Home Again, Soldier

16- Long Live Us

16- Long Live Us

Title cred: Reckless And The Brave by All Time Low

I wake up in that field the next morning with Sam curled into a ball with their back to me. Moving seems hard right now, at most, I could grab my phone-which is exactly what I do. Thirty missed calls from Jack and twice as many texts from him too. I don't bother looking at them yet.

"See! I told you Sam would be out here!" Ryan's voice comes from the edge of the field. I look over to see him and Mikey trotting over to us.

"Thank you for watching them, Alex" Mikey sighs a little breath of relief.

"We looked away for one second, I swear" Ryan says, going to wake Sam up.

"You have to watch them?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Sam is sixteen, fully capable of making their own decisions, why do they treat them like a child?

"Have you met Sammy?" Mikey laughs a bit.

"They seemed fine last night" I shrug, ignoring that first look I saw in them because that's too much to think about.

Sam stirs and cuddles against Ryan's hand. "Well, if you stick around long enough you'll learn that when they're the happiest is when you should be the most worried"

"Ryan!" Sam purrs as they begin waking up. Then they see Mikey "Mikey" they cheer even more excited as they crawl over to Mikey and presses their lips against his.

"Get a room you two losers" Ryan rolls his eyes as Mikey puts his hand on their back, not even hesitating for a second. I send a questioning look Ryan's way, trying to keep them out of my vision because it reminds me that I left Jack alone and he called me thirty times.

Ryan shrugs before standing up and dusting the grass off his pants. "Let's get you back to Jack"

"I'm not Jack's responsibility" I say, following him out of the field because Sam had already passed out again and I didn't really feel like waiting.

Ryan snorts "Yeah, just like Sam isn't my responsibility."

"What's that supposed to mean?" it comes out bitchier than I meant it to, but I'm basically exercising right now, and I don't even like exercise when I'm not hungover.

Ryan sighs "I mean, that whether you like it or not Jack feels responsible for you. Like, seeing you at your worst scared the hell out of him and he wants to make sure that never happens again." Ryan shrugs "I could be totally wrong though"

Maybe he's right, but that doesn't mean I approve of it. I'm not a child, I don't need to be protected. I've been handling myself just fine, no one else helped me before, why would I need it now? "You were there for Sam?"

He scratches the back of his neck. "Yeah, I mean after Jack left Sam was a wreck. But like, we weren't friends until then so I don't really know what they're like when they're happy."

"How does that work? You not being friends with them until Jack left?"

"Jack came to me when Sam wasn't in school in a week. Told me to check on them. I brought Mikey with and we've been here ever since."

"What's with Sam and Mikey?"

Ryan shrugs. "You'd have to ask Sam"

We reach the street and Ryan pulls out his phone, scrolling through his contacts to find Jack's number.

"Alex?" I can hear Jack through Ryan's phone.

"Ryan. But I come bearing gifts" Ryan smirks a cheeky little smile because he can tell he's pissing Jack off and he absolutely loves it.

"I swear to god Ryan-"

"Down puppy. I didn't hurt your chew toy" Ryan is taking full enjoyment out of this. "just come outside, he's all yours to slobber on, okay?"

Jack didn't reply, he just simply hung up. Ryan laughs and turns off his phone. "Have fun, and invest in some concealer." he winks before taking off back in the direction we came from. It takes me a moment to figure out what Ryan meant, but when I did my face flushed with embarrassment and I groaned. I can only imagine what he thinks happened.

"Oh my god Alex!" Jack's arms wrap around my waist "I thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere."

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself" I grumble a little bit, wiggling out of his grasp.

He looks like he had been burned but stuck his hands in his back pocket. "Do you remember last night?"

"Hard to forget with this big bruise on my neck" I don't know why I'm so angry. He should just try avoiding talking to me until I've had come coffee and this hangover goes away.

"Are you angry with me?" he asks

"You took advantage of me when I was drunk!"

"I was drunk too!" Jack's starting to lose his head a little

"I didn't touch you" I snap back

"Which was very rude, by the way" he has to take a deep breath and pause for a moment to keep his cool. "I would have stopped as soon as you told me to, you know that, Alex"

"I thought you'd leave me..." I hang my head, ashamed that I had thought such a thing. Jack is a good guy, despite some of his actions.

"Oh Lexi..." he wraps his arms around me "I'd never leave you"

I'd never leave you. But I'll always believe you.

A/N

Sam wasn't supposed to be a big character in this tbh but now they're wrapped up in the plot. Which I actually like because there's so many fanfics that just have the two people in it and it doesn't really feel real.

~Dani

"You sound like one of those screaming goats" ~my male parental unit.