Mayhem 2019 (JackSepticEye Prompts)

Day 13: Alcohol

Oh great, he was drunk again.

Jackie sighed in annoyance as Chase waved to him from the other side of the bar, a dopey smile on his face. He stood and said something to the bartender before stumbling over to Jackie, his movements uncoordinated and eyes unfocused.

"Heyyy!" Chase threw an arm around him jovially. "Thought ya weren' comin' for a minute there. Wha' took ye so long?"

"I got held up," Jackie said, pushing Chase's arm off his shoulders.

Chase's mouth formed into a small, comical O. "Oooh, 's it tha' hero stuff ya do? Didja hafta fight some bad guys?"

"Keep it down, would you?" Jackie began to lead Chase out of the bar and onto the sidewalk outside. "Just because most people are as drunk as you here doesn't mean everyone is."

"'M not drunk! 'M barely tipsy!" Chase hiccuped, really helping to push his point across. 

Jackie rolled his eyes. "Sure, yeah, let's just go to the car so I can get you home."

Slowly, the two made their way down the sidewalk and into the parking lot, Chase's constant tripping making it hard to walk more than a few steps before Jackie had to stand him upright again. It was a trial, but Jackie finally made it to the car and got Chase buckled up in the passenger seat. He hopped into the driver's side and closed the door with a relieved whew.

"I can drive if ya wan'," Chase offered innocently.

Jackie shook his head. "Nah, I feel like driving tonight. Just relax and stay calm so we can get you to bed before 3 a.m. for once."

"Aw," Chase complained as Jackie started the car and pulled out into the street. Thankfully, they didn't live too far from this particular bar; usually Chase ended up on the other side of town and causing a drive home that could take over half an hour on bad nights.

Jackie debated turning on some music to calm himself down, but decided against it. He knew Chase would get rowdy and sing along to it, something he didn't want to have to deal with when he was already irritated.

Instead, he tried making conversation. "Did you make any friends tonight?"

"Yeah!" Chase sat up as straight as a drunk man could. "A nice lady came upta me an' told me she liked my shir', but I tol' her I was already taken. At leas', I was before. . . before--"

"Oh geez, hey it's okay!" Jackie said as tears started to well up in Chase's eyes.

He sniffed. "She was perfec', ya know," Chase said, his words slurred from too many shots. "Never met anyone better. I shoulda listened to 'er more, played with the kids. . . maybe then she wouldn'ta--wouldn'--"

Chase started to cry in earnest now and Jackie almost felt guilty before remembering Chase had basically been a deadbeat. "It's alright, you tried the best you could while you guys were together. You can't blame it all on yourself--"

"'S all my fault!" Chase moaned. "'M a terrible paren'! Stacy was righ' to divorce me, I couldn' even get my kids ta like me!"

This was out of Jackie's hands now; he was going to let Chase's emotions ride their course.

"You guys were righ', I shoulda listened when you tol' me to take a break from work! Bu' I didn', I just kep' workin' and now lookit me! Gettin' drunk ta try an' forge' 'er leavin' me, an' still crying over it! I'm the worst dad ever! Jus' leave me on the side o' the road where I belong!"

"I'm not pulling over," Jackie said patiently.

Chase hiccuped again, wiping his nose. "You shoul'. No one shoul' ever help me again. I don' deserve it, I'm--I'm the worst--"

"Ugh, stop it." Jackie couldn't take any more of Chase's self-depreciation, even if he knew the poor guy wouldn't remember most of it in the morning. "You're not the worst and everyone deserves help, especially people like you who are in a bad place. We all do things wrong, but that's okay and I'm not going to listen to you beat yourself up over things you can't change. So if you're gonna say anything, make sure it's nice."

There was a moment of silence as Jackie fumed in his righteous anger. 

Chase hiccuped once more, then let out a shaky laugh. "Y-you soun' like my therapist. Maybe you coul' try tha' instead of fightin' crime; Dr. Jackieboy Man PhD, licensed therapist. Has a nice ring to it."

"Yeah right," Jackie teased, but he smiled in spite of himself. "We're home anyway, I don't have enough time to prove how bad of an idea that is."

"You know 'm righ'!" Jackie climbed out and went over to Chase's door, mentally preparing himself for the long journey back to Chase's bed.

Before he could help him out however, Chase put a hand on his arm. "Y'know, 'm probably not gonna remember this in the mornin' so I can deny it all I wan' tomorrow, bu'. . . thanks. Fer pickin' me up, puttin' up with me. You--you just mean so much ta me an' I--I--"

"Alright, come on now," Jackie said, pulling Chase out of the car. "You don't want to say anything sober Chase would regret."

"Sober me already has so many regrets, what's one more? You can' stop me! I LOVE MY FRIENDS! THEY'RE THE BES' FRIENDS EVER!"

Jackie laughed as he lead an unsteady Chase down the path back home. Though he knew the drunkenness was causing all of this, he was certain at least some of that reckless optimism was somewhere inside Chase, drunk or not.

He had a sneaking suspicion that everything was going to be alright.

~~~

Three chapters in one night, baby! WOO, I'M FEELING GOOD!

I seriously debated making a car crash happen and turning this into something more tragic, but my brain can't function well enough to write something more sophisticated like that this late at night. Besides, it gave me warm fuzzies while I was writing it; Jackie's therapy words aren't just for Chase, you know!

I hope you guys have a wonderful life full of happiness and warm fuzzies! Much love!

- not a car crash (yet)