Lie To Me
Jon lay face down on the centre on the bed, his head resting on his arms. His shoulders were shaking and Alec could hear him crying. Alec sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he made his way over to the bed.
"Jon?"
Jon sniffed and raised his head, smiling weakly at Alec. "Hey."
"Hey yourself." Alec replied, cupping Jon's tear-stained cheek in his hands. "What's the matter?"
A sob broke in Jon's throat and more tears streamed down from red-rimmed eyes. He sat up and wrapped his arms around Alec, burying his face in his lover's neck. "I've changed my mind, Alec. I don't want you to go."
"Oh, Jon..." Alec trailed off, cradling the back of Jon's head in his hands. "I thought you were OK with this?"
"So did I."
"Jon, come on, don't cry - you're making me feel bad. We've been over and over this for months now. I thought we decided this was best for the band. You, me and Richie, we all..."
"I don't care about Richie!" Jon snapped, lifting his head to meet Alec's eyes. "I care about you" His voice softened and he ran his fingers down Alec's face. "Don't do this Alec, please. Don't leave me."
"Leave..." Alec frowned and shook his head. "No," he whispered, cupping Jon's face in his hands. "I'm leaving the band, JB, not you."
Fresh tears coursed down Jon's face. "It's the same thing."
"What?" No, Jon, it is not the same thing. Listen to me, I love you. Just because we're not gonna be working together, it doesn't mean we can't see each other. Yeah, it's gonna be hard, I know that but there's the 'phone and stuff. I'll come and see you as often as... " Alec trailed off, frowning at the blush covering Jon's face. "Is that what you thought, Jon? That when you get on that plane tomorrow morning that I'm gonna forget all about you? Not gonna happen - you can't get rid of me that easily."
Jon sniffed and ran his hands over his face. "I've been really stupid, haven't I?"
"Yeah," Alec replied fondly. "Yeah, you have." He smiled at Jon's dry laugh.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Alec dipped his head and caught Jon's lips under his, tasting the salt from his lover's tears. "Why don't you go and clean up, wash your face and we'll go down to the bar?" Jon nodded and slid off the bed, slipping into the bathroom.
Alec exhaled heavily and lay back down on the bed. How long had Jon been feeling like that and more to the point, why hadn't he noticed? Alec groaned; the more he thought about it the more he realised that Jon had been becoming more and more withdrawn as the tour had drawn to a close. He swore softly and sat back up, holding his head in his hands. He'd been so pre-occupied with... his own feelings that he hadn't realised how much Jon needed him. He straightened up and looked over at the closed bathroom door. When Jon came out, maybe they wouldn't meet back up with the others in the bar after all.
He started pulling the sheets down the bed when a flash of colour caught his eye from the bedside table. He picked up the red, leather-bound book and thumbed through it, grinning as he realised it was a photo album from when Jon was a teenager. He sat back down on the bed with the book on his lap, smile growing wider with every page; Jon had been even cuter as a teenager than he was now.
Alec's smiled faded, a frown creasing his brow at the pictures on the next p age. He shook his head and blinked, but the pictures stayed the same. Feeling sick to his stomach he looked up as the water stopped running in the bathroom. He sighed shakily and placed the album back on the bed. Perhaps he'd been wrong. Maybe it wasn't that Jon was worried he'd forget him. Maybe it was more like Jon had never really cared in the first place.
Alec looked up as the door opened and Jon sauntered back in wearing nothing more than a smile on his face and a towel around his hips. He crouched down in front of Alec and kissed him on the lips.
"I know I've already said this, but I'm sor... what's wrong, Alec?"
Alec looked up, a stubborn set to his jaw. "What's this?" He gestured to the photo album.
Jon picked the book up and sat down, flicking through the pages. "Uh... It's a photo album. My mom found it when she was going through some stuff and thought I might like to see it."
Alec pulled the album from Jon's hands, opened it to the page he'd been looking at and placed it back on Jon's lap. The singer looked at the pictures on the page, pictures of him and Dave when they were younger; the two boys sitting on the grass, Jon behind David with his arms around him, both of them smiling; the aftermath of a grass fight, two laughing teenagers with grass sticking out from their hair; the two of them working on an old car, both sweaty and dirty; a picture of Jon and David kissing.
Jon grinned and shut the book, glancing up at Alec. His smile faltered at the stormy expression on his lover's face. "Alec?"
"You and David look close in those."
"Yeah, we were." Jon nodded, his eyes widening when he realised Alec was jealous. "But that was a long time ago, Al. We were... we were just kids."
"So that's how this is gonna end, is it?" Alec choked off, wiping away his tears with the backs of his fingers. He'd seen the expression on Jon's face and it didn't look like he was thinking of an ex-lover, more like a current one. "When you walk out of here in the morning, you're gonna forget all about me and fall back into David's arms, huh? I believed you, Jon, when you said you loved me and I believed you just know when you thought I was gonna forget about all about you..." He stood up and walked to the door. "How about I make it easier for you to forget about the last five years by forgetting them myself first." He pulled the door open. "Have a nice life, Jon." The door closed silently behind Alec.
