She Made Me Change My Ways: Chapter 6
Title: She Made Me Change My Ways.
Chapter: 6
Chapter's title: Realization.
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 thing Jack knew he was great at, it was at fucking up things.
No, really.
He had perfected the art of fucking things up and had turned it into a whole new thing, if you asked him.
He had fucked up his first tricycle, for example, when he was about three years old, by jumping from his brother's skating ramp... needless to say he had also broken his nose when he landed face first on the pavement. Then, when he was about five, he had fucked up her mother's lipsticks... and the walls of his house for that matter, because he thought the bright and pretty colours would match perfectly the new rug. He had also fucked up his first cell phone, when he was thirteen, not even after a week of having gotten it in the first place, when he was walking down the hallway that lead downstairs and had tripped over the shoe that he had left there, the brand new Nokia 1100 flying across the house and landing on the hardwood floor, shattering into pieces even though those stupid phones were known for being harder than motherfucking bricks.
And now? Now he had gone and fucked up his friendship with his... well, with his brother, you could say, only because a stupid crave for the blonde's skin.
How peachy.
Don't get him wrong, it wasn't as if he hadn't had tried to reach Alex.
Because he had.
It had been an exact week since they all had gotten back from Australia, and it had also been an exact week since Jack had been attempting to talk to the older man. Phone calls, texts, a few tweets and even an e-mail. With no answer whatsoever from the other male.
Jack had gotten to the point where, after seven days of worthless efforts to try and just talk to Alex, (because really, it wasn't as if Jack had fucking proposed to him or something) he had simply given up. The younger man had gone and laid all out on the table, only for Alex to come and shatter his heart into pieces by acting like the dick of the year.
Well great then, Jack had totally gotten the hint now.
The man was currently splayed out on his queen-sized bed, laptop in front of him as he messed around with his Twitter account and played Plants Vs. Zombies and whatnot.
There really wasn't much he wanted to do lately, other than just lay on his bed and grow a beard.
His head shot up in curiosity when he was in the middle of a pool level on Plants Vs. Zombies and he heard the sound of a new Skype video call. He immediately closed the game, hoping to see the 'Alex W. Gaskarth is calling you' popping in a bubbly message.
But of course it wasn't Alex, it was Zack.
"Hey, man," he said, rubbing at his brown eyes behind his glasses with his closed fists out of habit, staring at his own image and noticing how there were huge shades of purple under his eyes after giving a half-smile to the brunette.
"What's up, Jay?" He asked with a smile, toying with the zipper of his hoodie.
The guitarist shrugged before simply asking; "you?"
"I just got back from a walk around the neighborhood, it's warm here," he said, and Jack had to remember that the man wasn't in Maryland with them, but in California. "So how're you doing, Jack-off?" He asked then, taking a sip of his vitamin water.
The younger man made a weird noise and shrugged again, making Zack stare at him with raised eyebrows.
"You still haven't made up with Alex?" He asked, a little bit weirded out because really, when did Alex and Jack ever fight?
"We're not-"
"Oh cut the bullshit, Jack. Why aren't you two speaking?" He demanded, and Jack frowned, not really in the mood for discussing this.
"I fucking kissed him on our last night in Australia, okay?" The man said, scowling afterwards when Zack muffled a smile with his hand. "I don't see what's funny in it," he grunted, glaring at the image of the bassist.
"No, no. It's not you. I'm sorry, but you two are just so fucking easy to read," the elder chuckled, making Jack tilt his head to the side in curiosity, staring at the well-built man for a few seconds in silence. "The guys and I had a bit of a bet going on," he giggled, and at that, Jack's jaw dropped open in a rather dumb fashion.
"What... really?" He asked, running a hand through his tangled locks of black hair, and Zack nodded.
"Yup, some of us said that either one of you had kissed the other one," the man told Jack. "Vinny said you were butthurt because either of you had used the other's hairspray, and Danny figured you were having diva bitch fits... you know how he's used to seeing Pete have them all the time," he finished, making Jack giggle for the first time in days.
Although seriously, Jack was glad to have the pleasure of working with such a lovely group of people.
