I Like My Boy So Drunk He Can't Walk

It had been a rough week for the Merrick-Barakat household. Well, more like it had been a rough week for Zack, Jack on the other hand was living it up. Jack had been leaving the house at 6 o’clock every night and stumbling in at around 3 in the morning in varying degrees of inebriation. This routine had started on Monday.

Monday
Zack was sitting on the couch in the family room bouncing his knees up and down nervously. He hadn’t heard from his husband, Jack since he had left earlier that evening saying he was going to hang out with Alex. He heard the lock in the door click and he stood up immediately rushing towards the door, Jack had barely stepped into the house when Zack engulfed him in a hug and asked: “Where the hell were you!” His voice was quiet so as not to wake their 6 year-old daughter, Melody.
“I was out with Alex.” Jack answered, his words slurring just a bit.
“Were you drinking?”
“Yeah, just a couple beers, you know me I have a high tolerance.” Jack murmured. His eyes were clear enough, but his balance wasn’t the best and he tripped over his feet several times before he made it to the couch and fell onto it.
Zack followed him, a worried expression adorning his face. “Why didn’t you call? I was getting worried.”
“I sort of forgot I’m sorry babe.” Jack apologized turning around to look at Zack.
“It would just be nice if you called to tell me if you’re going to be out late.” Zack said, “I’m going to bed now though.”
“Okay, I’ll be up in a few minutes I’m just going to watch TV for a bit.” Jack answered.
Zack kissed Jack’s forehead then headed upstairs.

The next night Jack went out once again, leaving Zack alone to take care of Melody. Melody begged to stay up with Zack and wait for Jack to come home because she wanted to show him the puzzle they had finished but Zack insisted she go to bed at her usual time and promising to show Daddy the puzzle they had made. After Melody was put to bed Zack once again waited up for Jack who didn’t walk in the door well after 3 and even more drunk than last night. This cycle repeated through the rest of the week but when it hit Friday night Zack had had enough. After Jack left at 6, Zack had taken Melody to the movies. She wasn’t a dumb kid she knew something was wrong and when they had come back from the movies she had asked: “Why didn’t Daddy go to the movies with us tonight? Is he mad at us, did I do something wrong?” This broke Zack’s heart, to think that his daughter was doing something wrong for Jack to stay out late every night. So that night after Melody had brushed her teeth and Zack read her favorite bed time story he brought out a pile of bed sheets and placed them on the couch leaving a note on them saying “You’re sleeping here tonight.” Then went straight off to bed, locking his bedroom door behind him. He didn’t hear Jack stumble through the front door later that night, nor did he hear the knock on the bedroom door, he slept soundly through the night trying to forget stupid, irresponsible husbands.

The next morning Jack was woken up by a splitting headache and Zack shaking him awake. “Come on, get up you have to take Melody to school today.”
Jack groaned. “I do?”
“Yes, then when you get back we’re going to have a talk.”
Jack let out another groan before rolling off the couch “I think I broke my back sleeping on that couch.”
Zack barely acknowledged his comment, just sliding an Advil and some orange juice toward him saying “This will help with the hangover I advise you clean yourself up we don’t want other parents thinking you’re an alcoholic.”
“Thanks babe, I appreciate it.” Jack went to go kiss Zack’s cheek, but he leaned away and said: “Go get dressed.”
“Did I do something wrong?” Jack asked.
“There’s a reason I made you sleep on the couch.”
Jack walked down the hallway to his and Zack’s bedroom grabbing some clothes and changing quickly, he didn’t bother doing anything with his hair. No one would notice the difference anyways since it always had a bed head style.
When Jack re-entered the kitchen he heard his daughter squeal “Daddy!”
He saw Melody sitting at the counter, her legs dangling from the stool while munching on some cheerios. After she swallowed a particularly large spoonful of soggy cheerios she asked: “Are you taking me to school?”
“Yes I am.”
“Yay!” She clapped her little hands together and scampered off to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Zack, who had been sitting beside her took her bowl to the sink and rinsed it out before storing it in the dishwasher. “Zack, why are you mad at me?” Jack asked.
“You’ve gone out every night this week and always come back drunk why shouldn’t I be mad, Jack.” Zack said, trying to keep his voice low so Melody didn’t hear him.
“Is that the only reason you’re mad at me?”
“What do you mean ‘only reason’ that’s a pretty big reason to me, especially since we have a child and everything.”
“You seemed to be doing alright on your own.” Jack retorted, but before Zack could reply Melody skipped back into the kitchen. “Can we go now?” she asked looking at Jack.
“Yeah, we can go.” Jack said giving his daughter a smile. She slipped on her sandals while he grabbed a pair of Nikes to wear and the duo was out the door.
Melody’s school wasn’t far from their home, it was only a 10 minute walk and it was nice out so they decided to take advantage of the gorgeous spring weather.
Melody skipped along beside Jack, humming a random tune as they walked down the street. Her hand in his because she had a habit of running up ahead and getting into trouble.
When they arrived at the school Jack bent down to hug Melody and place a kiss on her head. Then Jack watched her run off to the playground with all of her friends, before turning around and heading back home.

