The Intervention

“Jack, we need to talk. It’s about Alex.” Rian’s voice was concerned and worried and caring, but with a hint of an edge. Jack didn’t pick up on that last part, though. He was too busy concentrating to catch onto subtleties like that.

“What about him?” Jack asked, not looking up from the video game he was playing with Zack.

“His addiction,” he explained in a serious tone. “It’s getting out of hand.”

“No it’s not!”

“He’s even got you convinced he’s alright? God, it’s worse than I thought.” Rian shook his head, knowing it was past time to do something about Alex’s little addiction.

Jack broke focus on the game for a split second to glance at Rian scornfully. “Damn it, bro!” he shouted at a smug-looking Zack, who had taken the chance to kill him mercilessly. He tossed the controller aside and turned to face Rian. “So what makes you think that Alex’s addiction, if you can even call it that, is out of hand?”

“We’ve been off tour for what, two weeks?” When Zack nodded, Rian continued. “He’s barely been out of his room since we got back. You’ve been sleeping on the couch because of his sleep cycle, or lack thereof, Jack. He stays locked up in there until the middle of the night. That’s not even the worst of it—his dietary habits are out of control. I caught him sobbing alone on the kitchen floor with a jar of Nutella at three in the goddamn morning yesterday!”

Zack jumped in. “He’s so secretive, too. He won’t tell any of us what he’s been up to. He actually hides stuff from us. You know, at first, I thought it wasn’t that bad. It was a couple times a day…but that was when we were on tour. Now that he has free time, it’s reached the point of unhealthy.”

“It passed the point of unhealthy,” Rian scoffed. He pulled out his phone. “Here’s some pictures I’ve taken over the past few days.”

Alex alone on his bed in the dark, huddled around his laptop. Several other pictures just like it from different times. Alex with bags under his eyes from apparent lack of sleep. Alex in the fetal position on the kitchen floor surrounded by candy bar wrappers. A trashcan filled with empty jars of Nutella and cans of energy drinks. Alex outside, hugging a stray cat. The ‘recently watched’ TV shows on their Netflix account. “There’s more. I’ve got plenty of proof that it’s time to do something. And Jack, if you care about your…best friend slash fuck buddy slash secret boyfriend—oh, don’t give me that look; we all know it’s true—then you’ll know it’s time to step in.”

“What should we do?” Jack asked, giving in. Rian was right and he knew there was no sense arguing.

“We need to have an intervention.”

——

Jack sighed and knocked softly on the door to his and Alex’s room. “Lex?”

“Hmm?” a quiet, disinterested voice replied from inside.

“Could you come out for a minute?”

There was a melodramatic sigh, the sound of a laptop closing shut, and feet hitting the floor. Then Alex was opening his door. “What do you need?”

Jack took in the red eyes and darker-than-ever circles beneath them. “You stayed up all night again,” he accused.

Alex nodded. “I had…stuff to do…”

“I know, babe. Could you come to Zack and Rian’s room for a sec? We’ve got something we need to talk to you about.”

“Fine,” he said resignedly, rolling his eyes at the dark-haired man. “This better not take too long.”

“Hopefully it won’t,” Jack muttered, leading him across the hall.

Stretched across the wall in Rian and Zack’s room was a huge white banner with big red letters painted on it: INTERVENTION.

As if they needed to clarify, Jack stated, “Alex, this is an intervention.”

Alex bit his lip nervously, staying by the door unless he had to make a quick getaway. “This is about the highlights, isn’t it?” he asked, unconsciously tugging at his hair.

“No, Alex, it’s not. We’ve given up on your hair,” Zack said, throwing him a sympathetic grin. “Either that or you’ll grow out of it.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Jack warned. Alex would never grow out of this lightened hair phase. He’d accepted that ages ago.

“Oh! Then it’s about forgetting clothes in the washer, right?” A slightly bad habit he’d had for as long as they’d known him—Alex would put clothes in the washer and then forget about them for a day or two, so he’d have to rewash them.

