Hospital Beds and Memories

I stretched out one last time, my bones all clicking back into place. As I tried my best to stay awake, I watched the baggage belt start moving, the first bags showing up. I rubbed my eyes and yawned once again. A six-hour flight wasn’t really the most enjoyable thing. Sure, I managed to catch quite some sleep, but that didn’t mean I actually slept in the right position. All my muscles ached and I couldn’t turn my head to the right. Really, all I wanted to do was sleep for longer. Airplane seats weren’t exactly the best place to get some rest in, especially if you have to climb over somebody just to be able to go to the bathroom. This was only the second time I went by commercial aviation and I already hated it all. Going by car and mooching off my dad’s luxuries seemed to work better for me.

I just had to remind myself of happy things. Like the fact that Jack was waiting for me on the other side of the sliding doors. He had already texted me to say that he was here, to which I, unfortunately, had to reply that the luggage was taking so long. But then again, the airport was pretty big, it was to be expected. At least I would get to share a bed with Jack again and fall asleep with him beside me. Or that was what I hoped… The guys were staying in a hotel, but their room was basically an apartment. It included a kitchen, a living room, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I didn’t exactly know what the sleeping arrangements were like, so there was still a possibility that I didn’t even get to sleep in the same room as Jack.

Luckily, my duffle bag was one of the first bags to show up. I quickly shuffled up closer to the belt to pick it up, getting some annoyed glances from people who already were at the front. I just ignored them, knowing that their bags weren’t even there yet, and put the strap over my shoulder. When I finally found out where the exit was, I couldn’t get out of there sooner.

The place was busy, immediately making me disoriented. There were many people standing behind a barrier, holding up signs and balloons. People rushed past me, this being something they did on a regular basis. I just continued walking, not liking the fact that I felt like I was in a pit and people were watching.

As soon as I was past the yellow line the people in the public area of the airport couldn’t cross, I was attacked. The wind was knocked out of me and I was held in an inescapable grasp. I couldn’t even see what was going on and a couple of people just watched what was going on. Airports really were the weirdest places ever…

“Oh my god, you scared me,” I gasped as I returned Jack’s tight hug, shrugging my shoulders a little to move my backpack and duffle bag in place.

“Hi,” he whispered in return as he broke away a little to be able to look down at me. When I looked back up in his eyes, he leaned down and kissed me, caressing my cheek in one hand.

“It’s only been a short while,” I giggled when he pulled away. It was like we hadn’t seen each other in months, he was that happy to see me again. Maybe Harry was right, the more frequent text messages to him telling him how much I loved him did make a small difference.

“I know,” he kissed me again, a bit harder this time, but also quicker, “but I still missed you like crazy. Believe it or not, you’re much better to live with than the three fuckers I have to spend all my time with now.”

“I guess I’m here to save you for a week,” I smirked and he took a step away, taking hold of my hand and leading me to the place where the rental car was parked.

He hummed in response, before giving me a wink. “And I made sure to run into the place and claim a room first. I may or may not have managed to get the room with the single queen sized bed and ensuite bathroom. Rian shares a room with two twin sized beds with Alex, and Zack has his own small room with a twin sized bed. It was quite a fight, they didn’t even realize I had immediately slipped away when we got the key cards. But then again, I am the only guy who’s girlfriend is coming over for a week.”

“Oh, so they all know what’s already going to go down at random moments, and that it’s better to just not open the door without checking first,” I laughed, knowing that Jack definitely used the argument that he was the only one going to be sex during their stay there.

“No, Alex will still walk in at random moments.” Jack shook his head and took me outside. The different climate hit my skin. While it was still nearly winter, or what you could technically consider winter, it was so much warmer over here. I completely understood why Jack was just wearing a hoodie.

“Oh god,” I groaned and hid my face in his arm. I wasn’t exactly keen on anyone walking in on us, let alone Alex. Of course nobody specifically liked it, but I wasn’t somebody who could just shrug it off like Jack. Sure, I was already a lot more open, talking about it with Jack a lot, even making some jokes. But something so personal? I’d rather not.

“Don’t worry, he’ll probably be scared off by my bare butt cheeks before he can even see a glimpse of you.”

----

After taking a nap, I decided to make dinner for the All Time Low guys. I figured it was both better for them and for me to not have a microwavable meal or order food for once. Since I would only be cooking for myself back at home, I didn’t see the use in it; and they guys just didn’t have much time, but Alex had tried a couple of times. The only problem was that there weren’t many utensils in the small kitchen the place provided, but it had the basics. I mean, what could you expect from a hotel?