Not really.
"Fuck you all," he said with a smile, rolling his eyes amusedly. He couldn't deny the fact that all of those reasons were pretty much possible, when it came to him and his best friend, though.
"But anyway," Zack continued, with a small smile on his lips. "You seriously don't have to worry about Lex. You know how he is... he freaks out, he avoids the topic, he realizes he's not right, he apologizes," he finished, rolling his eyes. "He's a stubborn ass bitch, and unfortunately, he's always gonna be like that. You just gotta give him his time to grow used to the idea of you two being together," he comforted Jack then, and the younger man knew Zack would be patting his back right now, had he been in the same room with him.
"Well it's not very nice what he's doing now is it? It's been a whole week, Zee," Jack said, biting his lip. "Seriously, how much time does he need? I'm not asking him to move in with me and play wifies, or to run away to live in Lebanon with me. I'm just suggesting we would be great together. He doesn't have to raise Amanda on his own... he doesn't have to spend the rest of his life alone..." he trailed off then, feeling fresh tears prickle in his eyes, and he quickly blinked them away, not really wanting to cry in front of Zack... or while Skyping with him for that matter.
The older man gave Jack a concerned face before speaking.
"Trust me. All he needs is time, and once he realizes that you two getting together would be the best thing that could ever happen to him... after having Panda, of course..." he added, with a smile, "he'll run straight into your arms. Okay?" He reassured, giving Jack a smile. And the brown-eyed man wasn't sure if it was whether because he wanted to believe Zack was right, or because of the confidence in his voice, or only because he just wanted Zack's words to be right, but he believed him.
Now, he could only hope the bassist was right.
**
It had been a bunch of days since All Time Low had come back from Australia, and Alex would be totally lying if he said he didn't miss his best friend like crazy.
He was so used to talking to him, tweeting him, texting him... hell, even Skyping with him, even though they literally lived less than ten blocks away from each other, that he had never stopped for a second to think about what would happen if they ever stopped talking... just like they had now, thanks to Alex's irrational fear to being in a relationship with him.
And yeah, he had to admit that it fucking sucked.
Usually, Jack would just drop by whenever he wanted to, that with having a spare key and all, almost on a daily basis. Sometimes to play in the pool with Amanda, or for lunch (the dark-haired man more often than not ran outta food in his own house and well, Rian's pasta was very yummy, in his defence), or for Home Alone marathons (Alex had to really thank the younger man, because Amanda fucking loved the stupid movies), or even to take the little girl to school from time to time, whether Alex came along with him or not.
It sucked, because he had gone from seeing him everyday, and talking and laughing and joking and just knowing things were okay, to basically having no contact at all whatsoever with the guitarist...
And what hurt the most was that Alex knew it was mostly all his fault, because he was too scared to face him.
"Daddy," Amanda asked the blonde man, when the two Gaskarths were in Alex's car, driving back from the girl's elementary school, the soft hum of the car's engine mixing with the low background music playing on the radio, Mayday Parade, to be more exact. Amanda loved that band.
"What's up, cupcake?" He asked, eyeing his daughter through the rear-view mirror and smiling when he saw the little blonde girl stare back at him.
"Why hasn't Uncle Jack come to play Rock Band with me, you and Uncle Ri?" She questioned, biting the lollipop she was holding in her hand, trying to get to the bubble gum inside the candy. If there was yet another thing that he had to thank Jack for, was for the fact that he had turned his daughter into a Rock Band lover, and that made Alex's chest swell with pride because it showed that his daughter loved music just as much as he did.
Alex stared at her for a few seconds as she messed with her candy in amusement, before biting his lip and sighing.
It was obvious she'd ask about it eventually, seeing as she was used to seeing the dark-haired man at least every two days, and it had been seven days since he was MIA.
"We had an argument," he mumbled, feeling the heat creep up his neck because she had to go and ask about it.
"What about?" She asked simply, sucking on the cherry-flavoured candy and dammit, he couldn't tell his daughter the truth, right? He'd get her hopes up for nothing, because no, he wasn't gonna get together with Jack. Although...