When Jack came home Zack was waiting for him at the kitchen counter. Jack let out a big sigh and said “Okay let’s get it over with. Just yell at me.”
“The thing is, I don’t want to yell at you because it won’t fix anything.
“Then what!” Jack exclaimed.
“I just want to know why you have come home drunk every night this week!”
“I don’t know!”
“There has to be a reason! You’re not a teenager anymore Jack you have a child, you have responsibilities!”
“I know that!”
“Then why the fuck are you acting like you’re 16!” Zack yelled, slamming his hand on the table. Jack flinched.
“I’m sorry okay!”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it, Jack!”
“Then what do you want from me!” Jack’s voice was full of desperation.
“I want you to act like you actually care about your daughter, and not act like she’s just another frivolous thing you’ve lost interest in!”
“Are you saying I don’t love my daughter anymore?” Jack replied, an accusing tone in his voice.
“Do you want to know what she asked me the other night? She asked me if she was the reason why you’d been coming home so late, she thought she was doing something wrong, and I don’t know about you Jack but to me that sounds like a sign that you’re not doing something right! You need to stop acting like such a teenager and get your shit together because not only do you have to take care of yourself now, but you also have to take care of Melody.”
“I’m sorry, okay! But I’ve just been freaking out lately. The responsibility is what’s scary! The fact that we have a kid and that we can’t mess her up because who the fuck wants to mess their kid up! What if I do something wrong completely, and I can’t fix it I don’t know how to handle that!” Jack ranted.
Zack had become scarily calm, just looking down at the floor and breathing deeply and after a pause he said “Well then maybe it was a mistake to adopt Melody then.”
“Zack, you don’t mean that.” Both of them had calmed down, and the house was now eerily silent without their yells filling it.
Zack didn’t answer him, he just ran up the stairs two at a time and Jack could hear from down in the kitchen their bedroom door slam shut.
Jack let out a big sigh, and fell onto the couch hands covering his face and breathing deeply trying not to freak out. He knew Zack hadn’t meant what he had said. They had both fallen in love with Melody the moment they set eyes on her. She was 3 when they adopted her. They knew they weren’t ready for taking care of a baby, yet at least. So they decided to adopt a 3 year old, and it was one of the best decisions they had made, and they were both in it 100%.
Jack knew it was no use to talking to Zack just yet, so he laid down on the couch, set an alarm for 2:45 and took a nap.
When he woke up several hours later there was still no sign of Zack. Jack would have thought he had left except he could hear the creaking of the floor boards as he walked around. Jack slowly walked upstairs and knocked on the bedroom door but Zack acted as if he didn’t hear. “I’m going to go pick up Melody, okay?” once again there was no response. Jack sighed then went back downstairs to leave.

Jack was several minutes early when he arrived at Melody’s school. He leaned against a tree waiting for the dismissal bell to ring entertaining himself on his phone and trying to ignore the dead weight in his stomach that always followed after a fight with Zack.
Soon enough the bell rang and kids poured out of the front entrance, Melody in the lead. She bounded down the steps her curly brown hair flying behind her as she ran towards Jack.
“Daddy, look what I drew today!” she said very loudly.
“Wow Mels, it looks great!” Jack wasn’t too sure what it was, but Melody soon explained.
“It’s a picture of our family!” She said, “There’s you.” She pointed to a stick person with blond and black scribbles above its head. “That’s Dad,” next to Jack’s stick person rendition was another stick person with blobs on its arms for muscles. “There the other people are Uncle Alex, Uncle Rian, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt May, and Uncle Joe.” Melody pointed to each person as she said their name.
“It looks great Mels, I love it.”
The 6 year old grinned with pride. “I need to go tell Mrs. Marks that I’m leaving.”
“Okay, go do that then we can go home.”
Melody skipped over to her teacher and said goodbye before skipping back over to Jack. She took his hand and instantly pulled him towards home all the while blabbering about what she did in school.

