If I Could Change Your Mind

When Jack leaves the hospital that night, he’s wearing the worlds largest smile. Today was the best day ever. He’s FINALLY dating the guy of his dreams. He guesses that everything really does work out in the end.
He opens the door of the tourbus, seeing Rian and Alicia cuddling while watching a movie together, holding hands on the couch. “Hey guys!” Jack greets. The two immediately separated from each other and let their hands depart. “Hey Jack, you’re strangely happy, what’s up?” Rian asks, one eyebrow raised. “Oh you know, just a good day, that’s all. Alex is released from the hospital tomorrow, so I’ll go pick him up first thing.” Jack replies, still grinning. “Oh, that’s so great! Will the tour continue?” Alicia questions, looking at Rian. “Gosh...I don’t think any of us really thought about that...we’ll talk about it tomorrow with Alex, I guess.” Rian decides. “Alright...” Jack says. He hadn’t thought about this before, Alex won’t be able to play his guitar, he can walk but it pains him a lot him to do that, not that’ll admit to it. He can’t possibly finish the tour. Alex isn’t going to take this well...
Alicia’s phone beeps and she looks down at it. “Oh crap, I gotta go, I’ll see you later Rian, bye Jack.” Alicia kisses Rian, on the cheek, quick when Jack wasn’t looking, before waving to Jack and exiting. “So tell me, what’s really up? I haven’t seen you this happy in months.” Rian pushes.
“Nothing, nothing...” Jack grins, thinking about Alex’s soft lips against his own. “That doesn’t look like nothing, you left this morning as depressed as a suicidal person and you came back with a smile so bright it rivals the sun. Tell me.” Rian urges.
“Fine. It’s just um...Alex, he...and we are kinda...um...you know...” Jack stutters, unsure of how to say it. He didn’t talk to Alex about telling the band either, so he doesn’t know if he should...but this is Rian, he trusts Rian with everything.
“Spit it out already, boy!” Rian shouts impatiently, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. “Nothing, Alex just makes me happy. You know that. It’s nothing new or exciting, forget it.” Jack says, deciding to keep his mouth shut this time. He’ll talk to Alex before he tells anyone.
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The next morning, Jack rushes to the hospital, excited to see Alex. “Hey Jacky,” Alex smiles, struggling to stand up. Jack comes to his side and helps him, kissing him on the cheek. “Are you ready to ditch this popsicle stand? It smells gross in here anyways, everything smells like old people and cleaning supplies.” Jack wrinkles his nose, disgusted. Alex let out a small laugh, “Yeah, I have to check out though. And before that, there’s one more thing I want to do.” Alex, with Jack’s assistance, walked slowly out of his room to the nurses desk. “Excuse me, but do you know where Katelyn Solon’s room is?” Alex asks the nurse. The nurse goes through a few papers on the desk then replies “Room 210, to the left.” The nurse points down the opposite hallway that Alex was in. “Thank you.” Alex says, starting off in the direction the nurse had pointed. “So...who’s Katelyn?” Jack questions, somewhat confused. “She’s the girl I hit. I have to go see her, make sure she’s okay. And I need to apologize, though I know it won’t make it any better.” Alex explains, slightly limping from the pain in the leg that has stitches in it still. Jack nods and soon they come across the room.
They knock and the girl who they assume is Katelyn calls, “Come in!” Alex and Jack step inside the room, Alex inquiring “Katelyn?” She nods, then takes a double take, her eyes widening. “Oh. My. Gosh. Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat?! What are you doing here and how do you know my name?!” She asks, on the brink of exploding with joy. “Yeah, it’s us. It’s nice to meet you, and well, uh, Alex...” Jack looks at him, who’s staring at Katelyn. She has a huge gash on the side of her head; they had to shave off some of her extremely long brown hair in order to put the stitches in, a broken leg and arm, and there are deep purple bruises all over her visible skin. Alex is mortified that he’s the reason this happened to such a beautiful, sweet girl. “Katelyn, I was the driver of the car that hit you.” Alex whispers, his voice hollow. She gasps, and notices his broken arm and bruises. “Oh gosh, you guys are my heros, I’m so sorry I hit you...are you okay?” She asks, sounding genuinely worried. It breaks Alex’s heart. She’s more concerned about Alex than about herself, and she doesn’t even know him. Sure, she’s obviously a fan, but still. If it were Alex, and he had been hit by Tom DeLonge, one of lead singers of Blink 182, he would’ve been pissed. And hated him forever. But not Katelyn. Katelyn still cared.