Nope, he wasn't going to.
So the blonde man rambled on about the first thing that came to his mind, thankful for the fact that his daughter was still very naïve.
"He uh... he kinda used my, uh... t-shirt, without my permission... and I got mad at him." He mumbled, feeling like an even bigger shit for not only ignoring his best friend when he knew the boy must have been feeling like crap, but now also for lying to his daughter.
Alex seriously needed the award for biggest asshole of the year.
Amanda stared out the window silently for the rest of the ride home, and the blonde man bit his lip anxiously, he had clearly made his daughter upset, and that made his heart ache that little bit more because seeing his daughter sad was definitely the last thing he wanted.
When he parked the car in the driveway, the blonde girl jumped out of the vehicle and walked into the house, squealing when Sebastian jumped on her and tried to lick her face and eat her lollipop.
"Baz, down," Alex said, with a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He helped his daughter off her pink coat and walked to the kitchen to grab himself a bottled water, planning on watching a movie... or jerking off, maybe.
Although, with all the shit that had been going on lately, he was sure his mind would never be able to shut up for enough time for him to even get a boner, let alone taking care of it.
He didn't get to do neither, however, because as soon as he turned around from the fridge, the first thing he saw was Amanda, sitting down on the breakfast bar and staring at him curiously.
"...What?" He asked cautiously, raising an eyebrow at his baby girl's blank expression.
Damn him for letting his daughter watch PokerStars tournaments on ESPN with him and Rian.
"I think it's dumb that you and Uncle Jack are fighting over clothes, when you always share everything... even beds," she said simply, waiting for the blonde man to stop acting like a retarded fish and just answer her already.
Seriously, since when had Amanda's attention span become bigger than Alex's own one?
After being at a loss for words for a few seconds, a smile stretched on his lips as he stared at his too-fucking-smart-for-being-six-years-old daughter.
But as he reminded himself every single day of his life, that child was just full of surprises.
How was it even possible that a six-year-old's mind made more sense than Alex's? She was so right, and he was so in denial. But it was all crystal clear now. He had no choice but to admit that maybe he was scared after all... maybe he had overreacted when Jack had kissed him...
God he was such a dumbass.
"You know what?" He asked, walking over to the blonde girl and brushing her fringe off her bright brown eyes lovingly. "I think you're right; getting mad at Jack for a ki- eh... a t-shirt... was really dumb," he paused, smiling down at his baby girl. "I'm lucky I have you to make me realize when I'm being a dummy, princess," he said, kissing Amanda's forehead tenderly and quickly pulling his phone out of his back pocket, dialing the number he knew by heart and waiting for the person on the other line to just pick up already.
"Hello?" A voice answered after five rings, and Alex smiled.
"Hi, mom, what's up?" He asked, eyeing his daughter with a lopsided smile.
"Hi, darling," Isobel replied. "Oh, nothing, me and your father are about to have tea. Did you need anything?" She asked then, making Alex grin.
"Actually, yes. I wanted to ask you if you could make Jack's favorite lasagna for one of these days? I stopped being a dumba- uh... a dummy, and I'm gonna make things right."
The blonde man could sense his mother's proud grin when she spoke; "I'll ask your father to drive me to the grocery store and I'll get to it first thing in the morning, honey."
"Awesome... thanks, mom, really," he said, biting his lip to suppress another goofy grin to stretch on his lips. "Now I really need to go... Panda and I have a thing to plan out."
"Okay," the woman laughed. "Good luck, sweetheart."
"Thanks, mom. Bye," he finished the call and set his phone down on the counter, looking at Amanda's curious honey brown eyes.
"Are you gonna forgive Uncle Jack, daddy?" She asked, tilting her head to the side and leaning her body on her bent arms against the breakfast bar.
Alex took a deep breath to ease his nerves before answering.
"Let's hope he forgives me, duckling."
Next chapter.
✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿
Author's Notes: I agree with Zack, Alex is a stubborn ass bitch, but he's trying to make things better now so you go Alex! Only one more chapter and the epilogue now, gaah, I feel like this story has flown by.
But then again, it was only 8 chapters long.
