Bring (Baby) Me Back

When Jack ate that burrito, no one was expecting for things to get this... weird.

It started like a normal day. The guys were hanging out, everyone was laughing and chatting, just having a good time.
And then Jack announced that he was hungry.

"Dude, you literally ate an hour ago, how can you be hungry?" Rian asked, and Jack shrugged.

"I don't know, I just am."

"Well, let's find something to eat before the princess here becomes grumpy." Alex joked, and everyone laughed as Jack pouted.

They were walking to the nearest Taco Bell (’cause Jack was craving a burrito) when Zack bumped into a strange-looking man.

“Oh, sorry man.” Zack said, but the man seemed to ignore him, focused on Jack.

“Hey kiddo.” he said with a seductive tone of voice, which made Jack hide behind Alex, scared. “I heard you were hungry. Fancy a burrito?”

“We’re not interested, thanks.” Alex affirmed, suspicious of the man. “Let’s go guys, we’re not too far from Taco Bell.”

They arrived the fast food joint not much later, and immediately ordered their food. Jack had a strange look on his face and was unusually quiet. The guys deduced it was because of the strange encounter.

As they were walking back to Alex’s apartment, Zack noticed Jack was eating something, and asked what it was.

“Uh, nothing...”

Alex turned around, brows furrowed.

“Jack, what do you have in there? Is that what I think it is?”

Jack swallowed hard, and slowly showed the half eaten burrito on his hand.

Alex took it from his hand and threw it to the ground, angry.

“Jack what the fuck were you thinking? How could you accept that guy’s food, have you never heard to never take something from a stranger?”

Jack shook slightly at the yelling. He had never seen Alex so angry before, especially not at him.

“A- Alex, calm down. It’s just a burrito, it’s not anything bad. What could happen?”

“What could happen?! Dude, you could have been poisoned by that stuff! You know what, we’re going to the hospital, to make sure you don’t die because of your stupidity.”

To everyone’s surprise, Rian was the one to convince Alex not to go to the hospital.

“Alex, hold on. If Jack is feeling alright, there’s no reason to go to the hospital. Let’s just wait, if he doesn’t show any symptoms after a day then nothing’s wrong.”

Alex glared at Rian for a moment, and then at Jack before taking a deep breath.

“Fine, we’re going back home then. But I swear to god, if Jack gets sick, I-”

“We know, we know.” Rian interrupted, walking in the direction of Alex’s house. “Now let’s go, I’m getting cold.”

They headed towards the house after a moment.

Jack went to Zack’s side, his hands buried down his pockets and head low. He knew he screwed up big time, but Alex’s shouting scared him, so he avoided looking at him.

Alex looked at him, feeling bad. He didn’t like shouting at Jack, but he was worried about him, he didn’t want Jack to get hurt.
He walked to Jack’s side, smiling.

“Hey,” he said in a soft tone, “sorry for screaming at you earlier, but you shouldn’t have done that. What were you thinking, that could have gone wrong.”

“I know, sorry. I was just really hungry, and I saw that burrito and couldn’t control myself.”

Alex slid an arm around Jack’s back. “Just don’t do that again, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Jack nodded, smiling slightly, and Alex tightened his grip as they got closer to his house.

-----------------

Back at Alex’s house, things were going as normal. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Jack’s incident and was having fun in their own ways.

And suddenly, when everyone was watching a video, Jack whined in pain.
Alex looked at him instantly, worried.

“What’s wrong Jack? Are you okay?”

“No, I… I don’t feel good. I feel really weird.”

“We better go to the hospital, come on.” Alex replied, helping Jack get up.

But they didn’t go far, because Jack growled and ran straight to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The guys ran after him, knocking at the door.

“Jack! Jack, answer, are you alright?” Rian shouted.

Alex was panicking, pacing around behind them. He knew he should have brought Jack to the hospital right away, he was so stupid for not doing it!

Minutes passed, and no sound was coming from inside, which was deeply worrying the guys.
Alex pushed Zack and Rian to the side and opened the door in a rush, entering the bathroom.

The trio stopped in their tracks as soon as they came in, completely shocked.

Jack was nowhere to be seen, and his clothes were dumped on the ground. It looked like he had vanished in thin air and left his clothes behind.

“What the fuck…” Alex muttered, carefully walking to the clothes. Rian followed close behind.

And then they heard it.

A cry.

“It’s coming from… the clothes?” Zack asked, more confused than scared.

Alex nodded, kneeling in front of the dump and moving the clothes away.

And right in the middle of them, there was a small baby, completely naked. His big brown eyes and the strange blonde tuff on his black hair, as well as how he seemed to calm down as soon as Alex picked him up, made the dumbfounded trio recognize the baby right away.

“Jack?!”