Jack ruffled his hair affectionately. He was so clueless sometimes. “We’re just glad the laundry gets done, Lex.”

Alex thought for a minute. “It’s about the coconut soap, then,” he decided with confidence.

Rian groaned. While the overpowering scent of coconut had been driving them all mad for over a year, surely Alex couldn’t think that that was what the intervention was about. “It’s about Tumblr.”

Alex gasped. “I don’t need an intervention! I’m not even on there that much.”

“Denial in its purest form,” Zack pointed out. “Have a seat.”

Alex cautiously sank into a beanbag. “How long is this going to take?”

Jack looked at him sadly. “As long as it needs to. The evidence, Rian?”

Rian carefully approached Alex like one would a wounded animal, offering his phone. “Look through some of the pictures. It’s not a pretty sight.”

Over the next couple of minutes, the three watched him as his eyes widened more and more until they looked like they might pop out of his head. “Is it really that bad?” he whispered.

“Alex, we’ve barely spoken since we’ve been home,” Jack said gently. He sat on the floor next to him. “I miss you.”

“I didn’t mean to get so hooked. It’s just…it’s so easy. You follow a few blogs and then you look up the shows they talk about and you watch an episode and suddenly it’s three days later and you’ve watched three and a half seasons—”

“And eaten ungodly amounts of Nutella,” Rian interjected. Zack and Jack shot him shut up looks.

“I keep telling myself just five more minutes, five more minutes and I’ll get up…but I can’t do it.”

Zack took a deep breath; they’d previously agreed that he would be the one to propose the solution. “I hate to do this to you, Alex, but we’re taking away your laptop till we go back on tour. You need to detox.”

“B-b-but….”

Jack leaned in close so his lips were right next to Alex’s ear and whispered, so quietly the others couldn’t hear, “Give us the laptop or I’m withholding sex.”

“You wouldn’t,” Alex hissed through his teeth.

“Are you willing to take that chance?” he asked, teeth nipping at his earlobe.

“I…well, no.” He paused, and then looked between his three best friends. “Okay, guys…if you think it’ll help, you can take it.”

——

It had been three days since Alex had last been on Tumblr. He’d been twitchy the first day, but he was almost back to normal by now. He cuddled up next to Jack in their bed. “Thanks for intervening, Jacky.”

“Any time,” Jack said, kissing his cheek. “Although I’d rather there not be a next time. I like it better when all your attention’s on me.”

Still in a state of recovery from so many sleepless nights, Alex drifted to sleep almost immediately. And then Jack did it. The curiosity had been eating away at him for days now and he couldn’t take it anymore. He got Alex’s laptop out of its hiding place and turned it on. He had to know what it was that kept Alex so fixed on Tumblr.

He hadn’t logged out. Of course he hadn’t. It was almost too easy. Jack looked through his recent posts, and amidst the strangest combination of things—various British TV shows, other bands, quotes from some author named John Green, pictures of cats—he found that the most common posts were pictures of them. Not all of All Time Low. Just the two of them.

Alex hadn’t even revealed his identity on his blog. He was pretty much anonymously shipping Jalex, which the fans believed in but weren’t sure of the existence. Jack found it kind of endearing, even though Jalex had been real for nearly three years now.

He couldn’t help himself; he started to go through Alex’s likes, as well. This was probably—okay, definitely—a major invasion of his privacy, but it wasn’t like he’d ever have to know. He found a couple of fanfictions about Jalex and smirked…and then clicked and read one.

And another.

Damn, some of these people really got them.

So he read another.

And then it was five AM and he knew he should snap the laptop shut and quit, but he was in the middle of reading a really good fic. He couldn’t stop reading them. It was kind of addicting, in a way. (Although he didn’t appreciate how often he was portrayed as an asshole.) (Even though it was sort of true, at least half the time.)

——

It was four days before they left for tour again.

Something had to be done.

Which is why Alex was guiding Jack to Rian and Zack’s room again, where the two already stood beneath that same banner.

“Jack,” Alex began. “This is an intervention.”