Shelter

It had only been a few days, but Jack was enjoying the peace of being off tour. He didn’t have to rush around with Flyzik and the others on his tail. Everything was less crazy and more laid back. Instead of going straight home, he had gone to visit his family for a few days. It had been nice, but he was happy to be back at his apartment where it was nice and quiet. Jack had been home for a few hours and had been busy tossing all of his clothes into the laundry and unpacking his stuff. By the time Jack finally sat down on his couch to play video games, his phone rang. He groaned and pulled it out of his pocket, but smiled when he saw that it was Alex. He hadn’t talked to him since they parted ways after landing at BWI, only texted with him.

“Hey Alex,” Jack greeted, answering the phone.

“Jack! Rian’s yelling at me!” Alex whined breathlessly.

Jack chuckled, “Why?”

“Well… I may or may not have broken Rian’s favorite coffee mug,” Alex admitted.

“No wonder Rian’s mad,” Jack said with an exaggerated gasp.

“Alex, get back here you bitch!” Rian yelled in the background, and Jack laughed.

“Tell Rian that I said to just buy a new one.”

Alex giggled, shouting to Rian, “Rian! Jack said to buy a new one!”

“It was a gift!” Rian shouted back, and Jack heard Alex laugh.

“He flipped me off,” Alex said to Jack, who smiled.

“He’ll get over it. Anyway, I missed you; we haven’t talked in a few days. How have you been doing with your nightmares?” Jack questioned, leaning back on the couch.

Alex sighed. “Not too great. I’ve had nightmares all three nights I’ve been home.”

“How about the anxiety?”

“Two anxiety attacks,” Alex said unhappily.

“Aww, I’m sorry. I know you have a hard time with everything when we get home from tour,” Jack said, and Alex just grunted in response on the other end. “Do you want to come hang out at my place?”

“That would be nice. Right now?” Alex asked.

“Sure, come on over. Door’s unlocked.”

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

Alex came over to Jack’s house an hour later, opening the door without bothering to knock. Jack heard the door open and walked out of the kitchen with a wave. “Jack! Hey!” Alex greeted happily.

“Hey,” Jack chuckled, hugging Alex tightly for a few moments before pulling away. “It’s been so weird not being with you and the other guys for the past few days. Much more quiet.”

“You say that after every tour,” Alex pointed out.

Jack shrugged, “It’s still weird.”

“Something smells really good. What is it?” Alex asked curiously, looking past Jack at the kitchen. Jack motioned for Alex to follow him, leading him into the kitchen where there were two pizzas sitting on the counter. Alex squealed, exclaiming, “Sweet!”

Jack laughed, shaking his head at the older boy. “Did you really think I cooked for you or something?”

“Definitely not. Cooking is my thing,” Alex said, rolling his eyes and reaching for the pizza.

“Don’t eat that yet. Grab the pizza boxes, we’re going into the living room,” Jack ordered, opening the fridge and pulling out a six-pack of beer. They brought the pizza and beer into the living room, setting it down onto the coffee table in front of the couch.

“So what do you have planned?” Alex asked, pulling a slice of pizza out of the box.

“We’re going to drink beer, eat pizza, and play video games all night long,” Jack announced, sitting on the couch after he turned his Xbox on.

Alex grinned and sat beside him. “Awesome.”

The rest of the night was spent doing what Jack had said; drinking beer, devouring pizza, and playing video games. Both boys were buzzed and it made the game that much more interesting. Jack was pretty sure his neighbors would hate him for the noise, but hopefully they were used to it by now.

By midnight, they had abandoned the game to watch whatever movie was playing on TV. Jack was lying with his feet over Alex’s lap. He was tired and Alex was nearly asleep. Jack nudged Alex with his foot and Alex opened his eyes to look at him.

“You wanna go crash in bed with me?” Jack asked, yawning.

Alex wrinkled his nose tiredly. “Would that be weird?”

“Not really,” Jack said with a shrug, standing up and stretching. “You’ve stayed here plenty of times.”

“Not in your bed I haven’t.”

“Whatever. There’s a first time for everything. C’mon, I’m sleepy,” Jack said, turning the TV off. Alex stood up, a little wobbly from the beer and the tiredness, and he followed Jack to his bedroom.

Jack chuckled, watching Alex stumble into the dim bedroom behind him. “You’re cute when you’re tired.”

“Shut up,” Alex yawned, pulling his jeans off and falling into Jack’s bed. “G’night.”

“Night, Lex,” Jack said softly, removing his own jeans before shutting the lamp off and getting into bed. He wanted so badly to hold Alex in his arms and sleep, but he resisted the urge to do so. Jack wasn’t sure where they stood right now. They had been hugging and cuddling and kissing cheeks for the past few weeks, but other than that neither one of them had tried taking it to the next level – a relationship. Jack didn’t know if Alex had changed his mind about that yet.

Quit over-thinking and go to sleep, Jack scolded himself, rolling onto his side and closing his eyes. He heard Alex shift a little and opened his eyes in surprise when he felt Alex’s hand grasp onto his own lightly. Jack smiled slightly, closing his eyes again to try to sleep. Maybe it wasn’t so hopeless after all.