So Long Soldier (Jalex)

Chapter Twenty Five - Pull Over

Jack’s POV

I sat on my bed surrounded by the boxes containing my items that had recently been packed away. Alex was still trying to get to terms with me having cancer. I wish I’d had the guts to tell him sooner but everything kind of moved a bit too fast for me to even try to. I looked over at the clock on the wall, which now read 10pm. There was 1 hour left to wait till me and Alex would be on our way back home to Baltimore. Alex walked into the room and slumped himself down beside me on the bed, making some of the boxes that were balanced on the edge wobble from side to side. “I can’t wait to be home for Christmas.”

“Neither can I my Jacky.” I raised my hand and twirled a strand of Alex’s hair around my pinky finger. “Alex do you think I’ll be safe back home?” He turned and looked at me. “I’ve always said I’d never let your dad near you again and I promised that from the very bottom of my heart. Of course you’re going to be safe.”

“Promise?” He leant forward and rubbed his nose against mine. “I promise.” I grinned, planting a small kiss on his lips. I glanced over at the clock again. “We’ve got half an hour to spare before we have to go down to Amanda’s car.” A low mumble came from Alex. “Can I show you a song I’ve wrote?”

“Sure babe. What’s it about?”

“You can figure that out for yourself.” He winked at me, grabbing his guitar from the case and placing it on his lap. “I’m only going to play the first verse and chorus because that’s all I’ve got so far.” He started strumming his guitar and then he began singing…

No, I won’t call you baby,

I won’t buy you daisies,

Cause that don’t work,

And I know,

How to get you crazy,

How to make you want me,

So bad it hurts.

I had a feeling this song was partly about me and partly about sex.

I wanna be good, good, good to you,

But that’s not, not, not your type,

So I’m gonna be bad for you,

Tonight, tonight, tonight,

I’ll misbehave if it turns you on,

No Mr. Right if you like Mr. Wrong,

I’ll tell you lies,

If you don’t like the truth,

I don’t wanna be bad,

I just wanna be bad enough for you.

I sat at Alex in complete shock. “So uh, what did you think it was about?” He looked directly at me with a flustered face. “Considering it was talking about misbehaving to turn someone on, I think it’s about sex.” He giggled which made my heart flutter. “Pretty accurate. Who do you think I wrote this song for?”

“Me?” He nodded. “But we’ve never you know…”

“Had sex?”

“Alex please stop saying that word.”

“What word? Sex?” He got closer to me. “Alex I’m warning you.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“Hmph.” Alex smirked at me. “Exactly. What’s so bad about the word anyway? Does it turn you on or something?” My eyes widened and I pulled my knees up to my chest. I felt my face burning. “I think someone is a little turned on.” Alex placed both of his hands on my knees. “Why aren’t you speaking Jacky? Trying to hold something back?” I didn’t look him in the eyes at all because I knew if I did that would be it. I wasn’t ready for that just yet. I was too scared. But then my eyes diverted and caught his looking right back at me. I was stuck now. I felt myself shaking as Alex leant forward and placed his lips on mine and then I relaxed. I felt more at ease this time than last night when he interrupted me watching Peter Pan. “GUYS TIME TO PACK THE CAR!” Amanda shouted up the stairs to us both and Alex pulled away from me. “I have plans to carry this on later you little shit.”

All I could manage was a faint smile as my whole body was shaking. “You okay Jacky?”

“Yeah I’m fine. I just never thought… never mind.” He grabbed my hand. “You never thought you’d actually start to enjoy the beginning of that?” I shook my head and looked up at him. He raised his hand and ruffled my hair up. “Well I could tell you were enjoying it. You’ll get used to it babe.” He kissed me on the cheek before getting up and picking up 2 of the 4 boxes. I followed, taking the remaining 2 to the car.

Alex’s POV

We sat in the back of the car, which was now all packed and I looked across at Jack who was still shaking from what happened in the bedroom. I reached over and tapped his hand before holding it firmly. I mouthed the words ‘are you okay?’ at him and he nodded back before grinning.

20 minutes into the car journey I noticed Jack was still shaking. “Jack are you sure you’re okay babe? You haven’t stopped shaking since we left.”

“I think it’s just the chemotherapy pills. I’ll be fine. It normally happens every once and a while.”

“Okay. If you feel strange please let me know. I worry about you.” I looked at Amanda who was driving the car, keeping her eyes focused on the road ahead of her. “How long is left of the car journey Amanda?”

“About 3 hours till you can get to a station that has trains for Baltimore.”

“We need to pull over now then. I’m worried about Jack.”

“Alex seriously don’t worry. This happens every time I take the pills!”

“I’m pretty sure chemotherapy pills are meant to help you Jack not make you shake.” Amanda pulled the car to the side of the road and looked behind at Jack. As soon as she did, Jack fell on his side, passing out. “JACK?! JACK WAKE UP!” I began shaking him repeatedly. “JACK PLEASE DON’T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN!”

“I’ll call 999. Stay calm please Alex.” I don’t want to lose Jack.

I never want to lose Jack.

Never.