I was chopping up some onions to put in the spaghetti sauce I was making, careful not to cut myself with the big knife I was using. It was either use the normal sized one, but have it be blunt, or use this gigantic sharp one. I just couldn’t work as quick as I’d usually do. But, to be honest, I’d rather be careful and take more time than accidentally cut off one of my fingers.

Alex, Jack, and Rian were all seated in the living room which was literally attached to the kitchen, while Zack was downstairs at the gym. The TV was on, but nobody was really paying attention, more focused on the small screen their phones provided instead. It was like they didn’t even realize that there were other people around.

As I looked at Jack and saw him typing on his phone, I wondered if he was texting Abagail. It was quite likely, but then again, he could also just be commenting on a post on social media, or he could have been tweeted something. Maybe he was messaging a family member or friend, or he could even be messaging Alex who was literally sitting adjacent to him.

“So, Ireland, how are you doing?” Alex put his phone in his pocket and turned around so he could talk to me while leaning over the backrest.

I stayed focused on the onion I was chopping up, but still answered. “Healthwise? All good so far. More in general? I don’t just sit at home anymore and do nothing. However, I do often come home with cake batter all over the place… and I know not to wear a white t-shirt because coffee stains will not come out of it.”

“Oh yeah! That’s right, you’re working at your mom’s cafe now!” He nodded and smiled. “Lisa said that it’s pretty good and recommends it.”

“Her mom’s cakes are the best fucking things on this planet,” Jack agreed with a pleasured groan, just briefly looking up from his phone, “I swear to god, better than sex.”

I got distracted for a little while, putting on a thoughtful face. “That is assuming that you think sex is very high on the list.”

“Favorite pastime activity.” He gave me a big goofy smile before returning all his attention back to his phone, retreating from the conversation.

“So, what’s it like working there?” Alex continued, interested in what I had to tell.

“I guess it’s pretty good,” I told him, not even caring if this was just to have a conversation and not because he actually wanted to know, “I’d never have chosen to work there if it weren’t for my mom. Right now, I mainly just help with the customers, but she’s been getting me into the baking part. I’m just not very good yet. But I haven’t been doing it for long, so it’s to be expected. The job of taking orders does eventually get a bit tedious, though. However, I have a very flamboyant coworker who makes that better. He doesn’t seem like the loud guy when you just meet him, but the comments he makes under his breath are the best. Oh, and when he’s on a break his personality just explodes everywhere. I guess you could say I sorta made a friend for once…”

“Hey, we’re your friends as well!” Alex argued, pointing at himself like he was a great example to support his statement.

“No,” I shook my head, “you’re Jack’s best friends. If we were ever to break up, you wouldn’t be friends with me anymore.”

Before Alex could continue to try and convince me, Jack interrupted innocently. “What about Abagail?”

My entire mood changed in a blink of an eye as soon as her name escaped his lips. I went back to cutting up the onions, trying my best to stay calm. “We’re not exactly on speaking terms right now, or any terms for that matter.”

“Yeah, Abagail told me a bit about that…” His phone now also disappeared into his pocket and he turned to fully focus on me. “She said you threatened her and Ruby.”

“Of course she’d say that,” I rolled my eyes as my onion chopping started to get a tad more aggressive. But it wasn’t enough to keep me at bay. I stopped and used hand gestures while the knife was still in my hands. “First of all, Ruby was nowhere around, nowhere near, I don’t even know what Abagail did with her. Second of all, I did not threaten her. All I did was send her out after she basically trashed part of our living room. She didn’t even come in with permission.”

“Wait, what?”

“If you call her walking in while I told her I had to leave, then knocking down photos and pulling things off of the scrap board, me threatening her. Then, yeah, I was seriously threatening her.”

“Why would she do that?” He then asked me, looking genuinely confused but also not going far enough to defend her.

I put the knife down and sighed. “Ok, are you really that clueless or am I the one that missed something? Cause if it’s me, I’ll feel really stupid for coming here.”

“Do you want us to leave?” Rian pointed at himself and Alex, wondering if this was going to turn into a fight between me and Jack. I wasn’t exactly hoping to turn this into a fight unless it turned out that I had been wrong all along.

“I don’t know…” Jack answered to both me and Rian.

