Hold On Till May

"You loooove her," Jack mockingly slurred in a whisper. A wide smile was plastered on his obviously inebriated face while he stared at the ceiling. His best friend was awfully cozy with Aurora fast asleep and softly snoring in his arms.

Alex clenched his jaw to keep the yelling to a minimum. "Shut up and sleep!" This behavior had been happening since the others fell asleep and Alex had enough of it. Jack started laughing and then realized it was a time to be serious after seeing that Alex was no longer amused -- if he even was to begin with, that is.

"Dude, every day you're around her, I can see that you're both stuck in this magical-honeymoon-place… Pretty much, yeah." He stopped talking as if he was trying to figure out if his words made as much sense outlaid as they did in his head. They didn't, but he tried anyway.

"There's another guy, Jack." Alex rubbed his face and sighed.

"And you know that how?"

"She told me she's stressing about a guy right now, man. Just -- I don't know, okay?!" It wasn't Jack that was frustrating him, it was his own mind, working in its dumb ways.

"And that guy can't be you, Gaskarth?" Alex cracked a smile at the thought, but the smile was also due to the fact that Jack could sometimes sound more shrink-like than anyone gave him credit for.

"She says she's cutting again over a guy. So, that rules me out." The teenage boy covered his mouth and closed his eyes tight after letting that word slip out of his mouth unexpectedly. That thought wasn't even on his mind, so why would it come out of his mouth? Mentally, he was in a boxing ring with himself about to take a few blows to his own head for being drunk and stupid. Jack was shocked into silence and couldn't manage to choke a single word out of his mouth. His eyes had grown wide and his smile had slipped from his face, making him look like he had just seen a ghost.

"What…?" He was remotely dumbfounded and his voice was filled with more sadness than Alex had ever heard of. Both of the boys felt like shit in their own separate ways.

"I'm sor--"

Jack was quick to cut Alex off from speaking. "No, I'll just sleep now." His voice was then gone with a large gulp. He flipped over so he was facing a wall and his back was near everyone else in the room. Alex screwed up once again thanks to the power of alcohol -- this wasn't the first time and he defiantly knew that it wasn't going to be the last. He didn't know what to do other than lay in silence and think about how Jack was going to react in the morning and how Aurora was going to take the news.

You're a dumbass, Gaskarth…

Three down, one to go.

+++

Everyone rolled out of bed by one in the afternoon -- everyone except for Jack, that is. He lied and said that he was "too hungover", but no one believed him because Jack was the one to rarely sport a hangover.

"What's his deal today?" Aurora asked while she scarfed down three blueberry waffles as if her life depended on it. Rian set down a coffee mug for her along with some mocha creamer and a bowl of sugar. He poured her a cup and then one for himself. She smiled delightfully, almost as if her head wasn't pounding with a screaming vengeance.

Zack finally shrugged at her question since no one else seemed to have a clued. "He just has his period, let him be." Aurora rolled her eyes and playfully hit him in the shoulder. Alex was almost in pain from not being able to blurt out the reason behind Jack's attitude problem this afternoon. He sat back and frowned with his own plate of waffles and bacon in front of him. Finally his phone buzzed in his pocket which startled him, causing him to jump.

From: Princess
What. Did. You. Do.

He sighed and looked over at her. Aurora's eyes were stern and her face were full of questions that needed an answer. She always knows, he shook his head. Alex half wondered in that moment why Aurora hasn't decided to be a cop yet, but he shook his head to push the thought away and quickly replied to the secretive text.

To: Princess
I slipped about the 'c' thing… I'm really sorry, S-Beauty. :'(

Aurora shook her head in disbelief. Her face and body suddenly tensed up with anger.

From: Princess
You shouldn't even be allowed near booze. And yes, I'm pissed. Don't slip to RiDaw just yet.

"I'm gonna go to talk to him." Aurora got up from her stool and made her way to the basement where Jack was laying on the couch, staring at the ceiling in deep thought. "I'm sorry, Jacky," she whispered while positioning herself to lie down next to him.

"Why are you sorry?" His voice was dry, no clear indication of his emotion whatsoever.

"Alex told me what happened." She placed her head in the crook of the boy's neck and held the hand that was playing with the string of his hoodie. "I didn't mean for you to find out like that, ya'know? I was going to tell you, I just didn't know how." Jack nodded slowly and rubbed his thumb across the top of her hand.

"How long has it been now?" He asked with regret.

"A few months… And if it makes you feel better, Alex and Zack found out by mistake, too."

"What do you mean?"

"They both saw the cuts and had the same attitude issue that you have right now."

"What about Rian and why didn't they tell me?" He sounded bitter, but he was more worried. He pulled his friend close to him, not wanting to let her go back into her world of pain that she lived outside of her four friends.

"Ri doesn't know and they didn't tell you because I begged them not to. I mean, if Zack had his way, you two would've known immediately, but I had to play Mother Hen in order for that to not happen." Her voice was playful, not sad, which made Jack smile a tad because of the end of her sentence.

"Why though, Rora?" Jack was lost, despite the smile he had quickly gotten rid of.

"I don't know, Jacky, but I'm trying my hardest to not do this anymore, okay? Just believe me." He nodded and placed a kiss on her forehead. He took his hand away from hers and held up his pinky finger, making Aurora giggle. She automatically wrapped her pinky around his, promising that she'd try to stop. "Now come upstairs, boy, I made waffles." She sat up and tried racing him to the steps, but he still hadn't gotten up.

"We love you and want you to be safe, Princess," he smiled and looked down. She nodded, signaling that she knew. "Blueberry waffles, by chance?" He asked while he sat up off of the couch. She giggled and said yes. In an nanosecond, the lanky kid was on the couch and then raced passed her and up the steps. She just laughed and slowly followed behind him.

"How do you do that?" Rian asked Aurora once she'd gotten into the kitchen. Jack was already sitting at the island with a pile of waffles in front of him.

"I have my special ways, RiDaw," she smiled while taking a sip of her coffee. Alex looked at her, trying to find forgiveness in her eyes while his phone buzzed yet again.

From: Princess
It's fixed. You're forgiven, but you owe me. Now stop looking weird.

He looked up from his phone and to the girl, she winked and a smile grew on his face. She defiantly did have her ways with these boys.