Breaking Barakat

Not long after Jack went home, Tay decided to find out who called that morning. Why did Jack look so pissed off? Who were they? Why did Jack tell them not to call the restaurant ever again? What’s going on?
Tay pressed the redial button, hoping whoever had called would pick up.
“Yo, yo, yo!” a cheerful, bright mezzosoprano voice answered. “1486 to the 9 to the 6 to the 9, representin’ Davis, Williams, and York! Whaddup, bitch? Leave it at the tone.”
“What the shit was that?” Tay muttered to herself. Did Jack get involved in a nasty business with a thug? Tay would never find out…unless, of course, she tried. She took her phone off the table and typed “Davis, Williams, and York” on Google search box, only to find an entire page owned by “Hayley Williams” and “Jeremy Davis”.
She didn’t recognize what she saw at first, but then she realized.
“Hashish?” Tay scratched her head in confusion. “Crystal meth? What the fuck is going on?”
Could it be that Jack was so depressed that he turned to drugs?
*
Her watch said four PM, but Hayley felt as if it was almost midnight. The look on Jeremy’s face scared her, and so did Taylor’s. The three of them were initiates, anxiously waiting for the “master chef” to come.
“So, who’s this ‘master chef’ you’re going on about?” asked Jeremy, passing his blunt over to Taylor.
“He used to teach me chem in high school. He’s hella smart. A genius, actually. Here, try some of the meth he cooked the other day.”
Jeremy showed no signs of hesitation. He sighed in relief after he was done, left with nothing but a short-lasting weightless feeling. “That was the best shit I ever had in my whole damned life.”
“Told ya,” smiled Hayley. “So, how much are you gonna pay us for this?”
“Take ‘em all,” Jeremy tossed her his wallet.
Hayley glared at the wallet. Unbelievable! Jack’s meth was so good that Jeremy paid her more than twice of her usual income. Now she knew—Jack wasn’t just another chemistry teacher. He was the best thing that ever happened to her drug-dealing career.
As they smoked some more hashish, the three junkies talked about their lives. But out of all of them, Hayley was the center of the conversation, being unable to shut up and enjoy her friends’ stories. Both Taylor and Jeremy were used to her interrupting their exciting stories of running away from the cops, fighting with different girls and guys at bars, and trying new kinds of illegal drugs.
“There he is!” Hayley pointed at the end of the road where Jack showed up with the hood of his jacket covering his head, walking toward the junkies. “Jeremy, Taylor, meet Jack. Jack, meet Jeremy and Taylor. They’re my…associates and frequent buyers.”
The young men shook hands. “Gonna show us how you cook?” asked Jeremy.
Jack nodded as they entered the RV. He showed them how to cook step-by-step, almost as if he was teaching his students how to conduct an experiment. Come to think about it, he missed doing chemical experiments with his students. For the past few months, he had done nothing but teach the kids using something as simple as a whiteboard—which wasn’t fun at all.
“Hey, dude,” said Jeremy. “Why’re you wearing that hood?”
“So I can look cool…like I’m…uh…in da hood,” Jack forced out a laugh.
“Take it off. We’re all in da hood here.”
“No. I’m sensitive to light.”
“Bullshit! Show me your face.”
Jack shook his head. “No means no.”
By the time Jack had finished cooking, Jeremy had pulled his hood off, revealing his face and trademark hair color to everyone else in the RV. Taylor gasped in shock, pointing at Jack. “You! I knew it was you! Those blond streaks! You’re with the cops! You were in their car when they raided us yesterday!”
“I can’t believe it, Hayley. Are you trying to rat us out?” Jeremy shouted.
“No! Guys, I’m not—“
“Don’t lie to me. Don’t you dare,” hissed Jeremy.
And bam! The first punch was thrown. Jack fell against the hard floor, groaning in pain as he stood all the way back up. Taylor took a moment to smile in victory, before he felt himself pushed against the wall.
“You wanna play rough? I can play rough! Oh, yes, I can, bitch!” spat Hayley.
“I always play rough!” Taylor ran over to Jack’s side before kicking him in the gut. This time, an unexpected blow came from Jack’s feet, smashing him to the ground.
But the problem didn’t stop there. Help came from Jeremy, clenching his arms around Jack, suffocating the taller, yet much thinner man. Taylor let out another punch at Jack’s bleeding nose, laughing maniacally as he went. “What’cha gonna do now, huh, punk-ass skeleton? What’cha gonna do? I’m gonna call my bad boys to come and get you. What’cha gonna do now? What’cha gonna do when they come for you?”
