Just The Way I'm Not

Alex had disappeared nearly two hours ago and Jack was bored. He had no clue where his best friend was and it was really starting to piss him off. Not that he demanded Alex’s attention 24/7 or anything, just that Alex usually told him where he was going or invited him along. And especially with the whole Soph thing going on, he really didn’t have anyone else to hang out with.

The rest of his band was over doing things with You Me or We Are who were either sleeping or playing video games, and at the moment, Jack didn’t have the attention span to do either. So he was just wandering around the venue annoying the crew as they tried to set everything up for the night.

“Jack, why don’t you go bother Alex?” Flyzik asked as he looked up from his clipboard to see Jack following him like a lost puppy.

Jack rolled his eyes, “If you haven’t noticed, Alex isn’t even here. What kind of tour manager are you if you can’t even keep track of your people?”

“A very busy one,” he muttered. “And if you actually are telling the truth and Alex isn’t actually in or somewhere near the venue, go and text him to tell him he needs to get back. You guys have sound check soon and I don’t need him off gallivanting over Europe like he lives here.”

“Well he actually did sort of live here-”

“Jack seriously? Just go find him.”

Jack grumbled under his breath as he started to walk away from Flyzik but not bothering to listen to him. Alex was a grown boy; he could take care of himself. So instead, he went over to Vinny’s table to see if the shorter boy could entertain him somehow.

“Still sulking because you’re BFF left you behind to do God knows what?” Vinny asked when Jack came over and sat on the stool behind the table.

“Bite me,” Jack huffed as he leaned back allowing his back to rest on the wall. “And no, I came over because I’m bored out of my mind and Flyzik yelled at me.”

Vinny laughed, “When does Flyzik not yell at you?”

“Very true,”

Jack watched as Vinny went about his job and sorted through the merch, setting up the shirts so they could be seen and putting the cd’s and wristbands across the table. He hummed to himself as he watched, wondering if he should ask Vinny if he needed help with anything but figured that he had everything under control. Vinny had been doing this for a long time now and had everything down to a tee.

“So are you just going to sit there staring at me until Alex comes back? Or are you going to go do something useful?” Vinny asked after a while.

Jack shrugged even though Vinny’s back was turned to him, “I don’t know. This is much better than sitting on the bus doing nothing. Everyone else is doing something and I’m bored.”

Vinny was busy looking for something and Jack didn’t even think he was going to get a reply. After a few more moments, he turned and waved a pack of cards at Jack and the guitarist nodded happily. Vinny did a little dance as he pulled up a chair next to Jack and opened the pack of cards dealing them out. As they were about to start the game, Evan and Jeff joined and they all sat down and started to play.

As they game began, it only took about ten minutes for the table talk to begin and everyone trying to distract one another so they wouldn’t play as well. Jeff was the best when it came to card games; so naturally, he was already in the lead with Jack dead last, as usual. A few other people had come to watch and demanded that once they finished the first game that they wanted to be dealt in for the second.

“Hey what are ya’ll doing?” A voice asked as Jack glanced up to see Alex walking over. He rolled his eyes as he went back to his cards and faintly heard him talking to Zo about something quietly.

Even though everyone else really didn’t pay attention to him, didn’t mean Flyzik was going to let it slide. “Where the hell have you been? A freaking text would have been nice.”

“Sorry, I had some things I needed to do.”

Vinny scoffed, “And you didn’t take your boyfriend with you? Jack was being the biggest girl because you left him behind. He didn’t know what to do with himself.”

“Hey Jack, I need to talk to you about something.” Alex said choosing to ignore Vinny’s comment.

“Not now, in the middle of the game.”

“Jack, seriously,” Alex continued making Jack look up to the singer catching the seriousness in his tone. After catching his eye and noticing that it was important, he sighed and nodded glancing over to Grieco who was standing behind him and gestured for him to take his place. The tech nodded and took his cards and Jack stood and followed Alex out of the main room and toward the door that lead outside to the busses.

When they got outside, Alex gave an annoyingly cheeky smile as he led them to their bus and Jack couldn’t take it anymore. “Alex what the hell is going on? What do you need to talk about? This better not be about Soph again.”

“Just shut up and go on the bus.” Alex replied as Jack rolled his eyes not understanding what the hell was going on and telling Alex just that. “Can you not over think a situation for once in your lifetime and just get on the damn bus?”

Jack huffed, “Fine.”

He turned to their bus and opened the door and was about to climb up the stairs to go inside when he saw something lying on the stairs. He heard Zo come up behind him and say something to Alex but he didn’t pay attention, too interested in the bouquet of roses lying there on the third step with a card tucked between two of the roses.

“What the hell is this?” Jack asked as he turned to the two of them behind him and found they had the same annoying smirk on their faces. If he didn’t understand what was going on soon and get them to tell him, he was seriously going to punch them in the face. Well, Alex in the face, he would never hit Zo.

Alex rolled his eyes, “Why don’t you pick them up and find out.”

He turned back to the roses and took the card in his hand noticing that his name was written on the front of it. Raising a brow, he opened the envelope and then pulled out the card opening it to see what was written inside.

“…Surprises let me know she cares”
-Windmill

“What does it say?” Zo asked as Jack turned to them again. He grinned as he handed the card to her and she read it. “What?”

Alex rolled his eyes, “It’s a Blink quote. ‘she left me roses by the stairs, surprises let me know she cares’. It’s from a song called All The Small Things.”

“Aw, that’s so cute.” Zo squealed as she handed the card back to Jack. “But why that song?”

“It’s Soph and my favorite song.” Jack replied gently picking up the roses and smiling to them. “I have to go find her,”

Alex smiled as he took the roses from Jack before he took off running down the sidewalk trying to figure out where she would be. But as if she knew that he was looking for her, the door to the venue opened and she walked outside looking the opposite way before turning and seeing Jack running to her. She gave a weak smile not knowing if he had forgiven her or not and he didn’t say anything as he pulled her to him and hugged her tightly.

“I’m so sorry Jack,” she whispered. “I could have handled it differently; I didn’t mean to push you away. I was just scared and weird and I didn’t know how to handle having you in my-”

Jack let her go so he could stop her but he knew he wasn’t going to say anything. Instead he just smiled to her as she continued talking and pressed his lips to hers to shut her up. The kiss was quick and simply and only lasted a second, and when he pulled away again, he smiled noticing that she was breathless.

“Just shut up, ok? I don’t care about anything before this. All I care about is that you’re speaking to me again.” He said as he pulled her in for another hug.

“Ok,” she said quietly as she pulled away from him and smiled shyly before leaning up and pressing her lips to his once more.