If I Could Change Your Mind

When Jack woke up hours later, it wasn’t to a happy, adorable Alex. It was to the sound of an unhappy, puking Alex in the bathroom. Jack sits up, calling “Alex? You okay in there?” Jack pads over to the bathroom, seeing Alex on the floor curling over the toilet, puking his guts out. “Why do you care?” Alex spits. “Because you’re my best friend?” Jack asks, remembering how they made up last night. “Since when?” Alex says harshly. “Since like, the eighth grade?” “I don’t know if you remember yesterday, but we’re not friends anymore.” “I don’t know if you remember yesterday, but we made up.” “No we didn’t, what are you talking about? Just because I don’t remember half of yesterday doesn’t mean you make up shit, Jack.” “But I thought, last night...?” It occurs to Jack that Alex was completely drunk last night, and he knew it, but he didn’t think Alex would have forgot everything. “Oh, um, yeah, whatever...” Jack mumbles, upset all over again. “All I remember is going off on Kelsey, because of you. I better call her.” Alex pulls his cell phone out of his pocket, and pushes speed dial number one, Kelsey. As it’s ringing, another wave of nausea comes over him and he begins throwing up in the toilet again. “Hello? Alex, why the hell are you calling me at like 5:30? I still have another half hour to sleep! What the hell is that gross noise in the background?” Kelsey asks through the phone. “Oh...I’m sick...but I...I feel bad...about yesterday......I shouldn’t have....said that stuff...I’m sorry...” Alex said between vomiting. “Oh, um, its okay, but can we talk about this when you’re not puking? Just ‘cause I’m in a band called Purple Vomit doesn’t mean I like the sound of it...” Kelsey replied, disgusted. In the background, there was a thud and then Alex hears Alicia say “Kelsey, get off the phone! I’m sleeping!” “Alicia, stop throwing stuff at me!” Kelsey shouts back. “I gotta go Alex, bye.” “Wait no, let me take you to dinner tonight, after the show, and formally apologize.” “Um, okay, bye.” “KELSEY GET OFF THE PHONE!” After Alicia’s random outburst Kelsey hung up, leaving Alex to hear the dial tone. Alex turned and saw Jack still awkwardly standing in the doorway. “Well don’t just stand there, either go back to bed or get me some medicine. I have a wicked headache too...” Alex complains, running his hand through his hair. “Oh, okay, Rian has all the medicine, I’ll be right back...” Jack left the hotel room, leaving Alex in the bathroom alone. “I need a drink.” He says to himself, then crawls over to the mini fridge in the bathroom. He put the bottle of Everclear in there last night because he knew no one would use it, especially since no one else probably knew it was even there. He took a swig, and swished it around in his mouth, enjoying it. He took a really long gulp after that and put it back in, right before Jack came back with the advil. “Here.” He handed it over to Alex, who took it gratefully. After that, Jack went back to bed, and the rest of the day was spent in an awkward silence between the two ex-best friends.
After the show that night, Alex meets Kelsey backstage and says “Hey Kelsey, you ready for dinner?” “Ooh, where are you guys going?” Alicia asks, waggling her eyebrows at Kelsey. “Haha, I don’t know, it’s a surprise.” Kelsey hugs Alex, who smiles warmly. “Why don’t you ever take me to nice places, Rian?” Alicia asks, looking up at Rian who was standing beside her. “What?” He questions, confused. “Never mind haha, I was kidding anyway.” Alicia walks away then, followed by a bewildered Rian. “Well anyways, let’s go!”
An hour later Alex was pushing Kelsey’s chair in at the Golden Swan, the finest in America. “I can’t believe I’m here! I didn’t think you would take me here!” “Why not? You deserve the best.” Alex grins, making Kelseys smile grow. “My favorite part about this restaurant is the fountain.” Next to their table was a huge fountain that had a golden swan as a centerpiece, it squirted water out of it’s mouth. It had to be worth more than anything they’ve ever seen before.
It was quite as they looked through the menu. Alex placed his hand on top of Kelsey’s over the table. “Have I ever told you you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen?” Alex said softly staring at Kelsey, like he’s a blind person seeing for the first time. Kelsey lifts her head up and blushes. “Well aren’t you a charmer, Gaskarth.” She says giving him a small smile before going back to reading the menu.
Alex continued to look at Kelsey instead of the menu. He loved almost everything about the girl. Kelsey looked absolutely stunning, especially since she only had an half an hour to get ready. Her blonde hair was curled, showing off her two blue streaks. She was wearing a blue laced dress, that accented her breasts without making her look slutty. She wore black heels to make her taller, because she was only around 5’3. What she was wearing though didn’t matter, as long as she had her big, bubblegum smile.
“Gosh, you really didn’t have to bring me here, Alex. I would of been content with going to the trashy pizza place, Mustachio’s, down the street from our show.” Kelsey said with a slight laugh. “Yeah, I could've, but you deserve to eat in a place much fancier than this.” Alex replied finally looking at the menu. “No where on here is there spaghetti. They don’t even have a milkshake. Why God why?” Alex laughed. Another thing Alex loved about Kelsey, she could live on spaghetti and pizza for every meal. Those were one of the few things Alex could actually make, among those were ‘Cup O’ Soup’ and cereal. Well, according to Jack, Alex never could make his cereal quite right. Alex laughed to himself remember how Jack always insulted Alex’s cereal making skills, but it instantly turned into a frown when he remembered they were no longer friends. “Alex, hun, are you okay?” Kelsey said moving her hand so she was touching his arm. “Oh, uh yeah.” Alex lied. “Just peachy.” Kelsey gave him a half-smile, “I can tell you’re lying because no one uses the word peachy.” She stuck her tongue out at him. Alex puts his hand behind her neck and leans over to give her a kiss. Partly so he didn’t have to talk about Jack, and partly because he’s been wanting just to make out with her the whole time they were here. The kiss lasted for a minute or two before their waiter came, giving them an annoyed cough.
