If I Could Change Your Mind

The next morning when Jack woke up, everyone, including Kelsey and Alicia, was sitting on the couch discussing their plans for their day off. Alex and Kelsey were cuddling on one side of the couch while Zack, Rian and Alicia were crammed on the other side, trying to be as far away from all that mushy-ness as physically possible. Jack grunts his hello, then shuffles over to the cabinet and takes out a bowl and the Cookie Crisp cereal box. He took a seat at the table across from the couch and after taking a huge spoonful of cereal asks “So what’s the plan guys?” “Well, we’re deciding between going to the mall or going to the beach. What do you think we should do?” Alicia questions. Jack turns his head and looks out the window replying “It looks like it’s going to rain...” “Oh yay, then we get to go to the mall! That means I get to dress you up in expensive clothing!” Kelsey hugs Alex tighter, nestling her head into the crook of his neck. Zack pretends to vomit over the side of the couch while Rian and Alicia awkwardly look away. Jack slammed his spoon on the table and pushed the bowl away. He wasn’t hungry anymore. “I’m going to get dressed now.” Jack gets up from table and stomps off to the bathroom, grabbing some clean clothes out of the small drawer of clothes he has. Five minutes later, after changing and fixing his hair, they all pile into Matt Flyzik’s car and drive to the mall. When they enter, Kelsey suggests “We should go to Pacsun! I found a really cute jacket I think would look AMAZING on you there!” Rian and Alicia exchange glances and simultaneously say “Maybe we should split up.” Before they left, Alicia and Rian came up with a plan to have Jack spend quality time with the two lovebirds, in an attempt to change his mind about them. “Okay, Alicia, you can come with Alex and I!” Kelsey offers. “Well actually, I rather go with Rian and Zack...” Rian blushed when Alicia said his name and Zack nodded in agreement, silent as always. “You guys can go with Jack.” Rian says. Jack, who had been looking at his feet and not paying close attention, snapped his head up. “Wait, no, I rather go with you guys!” Jack exclaimed, filling with dread of being stuck with Alex and Kelsey all day. “No no, three to a group. You guys will have fun! We’ll meet you up later for lunch, bye!” Alicia and the two boys began walking away, leaving Jack alone with Alex and Kelsey. “That was random. Well at least I get to be with my best friend and my girlfriend, best group ever!” Alex smiled at Jack and then took Kelsey’s hand, and the three of them started off towards Pacsun.
While at the store, Kelsey picked out several million outfits for Alex and Jack and made them try them on. Alex came out first, wearing tight black skinny jeans, a gray body-hugging tshirt, a black leather jacket and a black and gray checkered man scarf. As he looks in the mirror, he says “Wow, I look goooood. Kels, you should be my personal stylist.” Alex flashes a smile in the mirror and Kelsey calls “Jack, it’s your turn to come out!” Jack steps out of the dressing room wearing a pink sequin mini dress that went with the pink Chucks he happened to be wearing. Alex looks him up and down and smirks “I’d tap that.” “Really? I thought my hairy legs kind of ruined it.” Jack laughs as he checks himself out in the large three way mirror outside the dressing room. “Nonsense, I think your hairy legs accent the pink. You look incredibly sexy!” Kelsey winks playfully at him and mouths “Call me.” Alex, pretending to be overly offended says “Well then! If that’s what turns you on then I’ll put on a pink sequin dress!” “Nahhh, you’re more of a winter.Jack is totally a summer though, can’t you tell?” “Alex, you’re just jealous you can’t pull of this dress as well as I can. Besides, your legs aren’t nearly as hairy as mine. I am the king of hairy legs!” All three of them laugh and Jack remembers what he liked about Kelsey, until Alex pulls her into his arms and kisses her. Then he remembers why ‘liked’ is past tense. Jack slips into the dressing room quietly while they kiss, anything to avoid watching that.
When he exits again, he finds Alex and Kelsey at the counter paying for Alex’s outfit. Jack, already sick of their annoying couple cuteness, asks “When’s lunch?” “You’re hungry already? We’ve only been shopping for a half an hour!” Kelsey exclaims, almost shocked. “It’s Jack, he’s always hungry.” Alex flashes Jack a grin, which Jack returns half-heartedly. They leave the store and head towards Abercrombie.
