200 Jalex Prompts; Destroy.
1.
Alex had always been one of those people that will eventually destroy anything that is of importance to him, and he recently discovered that his seemingly perfect relationship with Jack Barakat was no exception to this rule.
It had all been perfect in the beginning, y’know the type of relationship you’re told about in fairytales when you’re just a kid. Alex would pick Jack up from work every day with an innocent kiss to the lips and a ‘how was your day?’ before the pair filled the remaining car journey back to younger mans’ home with mindless chatter about the uneventful happenings of their daily lives.
Jack had taken Alex on dates. All sorts of dates, but his favourite had always been the stereotypical film-type dates of dinner at a restaurant neither of them could really afford followed by a movie in which Jack would pull ‘the move’ and slyly (but actually not so slyly) find his arm resting around the back of the seat his date just so happened to be sitting on, by the end of the film.
Everyone wanted a relationship like Jack and Alex, because that’s what they were, they were Jack and Alex, Alex and Jack, it was seen as some sort of miracle if you were to find either one without the other without their jobs being the cause of the separation. Both sets of parents adored their sons’ choice of partner, and they were welcome to the respective families with open arms, all of this just helping to prove that their relationship was without a doubt perfect - at least for now, anyway.
Nobody noticed when things started to go downhill for the couple. Not until it was too late, anyway. It started off with little things, things that you wouldn’t really notice unless you had experience them every day for the past 3 years of your life like Jack had.
Alex began closing Jack off bit by bit, he would go out without telling where he was going, the length of time increasing each time it happened. It had started with a mere 20 minutes, expanding to a range of up to 5 hours by the time that things had reached the point of no return for the two men. And I know what you’re thinking, this is where I tell you that he was off out at bars, chatting up other men, ‘spicing up his life’ so to speak, right? Wrong. I can’t tell you that because that isn’t really what happened. Alex didn’t really have a reason for his unexplained absences, and that’s what made them that little bit more unbearable for Jack, because that meant that Alex wasn’t leaving him in order to fulfil something else, it simply meant that Alex was leaving just to get away from him.
Jack knew it was possible he was over reacting, I mean, it could be logical right? Your boyfriend of 3 years walking out and not returning for hours at a time, completely understandable. At least, that’s what you convince yourself to believe when you just don’t want to accept that maybe this is where the fun runs out.
It continued to be the small things, the things that wouldn’t really matter to anyone else, but they were things that were so important because they were things that Alex just knew meant a lot to Jack, and to take them away from him? Yeah, that was kind of a big deal.
He started opting for sitting on the opposite end of the couch to his partner, curling his legs up to his chest as to relieve himself of all contact with the younger boy, instead choosing to waste away his time on his phone - sometimes not even talking to anyone, simply playing mindless games that would distract himself from the ever rising tension filling the silence that was becoming more and more frequent between the two boys that always thought they would be each other’s ‘forever.’
This was followed by Alex slowly but surely ignoring more and more of the younger’s attempts to contact him. He began ignoring his texts that were so often sent during the midst of a more than usual boring lecture, as well as ignoring his phone calls when he was on his break at work and he was just having one of those days where he missed his boyfriend and needed to hear his voice so he could let him know that he missed him too, but it was okay ‘cause they’ll see each other in a couple of hours. But no, apparently Jack couldn’t have that anymore. Oh of course he could hear his boyfriends voice, but rather than the comforting words he longed to hear, instead he was greeted with that annoying voicemail he’d begged the elder to change for so long now, taunting him as the happy go lucky voice chimed ‘Hello?’ followed by a long silence, then ‘Hello? Are you there?’ and yet another long silence before finally coming to a close with ‘psyche! Gotcha! Sorry I’m too busy being awesome to answer the phone right now, so leave a message and I’ll get back to you later, cya!’ ringing in his ear. And this time he just couldn’t pass it off as a normal thing, because he just knew that Alex must be avoiding his calls because how else could he explain it when the elder just spent so much time on his phone these days?
They could hardly look each other in the face anymore, well, should I say Alex couldn’t look Jack in the face anymore. Every time the dark haired male tried to be affectionate towards his partner, he was simply shrugged off with an accompanied mumble of Alex having ‘something else to do’ before being left stood on his own as his boyfriend sauntered off to the furthest away room in their shared apartment. They shared a bed, but only in the possessive sense, there was no longer the love in their relationship that joined the pair to the piece of furniture, these days its only purpose was a place of sleep. No more cuddles and kisses, no more love making and deep conversations about their future. Alex would always stay planted firmly in his place on the sofa in front of the TV until he was absolutely positive Jack was asleep, before dragging himself to their bedroom and laying himself as close to the edge, and as far from the younger boy as possible, followed by him timing his awakening perfectly so he knew that he could be up and out of the bed before the dark haired male could even stir in his sleep.
