If I Could Change Your Mind

The rest of the night was a blur as Jack boarded the ambulance, holding Alex’s hand all the way to the hospital, until they rushed him into the ER, leaving Jack alone in the waiting room. He sits down in one of the uncomfortable waiting room chairs, worried as hell. “Shit, is Alex gonna die?” He thinks, trying to calm himself down. But he can’t his heart is racing and he’s sweating bullets, and the worst part of it is he knows it’s all his fault. If Jack hadn’t left the band, Alex wouldn’t have had to come after him, drunk and concerned, and hit that car. It was all his fault.
A tear falls from Jack’s eye, and he checks his phone, looking for anything to distract him. He has ten texts from Rian and three six calls from Alex. The missed calls are another blow to his heart, but he waves off the guilty thoughts as he reads Rian’s texts. They’re all basically the same, asking him where he is and that Alex is coming to find him. Jack sighs, and replies “Rian, at hospital, get here fast, Alex in car crash, seriously injured.” A few seconds later he gets a text back saying “WTF happened?!?!?! B RITE THERE!!!!” Jack didn’t respond, and about 20 lonely minutes later, Rian, Alicia, Zack and Amber burst through the door, looking around wildly for Jack. “There!” Alicia points and everyone runs over to Jack, questioning him loudly. “What the hell happened?” “Is Alex okay?” “How did you find out he was here?” “Where the hell were you?” They all shout simultaneously. Jack couldn’t even tell who was saying what at this point. “Guys, guys, here’s what happened...” Jack tells all four of them the story of the crash, and how Alex looked pretty bad when he found him. “Oh God, that’s terrible! I hope he’s gonna be okay...” Alicia buries her head in Rian’s shoulder, trying not to cry. Rian puts one arm around her, and avoids Jack’s eyes. He feels slightly responsible for this too, since he didn’t stop Alex from leaving while drunk. Zack and Amber both say nothing, but that’s not surprising. “I hope he’s gonna be okay too...” Jack whispers. “Can we see him soon?” Rian asks, still staring at the floor. Jack shrugs, then decides to get off his lazy ass and start asking some questions.
“Excuse me, but how’s my friend Alex Gaskarth doing? Can I see him yet?” Jack questions the big fat nurse at the desk, who was too busy filing her nails to be bothered. She looks up from behind her glasses, glaring at Jack for asking questions. It was past midnight, why the hell was this little twerp with skunk hair bothering her? “I don’t know.” The nurse turned her attention back to her nails. “Well can you like, ask or something? He’s my best friend, I’m worried about him, I need to know he’s okay.” Jack says, his voice coming out stronger. “He’s fine, the doctors are in with him now.” The nurse replies flatly. “Listen lady, I’m not leaving until you find out how he’s doing. Go.” Jack slams his hands on the desk, leaning way over it to snarl in her face. Her eyes widen at first, but narrow as she pretends not to be concerned. “Fine. I’ll be right back.” The nurse squeezes out her chair and waddles down the hall, leaving Jack at the desk alone. The other four come up behind him, wondering about what Jack learned about Alex’s health, but he knew as much as they did.
The nurse came back shortly, saying “He’s not completely stabilized yet, but he should be soon. And it’s past visiting hours, so you can’t see him anyway. Come back tomorrow.” The nurse waves them off with her hand, and sits back down. All five of them look at each other, asking the same unspoken question, “What now?” “Well, I guess we should go back now...Dammit, I left the car at the bar...oh SHIT! I forgot about the hooker!” Jack gasps, realizing his mistake. “WHAAAAAT?” The group asks him, giving him strange looks. “Gotta run, BYE!” Jack dashes out of the hospital, nearly knocking over an old man with an air tank. 30 seconds later, Jack comes running back in the door. “WAIT! I can’t pick up the car without someone driving me...Rian?”
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“ON AND ON RECKLESS ABANDON!” Jack’s ringtone blasts through the nearly empty hotel room. It is seven am and Jack is not budging from his comfy bed. As soon as it is silent again, Jack sighs and mumbles a “Sorry, Alex. Thought I turned it off.” Jack shoots up immediately after those words, pictures of last night flooding back. He is surprised he even slept without Alex. Jack quickly grabs his phone, realizing it must of been the hospital that called. It was. The message stated that Alex was done with his tests and is in stable condition, so he's now allowed to have visitors. Quickly getting dressed Jack runs out the door letting Rian and Zack sleep in and meet him there later.
Jack started his car and went to grab his sunglasses. Realizing his sunglasses holder were empty he remembered how the girl he picked up last night stole pretty much everything in the car. “I no longer like hookers.” he mumbles.
