She Made Me Change My Ways: Chapter 5
Title: She Made Me Change My Ways.
Chapter: 5
Chapter's title: Parents.
Author: Val or valeohyeah
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It was definitely hard, that much was obvious. Touring while trying to raise a child was not something to be taken lightly. Though Alex wasn't alone.
Disclaimer: Jalex belongs to Jalex and Amanda belongs to Amanda and I'm forever alone. Title goes to "Into Your Arms" by The Maine.
Masterpost
If there was a word to describe how the rest of Jack's time in Australia was, that would have definitely been 'awkward as fucking hell'.
As soon as the singer had woken up, the day after the little incident at the club, he had ran past Jack and his weak attempts to fix things up, slamming the bathroom door closed and taking the quickest shower of his life, rapidly putting on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and walking out of the hotel room, leaving Jack all to himself to drown in his self-pity.
The rest of the day hadn't been much better either, that with all of them finishing packing their bags and climbing into a van that would take them to the airport, neither of the two guitarists had uttered a single word, to each other or to anybody else, during the whole trip, and had chosen the seats that were the furthest apart from each other.
Needless to say, the two men's strange behavior had weirded the rest of their band and crew out, because really, since when did Alex and Jack not talk to each other?
If any of them wanted to know why was it that they were fighting, though, they could keep on guessing forever, because neither Jack nor Alex were willingly gonna talk about it.
It was a whole different thing thinking about it, though, for it had been the one and only thing clouding their thoughts since it had happened.
All Alex could think about, for as much as he tried to deny it, was the way Jack's lips had felt against his. Warm and soft and just like they felt back when they were teenagers... if not better; and one would ask, why had he freaked out on the younger boy, then?
It was an easy answer, really.
What if him and his best friend did actually get together? The singer knew everything would be perfect for a few months... even a year, if they were lucky. But what would happen when either one of them fucked things up, just like he knew it would happen?
Not only Alex and Jack, but also Rian and Zack... and all of their crew and fans for that matter, could say goodbye to All Time Low, he could see no way for the band to live to tell the tale of how his lead singer and guitarist had lead their band to a dead end, lead by lust and want and hormones.
It had been exactly five days since All Time Low had gotten back to the United Stated.
It had also been five days (but who was counting, right?) since Jack had started calling his best friend nonstop, only for his calls to be ignored or redirected to voicemail.
Don't get him wrong, Alex wasn't ignoring his best friend... okay he was totally ignoring him, but seriously, what was there left to be said? He had been very clear as to why he thought being in a relationship with the dark-haired man was a bad idea, and he was not gonna go and change his mind because of a bunch of phone calls, for as much as it hurt imagining how bad his best friend must have felt every time he heard the "Hey! Alex here. I can't pick up the phone right now, but leave a message after the beep!".
**
"What shoes do you wanna wear, Amanda?" Alex said, holding in one hand a pair of pink flats and in the other one a pair of white shoes with tiny flowers on them.
The blonde girl took her time to put on her white hair band before turning around and sighing tiredly, as if she was dealing with a child, and took the white flats out of his father's hand.
"These match my hair band and my dress, daddy... see?" She said, and as if to prove her point, she brought the shoes closer to her waist, where a flowery ribbon separated the upper part of the light pink dress from the lower one.
His daughter's small speech had left Alex at a loss for words for a few seconds, shocked out of his mind, before laughing loudly and rolling his eyes because the little six-year-old was just full of surprises.
"Okay then," he said, still laughing, as he put the pink shoes back in their place, sitting down on Amanda's bed and staring at her with an adoring smile on his face.
The two blondes were currently getting themselves ready to go over to Amanda's grandparents' house, seeing as it was Peter's birthday, and they were planning on spending the whole day just the four of them, for as much as Alex had offered to throw him a huge party.
"Do you have Grandpa's present, Panda?" Alex asked his daughter as he zipped his leather jacket up, a few minutes later, frowning at the way his iPhone buzzed inside his pocket with an incoming call.