“Katelyn, I’m so, so sorry. It’s completely my fault for the accident. I was drunk, and driving, which was completely idiotic on my part. I was in a bad state of mind, and you undeservingly had to face the consequences of my poor choices. All the pain you’ve endured is because of me, and it kills me that I could hurt someone as kind as you as much as I did. I could never apologize to you enough, and I don’t expect you to ever forgive me, but please hear me out. I’m so sorry.” Alex apologizes, sitting down on her bed, a tear escaping his eye. “Oh gosh, don’t cry, you’re gonna make me cry!” She says lighthearted, wiping her eyes with her good hand. He smiles half-heartedly back, more tears streaking down his face. “Alex? I-I forgive you. You didn’t mean to do it. Mistakes happen. Poor choices are made. But in the end, it all works out. And I’m alive, I’m gonna be just fine. And so are you, right? That’s all I could ever hope for. It’s okay.” Katelyn smiles back at him. Alex can’t take it, she’s so kind and caring, and he...he’s done nothing but hurt her. And she still forgives him. “Thank you, thank you so much.” Alex whispers, going to give her a hug. She leans forward, hugging him back, but its hard for both of them since their broken arms are on opposite sides. “Well, we better go now...Get better Katelyn.” Alex says, getting up and limping over to Jack. “Alright. Have a good day!” Jack says, sniffling. “How could I not? I just met members of my favorite band! Best day ever!” Katelyn calls, delighted. They both smile slightly and exit the room.
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“So are you ready to go back on tour?” Jack asks Alex as he pulls the car out of the hospital parking lot. Alex sighs “I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it. It’s gonna be really hard with my arm being broken and all...I won’t be playing my guitar for a long time either.” Alex looks down at his cast, hating the sight of it. He hadn’t really thought about it till then, but he can’t play for the rest of the tour now...hell, he can barely walk, how the fuck is he gonna do this?
“I don’t know, we’ll figure it out I guess...we’ll talk to the band and have a group meeting and such, okay? Don’t worry about it until then.” Jack tries to make Alex feel better, though he knows he feels like crap.
“I guess...speaking of the band, are we gonna tell them about, you know, us?” Jack shifts uncomfortably in his seat, not wanting to answer the question.
“Do you want to? I don’t think it’s a good idea...”
“Why not? I think they’d be totally supportive of it!”
“Well, I don’t know, I just think it would be awkward and stuff....besides, we haven’t even gone on our first date yet. So it’s nothing like, official yet...”
“Making out hard on a hospital bed isn’t enough to make it official for you?” Alex laughs as Jack blushes. “Then fine, we can go on our first date first and then we’ll talk about telling them, okay? ‘Cause I think that’d be super happy for us. So where are we gonna go? Can we go out for lunch? ‘Cause I’m starving, and let me tell you, hospital food SUCKS! I need a real meal.”
“Sigh, you are such an expensive date.” Jack side glances at Alex who just smiles.
“Well let’s go home first so I can take a shower, because I still reek of the sweet scent of old people mixed with cleaning supplies. Not attractive for a first date with my hot new boyfriend.” Jack grins and blushes some more, pulling into a parking spot at the tour bus.
“Alright, we’ll leave in an hour from now.” Jack jumps out of the car and walks around, opening the passenger door for Alex. They go inside the tour bus and Alex calls “Hey guys, I’m home!”