"No! No... Alec... Alec, wait..." Jon called out, starting to cry again. He jumped to his feet, but fell heavily to the floor as he got tangled in the sheets. He pushed himself up to his knees before collapsing back down again. "Alec, please, I love you. Alec...."
Richie, Tico and David were walking along the corridor to Jon and Alec's room. The three of them had been in the bar with Alec when he'd gone to find Jon. He'd been gone a while now so they'd come to find the pair. They'd almost reached the room when Alec barged past them, crying.
Richie met David's eyes and he shook his head. "We can't let them argue, not on their last night together..."
David nodded. "Agreed. I'll go see if Jon's OK. You two go after Alec."
"'K." Richie and Tico ran down the corridor to find Alec. David watched them leave before turning and letting himself into Jon and Alec's room.
He closed the door silently behind him and looked around the room for Jon, ducking when something red came flying through the air, crashing into the wall beside him. He ran his handover his head and glanced down at the photo album on the floor, the photo's all spilling out of it.
"Jon?"
"Alec?" Jon ran in from the bathroom, tears still streaming down his face as he struggled to get into his jeans. "Oh. Hi, David."
David stepped forward and grabbed Jon's elbow, steering him to the bed and sitting down next to him. "What happened?"
Jon shook his head and stood up, running his fingers through his hair as he hunted for his sneakers. "I have to find Alec."
"Richie and Tico have gone after him." David pulled Jon back down on the bed.
"Oh." Jon sighed, holding his head in his hands, trying to stop the flow of tears.
"What happened, Jon?"
"He thinks that I... that you and me..." Jon sighed, his blue eyes wide and teary as he met David's concerned gaze. "He thinks that we're... y'know... together."
"What? How... Why...." David paused. "Why does he think that?"
Jon gestured to the photo album on the floor. "My mom sent me that. It's got some pictures of us from... before... And Alec... he just went mad. " Tears started falling from Jon's eyes again and he made no move to wipe them away. "He accused me of sleeping with you behind his back, said I didn't really love him, that I'd forget about him as soon as we left tomorrow morning."
"But... that was... that was years ago. We were kids. We were 15 for fuck's sake!"
"I know, Dave, I know. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen..."
David slid off the bed, crouching down in front of Jon. He tilted the singer's chin up with his finger. "Look at me, Jon. I'm sure it's not that bad. Alec loves you. He's probably... he's probably hurt that you didn't tell him. Give him a couple of hours, he'll calm down and everything will be fine, I promise."
Jon pulled away, crying harder. "We haven't got a few hours. We leave in the morning..." he trailed off.
"Oh, Jon..." David wrapped his arms around Jon, holding him while he cried. Jon clung to David, sliding off the bed and landing on his lap, head resting on his shoulder. David ran his fingers through Jon's hair, not saying anything, just letting him cry.
Neither of them heard the door open and didn't realise Alec was standing there until he spoke. "Y'know Jon, Richie and Tico had me convinced that this had all been a misunderstanding and that I should come back up and talk to you. And what do I find? You couldn't even wait until I'd gone before falling straight back into David's arms. Well you deserve each other and I hope you're both very happy together."
He slammed the door shut as he left, not bothering to look at the shocked expressions on David and Jon's faces.
"Alec, no!" Jon pulled away from David and stumbled to his feet. He'd just reached the door and had started to open it when David reached around him and pushed it closed. "David, what are you... Stop it! I have to talk to him..."
"Jon, wait. Listen to me for just a second. You're upset, he's upset, and you're just going to end up shouting at each other and making things worse. Let me try to talk to him, calm him down, OK?"
"No, that's not gonna work, David."
"Trust me. I'll be right back." David didn't give Jon a chance to respond as he slipped out of the door. He made his way around the corner to where Alec was leaning against the wall, waiting for him.
"How is he?" Alec asked softly.
"How do you think?" David snapped irritably. "You said you were gonna break up with him, you didn't mention anything about completely breaking his heart."
"I didn't mean to, David." Alec admitted. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this." He exhaled heavily and stared up at the ceiling. "I hate this."
"This, what?"
"How clichˇd this is. Two people who can only be happy together at the ex pense of a third. I love him, you know that. But I love you more. I feel like shit for hurting him and I hate it!"
David leaned in against him. "Then why did you do it?"
"I don't know. It just happened... " He ran his fingers down David's face. "You think I should go back and talk to him?"
David shook his head. "I think that would be a very stupid thing to do. It's what he needs, and it's what you want, but I think it would only be detrimental. You've broken him enough tonight, he doesn't need any more hurt."
Alec nodded. "You're right. Why are you always right?" He dipped his head and caught David's lips under his. "God, I love you so much."
David returned the kiss, cupping Alec's face in his hands. "And I love you."
Jon stumbled backward, bracing himself against the wall and shaking his head as he watched them kissing. No wonder David had been so eager to go after Alec; the pair of them had probably been planning this for weeks now. And he'd been stupid enough to fall straight into their plans. Well, he wasn't going to be stupid any longer. He wiped his tears away and thought about confronting them but decided it wasn't worth it. He turned and made his way back to his hotel room, determined to forget how much he had ever loved either of them. Forget that Alec John Such and David Bryan had ever meant anything to him, the same way he'd obviously never meant anything to either of them.