"Yes, daddy, here it is!" The blonde girl chirped, grinning as he held up the Apple paper bag that contained her grandfather's birthday present, an iPad, to be more precise.
"Okay," he said, opening the door and unlocking his car, hearing it beep as he pulled his phone out, seeing the '1 missed call, Jack Barakat' mockingly blink at him from the screen. "Go get in the car, princess," he said then, making sure his daughter still had the bag when she ran out the house and to the backseat of his black car, while he locked the front door, climbing on the vehicle and starting the short drive to his parents' house afterwards.
**
"Happy birthday Grandpa Peter, happy birthday to yoouuuuuuuu!" The three Gaskarths sang to the birthday man about an hour later, grinning from ear to ear as him and Amanda blew out the sixty-three candles on the white and blue cake.
Peter had preferred a simple gathering with his wife, son and granddaughter, instead of a big party with 'long-time-no-see' friends and distant relatives and the neighbour's cousin's brother that only came to eat and drink booze, despite Alex insisting that he could take care of organizing the whole thing and kicking the party crashers and freeloaders out.
And now he saw why did his father want to just spend his day with his family, for the man's birthday couldn't have been any more perfect.
Amanda had begged her father to stop by Wal-Mart on their way to her grandparents', and made Alex buy a shit load of candy and Barbie cone hats and ice-cream, and the blonde man couldn't say no to the six-year-old's big caramel eyes so he just ended up buying it all.
It was times like these where he thanked his band for being as successful as they were, for he was sure he'd be pretty much broke by now.
"So, when are you guys having your next tour?" Isobel asked her son a few minutes later, when she was drying the recently washed dishes with a towel, the blonde man hummed from where he was sitting down on the kitchen counter like he always did when he was younger and shrugged, not really sure of when All Time Low's next tour was.
He just wanted to forget about everything Jack-related until he had no choice but to think about it...
But of course, Isobel Gaskarth would never let it pass. She just knew her son too well.
"I don't know... Two weeks, I suppose," he replied vaguely, twirling a strand of golden hair in between his fingers as he watched his daughter try to teach his father how to play Angry Birds on his new iPad, and that view made him smile and bite his lip, noticing from the corner of his eye how his mom was looking at him with that odd look she always gave him whenever she was trying to figure her son out.
"Okay," she said in response, wiping her hands on a bright blue kitchen towel and leaning against the counter. "So how're Jack and the boys?" The tall woman asked Alex, earning an amused smile from the blonde because Isobel just refused to believe her son and the other four guys that she had seen grow up together were already 24-years-old men, and insisted that they would still be 'boys' for her.
Although the way his stomach felt weird with tingles and warmth that he hadn't felt in a long time, when his mom said his best friend's name, didn't pass unnoticed to him.
"Fine, I guess," he shrugged, frowning at the way his phone rang for the tenth time of the day.
Isobel stared at her son for a few seconds, frowning just the slightest, before saying; "is everything okay with the boys, sweetie?"
And okay, how could Alex lie to his mom when she had pretty much figured him out already?
"I- I uh... well, no. Not really," he admitted, running a hand through his hair, looking for the right words to say, just when his phone stopped buzzing annoyingly in his pocket.
It wasn't as if Isobel Gaskarth didn't know his son was bisexual, because she knew that. It was just... how was he gonna explain what he felt towards his best friend when not even he could quite understand it himself?
He could only hope for his mom to know him even better than he knew she did. She could help him sort his shit out, right?
"Jack kissed me at our 'end-of-tour' after party. He wants us to be a couple." He blurted out, feeling his cheeks turn a darker shade of pink as he played with his own fingers.
The man's mother was silent for a few seconds, waiting for Alex to explain what the big fuss about it was, and once she realized he wasn't gonna get into details, she spoke.