When Jack and Melody entered the house Melody ran through the house looking for Zack anxious to show him her picture,
Jack slid his keys onto the kitchen counter and let out a big sigh. He noticed a piece of paper at the opposite end of the counter and leaned across to read it.

“Jack, I’m going out.
-Z”

“Fuck,” Jack muttered, this day couldn’t get any worse.
“I can’t find Dad.” Melody pouted as she walked back into the kitchen. “I really wanted to show him my drawing.”
“Well how about we put it on the fridge so when he comes home he sees it.” Jack suggested!
“Okay!” Melody beamed, she grabbed a magnet and put her drawing on the fridge “Now he’ll see it when he comes home.”
“I bet he’ll love it. Now, what do you want to do before dinner? Do you have any homework?”
“Nope!”
“Melody, don’t lie to me.”
“Well I have some math problems to do.” She admitted “But I already know how to do all of the math so I don’t need to do it.”
“Well if you know how to do it then it will be easy. So get it done then maybe we can watch some TV while we eat dinner. But only if you finish those math problems first.”
“Really! Dad, never lets us eat and watch TV.”
“Well we’re only allowed to if you finish your homework, so hop to it!”
Melody grabbed her backpack and pulled out a crumpled up sheet of paper and set to work.
Jack grabbed his computer and checked on some tour plans. They had a US tour coming up in a month or so and Flyzik had been sending email after email to all of the crew and band about setlists, dates, venues etc. Every so often Melody would ask for Jack to check her work on some problems. But for the most part the two of them stayed quiet and did their own work.
After Jack had made some Mac n' Cheese, and some cinnamon applesauce (because Melody refused to eat normal apple sauce) the two of them sat down on the couch to watch a couple episodes of Adventure Time. Jack thought the show was a little creepy to be on Cartoon Network, but Melody was unaware of how fucked up it actually was and just liked it because Princess Bubblegum was cool.
“Can I stay up with you tonight, and wait for Dad to come home?” Melody asked after the 2nd episode of Adventure Time had ended and they had finished dinner.
“No, bedtime is the same every night, no exceptions you know the rules Mels.”
“But I don’t have school in the morning!” She protested.
“But you will still wake up at 7 in the morning and then you’ll be grouchy because you didn’t get enough sleep. Now get upstairs and get ready to take a bath I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
“I can clean myself!” She huffed.
“You’re being incredibly pushy tonight. Come on, just work with me here Mels, Please?” Jack was almost begging. He was so done with this day. Zack hadn’t texted once since he had left. He didn’t even say where he went, and Jack hadn’t had time to call their friends to see where he was because he didn’t want to make Melody think that something was wrong. He just wanted to curl up on the couch and watch TV and feel better. Then squeeze the life out of Zack once he got home. Because fuck he was worried, and missed him and now he realizes why Zack was so pissed at him this whole week. Not knowing where your spouse was all night is nerve wracking, as far as Jack knew Zack was dead in a ditch on the side of a high way!
With a lot of huffing and puffing and a little stomping Melody made her way upstairs, where Jack soon followed. By 8:00 Melody was in bed and Jack had grabbed a can of Coke and curled up with Harry Potter. It was nice to settle in and watch Harry, Ron, and Hermione be heroes.
Jack’s peace didn’t last long however, because he heard a voice say “Daddy?” behind him.
He looked behind him to see Melody standing there. “Mels, you’re supposed to be in bed.”
“I can’t sleep,” she half whispered.
“Do you want me to read to you?”
“No, can I stay with you?”
Jack was about to protest but after seeing the look in his daughter’s eyes and he relented. “Come on,” he sighed patting the spot next to him on the couch.
She climbed onto the couch, then immediately crawled into Jack’s lap. “You okay?” Jack asked, a little worried. Melody was a pretty independent kid and wasn’t big on cuddling with her parents, and claimed only crybabies did it. She didn’t answer Jack’s question though, but just snuggled in a little more.
It wasn’t until the climax of the movie that Melody spoke up, and what she said scared Jack a bit. “Are you and Dad going to get a divorce?” She asked, her voice muffled a bit.
“No, why would you think that?” Jack asked appalled.
“Because you’ve been fighting a lot.” She answered. “That’s what happened with Andy Davis’ parents. They fought a lot then they got a divorce. Am I doing something wrong, is it my fault?”
At this point Jack had paused the movie and looked at Melody, who was sitting next to him on the couch. “Okay, You are doing nothing wrong, and me and dad are not going to get a divorce. I love him very, very much, and he loves me just as much. You have done nothing wrong to make us stay out late. We’re just being dumb.”
“Promise?”
“Pinky promise.” Jack said holding out his pinky, to which she wrapped her smaller one around his.
“Can I please stay down here with you?” Melody begged.
“Sure,” Jack said, and Melody curled up next to him on the couch. By the time the movie was over Melody was fast asleep and the clock on the TV said it was almost 1 in the morning. “Come on Zack, where are you?” Jack muttered. He got up off the couch and grabbed his cell phone, which he had left on the kitchen table. There still weren’t any texts from Zack or anyone else. He dialed Zack’s cell number and after ringing a few times Jack was went to voicemail.
“Hey this is Zack’s phone, I’m not available, but leave a message after the tone.” There was a long beep, then: “Hey Zack, it’s Jack, your husband. I’m just wondering where you are. You’ve made your point, and you can come home now. I’m freaking out over here. Now I know what it’s like to be in your shoes so please come home, if you’re dead in a ditch I’ll… I’ll kill you. Well… you know what I mean. Just please come home. I’m begging you. I love you, bye.” After Jack hung up he walked back into the living room and carefully picked Melody up, trying not to wake her up. She just made an unintelligible sound but she stayed asleep. Jack placed her back into her bed, tucked her in and kissed her head softly. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. He wasn’t too sure what he was apologizing for but he felt like it needed to be said. Then he ventured back into his own room and stripped, climbing into bed in only boxers. He figured he should give up on waiting for Zack and that it was better to go to sleep maybe when he woke up Zack would be next to him, his arm around his waist and breath tickling the back of his neck.