Hayley stood there helplessly. What could she do now? She was no karate champion. Jeremy could beat her to death. She could fight Taylor, but Jeremy was a different matter. There was no way in hell she could make it out alive.
Still, Jack struggled to get Jeremy’s lethal, muscular arms off him. He could feel himself waning, giving in. But he didn’t want to. He couldn’t. He had to survive. He could almost hear Alex in his head. “Do it for me,” the angelic voice said.
He felt the same butterflies in his stomach as when he was in the boys’ changing room in 2003 before competing in his school’s annual taekwondo championship, staring at the wall nervously. Then came Alex, smiling at the younger boy as he stood up in his taekwondo outfit.
“Ready?” asked Alex.
“N-no,” stuttered Jack.
“Come on, man,” Alex pat his shoulder. “You can do it.”
Jack shook his head, forcing out a laugh. “Wow. I’m so fucking dead.”
“You’re not,” Alex chuckled. “You’re a black belt!”
“But the dude’s bigger than me. Have you seen him? Zack fucking Merrick, dude.”
“It’s not about size. It’s about skill. Trust me.”
Zack had walked in. He was the biggest, most muscular kid in his class who always practiced and fought topless. Why would he be topless? To show off his six pack and buff arms, of course. Cocky bastard, Jack thought, swallowing his spit before he felt Alex’s lips pressing against his.
“You can beat him. Do it for me.”
“Alex…I…okay,” Jack sighed.
“Go get ‘em, tiger!” Alex shouted as he ran away from the arena.
“Show me what you’ve got, homo,” Zack grinned, his head up high and his eyes full of pride. At that moment, Jack realized that there was no way his naturally bony build could stand against those huge muscles. Boy, he was big! “HOMO!”
“Shut up and fight me!” Jack yelled as he struck the first punch. He saw Tay sitting on the front bench, cheering for him with her then-boyfriend—Alex. Alex’s smile meant the world to him, even though he knew Alex was in love with the girl he also had a crush on. Sadly, their relationship only lasted for a while. After breaking up with Tay, Alex went back to dating his old ex-girlfriend Lisa—with whom he also broke up the next year.
Zack launched a harsh kick to Jack’s ribs, crashing him down to the ground. Pain shot through his body as he struggled to stand up tall, trying his best not to cry no matter how bad it hurt.
He wasn’t going to let Zack win. Not this time. Hell, the kid was a wimp compared to him—a big, muscular wimp only about three inches shorter than Jack. He wiped the blood on his nose and kicked Zack right in the gut, causing him to groan in pain, before he locked his opponent right between his beefy arms.
“What’cha gonna do now, huh, Barakitty? Cry to your little boyfriend? Huh?” Zack laughed.
“Come on Jack!” he heard Alex yell. “Fight, Jack! Fight!”
Jack felt himself sinking away. But he had to fight. He had to win. For Alex.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAA!”
He lifted his leg and kicked Zack away, lifting him off his body as fast as he could. “That’s my boy!” Alex screamed from a distance, tears of joy streaming down his cheeks as he high-fived Tay, Rian, and Cassadee.
But that was ten years before the moment the flashback came to haunt Jack, the sudden motivation it brought him struck an angered Jeremy to the floor, staring at his enemy’s bewildered face.
“Mr. Barakat? Did you just—“ Hayley gasped. “How did you do that?”
Jack chuckled. “I know taekwondo.”
“How dare you, Hayley?” Jeremy shouted, bringing himself back up again. “How dare you betray us?”
“He’s not one of them!” Hayley yelled. “He’s not with the cops, for Christ’s sake!”
Taylor scowled. “Really? Prove it.”
Hayley shook her head.
“I said prove it!”
“Shut up and leave,” Hayley uttered as she pulled a gun out of her pocket. “Before I kill both of you.”
“Gimme that, Williams,” hissed Jeremy.
“No. Leave us alone or I’ll fucking shoot you!”
“Gimme that gun, you fucking bitch, or else—“
Bang bang! Three shots and Jeremy fell, splattering blood all over the floor. Jack gasped in silence, trying to make sense of what just happened. The horror swept all over him, stripping him off any feeling of comfort he had before. Did Hayley really just kill a man? Did she really?
“What the fuck, Hayley?” yelled Taylor. “What the fuck did you just do?!”
“Shut up before I shoot you too!” Hayley raised her voice, pointing the gun to his head.
“Not before I stab you!” Taylor grabbed Jack’s knife and tilted it sideways.
Hayley reached out her hand, easily snatching the knife away before Taylor could point it at her. She thrust the knife down on his lower belly, fresh blood running out like water in her kitchen sink. “Die, bitch! Die!” she yelled as she slowly pulled the knife out of Taylor’s flesh and knocked him in the head with a deadly punch.
