Everything's Alright

Mark

I'm so excited to see Ireland. Jack told me he has some pretty cool places he knows around here. It's 9:32 and I'm waiting for Jack to finish getting ready. After morning coffee, I took a shower and changed from my pajamas into a red flannel shirt and simple blue jeans. Jack walked out from the hallway, in his blue hoodie with white strings, white jeans, and a gray beanie. I stared at him for probably too long.
"You ready?" He asked me, slipping on some old converse.
"Ready as I'll ever be." I replied with a smile. Jack looked at me and smiled.
"ArE YoU ReAdY," he said, youtuber voice kicking in, "FoR ThE MoSt BOSS DAY," he started laughing slightly, "Of yOuR LiFe?"
"YEAH!" I shouted, suddenly over-pumped.
Jack laughs and opens the door. We head out of his flat and down the stairs to the lobby. From there, we get into the parking lot and the car. Jack drives an electric green Mini Cooper that drives on the wrong side. Jack is also a shitty driver. He always laughs off his mistakes, and soon we're at a large, open space. There're some paths, benches, squirrels, and people milling around. It's still fairly early, 10:43 AM, so that would be expected. Jack gets out of the car, so I do, too. He puts his hands inside the large frontal pocket of his sweatshirt. No hand holding, I guess.
"C'mon, I wanna show you something." Jack says to me, so I follow him obediently. He leads me through a wall of tall pine trees and we walk for about 5-7 minutes, just talking, until we end up at an empty playground. It's a tan structure, mostly plastic, with metal monkey bars, a jungle gym, and green roofs atop the tan spires.
"Isn't this cool?" Jack asked me, smiling with a childish gleam in his eyes. "I came here all the time when I was little."
He slowly walked up to the monkey bars and ran a hand over its smooth, metallic green surface. He grabbed onto a rung and leaned back a bit, just to test his weight. He had to reach up to grab it, but only slightly. Suddenly, he grabbed onto the rung with both hands and swung around, catching his feet on the nearest rung. He shimmied up to the knee and bent his legs, surprisingly nimble for a guy who tripped 6 times on the way here. He let go of his hands and dangled by the knees, all the blood rushing to his face. He twisted slightly to see me.
"Are you just gonna stand there, like a dope, or be a BOSS MANCHILD?" Jack asked, smiling and laughing. He actually looked... happy. I ran over to him and hoisted myself up, on top of the monkey bars.
"Dude are you ready for some next level monkey bar shit?" I ask excitedly.
"Dude." Jack says, looking up at me expectingly.
"Dude." I say back to him. I then grab onto two of the bars under me, flip over, and hold onto both of the bars, in a fetal position in midair.
"HHHHEEEEEAAAAARRRNNNNGGGHHHHH," Jack imitated the sound of an airhorn. I laughed, feeling my glasses slipping off of my face. Jack dismounted the bars and walked over to me. I was face level with him, and he pushed my glasses up my nose messily. I looked him in the eye, but he couldn't hold my stare. He checked his phone and uploaded a video. I did the same. We both had synced the videos with our phones, just in case we were away and it conflicted with our schedules. Pro tip. We both put our phones away and continued messing around. Jack got on my back at some point. We had fun. It was like I was 12, and with my best friend. Eventually, it became noon. We went back to our car and met a fan on the way. Her name was Alex and she was here on break. She was beautiful, and apparently she and her girlfriend watched our videos a lot. We signed her shirt and went on our way. Jack drove all the way to a pub named "Beidh Jack Bás". He said it meant some inspiring phrase in English. We went inside, and it turns out the hostess was a fan. The place was much more proud of presentation on the inside than the outside. The floor was a handsome burgundy wood, and large 'snugs' went from floor to ceiling. The ceiling was tiled with a dingy, yet pretty, marble. The snugs had benches and the tables had chairs. We were seated in a snug, a tall and concealed booth, for two. Jack slid onto the bench and crossed his legs. A tall, blonde man came up to us wearing a gray v-neck and a black apron, with khaki pants.
"Fáilte, cad ba mhaith leat a ól?" He asked in a language I didn't know.
"Uisce, le do thoil." Jack said to the man. He looked at me expectantly.
"Uisce." I said, hoping I looked like I knew what I was doing. Our waiter returned a little whole later with a notepad and two waters.
"Now, what would you two like to eat?" He asked in perfect English. I looked at him, confused.
"I was just fucking with you," the man said, seeing my expression. "Big fan, by the way." He smiled. We ordered Caesar salads and the man went to retrieve them. Once we got them, I ate. Jack tried. I watched him sadly as he picked around. We paid and left, getting back into the small green Mini Cooper. Jack risked both our lives once more, and took us to this place called "Aon Ndáiríre Bás Sé I Ndáiríre". We go inside and I discover its an ice cream shop. We both order basic vanilla and sit outside. While trying to sit, Jack stumbles and drops his cone.
"Oh, fuck!" He cries out. He goes inside to get napkins and cleans up what he did. "Sorry." He says to me after sitting back down.
"We could just share my cone." I say to him. He looks at me.
"Okay." He says. We talk for a bit. I check my phone. It's 3:57. I go in to lick on the cone, and apparently Jack decides to as well. Our foreheads collide lightly and our noses touch over the cone. I smile, and Jack looks away. I gently grab his face and bring it back to mine, reconnecting them. We're not kissing, but it's enough to make Jack blush profusely. I suddenly realize I'm smiling like an idiot, but so is Jack, so it's okay. We stay like this, feeling only each other, while I also feel the ice cream dripping onto my hand, but I don't mind too much. Jack pulls away and checks his phone. I check mine and it's 4:11.
"I, hum, I should probably check into my hotel." I say sadly.
"Ha, do you really need to?" Jack says, a half smile on his face, obviously trying to not look sad.
"Sorry. Could you take me?" I ask him.
"Sure." He replies in a fake-cheery voice. We walk to the car in silence. As we drive to the hotel, Jack has his other hand on the center console. I find this as the perfect opportunity to put my hand on his. When I do, he locks up a little, but calms after a few minutes. I run lazy loops across the back of his hand with my index finger, sometimes tapping to the beat of the music on the radio.
"I really enjoyed today." I say to Jack. "Sorry for forgetting about my hotel yesterday."
"It's okay. It was really fun." Jack says, concentrating on the road. I decide it's best to not ask about what triggered last night. Some things are better left untouched. After a couple minutes, we end up at the hotel.
"I'll, uh, see you around?" I say, accidentally forming a question.
"Yeah..." Jack trails off. He reaches over and pecks me on the cheek. I see his face go tomato red as I get out of the car. I stand on the hotel's front porch and wave goodbye to him as he drives off.