"What's wrong about that?" She asked slowly, well aware of the fact that her son and his best friend had already had a 'thing' back when they were teenagers, even though she had never mentioned it because she thought it wasn't necessary.
She wasn't as blind as her son thought she was.
"What's wrong," Alex said, more to himself than to his mother, biting his lip. "Well, for starters, Jack is my best friend, mom; I can't be in a relationship with him," he took a deep breath before continuing. "And besides, what's gonna happen to the band if we ever break up? I don't think that, knowing how me and Jack are, is gonna have a nice ending... and Amanda! If we ever break up, what's she gonna do? She loves Jack, for Christ's sake, how could I ever take him out of her life?" He racked his brain for the next few seconds, trying to think of some more excuses why he didn't wanna be Jack's boyfriend. "Also, it's not fair to the guys, having to put up with all the drama that us being together would bring... touring has its temptations, mom, and not all of us are strong enough to resist them." He explained, staring at the tall woman and silently begging for her to agree with him, to tell her son that his beliefs were right and that not getting together with Jack was for the best...
He could only wish, though, because telling her son that being Jack's boyfriend wasn't good for him was not in Isobel's plans.
"Well, son, if you want me to be honest with you, I find no sense in what you're saying whatsoever, only excuses," she said, placing a hand on Alex's knee and rubbing it against the denim in a back and forth manner. "I always figured you had something going on with Jack," she said, making the blonde man smile and bite his lip, a small blush creeping across his cheeks as he looked at anything but Isobel. "And I never said anything because I knew you two were mature enough to make your own decisions," she continued, setting the kitchen towel on the counter and staring at Alex's big eyes.
"You haven't had a real relationship since before Amanda walked into your life, sweetheart, I think it's time for you to start thinking a little bit more about yourself." She said then, once the brown-eyed man didn't utter a word. "The band won't mind about you two being together, they love you for who you are, not your sexuality. And about Amanda, well, you've said it yourself, Alex. Amanda loves Jack; I think that fact will be one of the things that will keep you two together through thick and thin." She said, and dammit, that woman knew the huge effect her words had on her son, for he was nodding his head slowly, carefully thinking about everything his mom was saying.
"Don't say you know everything's gonna go wrong, because you can't predict the future, honey," she spoke softly, giving him a caring smile. "And I'm not saying you have to be with Jack, I'm just saying you think about it, okay?" Isobel asked, patting the man's knee gently.
"I don't know, mom," he said after a few seconds of silence, biting his lip. Truth be told yeah, he really wanted to be with Jack, now that he had had time to think about how being with him would feel. But the band, and Amanda, and their future... Alex couldn't deny the fact that everything about the idea of being with Jack scared him because he had so much to lose if they ever broke up.
But then again, he had so much to win as well, just by getting together with the dark-haired man, and that thought made him unconsciously grin from ear to ear.
"I- yeah. Okay, I'll think about it," he said after about a minute of zoning out, smiling at his mother and jumping off the counter. "Thanks," he mumbled, wrapping his arms around Isobel's neck and burying his face in the crook of her neck, just like he used to do whenever he needed her mom to calm him down.
"You're my son, Alex, it's my duty to give you a few slaps from time to time," she said, rubbing circles into her son's back and chuckling when Alex laughed. "And if it helps, I think the three of you would be perfect together," she said then, giving her son a loving kiss on the forehead and smiling at him again. "Now let's go back to the living room, I'm afraid they'll start another cake fight if I don't keep an eye on them, just like last year," she said, grinning, and making the blonde man laugh loudly.
Next chapter.
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Author's Notes: Aw Alex's mom and aw Alex's dad and aw Alex's daughter and aw Alex's family they're all just too adorable.
Also, I'm so sorry for disappearing like that and for being a stubborn bitch, I promise it won't happen again because I realized it wasn't right for me to do that, big thanks to the lovely Nicole, aka supniggers for making me realize that the quality of a story isn't based on the amount of comments it gets.
