Something's Gotta Give - Original Verison

Jade's Point of View

“Please tell me that you guys found Skye,” Alex answered his phone about thirty minutes later. He sounded out of breath, like he’d been holding it the whole time Skye had been gone.

“Jack found her,” I replied. “She was at Moxie’s. He carried her out and brought her back here. She’s sleeping it off in the guest bedroom.”

“Thank you guys so much,” Alex sighed with relief. “I’m sorry you had to do that, though.”

“My guess is that she had a rough day,” I said. “Jack and I asked what was going on and she just started crying drunkenly and babbling so we couldn’t really understand her. After she calmed down we moved her upstairs.”

“I hate to ask, but I have Elizabeth and I can’t leave her, so can Skye just spend the night there?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said. “It’s not a problem. Jack and I will keep checking in on her to make sure she doesn’t puke on herself.”

“You’re gonna let Jack watch my sister sleep,” Alex deadpanned. “Why the fuck not? Today can’t get any weirder. Whatever. I’ll be there to get her in the morning. Can you ask Jack to take Elizabeth out for the day or something? I don’t want her to see her mom like this, you know?”

“I’m sure he’d be happy to,” I said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Alex and I said goodnight and hung up. I headed up the stairs and leaned in the guest bedroom doorway, studying Jack watching Skye from a chair across from the bed.

“She’s pretty much dead to the world,” Jack said without turning to look at me. “She’s gonna have a killer headache in the morning.”

“I’ll make sure I leave some aspirin and water by the bed,” I said and sat down in one of the other chairs near Jack.

Jack let out a small laugh. “Okay, don’t hate me, but would it be in terrible taste to draw a dick on her somewhere? Or color in her eyebrows?”

“Jack!” I scolded. “What the hell’s wrong with you? She’ll straight up kill you. Like she’ll go drown you in the ocean or bury you in the sand. Coloring in her eyebrows with a marker pretty much gives her the right to yank your dick off. That might be worse than death.”

“I was trying to lighten the situation up a little bit,” he half-smiled. “I really don’t want to end up shark bait in the back yard.” He glanced out the window, the tide ebbing. “Good call on a beach house, by the way.”

“You can’t get sick of the ocean,” I replied.

“I mean, we’re fucked if there’s a tsunami, but at least we’ll go out in style,” Jack joked, making me laugh.

“Save the happy for Elizabeth,” I advised. “Alex wants you to take her out and spend the day with her tomorrow. He doesn’t want her to see Skye this way.”

“I can’t blame him,” he said. “I haven’t seen her this bad since tour.”

“It’s been a long time,” I agreed.

“What am I supposed to do with Elizabeth all day?” Jack asked. “Like I hang out with her at Skye and Alex’s and here sometimes, but I don’t know what to do all day.”

“Skye and I took her to the zoo when it was starting to get warm,” I replied. “She really liked it. She got tired and didn’t get to see everything though, so she’d probably love getting to see the rest. Or take her to the park or something, that kid loves the swings.”

“I’ll keep these suggestions in mind.” Jack nodded. He stretched out and knocked my foot with his. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll wake you up if I need to take a rest.”

I agreed and headed to my room, managing to get a few hours of sleep before Jack wanted to make a shift change. While I kept an eye on Skye, I again attempted to work on my outline to no avail. My editor was going to have a complete shit fit if I didn’t turn something in soon.

Around eight thirty, Alex rang the doorbell and I went down to let him in. He had Elizabeth in his arms and set her down so she could race inside. He chased after her. “Elizabeth, dude, it’s not cool to just run into peoples’ houses.”

“It’s fine,” I laughed.

“Yeah,” Elizabeth agreed. “I play here all the time.” She pulled herself up onto a stool in front of the breakfast bar. “Can we get the big box out?”

“Sure,” I told her and motioned for Alex to follow us into the kitchen.

“What does she mean by ‘big box’?” Alex asked, furrowing his stupidly thick eyebrows in confusion.