“ALEX!” Rian, Alicia, Zack and Amber all exclaim, running over to Alex. “Dude, we’ve been so worried about you, how’ve you been feeling?” Rian questions, bro hugging Alex gently. “I officially hate hospitals. But aside from that, it was all good. I'm so glad to be back on the bus though, I've almost forgotten what it smelled like." Alex laughs. "We're so glad you're back! So what are you gonna do now? Can I get you anything?" Alicia asks as she goes through the fridge. "Nah, I'm good. And well, I was planning on taking a shower, and then going to lunch with Jack 'cause I'm sick of eating gross hospital food." Alex says, heading toward the bunks. "Well we haven't eaten, can we tag along?" Amber questions. Jack shifts uncomfortably and Alex meets his uncertain eyes. Alex cocks his head to the side, questioning Jack for the answer and Jack shakes his head slightly. "Sorry, I promised Jack we'd have a one on one. It's been awhile since we had some bro bonding time, ya know?"Alex covers for them. Jack lets out a sigh of relief. "Oh, well then. You just get home and we're already excluded from the party." Alicia comments. "Oh shush, you know how they are. Leave them be." Rian takes Alicia into a hug, and she smiles up at him with a loving gleam in her eyes, making the other occupants of the room groan. "Even WE aren't that obvious, my God. Just make it official already." Amber rolls her eyes and sits back on the couch, Zack following after. Rian blushes but doesn't let go of Alicia, avoiding the look she gives him in response to that comment. "People. I gotta take a shower, I'll see you guys in half an hour." Alex gives a little wave and heads into the bathroom.

Ah, it was good to be back in the bus. Alex turns on the sink and splashes water on his face, washing away all the memories of what happened. It was time to start over, and life was getting so much better. Jack is back, Alex is out of the hospital and they're both finally together, what could go wrong?
Alex turns on the shower and looks in the mirror. Faded marks and scars still cover his face, his eyes sunken from lack of sleeping from pain. He slowly pulls off his shirt, his cast getting caught and making the whole process difficult. Alex swears and rubs his back with his good hand, it aching from all the twisting. “Oh how things have changed.”
Alex sighs while he proceeds to take off the rest of his clothing and get into the hot water of a nice tour bus shower. He had always done his best thinking in the shower, it was the only time he was truly alone for more than the five seconds it took for him to pee. And even then there was always someone pounding on the door for him to hurry up. No, this was Alex time.
Alex smiled to himself as he relaxed and began singing First Date by Blink 182, not caring that everyone in the bus could probably hear him. It was good to be home. Alex went to air guitar his favorite part, until he took a real good look at his arm. It suddenly dawns on him that he won’t be playing any type of guitar for the next few months. “Shit. How are we gonna finish the tour?” Alex asks, knowing fully well that no one is going to answer him. He can’t let his fans down, they mean too much to him. They’ve been there through it all, there in thick and thin, rain sleet or hail. But at the same time, it wouldn’t be the same with a broken lead singer who can’t even play. Hell, he could still barely stand for long amounts of time without feeling light headed. “What the hell are we gonna do...” Alex whispers, concentrating hard.
Just then he drops the soap, automatically going to catch it with his broken hand. “Gah!” He lets out a yelp as a sharp pain shoots up his arm. “Goddammit I can’t do ANYTHING anymore! I hate this fucking cast!” Alex shouts, turning off the shower with a defiant twist. Alex gets out and dries off, grumbling to himself about his fucking restrictions from hell. A drink was sounding good right about now.
“Alex? You okay in there?” Jack asks, concern thick in his voice as he knocks lightly on the door. The sound of Jack’s concern sooths Alex slightly, but not enough to make that craving go away. He pulls up his pants and opens the door. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be out in a sec, why don’t you get the keys and wait in the car?”
Jack searches his eyes, looking for an explanation as of why Alex seemed upset, but finding nothing. Instead, he nods and walks away, grabbing the keys. Alex finishes getting dressed and quickly dries his hair before following pursuit, but not without stopping at the fridge. He grabs out a beer and takes a swig, wipes his mouth and puts it back. "Ahh, that was refreshing." Alex smiles to himself and walks out the bus door, excited to go on his first date with Jack and put all his troubles behind him if only for a few hours.