As they walked, Alex and Kelsey whispered to each other and smiling, completely content. Jack felt like the awkward third wheel and was getting completely fed up with their disgustingly cute love. Jack pretended to vomit, testing to see if they remembered his presence After a moment of making strange noises, a generally concerned Alex finally asked “Oh, Jack, are you okay?” “Yeah, I just want to go back to the tour bus.” “Oh why? I’m having so much fun with you guys! I love that I get to spend the whole day with my best friend and my girlfriend.” Alex takes Jacks hand in the one that he’s not holding Kelsey’s with and swings his arm back and forth, lovingly. Jack pulls his hand out of Alex’s grip and causing Alex to stop walking. “Can I talk to you a moment?” Alex tells Kelsey to stay there while he talks to Jack for a moment. He leads him aside and questions “What the hell Jack? Are you mad at me or something? What did I do?” Jack could tell Alex was annoyed. “It’s nothing I just...” Jack looks down at Alex’s feet, knowing that if he told him he didn’t like his girlfriend, Alex would be upset. “That’s bullshit. You’re my best friend, tell me, we’ve never kept secrets before.” Alex’s words stung because Jack had been keeping a lot of secrets from him lately. Jack sighed. “It’s just...I just don’t like with you and Kelsey.” “Why? You’re just jealous cause you don’t have a girlfriend.” “No, that’s not it...” Alex voice grows angrier with each word, but he tries to keep it at a whisper so Kelsey doesn’t hear them. “It’s cause I stole Kelsey from you, isn’t it? I’m sorry, but she just doesn’t like you that way. Get over it, it’s nothing worth being depressed about for weeks like you have been. I love her, I’m not going to stop because you can’t get over it. Don’t make me choose between you two, because right now I’d probably choose her.” The last sentence came out harsher than he had intended, but he wanted to get Jack’s attention. Jack met his eyes for a moment, then looked away again and whispered, defeated “Yeah, whatever. I wanna go back to the bus, where’s Rian?” Jack felt like he was going to cry, but wouldn’t let himself break down in front of Alex so he pushed past him, their shoulders brushing. Alex followed and took Kelseys hand rather roughly, and all three of them trudged toward Abercrombie in a tension filled silence.
There, they see a shirtless guy modeling jeans outside the store, surrounded by a massive group of girls. “Wait a sec...is that Zack?” Alex squints and all three of them try to penetrate the wall of girls to get a closer look. “I bet you ten bucks the majority of the girls here don’t know he’s in a band.” Jack whispers loudly enough that Alex hears. Alex forces a laugh and agrees. “Is Zack always shirtless?” Kelsey asks, completely serious, a confused look on her face. Kelsey obviously did not feel the awkward tension between the two best friends. Alex and Jack look at her strangely and she says “What? I’ve only ever seen him shirtless! At least now he’s not all sweaty. Remind me to buy him a t-shirt for Christmas.” Alex gives a small laugh at her comment and then turns back to Zack. “Zack, what the hell are you doing?” Zack shrugs and looks past them at something. They turn around as they hear a BANG right near the spot that Alex and Jack had quarreled. A giant potted plant had tipped over and spilled mulch all over the floor, and Alicia, who was holding a pair of binoculars, was clinging to Rian for dear life, a frightened look on her face. Jack assumed knocking the plant over had been an accident. Alex, Jack and Kelsey all stared at them while they waved awkwardly and joined them. “Oh uh, hey guys, you ready for lunch?” Alicia asked, her face red with embarrassment. “Yeah, actually, I was wondering if Rian could drive me back to the bus.” Jack said, begging Rian with his eyes. “Yeah, take him off my hands, please...” Alex murmured. Rian scratches his head and replies “I don’t know, Alicia and I were...” Jack gives him a pleading look and he fumbles with his Blink-182 bracelet, flashing Rian the bright red marks on his wrist. Rian notices them, and nods. “Yeah, I’ll take you home.” He exchanges a look with Alicia before leading Jack out of the mall towards the car.
In the parking lot, Jack mumbles a thanks as he gets in the passenger seat. “No probs. What happened back there? Are you okay? Do you really like Kelsey?” Rian asked, question right after another. “You heard our fight I assume? Why were you hiding in the plant anyways? You creepy stalker.” Jack laughed slightly, trying to calm Rian down. “Alicia and I thought we’d try to get you to change your mind about Alex and Kelsey if you hung out with them, that’s why we split off. We went to go buy binoculars. But it took longer than expected, so we only heard your fight about Kelsey.” “You did this? Ugh, that sucked, thanks man.” Jack said sarcastically. “Sorry, we just wanted you to be happy. You’ve been depressed for so long...” Rian trailed, his eyes flickering towards Jacks wrist. “Just leave you and your little girlfriend out of this, it’s nothing.” Jack snapped. “Jack, come on...and she’s not my girlfriend. I saw the marks on your wrist, you can’t deny it. Is this because of Kelsey?” He inquired softly. “No, it’s not because of Kelsey, its...its because of Alex...” “Because of Alex? What did Alex do?” “Nothing...just forget it, okay?” Jack said immediately regretting what he said.
“Okay...but you shouldn’t self harm. That’s really serious Jack! You got to stop before you get addicted. Promise me you won’t do it again.” “Sure.” Jack said hoping that Rian would just drop the subject. “Jack, promise me for real. Don’t make me pull this van over.” Rian’s tone changing from concerned to stern and slightly agitated. “Fine, fine, yes Rian, I promise I won’t cut my wrists again.” “Good. ‘Cause I’m keeping you to that promise...is it because Kelsey stole away your best friend?” Rian wanted to help Jack more, but he couldn’t unless he knew exactly why Jack was depressed. “My God Rian, just leave it alone!” Jack snapped. He wanted to tell Rian everything, but he couldn’t. Something inside of him just wouldn’t allow it. “Fine, I’m sorry, I was just wondering.” The rest of the car ride was silent. Rian parks the car by the door of the bus and Jack jumps out. As he’s opening the bus door Rian calls from the car “Are you sure you’re gonna be okay by yourself?” Jack stops for a moment before answering “Yes, I’ll be fine.” Rian pulls away then, unaware that Jack was lying completely.