“I keep a box of crafts for her in the hall closet,” I answered and reached up to get it down. Apparently I hadn’t sealed the lid very well the last time I’d gotten it out because I was suddenly hit in the face with pipe cleaners, markers, and various types of glue containers. “Shit,” I mumbled, stuffing it back inside the box and then presenting it to Elizabeth. “Why don’t you make something really cool for Mommy? No glitter today though, okay?”

Elizabeth nodded, so I lead Alex towards the stairs so he could see Skye while I went to go wake Jack up. I knocked on his door and entered. Jack was sleeping on his stomach, his knees bent beneath him and his butt in the air like he was getting into some kind of doggy-style position. I chuckled to myself and took a quick picture with my phone to use for blackmail later on before I started poking him awake. “Jack. Jack, you have to wake up. Your date’s here.”

“I didn’t order anyone,” Jack complained, trying to bury his face beneath a pillow but failing.

I stared blankly at him for second. “I’m gonna pretend that you didn’t say that. But for real, Elizabeth’s downstairs and you need to get ready so you can take her out.” Jack continued to be silent and still, so I gave him a shove, causing him to nearly fall off of the bed.

“Fuck! Fine, I’m awake,” he relented and threw a wayward glance at the clock. “It’s not even noon, we shouldn’t be awake.”

I rolled my eyes. “Just go take a shower, you smelly asshole.” I walked out of his room and as I walked down the hall, I lingered outside of the guest room to see if I could hear anything going on between Alex and Skye, but I couldn’t catch any specific phrases. Instead, I joined Elizabeth down in the kitchen to make some kind of card for Skye.

A little while later, Jack came downstairs, his hair still slightly damp from the shower. He smiled when he saw Elizabeth and picked her up and swung her around before putting her back down. “There’s my girl!”

“Uncle Jack!” she cheered. She threw her card in Jack’s face. “Look what I made!”

Jack examined it like it was a piece of treasure; in reality, Elizabeth had made random scribbles on the front and glued pipe cleaners and pom-poms to the front and then attempted to write ‘I love you’ inside, though I’d had to help with that part. “It’s beautiful! Your mom will love it.”

Elizabeth beamed like he’d given her the best compliment in the world. Jack took my place with helping her and I went up to check on the progress between Alex and Skye. Alex was sitting on the floor outside of the guest room and the door was shut.

“I guess she needs a little more sleep,” Alex explained, though I hadn’t asked. He sighed and put his head in his hands groaning. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this shit, I really don’t.”

“Contrary to popular belief, it’s not all about you, Gaskarth,” I told him, grabbing his hand and dragging him up. “Enough moping. We’ll get her in a few hours.”

He said nothing and I led him back to the kitchen. When Jack saw us, he excused himself from Elizabeth and joined us a little ways away from her so we could talk quietly.

“Is it cool if I take Elizabeth to the zoo this morning?” Jack asked. “I can bring her back here around lunchtime to nap and then I can keep her occupied more if you want.”

“I’ll try to get Skye cleaned up and home before you get back from the zoo,” Alex answered. “If you could keep her here and tire her out before you bring her back for bedtime, that’d be great. I just really don’t want Elizabeth to see Skye like this. Everything’s been weird for her lately, I don’t want to make it worse.”

“Sure thing, man,” Jack agreed, slapping Alex’s back and then went back to Elizabeth. “Who wants to see some animals?!” he exclaimed, causing her to squeal with excitement. About fifteen minutes later, we’d moved the car seat from Alex’s car to Jack’s, set Elizabeth up with some snacks to take to the zoo, and they were on their way. Alex and I waved from the porch smiling while they pulled away.

As soon as they were out of sight, his smiled immediately faded. “All right, let’s try this again with Skye.”

This task definitely didn’t prove easy. After several minutes of knocking on the door that she’d locked, she finally let us in and after complaining about her head for a little while, Alex fed her some of the aspirin and water, then instructed her to go shower. I gave her some more clothes to change into.

Alex and I waited downstairs for Skye to be done so he could take her home. We flipped channels on the TV aimlessly for a few minutes before he spoke. “So how’s the new book coming?”