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“I’m afraid visiting hours are over so I have to ask you all to leave.” A blonde nurse says, popping her head into Alex’s room. All five of their heads turn to face the rather young nurse. “Can we stay a little longer?” Rian pleads, his voice dripping with despair. He tries giving her the puppy dog face, which apparently works on her because a few seconds later she caves, replying, “I suppose one of you may stay, but the rest of you will have to leave. Try to make it quick.” As soon as she closes the door and exits, there is an explosion of noise as Rian and Zack/Amber begin to fight over who is going to stay. A few moments of pointless arguing later, Jack speaks up, “I’m not leaving.” His voice is strong and firm, that and the fact it is the first sentence Jack said all day, causes the rest of the group to shut up immediately. “Uhh, are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself?” Amber asks, trying politely to say what everyone else was thinking; Jack is a wreck he shouldn’t be by left alone. “I got Alex.” Jack replies very staccato, “Leave before the nurse changes her mind.” With that, Jack sits down in the “boyfriend” chair in the hospital room, crossing his arms. “All right man.” Rian says patting him on the shoulder. Zack gives him a tight hug before he grunts his goodbyes and the group leaves.
“So, uh, Alex,” Jack begins to ramble, filling up the silence “I heard talking to people while they have a coma helps. So, uh, hi.” Jack didn’t really know what to do, he wanted to be alone with Alex, but now that he watched all his other friends disappear from view the guilty thoughts were screaming louder in his mind. ‘This is all your fault. If you didn’t leave the band, this never would’ve happened. What were you going to do while he was frantically looking for you? Oh that’s right, trying to hook up with some girl you met in the bar.’ Jack is disgusted with himself, ‘If you kept driving this probably wouldn’t of happened. If you just sucked up your stupid feelings. You hurt Alex.’ The thoughts keep coming, and as they do the tears stream down Jack’s face. After what seems like forever Jack chokes out an apology to Alex, and decides he is going to wake up Alex, or die trying.
Jack thinks, ‘If Alex can hear him right now I’ll just ask him to wake up.’ He did, but after waiting about 10 minutes Jack determines it doesn’t work. Attempt two, trying to guilt Alex into it, “Alex, it’s been 52 years. If you don’t wake up now, all our fans will hate you and this band will break up!” Another failed attempt. “WAKE! THE! FUCK! UP!” Jack begins to chant, while jumping up and down like an idiot around Alex’s bed. Unfortunately, he had to stop when a nurse kindly tells him it’s disturbing other patients. Jack even tried a voodoo dance! Jack came up with tons of other plans to wake up Alex, one after another failing. He was down to his last idea, his final hope. He makes two stupid paper crowns, putting one on Alex’s head and the other on his own head. Jack walks out the door Alex’s room, just to dramatically walk back in. “DUM! DUM! DUM!” Jack tries to sound like a trumpet playing stupid music that in kids movies signalise the royal family is arriving. Jack has a thing for stupid Disney movies, he’d watch the all the time with Alex. The last one they watched was before Alex was dating Kelsey though, it was Sleeping Beauty. Jack is going to do what the prince did to wake up his lovely princess, he was going to kiss Alex. In Jack’s mind, Alex is his princess, well prince, and if it works in the movie maybe it’ll work now.
When Jack reaches Alex, he quickly checks behind him to make sure a nurse or a doctor hasnt walked in with him. Jack moves his lips closer to Alex’s rather fast; he doesn’t hesitate until their noses are brushing and he can feel Alex’s breath. He gulps, repressing all his negative thoughts. His eyes flutter shut and Jack closes the gap between their lips. The kiss seemed lifeless for a few seconds before it begins deepening unexpectedly. He feels Alex’s hand touch his cheek, urging Jack to move closer. ‘I must be imagining things’ Jack thinks, until the boy underneath him breaks the kiss. Jack’s eye shot openning, “Uhh, ohh.... Hi Alex! “ He stutters, a thousand thoughts racing through his brain. Jack jumps back giving Alex space and hits the emergency button.
Alex gazes around the space, by the white walls and the ugly light green backless robe he is wearing, he quickly figures out he is in the hospital. He turns to Jack, “Hey, you!” The smile on Alex face grows, “You aren’t the hot nurse I was imagining.” Alex laughs but quickly stops when he realizes Jack isn’t laughing with him.
“Oh my God, Alex! Do you remember who I am?! I’m Jack Bassam Barakat, your best friend!” Jack’s sentences run together as he tries to spit out all the important facts Alex needs to remember about him. In short, he’s freaking out.
“Chill, Jack, I know who you are.” Alex laughs, “I was trying to... never mind. Listen, I need to tell you something.” But Jack won’t shut up. He continues to babble random facts about their friendship. “Jack, listen to me!” Alex begs; he has to get this off his chest. “ Jack, I l-” “When we were 10 we had a sleepover at my house for your birthday and tried sledding in nothing but our underwear. No tube. Just underwear and snow.” “Jack! Iknow! Now shut the fuck up and listen to me!” Jack’s talking comes to a halt. “Alright good! I-” But Jack never heard the end of the sentence because nurses push him out of the way. They need to run tests on Alex and make sure he’s okay. Jack looks back at him from the hallway through window, a frown painted on his face as he waves goodbye to Alex. “I love you, Jack.” Alex whispers so the nurses don’t hear him.