I think I should start working on something longer soon.
Chapter: 6
Chapter's title: Realization.
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 thing Jack knew he was great at, it was at fucking up things.
No, really.
He had perfected the art of fucking things up and had turned it into a whole new thing, if you asked him.
He had fucked up his first tricycle, for example, when he was about three years old, by jumping from his brother's skating ramp... needless to say he had also broken his nose when he landed face first on the pavement. Then, when he was about five, he had fucked up her mother's lipsticks... and the walls of his house for that matter, because he thought the bright and pretty colours would match perfectly the new rug. He had also fucked up his first cell phone, when he was thirteen, not even after a week of having gotten it in the first place, when he was walking down the hallway that lead downstairs and had tripped over the shoe that he had left there, the brand new Nokia 1100 flying across the house and landing on the hardwood floor, shattering into pieces even though those stupid phones were known for being harder than motherfucking bricks.
And now? Now he had gone and fucked up his friendship with his... well, with his brother, you could say, only because a stupid crave for the blonde's skin.
How peachy.
Don't get him wrong, it wasn't as if he hadn't had tried to reach Alex.
Because he had.
It had been an exact week since they all had gotten back from Australia, and it had also been an exact week since Jack had been attempting to talk to the older man. Phone calls, texts, a few tweets and even an e-mail. With no answer whatsoever from the other male.
Jack had gotten to the point where, after seven days of worthless efforts to try and just talk to Alex, (because really, it wasn't as if Jack had fucking proposed to him or something) he had simply given up. The younger man had gone and laid all out on the table, only for Alex to come and shatter his heart into pieces by acting like the dick of the year.
Well great then, Jack had totally gotten the hint now.
The man was currently splayed out on his queen-sized bed, laptop in front of him as he messed around with his Twitter account and played Plants Vs. Zombies and whatnot.
There really wasn't much he wanted to do lately, other than just lay on his bed and grow a beard.
His head shot up in curiosity when he was in the middle of a pool level on Plants Vs. Zombies and he heard the sound of a new Skype video call. He immediately closed the game, hoping to see the 'Alex W. Gaskarth is calling you' popping in a bubbly message.
But of course it wasn't Alex, it was Zack.
"Hey, man," he said, rubbing at his brown eyes behind his glasses with his closed fists out of habit, staring at his own image and noticing how there were huge shades of purple under his eyes after giving a half-smile to the brunette.
"What's up, Jay?" He asked with a smile, toying with the zipper of his hoodie.
The guitarist shrugged before simply asking; "you?"
"I just got back from a walk around the neighborhood, it's warm here," he said, and Jack had to remember that the man wasn't in Maryland with them, but in California. "So how're you doing, Jack-off?" He asked then, taking a sip of his vitamin water.
The younger man made a weird noise and shrugged again, making Zack stare at him with raised eyebrows.
"You still haven't made up with Alex?" He asked, a little bit weirded out because really, when did Alex and Jack ever fight?
"We're not-"
"Oh cut the bullshit, Jack. Why aren't you two speaking?" He demanded, and Jack frowned, not really in the mood for discussing this.
"I fucking kissed him on our last night in Australia, okay?" The man said, scowling afterwards when Zack muffled a smile with his hand. "I don't see what's funny in it," he grunted, glaring at the image of the bassist.
"No, no. It's not you. I'm sorry, but you two are just so fucking easy to read," the elder chuckled, making Jack tilt his head to the side in curiosity, staring at the well-built man for a few seconds in silence. "The guys and I had a bit of a bet going on," he giggled, and at that, Jack's jaw dropped open in a rather dumb fashion.
"What... really?" He asked, running a hand through his tangled locks of black hair, and Zack nodded.
"Yup, some of us said that either one of you had kissed the other one," the man told Jack. "Vinny said you were butthurt because either of you had used the other's hairspray, and Danny figured you were having diva bitch fits... you know how he's used to seeing Pete have them all the time," he finished, making Jack giggle for the first time in days.
Although seriously, Jack was glad to have the pleasure of working with such a lovely group of people.
Not really.
