I Can't Not Love You

[Jack]

“I don’t understand why you guys are all going to the bar and leaving me here!” I whined. We had just finished playing in Salt Lake City; my second show back after being sick. Tonight’s show and the show the other night had gone well, but we had cut the sets short because I couldn’t handle a full one yet. I was totally worn out from the show, but that didn’t mean I wanted to stay here alone all night long.

“Jack, you’re not allowed to drink because you’re still on antibiotics. If we take you into a bar you’ll definitely drink everything in sight,” Danny said with a sigh, repeating this for the fifth time now as he pulled his coat on.

“It’s still not fair.”

Zack patted me on the shoulder as he walked by, looking at my sympathetically. “Sorry bro, you can come with us once you’re totally better.”

I huffed a sigh, watching all of my friends leave the bus. Every last one of them was going to the bar tonight. I sat up and looked around the front lounge, sulking. I wanted to go have fun with them, but this damn pneumonia still wasn’t completely gone because I wasn’t done with the antibiotics. I was much better but still weak and kept going into coughing fits.

Fuck pneumonia.

I sighed and paced around, bored, before lying back down on the couch. There was nothing to do. I was lying there in boredom for about five minutes when I heard the door open and close. Someone must have left their wallet on the bus. I saw Alex walk up the steps and he smiled at me.

“Hey grumpy,” he greeted, pulling his shoes and his coat off.

I frowned, “What are you doing here?”

“I decided to come back. It won’t be fun without you. You make the bar interesting,” Alex shrugged, walking over to me.

I smiled slightly, “I see. You usually have fun with The Maine boys though.”

“Eh, I’d still rather be here with you. It’s still awkward between John and I, even though we apologized to each other about our fight,” Alex said. “I thought it would be more fun to have a video game and movie night here with you.”

My eyes lit up, “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Alex laughed, grabbing my arm to pull me off the couch. “You make some popcorn, and I’ll go set up the games.”

--------------------

An hour and a half later, Alex and I were still playing video games together. We had played two other games before switching to Mario Kart, which we were playing right now. We were on our last race of a tournament together.

“Why do I suck at this game?!” Alex complained, shooting a bunch of green shells everywhere in an attempt to hit people.

“Because you suck at everything,” I teased, and he jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow.

“I do not! Come on, it’s the last lap, I need to catch up!” Alex was moving back and forth with his character obnoxiously, bumping into me each time he swayed to the right. I felt butterflies in my stomach every time he did so because he was so close to me.

I got distracted by this and Alex ended up getting ahead of me in the race, finishing two seconds before me. “Fuck!”

“Haha! Finally!” Alex cheered, jumping up in victory. I just pouted at him and he laughed. “You wanna watch a movie, Jack?”

“Yeah, since you’re such a jerk about the video games,” I said, but I was smiling. He knew I was kidding. This whole night was perfect so far. Alex and I were starting to get back to normal. I was trying to suppress all my feelings and just get used to being around him as a friend again. I didn’t want my feelings for him to ruin anything.

“Let’s see... Iron Man, Home Alone 2, or Jaws?” Alex asked, pulling out three random movies.

“Do you really have to ask?”

“Jaws? Alright then,” Alex smirked and stood up to put it in the DVD player.

“Alex! You know which one I meant!” I exclaimed. I started coughing again and he laughed.

“I’m just kidding!” He put Home Alone 2 into the DVD player and flipped the lights off, hopping onto the couch next to me. I was lying down on one part of the couch and he was sitting near my head. A few minutes into the movie I rolled over and winced. I had pulled a neck muscle earlier and it hurt to lie in this position, even though I could see the movie best this way. I sat up and Alex looked over at me. “What?”

“Nothing; my neck just hurts. I pulled a muscle on stage tonight.”

Alex chuckled, “Maybe you shouldn’t head-bang on stage and that wouldn’t happen.”

“Well if I could actually run around the stage like I usually do, I wouldn’t have to,” I said, bending my neck back and forth as I tried to loosen the muscles.

Alex watched me in amusement for a minute or so before he laughed and scooted closer to me. “Come here.”

“Why?” I asked suspiciously.

“I’ll rub your neck for you while we watch the movie,” he offered, motioning for me to scoot back toward him. I hesitated before scooting back, squeaking slightly when Alex tugged me closer so I was right in his lap. He put his hands on my shoulders and started massaging them, trying to loosen up the muscles.

I felt the butterflies from earlier return to my stomach, barely able to concentrate on the movie. Alex’s hands were warm on my neck and shoulders, rubbing firmly but not too hard. I was so distracted that I almost didn’t hear Alex when he spoke up a few minutes later.

“Is it helping?” he asked, thumbs rubbing circles on the back of my neck.

“Mhm, definitely,” I said, blushing slightly. I was glad the room was dark, so he couldn’t see me blushing.

“Good,” he said, sounding like he was getting tired. I was exhausted too, and this neck rub was making me even more tired.

Without thinking, I leaned back into Alex, causing him to let go of my shoulders. I looked up at him and he looked amused. “I hope you know that I don’t plan on moving,” I said.

“That’s fine; you can keep me warm tonight so we don’t need a blanket,” Alex chuckled, yawning as he wrapped his arms around me. I just smiled, cuddling close to him and watching the movie until I felt my eyes start to droop.