Don't Forget About Me.

The next morning, before opening his eyes, Alex hoped, no, willed, for the previous day to have all been a dream, and that he was about to wake up on the couch, to find his beautiful girlfriend Lisa Ruocco laying next to him where she belonged, because that is where they had fallen asleep last night, watching The Fifth Element, after spending the day with a huge group of their friends.

Alex prolonged opening his eyes as long as he could; he squeezed them shut for another 20 minutes, willing sleep to fall upon him again. But when he discovered things just weren’t going to work out how he wanted them to, he took a deep breath, and slowly opened his eyes, half of the reason being to allow them to adjust to the bright light coming from the window, and the half being he was scared as to what he would find.

A pang of disappointment and heartbreak hit him all over again, when he realised he was exactly where he had collapsed the previous night, in the foetal position in the centre of his bed, with tear tracks staining his cheeks. Still hopeful however, he slowly stood up and retrieved his phone from his jeans that he had carelessly discarded last night, only to find, once again, that no-one at all had tried to contact him. He then proceeded to check the time, and was slightly happier when the clock on his phone informed him he had woken up at the acceptable of 10:00am, meaning he hadn’t wasted his day. He sighed heavily and threw his phone onto his bed, before heading to his wardrobe to select his outfit for the day.

After 15 minutes Alex finally came to the decision of dark grey wash turn up jeans, a black and white striped v-neck tee, a black leather jacket, and one his infamous neck scarves. With his outfit chosen, he made his way to the bathroom where he decided he didn’t have the energy to put as much effort into his hair as he normally would, so he chose the lazy option of using his fingers to comb certain strands how he wanted them before caking the whole lot in hair spray, before carefully placing a dark grey beanie on the back of his head.

Alex immediately knew what the first thing he needed to do today was. Return the lamp. So he strode into his bedroom, slid his phone into his jeans pocket, and kept his keys in his hand, before returning to the living/kitchen/dining area where he picked up the lamp and left his apartment, being sure to lock the door behind him. It was a nice place where he lived, the building itself only had 4 floors, and each floor possessed 4 spacious apartments, and Alex was lucky enough to purchase one of the ground floor ones, which also meant that he had his own little garden out back which came in useful during the summer months. It wasn’t much, but it was certainly enough for him.

He took his time making his way back to the small room, it was a little colder than it had been yesterday which made Alex thankful for the extra layers he’d worn. He jumped the wall, just has he had done twice the previous day, and was careful to avoid the patches of bramble and over hanging trees he had ran into on his way back yesterday. It was only when he began to close the distance between himself and the small room that he realised he wasn’t the only person there. He could hear a voice muttering from inside and instantly slowed his pace so his footsteps became almost silent. It wasn’t until he reached the door and looked at the source of the voice that he let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“Jack.”Alex smiled. It was more of a statement than a question, but either way, Alex was relieved to see a friendly face. The call of his name caused the figure to turn around and stare directly at Alex with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Jack? What’s wrong?” He pressed after still not receiving an answer after a few minutes. He then realised that he had never brought Jack to this place, and Jack had never made any acknowledgement as to knowing anything about it, confused didn’t even come close to how Alex was feeling right now “What’re you doing here? How do you know about this place?”

Jacks face scrunched into a look of anger as he began storming towards Alex, his fists clenched at his sides, and his deep hazel eyes were full of hatred. That was until he saw the gas lamp in Alex’s hand, at which point his whole body visibly softened in posture, and he continued closing the distance in a much calmer manner. He outstretched his hand, causing Alex to flinch at the possibility of contact. He wouldn’t normally shy away from Jack, but after his sudden outburst of anger, he didn’t know what to expect.

Jack looked at him curiously, before jerking his arm to show that he was waiting for Alex to hand something over.

“What? What do you want? Jack, what’s going on?” Alex had so many questions, but he wasn’t getting any answers, Jack just continued to look at his expectantly with his arm outstretched.

“Lamp,” He simply stated, “Give me the lamp.” He nodded at said item that Alex was still holding with a strong grasp. It was only then that Alex realised just how tightly he had been holding to the handle, he’d never been so scared of his best friend. Jack cleared his throat which shook Alex out of his thoughts, and he realised that the object in his hand was still being looked at with deep concentration. Alex began to lift his arm to transfer the lamp to Jacks hand from his own, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t prevent his limb from shaking, so as soon as he was sure Jack had a secure grip on it he dropped his hand like a block of lead, back to his side.

Jack placed the lamp carefully back on the side table, before turning back and facing Alex. There was an awkward silence between the two that Alex couldn’t quite get his head around, never in the time they had known each other had there been a moment like this between the pair and he didn’t like it all. They were best friends, brothers almost, so why did Alex suddenly feel like the person he was looking at was a complete stranger?

“Jack?” Alex questioned as he took a step towards the younger boy, Jacks eyes widened, as if he had only just noticed Alex’s presence. “Please tell me what’s going on.” Alex’s voice was significantly quieter than it had been when he’d first arrived, he was scared of Jack, and scared of the situation he was in, why were his girlfriend and best friend acting like they’d never seen him before? He looked at Jack with pleading eyes, searching for any hint of recognition in his face, but ended up finding none, all he found was confusion, and emptiness. A mere shadow of the loud, bubbly person he had been just a few days previously.

Jack remained silent, and continued to stand perfectly still on the spot, just staring at Alex for at least another 15 minutes, before suddenly brushing past Alex as he made his way through the door. The action caught him off guard, and took him a few seconds to register, before he ran out of the door and was hot on Jacks heels.

“Jack! Wait! Please, stop!” He called out as Jack proceeded to power walk as fast as he could away from Alex, who was having to resort to a mild jog in order to keep up with his best friends longer strides.

“What!” Jack screamed as he came to a sudden halt and turning on his heels, which nearly made Alex run right into him. “What do you want Alex! Why are you even here? And more importantly, why the fuck won’t you leave me alone!?” The anger Alex had previously seen in Jacks face had instantly returned, which cause a shiver to travel through his bones as he tried to comprehend how his best friend could have a look that contained so much hatred.

Alex could feel his eyes stinging again as Jacks words hit him, he’d suddenly lost all of his confidence, and was reduced to a young boy that felt like he was being told off by his mother. His shoulders hunched, and he peered up at Jack with watering eyes as he tried to read his expression.

“W-what do you mean? I-I’m you’re f-friend Jack; you’re b-best f-friend. I-I saw Lisa yesterday, a-and she, she didn’t r-remember me, so I went to the r-room, and t-took the lamp to get ho-home, so I was b-bringing it back. Then I-I saw you, b-but I don’t understand why you ha-hate me all of a s-sudden.” Alex couldn’t hold it in anymore, the tears that had been burning his eyes let themselves free as they streamed one after the other down his cheeks, his legs weakened and he crumpled to the floor with his head in his hands.

He doesn’t know how long he was knelt there just letting every single tear he had in him vacate his body, but by the time he was reduced to dry sobs, he looked up to find Jack gone. His own best friend had abandoned him when he needed him most, he needed him to break out that smile he was so well known for, and yell surprise and tell him that this was all one big prank, that none of his friends hated him, that John was even in on it by pretending to be Lisa’s boyfriend, he needed him to wrap his long arms around him and pull him into his chest and tell him that he took these things to heart too much, and he needed to lighten up a bit.

But no, that wasn’t going to happen, because for whatever reason his best friend hated him, and that realisation alone was enough for Alex’s body to conjure up a whole new batch of tears, that were instantly released, which once again lead to Alex curling up on the woods floor, and crying himself to sleep.