But enough with the whining, I'd love to hear what you think of the story?
Chapter: 5
Chapter's title: Parents.
Author: Val or valeohyeah
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It was definitely hard, that much was obvious. Touring while trying to raise a child was not something to be taken lightly. Though Alex wasn't alone.
Disclaimer: Jalex belongs to Jalex and Amanda belongs to Amanda and I'm forever alone. Title goes to "Into Your Arms" by The Maine.
Masterpost
If there was a word to describe how the rest of Jack's time in Australia was, that would have definitely been 'awkward as fucking hell'.
As soon as the singer had woken up, the day after the little incident at the club, he had ran past Jack and his weak attempts to fix things up, slamming the bathroom door closed and taking the quickest shower of his life, rapidly putting on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and walking out of the hotel room, leaving Jack all to himself to drown in his self-pity.
The rest of the day hadn't been much better either, that with all of them finishing packing their bags and climbing into a van that would take them to the airport, neither of the two guitarists had uttered a single word, to each other or to anybody else, during the whole trip, and had chosen the seats that were the furthest apart from each other.
Needless to say, the two men's strange behavior had weirded the rest of their band and crew out, because really, since when did Alex and Jack not talk to each other?
If any of them wanted to know why was it that they were fighting, though, they could keep on guessing forever, because neither Jack nor Alex were willingly gonna talk about it.
It was a whole different thing thinking about it, though, for it had been the one and only thing clouding their thoughts since it had happened.
All Alex could think about, for as much as he tried to deny it, was the way Jack's lips had felt against his. Warm and soft and just like they felt back when they were teenagers... if not better; and one would ask, why had he freaked out on the younger boy, then?
It was an easy answer, really.
What if him and his best friend did actually get together? The singer knew everything would be perfect for a few months... even a year, if they were lucky. But what would happen when either one of them fucked things up, just like he knew it would happen?
Not only Alex and Jack, but also Rian and Zack... and all of their crew and fans for that matter, could say goodbye to All Time Low, he could see no way for the band to live to tell the tale of how his lead singer and guitarist had lead their band to a dead end, lead by lust and want and hormones.
It had been exactly five days since All Time Low had gotten back to the United Stated.
It had also been five days (but who was counting, right?) since Jack had started calling his best friend nonstop, only for his calls to be ignored or redirected to voicemail.
Don't get him wrong, Alex wasn't ignoring his best friend... okay he was totally ignoring him, but seriously, what was there left to be said? He had been very clear as to why he thought being in a relationship with the dark-haired man was a bad idea, and he was not gonna go and change his mind because of a bunch of phone calls, for as much as it hurt imagining how bad his best friend must have felt every time he heard the "Hey! Alex here. I can't pick up the phone right now, but leave a message after the beep!".
**
"What shoes do you wanna wear, Amanda?" Alex said, holding in one hand a pair of pink flats and in the other one a pair of white shoes with tiny flowers on them.
The blonde girl took her time to put on her white hair band before turning around and sighing tiredly, as if she was dealing with a child, and took the white flats out of his father's hand.
"These match my hair band and my dress, daddy... see?" She said, and as if to prove her point, she brought the shoes closer to her waist, where a flowery ribbon separated the upper part of the light pink dress from the lower one.
His daughter's small speech had left Alex at a loss for words for a few seconds, shocked out of his mind, before laughing loudly and rolling his eyes because the little six-year-old was just full of surprises.
"Okay then," he said, still laughing, as he put the pink shoes back in their place, sitting down on Amanda's bed and staring at her with an adoring smile on his face.
The two blondes were currently getting themselves ready to go over to Amanda's grandparents' house, seeing as it was Peter's birthday, and they were planning on spending the whole day just the four of them, for as much as Alex had offered to throw him a huge party.
"Do you have Grandpa's present, Panda?" Alex asked his daughter as he zipped his leather jacket up, a few minutes later, frowning at the way his iPhone buzzed inside his pocket with an incoming call.
