Situation Overload

Jack married a girl named Sally, partly because she was beautiful, and could, on occasion, hold a decent conversation, but also, probably mostly, because he definitely liked the idea that his marriage fit the line of a Blink 182 song. They lived in a house in California, with a big front porch, and a lovely backyard for the kids. Yes, kids. A 2 year old daughter called Mikaylah, and an elder son called Dean, aged 4. They were the perfect, nuclear family. Jack worked in an industrial firm, Sally was an on-call nurse. This meant that they were heavily dependent on the availability of Sally's parents for babysitting duties for the children, on the days where Jack was at work. These parents, fortunately, lived in a bungalow down the road.

Alex was not so lucky. He tried to find a job at a university, and he did, but it didn't pay enough, and the kids were stuck up and pretentious, very up their own arsehole. So he quit, and looked for a job at a state high school, where he hoped the kids were more down to earth, but now he was not only dealing with kids taking English only because they had to, but also he was back in high school. Memories of his first day, of Oli and Josh, of his group of friends, of coming out all flooded back to him. Alex's younger brothers, Vic and Mike, were both studying music at university, paid for by the government due to their situation-having no parents and all. Tom was just finishing sixth form, and planned to not go to university. He would continue to live with his aunt, and work at the coffee shop, and play at local bars and small gigs. The school Alex now worked at was in California, city of dreams or whatever. More like city of dreams where Alex remembers the day Jack left him, and wakes up screaming. He missed Jack. He loved Jack.

As you can tell, after Alex didn't show up at the wedding, Jack and Alex's relationship got pretty awkward. Neither knew where they stood, and Jack slept on the sofa as opposed to the left side of the bed (because Alex didn't like being near the window- he didn't like seeing the shadows of the trees at night). After about a month of the two being in this confusing malaise, they talked it all threw, and Jack moved out, and they hadn't kept in contact since. Alex stayed in the house that was far too drowned in memories of his true love for his own good, but he stayed because of his brothers. When Vic and Mike turned 18, they started university, and thus moved away, and Alex left Tom in the capable hands of their aunt, and that's when Alex began looking for a new job, as described.

On September 21st, there was to be a week for the students to learn about medical careers, and so there was an oh so very complex schedule to be kept to, where different classes had different activities, and over the week they would have completed them all, this included a few lectures, a few CPR lessons, some videos, challenges etc. Teachers like Alex were still required to be in school, and were assigned an activity to watch the kids in, as an extra support for the medical visitors.

"Hiya! I'm Sally, I'm an on-call nurse at California State Hospital. Nice to meet you!" Sally held out her hand to Alex, smiling genuinely. She had the sort of smile that just made you feel better about everything, and her eyes sparkled in the light.
"Great to meet you, Sally. My name's Alex. I'm an English teacher here." He shook her hand firmly, and smiled back, weakly.
"Woah, hunk like you I was kind of expecting PE teacher, or maybe music! But wow, English! Tough subject! You must be real clever, huh?" She talked a lot, and had a strong southern accent, it was sweet, sweet that she liked to fill the silence. A lot of people from the city tend to find the southern drawl irritating, but damn, Alex could listen to it all day. Her words sounded like sunshine, but maybe Alex had little to compare it to, it's not like he had had friends in the past eight years.
"Well, I'm the one that's talking to a medical professional." Alex joked dryly, and she laughed, and it was beyond beautiful, at the end of this conversation, he knew he'd be running out of describing words to explain her to the unfortunate people that havent met Sally, and that happens rarely to an English teacher.

In between the talks Sally was giving, she and Alex talked, and got coffee together, and talked. They even went to lunch together, and this was, without a doubt, the best day Alex had had since.. well, since his time with Jack.

When Alex found out that Sally was married, he wasn't disappointed, he clichély told her that the man was a very lucky man, and then realized that he loved her, but was not in love with her. The two are very different.

It was three days later when Sally invited Alex over for tea, and Alex was elated, ecstatic even.

