I Can't Remember the Good Old Days

"I know you are mad at him, Zack, I am too, but it wasn't necessary to break his nose!" Jack sighted into the phone, "I know he's an asshole! Everyone knows that, but really, you could just ignore him, he-… he called you? Why would he do that?" A few nurses glared at him and shushed him for being too loud. "But what did he say?" he said, trying to speak lower. He frowned when Zack explained what happened. "Yeah… no, I'm gonna leave as soon, you know I can't really see him without wanting to push him off the widow… The doctor said he had a few bruises as well... No no, he's gonna be fine, Zacky, don't worry. He deserved it, anyway" He sighted once again, and mumbled a small bye into the phone as soon as Zack had finished talking.

Hanging up, he scanned the place, looking for the nurse that he had seen earlier in Alex's room. He spotted the redheaded talking to a doctor at the end of corridor and walked over to her. "Hey… I, uh, I'm here for Alex? Is he awake now?" She gave him a warm smile and nodded, "Yeah, he woke up a fifteen minutes ago… I'm going to tell him you're here…" she said and started moving towards Alex's room, but Jack stopped her quickly. "No! No… that won't be necessary…" he said, forcing out a smile. She looked really confused by his reaction, "but he was asking for you earlier… you know, to give him a ride home…" she mumbled, scratching the back of her neck, "You're Rian, right?" Jack frowned and shook his head "No, I'm Jack" why would Alex ask for Rian? "Oh! I'm so sorry! Well… I hope the other guy gets here quick, he looked kinda down" she sighted "I mean, the poor guy has gone twice to the hospital in less then a month. He was lucky that whoever hit him, didn't hit him way too hard, because it would have messed up the recovery of his head" she finished, checking some papers on her clipboard. "Wait… what are you talking about? He was in the hospital? What happened?" his eyes widened. Alex hurt his head? What? "Uhm, yeah… what's your full name? I can't really give you information about it without knowing who you are" Jack felt very confused by now. Had it really been that bad? "Uhm… Jack Bassam Barakat?" The nurse quickly checked her clipboard and smiled. "You're not family, but he has you as one of the emergency numbers, so I guess I can tell you" Alex never asked to change his number? 'He probably forgot he had me…' he thought, "He uh… he fell off a bridge, hit his head… he was lucky he was alive. He was in a comma for around two weeks, but stayed in the hospital a week after that for his head to head… and in suicide watch" she finished, giving Jack a sad smile "We tried calling all his emergency numbers when he woke up, but all of the numbers were disconnected, so we really couldn't contact anyone" Jack felt like he was sick. Alex tried to kill himself. He felt his eyes started to water and he had to look away, he hated when people saw him cry. He was covering his mouth with his hand, afraid that if he took his hand away he would start sobbing. Alex actually tried to kill himself and he didn't even know he has been in a comma for half a month.

"Hey, I'm here to pick up Alex?" Jack heard someone say, "Sure, room 214" a nurse answered and suddenly someone was pushing past him, going to Alex's room. Jack didn't move a finger to try and catch Rian's attention, just stared at his back as he entered the room. Jack was still in shock, he still didn't want to see Alex's face, but he wanted to hear his voice, make sure he was okay. That's why he was at the hospital anyway, but he had planned on quickly checking on him and leaving before Alex even knew he was there. But now? Now he was scared and lost, and he had no idea what to do, so he just stayed there, staring at nothing, with his eyes watery and his mouth half open until a nurse asked him to move from the corridor.