Alex pulled away sinking back in his seat awkwardly. “So how may I help you today?” Kelsey answered first saying, “May I have a Shrimp Cocktail?” and “And to drink madam?” Before Kelsey can reply Alex interrupts saying, “We want a bottle of your finest wine.ASAP.” Kelsey lets out a little giggle and rubs her thumb over Alex’s; it was obvious Alex wasn’t use to fancy restaurants. “Shit, Please. I mean dammit. I just want red wine.” Alex gave himself a mental facepalm. “And what would you like to eat sir?” “Uhh...” Shit, Alex thinks, I never finished looking at the menu. “Hmmm.....” The waiter soon grows impatient. “What do you recomend?” Kelsey says coming to Alex’s rescue. The waiter lists off thing that Alex’s knows he’s not gonna be interested in. “A really big steak.” Alex declares while the waiter was still going on about what he recommends and what the specials are. The waiter nods and leaves to get them a bottle of wine.
The rest of the night was blissful. Alex loves spending time with Kelsey. Even if it did mean taking her to fancy restaurants where he stuck out like a sore thumb. Kelsey is never embarrassed by Alex, and how he sometimes acted very immature. She loves his stupid sex jokes and laughs at his fart jokes, though, most of the time she found them gross. Alex really found himself thinking she was the one. Yeah, it’s only been about a month, but if she wanted to he’d marry her right there, no doubt.
Alex gets down on one knee and pulled out the box with a ring in it. Kelsey almost screams from happiness. “Shh, it’s just a promise ring...” Alex whispers so only Kelsey can hear, “I heard the wine is free if you propose here.” Kelsey winks at him and squeals, “Of course!” They both stand up to give a dramatic kiss, while the whole restaurant ‘awws’, except for their waiter he mumbles to another, “I can’t believe she said yes to a hillbilly with pink hair.”
Alex dropped Kelsey off at the hotel they were staying at. He gave her a deep kiss before letting her leave and heading back to the tour bus to get his suitcase, which was a few blocks away. When Alex gets back in the car, he sees the bottle of wine Kelsey and him got for free, that they left unfinished. He opened the bottle and took a couple sips before putting the car in drive and traveling to the bus.
Jack pulls out the shiny new blade he’s keeping in his wallet. He’s wanted to cut all day, but being constantly surrounded by people made it quite hard. Jack pretended to leave something in the bus so he walked back to the tour bus after Rian and Zack went to their rooms. Jack takes off his shirt and looks in the mirror they had on the back of the bus door. He takes off the bandages and examines the cuts from earlier this week. He looks at the blade and then back to the cuts. He pushes the blade hard against his skin then drags it across, he repeats this approximately 3 more times before looking back up at the mirror. But when he looked up, instead of seeing a shirtless Jack in the mirror, he sees a drunk full dressed Alex. Jack is stunned. He didn’t even hear Alex open the door. He just stands there, blade still against his skin, like a deer in headlights. “Hey Jacky!” Alex said slightly peppy, eyes trailing down to Jack’s hip. “What’s....what’s....going on?” Alex stumbled on his words, barely choking them out. Jack opens his mouth then shuts it. When he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Something in Alex snapped as he jumps up the stairs leading to the door and comes face to face with Jack. Alex whacks Jack’s hand making him drop the blade before pinning him against the wall with his free arm. “What are you doing?” “What does it look like?” Jack replies harshly. Alex looked down at Jack’s ride side, seeing the nice, straight, crimson red lines going up and down his hip. Alex took a gulp from the wine bottle before setting it on the table next to him. “Why?” Alex whispers, barely audible. He looks up to meet Jack’s eyes, you could see the tears welling up in his them. It is the saddest thing Jack could ever remember seeing. His best friend, Alex, looks like a sad puppy who’s been kicked one too many times. The sight of this made Jack want to crumble up into pieces and disappear. “I-I just...I need to. It helps me.” Jack breathes, his voice feeling like its stuck in his throat. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Alex inquires. “Because, you’re always too busy with Kelsey. I didn’t want to add more to our fights...” “But Jack, I would’ve understood... this...this is serious, why would you do something like this?” The shock of this new information was setting in and turning Alex sober. “I needed an outlet, just till this passed, I wasn’t going to tell anyone.” “You did this...because of me?” “No, just, everything lately has been different and stressful....don’t worry about it Alex, it’s not like I’m going to kill myself or anything. The cuts are even that deep, I’m fine. I’m the same Jack you were best friends with.” Jack reassures him. “Are, are you sure? Because God Jack..... you should’ve told me...Is-is there anything I can do to stop this?” Jack thinks, you could dump Kelsey and love me, but doesn’t say that. “I, I don’t know, I’ll stop when I don’t need it anymore. Can we not talk about this anymore? Let’s go to the hotel.” “Oh, sure...” Alex goes to grab his suitcase when Jack stops him. “Does this mean we’re cool now?” Alex smiles and takes Jack into a hug, holding him so tightly Jack can barely breathe. The hug lasts for a long time, until Jack breaks away saying “See? I don’t need to be suicidal when you’re trying to kill me like that.” Alex smirks, then kisses Jack on the cheek. “I only try to kill you because I love you Jacky.”