When Alex climbed into the passenger seat of Sally's car, he almost automatically turned on the stereo. To his pure and utter delight, Blink 182's What's My Age Again was mid song.
"You like Blink?!"
"Oh nevermind that, that's my husband's music." She almost apologized.
"I love Blink!"
"You and my darlin' ought to get along just fine then! He's always jammin on that darned guitar!" Sally joked. "Pretty sure he wants the kids to turn into some Led Zepplin clones!"
"You have kids?" Alex inquired.
"Oh yeah, 'course we do! Mikaylah and Dean. Gorgeous, they are." She smiled to herself.
"Awh sweet. Can't wait to meet them."
"Don't have to wait long hun cause here we are!" They pulled up in front of a massive house, on a lovely clean street, with an amazing view of the beach in the distance. They were obviously particularly well off.

"Jack honey I'm home!" Sally called. Hah. Funny. Jack and Sally- their life is practically a Blink 182 reference. Alex thought.
"In the kitchen!" A male voice called. Sally lead Alex through the house and into the kitchen, from the doorway Alex could see a tall, dark haired man, balancing a young girl on his hip, stirring something on the hob.
"I brought a friend home from work, hope that's okay!" And Jack carefully put the child down, placed a kiss on her nose, and turned around and kissed Sally. His hands fell swiftly to her hips and arse, while hers tangled in his hair. He pulled away and smiled, and then turned back to the pasta.
"Yeah, love, of course that's okay!"
"Well darlin, this is Alex. He's an English teacher at the school." Sally introduced, Jack turned around, and Alex saw his face for the first time, and shit his heart nearly stopped beating.
"H-hi, I'm Jack." Jack leant forward and shook Alex's hand, just to make sure that it was in fact, Alexander William Gaskarth standing in front of him, not some hologram created from the depths of his mind, or a dream maybe.
"Alex." Alex responded, gulping nervously, and feeling the sweat begin to gather on his palms.
"Well uh, dinner's nearly ready, so Sal you serve this up, and I'll round up Dean and Kay. Alex you can take a seat over there, and I'll uh, get you a drink in a minute." Jack, all of a sudden, looked very flustered. This confused Sally, but she didn't bother asking.

"Thanks, Jack." Alex responded to a Stella being placed on the coaster next to his table mat, which had a bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese placed on top. Alex sat at the head of the table, with Sally on one side, next to Jack, who were both sat opposite the two children.
"Jack you didn't even ask what he wanted! I'm so sorry Alex, would you like a different drink?" Sally interrupted.
"Actually no I'm alright, Stella is my favourite anyway." Alex assured. He was flattered that Jack had remembered that small detail.

"So you still teach English?" Jack asked, before shovelling another mouthful of spaghetti into his mouth.
"Whaddya mean by still? You've known him like twenty minutes!" Sally interjected. Jack ignored the comment.
"Yeah I do, don't know why, pay isn't exactly great." Alex replied.

"So what did you think of the Spag Bol, Lex?" Jack questioned as he stood up to clear the plates.
"'Lex'? Nicknames now? Do you two know each other?" Sally raised an eyebrow. Wow congrats, it only took you all evening to figure out. Alex and Jack looked at each other, and shrugged simultaneously.
"Old friends." Jack stated. Alex was a little hurt at that label, but he understood that Jack probably hadn't told Sally any of their relationship business, and, as they both knew from experience, it's best to not dwell on past relationships during your current one.

The kids were adorable, Alex would give them that. Mikaylah had such delicate features, and was very delicate herself, cautious of almost everything, very quiet, but so peaceful. Dean was funny, but not overly loud, which is good in a kid. You want them to be confident, but not so much so that they stick their skill of knowing the fucking alphabet down your damn throat.

"What's this?" Dean pointed at Alex's finger, and twirled the ring around it.
"A ring."
"A ring? Alex are you engaged or something?!" Sally spoke excitedly, as she rushed over to see.
"Nah, I um, I was engaged. Not anymore, but I uh, I like the ring, and it reminds me of some really good times." Alex smiled sadly, and if you were listening hard enough, you could've heard Jack's heart shatter from where he was stood in the kitchen.