I shot an angry glance his way. “Don’t talk to me about the book unless you want me to freak the fuck out.”

“So not well then,” he said, nodding slightly. “What do you have so far?”

“That’s the problem,” I said, feeling rage and frustration building in my chest at the thought. “I have absolutely nothing. If I don’t churn out something soon, I’m gonna get dropped from my publisher and have to pay back my advance.”

Alex mulled this over for a few moments. “Have you considered zombies?”

I threw my head back and groaned. “I really fucking hate you right now. I am not about to get into the zombie thing again.”

He made a confused face but didn’t ask about it anymore. About ten minutes later, Skye came downstairs.

“I need to lie down,” she said, still looking sick and holding her head.

“I’ll take you home,” Alex said. He walked outside with her and got her set up in the back seat so that she could lie down. He shut the door and turned to me. “Thanks again for your help.”

“It’s all Jack’s doing,” I waved him off. “I’ll see you later.”

I watched them drive away and then headed inside to take a quick morning nap. What was supposed to be a quick morning nap turned into a five hour long nap, and by the time I woke up, I heard some kind of whirring noise downstairs. I went down to check it out and saw Elizabeth standing on a chair next to Jack while he adjusted the speed on the mixing bowl.

“What are you guys up to?” I asked cautiously. Jack in the kitchen was never a good idea.

“We’re baking cookies!” Elizabeth exclaimed, smiling happily. It had to be nice to be so blissfully unaware of the world.

“Chocolate chip cookies!” Jack chimed in and threw some more flour into the mixing bowl. It immediately spat it back out in his face and Elizabeth giggled.

“You’re supposed to add the flour slowly,” I corrected him as patiently as I could, fighting the urge to yell at him in front of Elizabeth for making a mess. “Not so much at once.” I took a spoon out of one of the drawers and showed Elizabeth how to do it and then let her go to town with it.

“Maybe I wanted to do that,” Jack complained.

“Dude, she’s a kid, let her do it,” I argued and then nudged him out of the way so I could watch Elizabeth. I ran a hand through her hair. “So how was the zoo?”

“It was awesome,” Jack answered before Elizabeth could. “We saw an elephant taking a dump as soon as we got there. I got pictures.”

“I’m sure that was lovely,” I said, frowning. “But I was asking Elizabeth.”

“It was fun!” Elizabeth cheered. “We saw the lions and the giraffes and elephants!” She totally butchered ‘giraffe’ but I didn’t bother correcting her. “And Uncle Jack bought me five stuffed animals!” She completely abandoned her baking station and left Jack and I to finish it so she could get her stuffed animals to show me.

“You’re really spoiling that kid,” I told him, smiling.

“Somebody has to,” Jack shrugged. “What’s the point of having a fun Uncle Jack if he doesn’t shower you with gifts?”

After we all finished the cookies, we ate a few of the fresh ones and then played with Elizabeth and her new animals, which she kept begging us to “make talk.” Alex called around six thirty to tell us that we could bring Elizabeth home in about an hour and a half, so we packed up her stuff and took her to McDonalds to get a Happy Meal and then let her run around on their little playground. Once she got in her car seat, she was out like a light, so Jack carried her to the door when we got to Skye and Alex’s and I carried her things in. Alex got her settled in bed and then went outside with me to switch her car seat back to his car.

“Elizabeth seems like she had fun today,” Alex said. “Thank you guys so much again.”

“We all had a great time,” I told him. “We’ll take her anytime, we love having her over. She’s a sweetie.”

“She sure is,” Alex agreed. He got the car seat situated and then slammed the door of his car, leaning against it. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “It’s been a super long day. Do you want to go get a drink?”

“Did you forget that the child is back in your care, or were you just gonna leave her with a hungover Skye?” I asked.

“I can watch her!” Jack called from the window. Of course he was eavesdropping. When was he not?

“Skye’s sleeping, Elizabeth’s sleeping, and Jack’s keeping watch,” Alex said. “So what do you say? Up for a drink?”

