Stomach Flu

Alex was woken up way too early for a Saturday morning by Matt.

He had never been much of a morning person, and being woken by a rough shake to the shoulder did nothing to set him in a positive mood.

“Jack has the stomach flu.” Matt stated in response to Alex’s sleep murmur of ‘Fuck off’. “Zack’s with him now but I thought you’d appreciate being told.”

Instantly Alex forced off the last remnants of sleep, running a hand through his mussed hair and staggering out of bed.

“He’s in the bathroom. Practice for tonight starts in an hour.”

This last comment was barely registered as Alex pushed past him, heading towards his best friend.
Zack and Jack were sitting on the cold floor of the cramped bathroom. They were both leaning against the wall; Jack hunched up with his knees to his chest, and Zack next to him, a muscled arm slung over his shoulders comfortingly.

The older boy looked relieved to see Alex as he struggled to his feet.

“He’s been like this since about four am. It’s about time you took over nursing duty.”

The offhand comment made Alex feel instantly guilty for not somehow sensing his friends distress.

Taking Zack’s previously evicted spot on the floor, he began to slowly rub circles on the younger boys back in offer of comfort. Jack greeted him with a soft whimper as he rested his head on Alex’s shoulder. Unused to this situation, Alex was left at a loss for words.

He finally settled on the most obvious question.

“Are you going to be able to play tonight?”

“Hopefully.” Came the weak response. “Matt’s letting me miss most of practice so I can sleep and I should be able to do the show. It’s the last one so I just have to get through tonight and I can rest.”

As if exhausted by speaking he let his head drop back to Alex’s shoulder here it lolled, unsupported.
It unnerved Alex to see Jack like this. Usually the guitarist was so full of energy he drove everyone mad- especially before a show when he often had to be banished outside where his overflowing childishness could be released without anyone getting injured. They’d all learnt their lesson after he once managed to almost knock Zack unconscious with his erratic bouncing around.

Sighing and unsure of how to help his friend, Alex simply pulled him into a hug before saying jokingly;

“If you’re not going to puke, then let’s get you out of this bathroom. My ass is numb already.”

It took Alex nearly ten minutes just to help Jack out of the bathroom and onto the sofa in the main ‘living room’. Jack leaned heavily against the older boy; one arm wrapped protectively around his stomach and the other clinging to the vocalist for support. In the end, it had hurt Alex too much to watch his best friend suffer just by walking so he called Zack over to carry him.

Dumping him unceremoniously on the sofa, Zack shot both of them a concerned glance before sitting down next to the shaking boy.

“Alex go take a shower. I’ll sit with Jack, but you have half an hour to get ready and you look like shit.”

Alex was about to protest before realising that, as usual, Zack was right. Giving Jack one last worried look, he headed off to get ready.

He hurried into band practice late; hair still damp and shoes unlaced. He just had enough time to ask Zack how Jack was doing before he was cut short by Matt.

“He’s fine Alex. He’s an adult; he can look after himself. Just because he’s the youngest you lot all treat him as if he’s still a child.”

Alex was about to argue back when Rian chimed in.

“Matt’s right Alex. The other day you made his pot noodle for him because he was too lazy to do it himself.”

Scowling at both of them, Alex grabbed his guitar and began to warm up.

After three hours of intensive rehearsing, Matt let them go.

“After all you have been practising all week, and there’s not much we can do without Jack anyway.”

Alex barely waited for the words to leave his mouth before dashing back to the tour bus to check on his band mate.

Jack wasn’t on the sofa where they’d left him though. Instead, the faint sounds of retching could be heard from the direction of the bathroom.

Rolling his eyes, Rian left to go check on him. Neither Zack nor Alex had very strong stomachs and even the sounds of gagging had Alex feeling nauseous. He pressed a hand to his mouth and took several deep breaths, willing himself not to puke.

Rian returned a few minutes later.

“He’s not doing too great. I told him you were worried about him, Alex, but he was too busy hurling up his stomach contents to respond.”

Apparently this graphic description was too much for Zack, who quickly exited the bus into the fresh air. Rian smirked and followed him; probably deciding the chance to torture him with further details was too great an opportunity to be missed.

Alex chose not to venture into the bathroom; unsure as to if his stomach could handle it. Instead, he set about making the sofa as comfy as possible for the sick boy.

He had dragged out Jacks duvet from his bed, put Home Alone in the DVD player and fetched a fresh bottle of water by the time Jack emerged.

Alex was shocked by how terrible he looked. His dark hair was matted and his clammy, pale complexion made him a dead ringer for a vampire. He was unsteady on his feet, leaning against the wall to stay upright and Alex quickly rushed to his side to support him over to the sofa.

Jack curled up in his duvet at one end, tucking his long legs underneath him and when Alex sat next to him, he instinctively leaned over to rest his head in the older boys lap.

Smiling slightly at the other boys adorableness, Alex pressed play on the DVD and settled back to relax and watch the film they both knew off by heart. Unconsciously, his hand traced lazy patterns on Jack’s bare arm.