"So, how's your head, fucktard?" Rian asked, chuckling, as soon as he entered the room. Alex grinned and waved "Well, the doctor said the wound is healing just fine, and I luckily I didn't land head-first when I blacked out" he shrugged. "Did you bring my clean shirt?" Rian nodded and threw him a random shirt he found at Alex's place. "And how's everything going?" Rian asked, this time sounding worried. "Well… I've been trying to contact all the people I used to know, but it hasn't been easy," he sighted, looking down, "I uh… I saw Zack earlier today." Rian's eyes got wide and just stared at him for a few seconds before he started talking, "You did? Did you guys like have a conversation or something like that?" Alex looked down and shrugged, "He did speak to me, but I didn't really had the chance to answer…" he explained quietly. "What do you mean with-" but the pieces connected before he could even finish talking. "Oh" he mumbled, not really knowing what to say. "But don't tell the doctor or nurse or whatever, I really don't want him to get in trouble" he said with pleading eyes. He looked genuinely sorry, even though Zack had been the one who hit him. "I still don't understand what made you change so drastically" Rian said without thinking. Alex frowned "What do you mean, am I too different?" "Uh, no… I mean… You had changed a lot before the accident, its hard to explain" It wasn't hard at all, Rian just didn't want to. "Oh, okay, whatever… I'm just tired and want to go home and sleep" Rian sighted in relief when Alex dropped the subject and nodded, walking out the hospital room, Alex following.



"Thanks for the ride, Ri! See ya!" he waved, as Rian left in his car. He sighted and rubbed his nose a little, wanting to rip the bandage off. He had fixed his house a little. Added some color to his room, decorated various walls with old pictures of his friends and family he had found in a random box in his closet. It felt slightly more like home. Throwing himself in the couch he turned on the TV and started changing the channels, not really finding anything that he liked. He stopped when he came across Adventure Time, grinning. The show always reminded him of Jack. He had a small obsession with it and Alex always found it cute. It made Jack act like a small kid whenever it was on and always forced Alex to watch it with him. He sighted and hugged his knees, watching, but note really paying attention to the program.

He was startled when the doorbell rang. Nobody visited him, or at least not during the last week. "Rian? Is that you?" he called. He knew it wasn't Lisa or Matt, because they would have called him before visiting. "Uhm… no…" Was that… was that Jack? Was that really Jack? Alex got up so quick, he ended up knocking down the coffee table next to the couch. His leg was pretty much in pain now, but ignored it and ran towards the door as fast as he could. He opened the door and was about to just hug the hell out of the lanky boy in front of him, but stopped himself just in time. "Ja-Jack?" he asked, panting because of the small race to the door. "Hey Alex" he whispered, looking everywhere but at him. "What are you… Sorry… Uhm… Do you wanna come in? It's kinda cold" Jack nodded and entered, automatically noticing the pictures. "How have you been?" Alex asked awkwardly. The younger boy just shrugged, still looking around the place. "Are you hungry? I could cook something if you want, let me just-" but he was cut short by Jack, who hadn't even faked a smile since he got there, "Why did you do it?" Alex frowned, "What… what do you mean? I haven't done anything… I mean, I'm really sorry for whatever happened before, but I swear I'm trying to fix things" he rambled. Jack suddenly looked angry, and Alex unconsciously moved backwards. He had enough with a broken nose, he didn't really need new wounds. "Oh, you're sorry?! Do you actually think doing such thing would have made me forgive you?! You're still a fucking self-centered asshole, you know" he yelled. Alex's back hit the wall, and closed his eyes, waiting for the first punch. "Do you actually think that I would be okay with you gone?! That I would be okay knowing that I would never see you again?!" Alex was really confused now. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Jack with his hands covering his face and sniffling softly. Alex considered hugging him, but thought that it wasn't really a good idea. "Jack… I… I don't really know what you're talking about… s-sorry" That's when Jack looked up, looking angrier than ever, and yelled "STOP FUCKING SAYING YOU'RE FUCKING SORRY, ALEXANDER, THAT'S JUST A WORD AND IT WON'T MAGICALLY FIX THE WOUND ON YOUR HEAD!" Jack had his face flushed from the anger and his eyes red from crying. "How do you know about that? And what does it has to do with this? Because, as far as I know, it happened after we fought…" Alex said softly, looking down, trying to stay calm. "After we fought? Did you actually just say that? I mean, if you want to call the break-up a 'fight', well then-" Alex snapped his head up, with his eyes wide "Break-up? Jack, really, what are you talking about? What break-up?" Jack was trying to breath and calm down. He wiped the tears and took a deep breath "Alex… please, I just… I know we were never…" sight "… I know we were never actually official, but you could at least acknowledge we dated" What? "Jack… I don't know! I don't remember anything!" Jack broke down and started sobbing loudly, but before Alex could do anything about it, he was running out the door and out of his sight.