“Shit, bro,” Jack ejaculated. “Did you really just kill two dudes right in front of my eyes?”
“I’m not sure if I killed York. I didn’t stab him deep enough, but I guess he passed out.”
“Holy fuck! What if they’re both dead and someone finds their bodies? We can’t just leave them here.”
“Well,” Hayley shrugged. “What does your genius mind tell you to do?”
“We need to dissolve their bodies…hmm…”
Hayley scoffed. “Dissolve them? Really now? I thought you were smarter than that.”
“I’m a fucking chemist, Hayley, of course I know what strong acid does to rotting bodies.”
*
“Alex, I’m home!” Jack threw his bag to the couch, stumbling as he made his way into the kitchen. “Alex?”
He heard nothing but the sound of someone vomiting. Although he was accustomed to see his own vomit every time he got drunk, he wasn’t used to hear such loud, harsh gagging. When he opened the bathroom door, his heart was torn to pieces. “Dammit, Alex!”
He rushed to Alex’s side, lifting the slightly shorter young man to sit up on his lap. Jack saw that his lover’s eyes were slightly wet with tears that he held back, and he couldn’t stand seeing Alex suffer so much. He couldn’t stand the idea of Alex being so sick, scared, and uncomfortable in that bathroom on his own while he was out fighting two hopeless junkies.
“It’s okay, babe,” Jack said, rubbing circles on Alex’s back. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
“What’s that on your neck?” Alex pointed weakly at his boyfriend’s bruises.
“It’s nothing. I accidentally hurt myself at work. We were having this chemical experiment today and some shit exploded.”
“I see,” said Alex as he threw up some more.
“Fuck it,” Jack sighed, staring at his sick boyfriend once again. Except for his flushed cheeks, he was extremely pale and grey. Damn, he sure did look like shit. And he surely felt like shit. “Oh, Alex, look at you! You’re shaking!”
“It’s cold,” Alex whimpered.
“But you’re burning up,” Jack lifted his hand off Alex’s forehead. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”
“Can’t stand up. Fucking carry me or something!” Alex whined like a hurt 3-year-old.
Jack couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re strong enough to whine like that, but too weak to stand up? Alright then.” He cradled his shivering boyfriend in his arms, carrying the older man into his bedroom and laying him on their nice, warm bed, wrapped up in blankets.
“I don’t feel so good,” whined Alex.
“I know, Lexy,” Jack frowned. “Wait here. I’ll get you something.”
Jack was back in no time with a glass of water and cold towels. “Drink up.”
“Thanks, Jackie,” smiled Alex, shuddering slightly when Jack put a cold towel on his burning forehead. “Shit, Jack, what was that?”
“Sshhhh. Go to sleep. You’ll feel better soon.”
But Jack was wrong. For the next few hours, he witnessed nothing but Alex tossing and turning in his bed, looking more awful than ever. Slowly, everything Dr. Elmakias said during their last appointment came back to his head. He had to call the young doctor—even though the clock had struck twelve.
“Hello?” Dr. Elmakias picked up, wondering what was up with the “gay couple” calling him at such an inconsiderate hour. “Yes, Mr. Gaskarth, can I help you?”
“Hi, Doc. It’s me, Jack. Alex’s…boyfriend. So yeah, I need your help. He’s been throwing up more than usual tonight and he’s got this high fever that just won’t go down.”
“It could be an effect of the medication—or maybe an infection.”
Jack sighed. “What should I do now?”
“Take him to the ER. I’ll be waiting for you there.”
“Got it.”
Dr. Elmakias hung up. Jack rushed over to help Alex sit up, pushing his sweaty fringe off his eyes. “Can you walk to the car on your own?”
“Where are we going?” asked Alex.
“To the hospital. Come on.”
“Fuck no! I don’t wanna have a thermometer shoved down my ass.”
Despite of the older man’s protest, Jack managed to get him into the car. He drove away, wishing that Alex would miraculously recover on his way to the emergency room. No matter how fast he sped through the streets and avenues, Jack couldn’t help but feel as if the trip took forever. He couldn’t stand seeing the love of his life so weak and ill in the passenger’s seat. Once in a while, he would hold Alex’s hand, before speeding through yet one more red light.
And he made it. He knew Alex had always hated hospitals. He never felt comfortable with the presence of people in white coats and the strong smell of phenol. He despised the fluorescent lights.
Now Jack could only stand in silence, wiping a tear off his cheek as the paramedics wheeled his world away.