About fifteen minutes into the movie, Jack began to shift awkwardly, changing his position constantly. One particular movement alerted Alex to just how close Jack’s head was from his crotch, and, biting his lip, readjusted his legs.

“Lex…” Came the pitiful whine. “Stomach hurts.”

Jack had drawn both knees up to his chest and was rocking slightly, trying to ease his pain. Alex offered him the bottle of water and helped him into a sitting position.

Murmuring words of comfort into Jack’s ear, he started to slowly rub wide circles on his lower back- a trick that had always worked for him when he was younger. If nothing else, he wanted to be able to distract the younger boy from the pain.

Sure enough, within moments, Jack had gone limp in his arms and relaxed easily into Alex’s touch.
The guitarist repositioned himself so he was halfway across his best friends lap, held upright in Alex’s arms before shutting his eyes and drifting into sleep.

Alex continued to play the movie but his attention was elsewhere. Instead of staring at the screen, he found his eyes drawn to Jack’s sleeping face.

This was unusual. Unexplored territory for him; he’d never really been intrigued by his band mate unless you counted the times he was amazed by the seemingly endless amounts of energy he had. And he’d never considered Jack’s appearance before. Sure, he knew the boy was good looking but that was based more off of girls’ reactions to him than his own observations. But whilst he was sick like this… he gave off an air of vulnerability.

Shaking the thoughts away, Alex returned his attention to the movie. He knew deep down he was only watching it as a form of distraction- this was Jack’s favourite movie, not his, but it was irrelevant.

So long as he could push these feelings away he didn’t care.

It was working as well, succeeding in re-focusing his attention. But then Jack shifted in his arms, moving up slightly and clutching at the neck of Alex’s shirt, mumbling contented noises and being generally adorable and Alex felt himself give in. Rather than redirect his attention, he allowed himself to stare at Jack’s face, a soft half smile playing at his lips.

The half-smile jolted off his face pretty quickly as Jack’s eyes flew open and he sat up rapidly.
Alex quickly pulled backwards away from Jack, worried he was going to get puked on. Jack just sat completely still for a minute, taking deep breaths whilst Alex was frozen in panic.

After what seemed like a lifetime, Jack relaxed back onto the sofa and gave Alex a hurt look.

“Sorry! But I thought you were about to hurl on me.” Alex defended.

“Like you’ve never done that to me when you’ve been drunk.” Jack complained.

“Okay, firstly I was intoxicated and therefore cannot be held responsible for my actions,” pointed out the singer. “And secondly, I wasn’t sick on you. I was sick in your suitcase.”

Jack just glared in response.

“Anyway…” he said, changing the subject. “Why were you staring at me while I was sleeping?”

Alex froze. Somehow ‘I-thought-you-looked-really-cute-and-I-kinda-wanted-to-kiss-you’ didn’t seem like an acceptable answer.

“Umm.. You started making weird noises. I was sorta worried you were having a nightmare or something and I was deciding if I should wake you up or not…”

There. That was somewhat believable and it made him come off as caring too. But was it his imagination or did Jack look slightly disappointed by his explanation?

“Oh..” the younger boy said, thinking. “That’s weird. I was having quite a good dream. I don’t know why I’d be making noises.” Then Jack looked up at Alex with heavy-lidded eyes, nearly making Alex’s heart stop.

Trying to distract himself, he ripped his gaze away from his best friend and made a desperate attempt to avert his thoughts. After all, Jack was sitting practically on top of him. A boner would be kind of awkward and difficult to explain.

“Can I get you anything? How are you feeling now?” Alex asked.

Jack wrinkled his nose and ran a hand through his hair before responding. “Still kinda gross. But a lot better than before to be honest. That nap did me good. I should be able to play tonight.” He paused, letting his head drop onto Alex’s shoulder. “Still not one-hundred percent though. Would you rub my back?”

At Alex’s stunned look he quickly backtracked. “Sorry, that sounds weird. You don’t have to do anything… shit…”

Alex cut him off. “It’s fine. If it’ll make you feel better it’s cool.”

Jack settled back into Alex’s arms, shutting his eyes as Alex began to rub slow, soothing circles onto the sick boys shoulders. The smile he got in return gave Alex a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach and he knew instantly that whatever Jack asked- whether it be to watch Home Alone for the millionth time, or to run a marathon- he’d do it just for another chance at making him happy.

Unfortunately, Alex’s happy relaxation, paired with the heavy weight of Jack’s body across one side of his body had given him…a minor problem.

Okay, it was quite a major problem.

Crossing his legs discreetly he redirected his mind away from the adorable mess that was Jack Barakat. Nothing seemed to be working though, especially not now that Jack was trying to snuggle further into Alex’s body, pressing himself up against Alex’s legs in a way that was impossible to ignore.

He bit his lip, shifting desperately, trying to discreetly move Jack into a position where he wasn’t arousing him quite so much.

It didn’t work.

Thankfully, Matt came in. Alex quickly grabbed a cushion to put not-so-discreetly over his lap.

“Wake him up.” Matt said bluntly. “He needs to shower and get ready. Meet me in the dressing room in an hour and a half. Don’t you dare be late.”