"Fuck you all," he said with a smile, rolling his eyes amusedly. He couldn't deny the fact that all of those reasons were pretty much possible, when it came to him and his best friend, though.
"But anyway," Zack continued, with a small smile on his lips. "You seriously don't have to worry about Lex. You know how he is... he freaks out, he avoids the topic, he realizes he's not right, he apologizes," he finished, rolling his eyes. "He's a stubborn ass bitch, and unfortunately, he's always gonna be like that. You just gotta give him his time to grow used to the idea of you two being together," he comforted Jack then, and the younger man knew Zack would be patting his back right now, had he been in the same room with him.
"Well it's not very nice what he's doing now is it? It's been a whole week, Zee," Jack said, biting his lip. "Seriously, how much time does he need? I'm not asking him to move in with me and play wifies, or to run away to live in Lebanon with me. I'm just suggesting we would be great together. He doesn't have to raise Amanda on his own... he doesn't have to spend the rest of his life alone..." he trailed off then, feeling fresh tears prickle in his eyes, and he quickly blinked them away, not really wanting to cry in front of Zack... or while Skyping with him for that matter.
The older man gave Jack a concerned face before speaking.
"Trust me. All he needs is time, and once he realizes that you two getting together would be the best thing that could ever happen to him... after having Panda, of course..." he added, with a smile, "he'll run straight into your arms. Okay?" He reassured, giving Jack a smile. And the brown-eyed man wasn't sure if it was whether because he wanted to believe Zack was right, or because of the confidence in his voice, or only because he just wanted Zack's words to be right, but he believed him.
Now, he could only hope the bassist was right.
**
It had been a bunch of days since All Time Low had come back from Australia, and Alex would be totally lying if he said he didn't miss his best friend like crazy.
He was so used to talking to him, tweeting him, texting him... hell, even Skyping with him, even though they literally lived less than ten blocks away from each other, that he had never stopped for a second to think about what would happen if they ever stopped talking... just like they had now, thanks to Alex's irrational fear to being in a relationship with him.
And yeah, he had to admit that it fucking sucked.
Usually, Jack would just drop by whenever he wanted to, that with having a spare key and all, almost on a daily basis. Sometimes to play in the pool with Amanda, or for lunch (the dark-haired man more often than not ran outta food in his own house and well, Rian's pasta was very yummy, in his defence), or for Home Alone marathons (Alex had to really thank the younger man, because Amanda fucking loved the stupid movies), or even to take the little girl to school from time to time, whether Alex came along with him or not.
It sucked, because he had gone from seeing him everyday, and talking and laughing and joking and just knowing things were okay, to basically having no contact at all whatsoever with the guitarist...
And what hurt the most was that Alex knew it was mostly all his fault, because he was too scared to face him.
"Daddy," Amanda asked the blonde man, when the two Gaskarths were in Alex's car, driving back from the girl's elementary school, the soft hum of the car's engine mixing with the low background music playing on the radio, Mayday Parade, to be more exact. Amanda loved that band.
"What's up, cupcake?" He asked, eyeing his daughter through the rear-view mirror and smiling when he saw the little blonde girl stare back at him.
"Why hasn't Uncle Jack come to play Rock Band with me, you and Uncle Ri?" She questioned, biting the lollipop she was holding in her hand, trying to get to the bubble gum inside the candy. If there was yet another thing that he had to thank Jack for, was for the fact that he had turned his daughter into a Rock Band lover, and that made Alex's chest swell with pride because it showed that his daughter loved music just as much as he did.
Alex stared at her for a few seconds as she messed with her candy in amusement, before biting his lip and sighing.
It was obvious she'd ask about it eventually, seeing as she was used to seeing the dark-haired man at least every two days, and it had been seven days since he was MIA.
"We had an argument," he mumbled, feeling the heat creep up his neck because she had to go and ask about it.
"What about?" She asked simply, sucking on the cherry-flavoured candy and dammit, he couldn't tell his daughter the truth, right? He'd get her hopes up for nothing, because no, he wasn't gonna get together with Jack. Although...
Nope, he wasn't going to.