"Yes, daddy, here it is!" The blonde girl chirped, grinning as he held up the Apple paper bag that contained her grandfather's birthday present, an iPad, to be more precise.
"Okay," he said, opening the door and unlocking his car, hearing it beep as he pulled his phone out, seeing the '1 missed call, Jack Barakat' mockingly blink at him from the screen. "Go get in the car, princess," he said then, making sure his daughter still had the bag when she ran out the house and to the backseat of his black car, while he locked the front door, climbing on the vehicle and starting the short drive to his parents' house afterwards.
**
"Happy birthday Grandpa Peter, happy birthday to yoouuuuuuuu!" The three Gaskarths sang to the birthday man about an hour later, grinning from ear to ear as him and Amanda blew out the sixty-three candles on the white and blue cake.
Peter had preferred a simple gathering with his wife, son and granddaughter, instead of a big party with 'long-time-no-see' friends and distant relatives and the neighbour's cousin's brother that only came to eat and drink booze, despite Alex insisting that he could take care of organizing the whole thing and kicking the party crashers and freeloaders out.
And now he saw why did his father want to just spend his day with his family, for the man's birthday couldn't have been any more perfect.
Amanda had begged her father to stop by Wal-Mart on their way to her grandparents', and made Alex buy a shit load of candy and Barbie cone hats and ice-cream, and the blonde man couldn't say no to the six-year-old's big caramel eyes so he just ended up buying it all.
It was times like these where he thanked his band for being as successful as they were, for he was sure he'd be pretty much broke by now.
"So, when are you guys having your next tour?" Isobel asked her son a few minutes later, when she was drying the recently washed dishes with a towel, the blonde man hummed from where he was sitting down on the kitchen counter like he always did when he was younger and shrugged, not really sure of when All Time Low's next tour was.
He just wanted to forget about everything Jack-related until he had no choice but to think about it...
But of course, Isobel Gaskarth would never let it pass. She just knew her son too well.
"I don't know... Two weeks, I suppose," he replied vaguely, twirling a strand of golden hair in between his fingers as he watched his daughter try to teach his father how to play Angry Birds on his new iPad, and that view made him smile and bite his lip, noticing from the corner of his eye how his mom was looking at him with that odd look she always gave him whenever she was trying to figure her son out.
"Okay," she said in response, wiping her hands on a bright blue kitchen towel and leaning against the counter. "So how're Jack and the boys?" The tall woman asked Alex, earning an amused smile from the blonde because Isobel just refused to believe her son and the other four guys that she had seen grow up together were already 24-years-old men, and insisted that they would still be 'boys' for her.
Although the way his stomach felt weird with tingles and warmth that he hadn't felt in a long time, when his mom said his best friend's name, didn't pass unnoticed to him.
"Fine, I guess," he shrugged, frowning at the way his phone rang for the tenth time of the day.
Isobel stared at her son for a few seconds, frowning just the slightest, before saying; "is everything okay with the boys, sweetie?"
And okay, how could Alex lie to his mom when she had pretty much figured him out already?
"I- I uh... well, no. Not really," he admitted, running a hand through his hair, looking for the right words to say, just when his phone stopped buzzing annoyingly in his pocket.
It wasn't as if Isobel Gaskarth didn't know his son was bisexual, because she knew that. It was just... how was he gonna explain what he felt towards his best friend when not even he could quite understand it himself?
He could only hope for his mom to know him even better than he knew she did. She could help him sort his shit out, right?
"Jack kissed me at our 'end-of-tour' after party. He wants us to be a couple." He blurted out, feeling his cheeks turn a darker shade of pink as he played with his own fingers.
The man's mother was silent for a few seconds, waiting for Alex to explain what the big fuss about it was, and once she realized he wasn't gonna get into details, she spoke.
"What's wrong about that?" She asked slowly, well aware of the fact that her son and his best friend had already had a 'thing' back when they were teenagers, even though she had never mentioned it because she thought it wasn't necessary.
