in a small voice.

John frowned, “Babe, I told you he’s fine. He looked okay yesterday. This afternoon he only looked a little bit more sick.”

“But you didn’t see how bad he looked after the show,” I protested, shaking my head. “I can’t get that out of my mind. I need to just make sure he’s okay.”

“You seem to care about Jack more than me,” John muttered, getting off of me.

I sighed as I sat up, “I would do the same thing for any of my friends, John. I’d do the same for you, too.”

“It’s not just that – you’re always concerned about Jack. Whenever you’re with me it’s always something about Jack that you talk about. ‘Oh, Jack’s in a bad mood today.’ ‘Jack keeps hiding in his bunk.’ ‘Jack finally talked to me again today,’” John said, imitating me.

I scowled, “Well excuse me for caring about my best friend.”

“My point is that you talk and care about him more than you care about me,” John argued. “I don’t mind that you care for Jack. I get that. I feel the same about Garrett and Pat and Kennedy and Jared. But I don’t talk about them all the time when I’m with you. It’s almost like you like him or something.”

“Look, if you have a problem with that, maybe you should just forget about dating me, okay? I’m not going to put up with you complaining about how I care about Jack,” I snapped.

“Fine!” John replied angrily. “Get the fuck out of my bus.” I scowled at him before storming out of his bus, upset. I really liked John, but if he was going to get mad over something stupid like that, I wasn’t going to date him. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if we just broke up or not. And why would he think I like Jack? He’s my best friend – of course I’m going to care about him more than I care about most people.

I sighed heavily and walked over to my bus, climbing inside and shutting the door behind me to block out the cold air. Jack was the only other person on the bus still, and he was passed out on the couch. Well, at least he’s resting. I pulled off my coat, then frowned and stepped closer to Jack. Something was wrong. He was sweaty and his chest was moving weird every time he took a breath. It looked and sounded like he was breathing heavily too.

I knelt down next to him, pulling Rian’s snuggie off of his chest. Yeah, his chest was definitely moving strangely. It almost looked like it was caving in when he breathed. I shook him by the shoulder, starting to get worried now. “Jack? Jacky, wake up,” I said, shaking him a little harder. Jack woke up with a start and he started coughing. It sounded like he was coughing phlegm up again. “Are you okay?”

“’m okay,” Jack mumbled almost incoherently, rolling slightly onto his side and breathing heavily. I felt his forehead and my eyes widened. He felt extremely hot.

“Jack, sit up. I want to see that you can sit up,” I demanded. He didn’t respond. “What did I just say?”

“You said go back to sleep,” Jack grumbled, trying to pull the snuggie back over him. He was shivering, despite the fact that he felt like he was burning up.

“Sit up, Jack,” I said again, more firmly this time. I pulled on him, trying to help him sit up. He finally did so, looking sort of in a daze. He coughed again and his chest was still moving oddly. This was scaring me. Jack usually jokes around, but I was almost certain that he wasn’t kidding right now. He actually didn’t seem to be comprehending everything I was saying.

I pulled out my phone quickly and dialed Flyzik’s number. He answered after three rings. “What do you want, Alex? I’m busy with-”

“Come on the bus now. Jack’s really sick. I think he has a fever and he’s sitting here in a daze. His chest is moving really heavily when he breathes,” I said quickly, snapping my fingers in front of Jack’s face to startle him when he started to doze off again. I didn’t want him falling back asleep and not waking up or something. “I think he needs to go to the hospital.”