So the blonde man rambled on about the first thing that came to his mind, thankful for the fact that his daughter was still very naïve.
"He uh... he kinda used my, uh... t-shirt, without my permission... and I got mad at him." He mumbled, feeling like an even bigger shit for not only ignoring his best friend when he knew the boy must have been feeling like crap, but now also for lying to his daughter.
Alex seriously needed the award for biggest asshole of the year.
Amanda stared out the window silently for the rest of the ride home, and the blonde man bit his lip anxiously, he had clearly made his daughter upset, and that made his heart ache that little bit more because seeing his daughter sad was definitely the last thing he wanted.
When he parked the car in the driveway, the blonde girl jumped out of the vehicle and walked into the house, squealing when Sebastian jumped on her and tried to lick her face and eat her lollipop.
"Baz, down," Alex said, with a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He helped his daughter off her pink coat and walked to the kitchen to grab himself a bottled water, planning on watching a movie... or jerking off, maybe.
Although, with all the shit that had been going on lately, he was sure his mind would never be able to shut up for enough time for him to even get a boner, let alone taking care of it.
He didn't get to do neither, however, because as soon as he turned around from the fridge, the first thing he saw was Amanda, sitting down on the breakfast bar and staring at him curiously.
"...What?" He asked cautiously, raising an eyebrow at his baby girl's blank expression.
Damn him for letting his daughter watch PokerStars tournaments on ESPN with him and Rian.
"I think it's dumb that you and Uncle Jack are fighting over clothes, when you always share everything... even beds," she said simply, waiting for the blonde man to stop acting like a retarded fish and just answer her already.
Seriously, since when had Amanda's attention span become bigger than Alex's own one?
After being at a loss for words for a few seconds, a smile stretched on his lips as he stared at his too-fucking-smart-for-being-six-years-old daughter.
But as he reminded himself every single day of his life, that child was just full of surprises.
How was it even possible that a six-year-old's mind made more sense than Alex's? She was so right, and he was so in denial. But it was all crystal clear now. He had no choice but to admit that maybe he was scared after all... maybe he had overreacted when Jack had kissed him...
God he was such a dumbass.
"You know what?" He asked, walking over to the blonde girl and brushing her fringe off her bright brown eyes lovingly. "I think you're right; getting mad at Jack for a ki- eh... a t-shirt... was really dumb," he paused, smiling down at his baby girl. "I'm lucky I have you to make me realize when I'm being a dummy, princess," he said, kissing Amanda's forehead tenderly and quickly pulling his phone out of his back pocket, dialing the number he knew by heart and waiting for the person on the other line to just pick up already.
"Hello?" A voice answered after five rings, and Alex smiled.
"Hi, mom, what's up?" He asked, eyeing his daughter with a lopsided smile.
"Hi, darling," Isobel replied. "Oh, nothing, me and your father are about to have tea. Did you need anything?" She asked then, making Alex grin.
"Actually, yes. I wanted to ask you if you could make Jack's favorite lasagna for one of these days? I stopped being a dumba- uh... a dummy, and I'm gonna make things right."
The blonde man could sense his mother's proud grin when she spoke; "I'll ask your father to drive me to the grocery store and I'll get to it first thing in the morning, honey."
"Awesome... thanks, mom, really," he said, biting his lip to suppress another goofy grin to stretch on his lips. "Now I really need to go... Panda and I have a thing to plan out."
"Okay," the woman laughed. "Good luck, sweetheart."
"Thanks, mom. Bye," he finished the call and set his phone down on the counter, looking at Amanda's curious honey brown eyes.
"Are you gonna forgive Uncle Jack, daddy?" She asked, tilting her head to the side and leaning her body on her bent arms against the breakfast bar.
Alex took a deep breath to ease his nerves before answering.
"Let's hope he forgives me, duckling."
Next chapter.
✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿ • ✿
Author's Notes: I agree with Zack, Alex is a stubborn ass bitch, but he's trying to make things better now so you go Alex! Only one more chapter and the epilogue now, gaah, I feel like this story has flown by.
But then again, it was only 8 chapters long.
I think I should start working on something longer soon.