“I’ll bring you up to date in case it’s you missing it all,” I started explaining, not caring if there were two more people here to hear everything. “So, let’s start off a year or so ago, you have sex with Abagail. A couple of months later, she says she’s pregnant, but you make it clear that there’s no way it’s yours because the dates don’t mess up. I think we all got that. Now, let’s flash forward to a couple of months ago. I practically die, but you and my parents decide to try and keep me alive, hopefully making me better again. Everybody knows about that as well. While I’m out, you get closer to Abagail and eventually she has the baby. Abagail at some point told the father of the baby she doesn’t want a relationship with him except for being civilized with each other for the baby’s sake. She keeps getting closer to you. However, I wake up at some point, and that’s where things start going wrong. You see, now I’m in the way. In case you haven’t realized yet, Abagail is in love with you and she hates me for dating you. Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, Abagail shows up at our house. I tell her I actually have to leave or I’ll be late for something, but she doesn’t care. She starts going on and on about how you told her that you don’t love me and that you’re only still with me because it isn’t socially acceptable to break up with someone who’s in the hospital. I didn’t think anything she said was true, but then again I might be the one missing everything and it might all be true.”

Jack shook his head, looking bewildered. It took him a while before he said something. “No, none of that is true.”

I nodded, acting like he hadn’t just told me something that could have made or broken our relationship. “Cool. Great that that’s cleared up.”

“I feel like you’re acting calm, but really aren’t,” Alex pointed out as if nobody else had noticed.

I looked down at the chopping board, seeing the onion cut up into such small pieces that it looked mushed. I shrugged, keeping up my facade. “I mean, I can’t exactly use this onion anymore…” I turned to the trash can, opened it, and scooped all the onion off the chopping board.

“I would feel a lot better if you’d get really mad at me rather than act like this," Jack told me, actually seeming scared about how composed I seemed.

“Why would I get mad at you?” I raised an eyebrow and started peeling a new onion. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, but shouldn’t you yell at me for being friends with her?”

“I can’t really control who you’re friends with and who you aren’t friends with,” I responded honestly and started re-chopping an onion, “sure, I’m not friends with her anymore. Like, I blocked her number after she sent me a couple of more threatening texts, but that doesn’t mean you should as well.”

“I’m so confused right now. Do you want me to block her or not?” He questioned, pulling out his phone again.

“It’s your decision.”

“I think you should, Jack,” Alex tried to read me and answer more clearly, “trust me, something bad will happen if you don’t. When girls say they don’t care, they actually really do.”

“I'm being serious!” I argued with a small laugh in my voice. “I know what I would do, but I’m not going to control your life. You could stop talking to her, leaving her confused and annoyed, maybe even try to blame it on me again; or you could leave it be and give her false hope, possibly making the situation worse.”

Jack tapped a couple of button on his phone before looking satisfied. “Ok, I blocked her. It should be pretty obvious that I’d do that. I’ve already gotten mad at the fans for hating you, I wouldn’t be afraid of hurting anybody that hurts you, so why would I continue to be friends with her. It’s not like I can’t live without her, I’m just nice to her because I thought she was your best friend.”

I snorted with a laugh, “I don’t have friends. The only friends I have are because of other people. Like, I’m going out the day after tomorrow with Tay because she’s visiting Cam. Anyways, problem solved without a fight.”

“Can I steal you?” Alex asked me in a joking manner. “I wish I could resolve everything this way with Lisa.”

“Oh, trust me, it’s not always like this,” I confessed, remembering that last time included me crying on the guest bed.

“We do have a rule that all conflict has to be settled the same day it started, though,” Jack added, smiling at me, “and if it can’t be fixed, then we drop it. It might come up later again, but then we’ll solve it then.”

“Wow,” Rian gasped, giving Jack a perplexed look, “I really thought it wasn’t possible for you to be in an actual relationship. But look at you! You’ve been together, for what, like a year now?”

“No, that’s on the 22nd of February,” Jack corrected him.

“Huh, I thought you guys had been together for much longer,” Alex spoke, surprised by the fact that it was my nine month anniversary with Jack (which makes no sense, because an anniversary is an annual thing).

I decided to add a couple of things. “We’ve know each other for longer than a year, but yeah, I guess Jack and I moved pretty fast. We only got together on that one day Jack disappeared while you were over and then forced you to leave when he came back. I remember you saying something along the lines of ‘I will figure out what happened one day’. So, now you know.”

“Wow, you guys did move fast…”

“It’s what happens when you fall in love with your best friend before you become a couple.” Jack smiled at me, giving me the same eyes I hadn’t noticed before I realized my own feelings for him.

“You love me, Jacko!” Alex gasped, putting a hand to his heart, “I love you too!”