She wasn't as blind as her son thought she was.
"What's wrong," Alex said, more to himself than to his mother, biting his lip. "Well, for starters, Jack is my best friend, mom; I can't be in a relationship with him," he took a deep breath before continuing. "And besides, what's gonna happen to the band if we ever break up? I don't think that, knowing how me and Jack are, is gonna have a nice ending... and Amanda! If we ever break up, what's she gonna do? She loves Jack, for Christ's sake, how could I ever take him out of her life?" He racked his brain for the next few seconds, trying to think of some more excuses why he didn't wanna be Jack's boyfriend. "Also, it's not fair to the guys, having to put up with all the drama that us being together would bring... touring has its temptations, mom, and not all of us are strong enough to resist them." He explained, staring at the tall woman and silently begging for her to agree with him, to tell her son that his beliefs were right and that not getting together with Jack was for the best...
He could only wish, though, because telling her son that being Jack's boyfriend wasn't good for him was not in Isobel's plans.
"Well, son, if you want me to be honest with you, I find no sense in what you're saying whatsoever, only excuses," she said, placing a hand on Alex's knee and rubbing it against the denim in a back and forth manner. "I always figured you had something going on with Jack," she said, making the blonde man smile and bite his lip, a small blush creeping across his cheeks as he looked at anything but Isobel. "And I never said anything because I knew you two were mature enough to make your own decisions," she continued, setting the kitchen towel on the counter and staring at Alex's big eyes.
"You haven't had a real relationship since before Amanda walked into your life, sweetheart, I think it's time for you to start thinking a little bit more about yourself." She said then, once the brown-eyed man didn't utter a word. "The band won't mind about you two being together, they love you for who you are, not your sexuality. And about Amanda, well, you've said it yourself, Alex. Amanda loves Jack; I think that fact will be one of the things that will keep you two together through thick and thin." She said, and dammit, that woman knew the huge effect her words had on her son, for he was nodding his head slowly, carefully thinking about everything his mom was saying.
"Don't say you know everything's gonna go wrong, because you can't predict the future, honey," she spoke softly, giving him a caring smile. "And I'm not saying you have to be with Jack, I'm just saying you think about it, okay?" Isobel asked, patting the man's knee gently.
"I don't know, mom," he said after a few seconds of silence, biting his lip. Truth be told yeah, he really wanted to be with Jack, now that he had had time to think about how being with him would feel. But the band, and Amanda, and their future... Alex couldn't deny the fact that everything about the idea of being with Jack scared him because he had so much to lose if they ever broke up.
But then again, he had so much to win as well, just by getting together with the dark-haired man, and that thought made him unconsciously grin from ear to ear.
"I- yeah. Okay, I'll think about it," he said after about a minute of zoning out, smiling at his mother and jumping off the counter. "Thanks," he mumbled, wrapping his arms around Isobel's neck and burying his face in the crook of her neck, just like he used to do whenever he needed her mom to calm him down.
"You're my son, Alex, it's my duty to give you a few slaps from time to time," she said, rubbing circles into her son's back and chuckling when Alex laughed. "And if it helps, I think the three of you would be perfect together," she said then, giving her son a loving kiss on the forehead and smiling at him again. "Now let's go back to the living room, I'm afraid they'll start another cake fight if I don't keep an eye on them, just like last year," she said, grinning, and making the blonde man laugh loudly.
Next chapter.
✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿
Author's Notes: Aw Alex's mom and aw Alex's dad and aw Alex's daughter and aw Alex's family they're all just too adorable.
Also, I'm so sorry for disappearing like that and for being a stubborn bitch, I promise it won't happen again because I realized it wasn't right for me to do that, big thanks to the lovely Nicole, aka supniggers for making me realize that the quality of a story isn't based on the amount of comments it gets.
But enough with the whining, I'd love to hear what you think of the story?