It was roughly 2 o’clock in the morning when Jack next woke up. What had woken him up was by his bed shaking and a dark figure sitting on the floor and muttering curse words in a whispered tone. “Zack?”
“Oh, you’re awake. I was trying to be quiet I’m sorry if I woke you.”
Jack completely ignored his apology and said: “Where the fuck were you tonight?”
“Well uh, well first I was at a bar. Then I was at Alex’s.”
“Why?!”
“Okay well, this idea sounded good in my head but in retrospect it was pretty stupid.”
“What did you do. . .” Jack’s tone was a little nervous.
“Well, I left to go out and get shit faced and give you a taste of your own medicine. But I ran into Alex at the bar and after I explained my situation he slapped me in the face, and brought me back to his place. He gave me 6 cups of coffee to try and flush the alcohol out of me then let me sleep on his couch for a couple hours.”
“And you were calling me immature.” Jack mused.
“I know,” Zack muttered. “I think it’s safe to say this has been a pretty dumb week for us.”
“That’s the understatement of the century.” Jack replied. Then after a moment asked: “So, you’re not mad at me anymore?”
“No, are you mad at me for trying to get back at you?” Zack asked.
“I feel like I should be, but I’m not. I was too worried about you to be mad anymore. Why are you still laying on the floor?”
Zack was still lying on their bedroom floor, clutching his big toe. “I’m not too sure.” He replied.
Jack snorted then fell back onto this pillow and closed his eyes. Soon he felt the bed dip and Zack joined him, his arms wrapped around Jack. The two men lay on their sides looking at each other. Their room was quiet. Only the whoosh of cars racing down the street disturbed the silence. “I really am sorry.” Jack whispered after a few minutes. “I was being stupid going out every night.”
“It’s okay, babe.” Zack replied just as quietly, he placed his hand on Jack’s face and his thumb stroked Jack’s cheek for a few moments. “I’m sorry for being immature and trying to get back at you for it. It wasn’t fair to you either, or Melody for that matter.”
“We just haven’t been very fair have we?” Jack commented.
“We haven’t, which is something that needs to be changed.” Zack replied.
“I agree. Do you want to know what Melody asked me tonight?”
“What?"
“She asked me if we were going to get a divorce.”
“What, why!” Zack exclaimed.
“I guess because of the way we’ve been acting.” Jack said.
“Oh my gosh, I feel horrible now.” Zack’s hands went up to his face and rubbed it for a second.
“Well, I thought maybe we could do a family outing tomorrow, to downtown Baltimore maybe go to the Zoo or a museum or something. We can let Melody pick, then if we’re not extremely tired we can drop her off at Rian and Cass’ and we can spend the night alone. Just you, me, and bottle of Sparkling cider and sex.” Jack suggested.
Zack’s face broke out into a grin. “That sounds like one of the best ideas you have ever had. But just in case we do get too tired do I get a preview of this sex?”
Jack suddenly rolled on top of Zack, straddling him and pinning his hands on the pillow, kissing him fiercely. “Only because of I love you.” Jack murmured after he broke away.