But even through all this, Jack still believed they could get through this, because that’s what they did right? That’s who they were! They were Jack and Alex! They were the living fairytale, they could work through anything that stood in their way, and sure they were having a few communication issues right now, but that could all be fixed, right?
Wrong again.
Jack had been at work on his break when he’d got the text, and at first he’d been cautious about reading it because seriously, who would be texting him? Jack wasn’t exactly the most popular of people, and if one of his very few friends wanted to talk to him, that was usually done by ringing him, not by text. So imagine his surprise when he unlocked the screen to see the unchanged name of ‘Alexander the Great’ which had been entered all those years ago when the boys had first met, pop up on his phone alerting him that his boyfriend had initiated contact with him for the first time in weeks.
Six words. That was all it had taken to have Jack running from his desk and leaving the building in order to reach the apartment the pair shared, just 10 minutes away. The text had simply read ‘I need you to come home’ no kiss, no nothing. But it was enough to make Jack believe. Make him believe that maybe this was the first step, maybe this was the day that Alex had decided to apologise for being an absolute complete arsehole for the past few weeks, and Jack would forgive him with open arms telling him it’s okay, and it doesn’t even matter, and he completely understands even though he hasn’t got a fucking clue what he did for things to change so dramatically. But either way, those six words was all it took for Jack to use his entire years worth of exertive energy on getting home as fast as possible in order to fix the relationship that had become his everything before the boys had even realised their deeper feelings for each other.
But what he found when he got home was nothing like he could ever in his wildest dreams imagined. Because when he walked through their front door with sweat dripping down his face (it was hot outside, and he’s wearing a long sleeve shirt with his tie done up to the top, and he’s not used to that kind of exercise, okay?) he found his boyfriend of 3 years stood before him with two suitcases stood at his feet, and something about the situation somehow made Jack think that those suitcases were not Alex’s way of telling him he’d booked a surprise vacation for them both.
In fact, one look at the elders’ vacant features, and Jack just knew. Just knew that this was it for them, there wasn’t going to be a fairytale ending, not this time. No this time it was going to end nothing like it did in the stories, this time one of the princes were going to go home broken, wondering what on earth it was that they did wrong to make the best thing that happened to them fall so out of love with them.
“Jack, this uh, isn’t working, and I think it would be best if you left.” That was all it had taken for the younger of the two’s knees to buckle from under him, and the tears to break free as they streamed down his face whilst he begged for this to not happen.
“Please Alex, please, I’m sorry, I’m sorry for whatever it is that I did that made you stop loving me, I’m sorry, I’ll be better! I promise Alex I’ll be better! I’ll - I’ll give you space! I’ll go see my parents more, I’ll leave you alone! Alex please! Please don’t do this! I- I love you! Please, Alex!” He sobbed as he clinged on to the elders legs, wrapping himself as firmly as his could around the limb in order to get his point across, all the while whispering ‘Please, Alex, I’m sorry, please.’ Hoping that it would be a feeble attempt to get the blonde haired boy to change his mind.
But he knew, right from the second Alex grabbed his wrists and prised them from around his leg whilst shaking the limb in an attempt to rid himself of the apparent nuisance, that this wasn’t going to go in the way that he so hoped and prayed that he would. Alex’s eyes gave nothing away as he lifted the younger boy to his feet before gently shoving him and the suitcases closer to the door. Once they were out in the hall there was a moments’ pause before Jack did the thing he knew this would be his last chance to do. He took two steps forward and cupped the elder’s face in hands before pulling their faces together to place on last final kiss on his now ex-boyfriends lips. “I love you.” He whispered, with tears still running strong down his face.
“Goodbye, Jack.” Was all he received in return before the door was being shut in his face, leaving him on the wrong side of the door he’d called home for so many years.
Unbeknown to the other, as soon as the door had closed Alex had leaned against the new formed barrier between himself and the person he had thought was his ‘one’, allowing himself to slide down the wood until his backside was placed on the cold laminate floor. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, allowing his head to fall on to the joints as his own silent tears finally broke free of his strong, emotionless facade.
“Well done, Alex. Yet another thing to add to the list of the things you managed to destroy.”
Masterpost | Destroy | Bittersweet