I mulled it over for a moment. “Fine, but we’re drinking at my house. I’m not gonna pay a stupid amount of money for a shot at Moxie’s.”

“Fine by me,” Alex shrugged and then turned back towards the house where Jack was still waiting in the window. “You sure you don’t mind spending the night again?”

“Of course not,” Jack said. “I can have more adventures with Elizabeth tomorrow if you’re all hungover.”

We nodded and waved goodbye to Jack, heading back to the beach house in Alex’s car. When we got inside, I pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and placed it between us at the breakfast bar and poured us some shots. We went through a few each while we bullshitted about tour memories and stupid stories from high school. Eventually we’d both had a few too many and got into the heavy stuff.

Alex went on for what felt like forever, going on and on about how he’d thought that Isabel was the one and how devastated he was to catch her in bed with another guy. After about ten minutes of incessant babbling, I put a finger to his lips to shush him. “Okay, you need to stop.”

“I thought you said you were here if I wanted to talk,” he complained, his words slurred from all the alcohol and my finger preventing his mouth from moving a little. He was starting to get saliva on my finger so I moved it away and wiped it on my jeans.

“I did, and I am,” I said. “But now you’re just whining. You know what? Fuck Isabel. She sucks. She threw a really good thing away and that’s on her. You shouldn’t have to be sad about it forever.”

“It’s only been like a week,” Alex said with a frown.

“Yeah, and a week’s more than enough time to spend moping over her,” I replied. “It’s time to get mad. And revenge is always fun. Besides, haven’t you ever heard that the best way to get over someone is by getting under someone else?”

“I prefer to be on top,” he corrected.

I rolled my eyes but laughed. “It’s an expression, you dickhead.”

“Okay, fine,” he said, pouring himself another drink and downing it. “If you’re the expert here, how come you haven’t taken your own advice? What’d you do when we broke up or when you got dumped by Jay?”

“I did not get dumped,” I defended myself incredulously. “We just decided we weren’t working anymore.”

“And by ‘we decided,’ you mean ‘he decided,’” Alex corrected, taking my glass, pouring me a drink, and sliding it back to me.

I downed it quickly. “Fuck it. I got dumped.” I took our glasses and poured us both some more. “We’re a couple of sad sacks.”

Alex nodded and we took our shots. We didn’t say anything for a few moments, just letting our buzz sink in. All of a sudden, Alex turned to me and rested a hand on my knee. “So about this advice of yours…”

I moved his hand away and threw my head back to laugh. “You’re completely fucked up if you think that’s happening again, Alex.”

“I think we’re both pretty fucked up right now,” he said, and I definitely couldn’t disagree. “Plus, wouldn’t that be such a great ‘fuck you’ to Isabel and Jay?”

In such a drunken state, I couldn’t really argue with that logic. Drunk Me thought that this made perfect sense. So Drunk Me decided to go for it. “Fuck it.”

Alex and I placed our hands on each other’s faces not so gracefully and kissed roughly. It was definitely sloppy and I could feel our teeth knock together a few times, but I didn’t care. Things started to get more heated, so we headed to my bedroom. It was by no means the best sex of my life – far from it. It was chaotic and drunken and a little bit passionate, but by the end of it, I suddenly felt…better. Even though I was still wasted, my mind felt clearer than it had in ages.

After, Alex rolled over and fell asleep, but I stayed awake, my mind going a million miles an hour. It was suddenly like a light turned on in my head and I felt a rush. I threw a t-shirt on and grabbed my laptop, opening a new document and typing furiously. I didn’t stop until the sun started to roll in and Alex turned over, shielding his eyes from the sun and brightness of my laptop.

“What are you doing? Don’t tell me that didn’t wear you out,” he said groggily. He pressed the palms of his hands against his eyelids. “Oh my God, my head hurts so badly. I’m still so fucked up.”

I ignored the last part but smiled, saving my document. “Turns out that was just what I needed.” I shut my laptop lid and set it on my nightstand, downing some aspirin and water, passing them both to Alex. “I just finished my outline.”