Modern Day AU. Jack's suffering from a terrible breakup. Now the gang has to figure out a way to get their chief and his lover back together. Jack/Ralph
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Flies.
Heavy silence dawned upon a group of twenty-two year old men in a shabby, supposedly loud bar down the street. The morbidness in the air was really getting thick, to the point where a certain brunette felt like suffocating. The only sound that could be heard is the loud, muffled music outside the private karaoke room, along with the laughing and screaming of the people outside. There were six of them, each sitting on a bar stool surrounding a table. A few bottles were also found above the wooden stand, however, they all belong to only one person.
The brunette felt beads of sweat starting to form on the back of his neck. The silence was pretty damn uncomfortable, worse, their chief was experiencing a downfall on his life. This is basically the reason why they're all here. As the cheerful guy he always was, Maurice decided that maybe cracking a joke would brighten up the atmosphere even just for a little bit, but decided against it immediately when he saw how serious the redhead's expression was. He was gazing down at his beer bottle, eyebrows furrowed, icy blue eyes looked like as if they lost the fiery passion in them, and his mouth was turned down into a deep scowl. Boy, the alcohol also made him flush a bright shade of red that almost matched his hair and covered his freckles. The others were either looking bored, pissed, or just plain uncomfortable like him. The brunette was about to break the silence by suggesting that they should choose a song to sing in the karaoke when a voice spoke,
"Man, you're pathetic." The brunette slightly cringed at the insulting statement and turned his head at the speaker, where a dark-haired boy who was at least a head shorter than him, muttered loudly, obviously directed towards the redhead. The dark-haired boy shook his head and sighed, he looked extremely aggravated, but at the same time, he felt like he has no choice. The lamenting man is their best friend after all. "I seriously don't think you should be wasting your time, especially our time in here." He continued, finally catching the freckled man's attention as he glared at him.
"Look, Rog. This thing happened unexpectedly and I don't know what to do alright?" The red boy retorted back, grabbing a fistful of his own hair with a hand and painfully tugging at them. "That's why I called you guys here." The dark boy, named Roger, crossed his arms over his chest as he gave a slight, sinister chuckle that annoyed the redhead even more.
"I can't believe the almighty leader Jack Merridew is losing his cool just because of a breakup." This earned a snicker from two of their other friends, Bill and Robert, who immediately shut their mouths closed when Jack glanced at them sharply. He turned his attention back to Roger, slamming a fist down the table, which shook the other bottles loudly, and made a short boy with dark hair and innocent looks shriek. The poor boy's green eyes widened as he flinched, feeling tears began to prickle the side of his eyes in fear and in genuine concern for their red headed friend. Simon was always the most vulnerable out of all of them. Roger, on the other hand, reached down to grip the trembling boy's hand under the table comfortingly, reassuring him that everything will be alright. He glared daggers at Jack, his expression a mixture of fury, as he signaled his friend to calm his dick down.
"Okay, fine! You know what, I'm not even angry at all! If he wants to end it, then he can end it. Fuck him and his blonde ass. I did everything for him! W-what the bloody fuck did I do wrong?" Jack began shouting but it sounded more of like he's mumbling loudly to himself. He started making weird gestures and his voice kind of slurred, which means that the alcohol he drank was beginning to take its full effect on him. He's basically the center of sympathy right at that moment. Bill shot Maurice an expression, which someone who would squint might perceive as a worried expression, but no one would really know as Bill is always wearing sunglasses. Maurice forced himself to give a light laugh, patting his chief at the back gently, who covered his flushing face in his hands.
"Chief, trust us when we say that you'll be fine! If you really care about Ralph that much then we can- you know... come up with many strategies to help you guys' relationship work out!" Maurice cheerfully exclaimed, beaming a wide smile on his chief, who just stared at him drunkenly, his eyelids on the verge of falling.
"There is no relationship."
"Shh!" Both Bill and Maurice hushed their dark-haired friend.
"We'll help you chief, we promise." The upbeat brunette turned his gaze to the rest of the group, who just stared at him incredulously. Well, except for Simon of course. "...Right guys?" They really don't know what to do or say. Suddenly, Maurice winced and gave a low grunt when he felt someone kick him from under the table. He looked to check who it was, which turned out to be Roger. Roger gave a low hiss at him to shut his mouth, while Maurice just narrowed his eyes comically, but what should we do?
It was Simon who diminished the next prolonged silence.
"I think Ralph really likes Jack." All eyes turned to him. Jack's face swirled with confusion and shock due to the alcohol and the green-eyed boy's words. He opened his mouth, but then closed it again. Sensing like his head would explode, the redhead massaged his temple in circles with one hand as he closed his eyes and gave a heavy, painful sigh. Simon glanced at Roger beside him, who was staring at him weirdly for actually saying something for the first time, then back at Jack again. "He probably just needed space...to clear his head a little."
Bill adjusted his sunglasses and nodded coolly, "Simon has a point."
The rest of them seemed to have forgotten the fact that Simon is a good friend of Ralph's. They weren't really that close, since Simon still hangs out with his boyfriend Roger, but they had a few classes together in high school that built their friendship and gave Simon an insight of what Ralph's personality is like.
Jack shook his head in an aggravated manner; he gave a groan and took a huge gulp of alcohol from his bottle. It was a sloppy drink, nonetheless, as a few drops dribbled on the side of his mouth and on his neck to his chest. "You fuckfkning batty." He garbled absent-mindedly.
Simon lowered his eyes, an obvious distress written on his face. Roger glared at Jack darkly as he hissed a low shut the fuck up.
"That's enough chief. Come on, Bill and I will drive you home." Maurice tried to reach out for the bottle on Jack's hand, only for it to be slapped away.
"Fuck off Maurice."
"We'll help you, Jack." Simon desperately tried to exclaim. "It will work out between the two of you just fine. Right, Roger?"
Roger, in response, groaned and internally rolled his eyes. His boyfriend's puppy, green eyes were too much to reject.
"Fine. We'll help you with Blondie. But you'll have to owe us big time."
The rest just tentatively nodded in agreement, unsure of what to do.
Bill and Robert considered on running away far from the others while they still could.
It turned out that Roger and Simon ended up driving an extremely drunk, slobbering Jack back home. Each took an arm of the redhead's and supported him on his way in his house and towards his room. Roger found himself cursing the name of Merridew as they went up the long flight of fancy stairs of the Merridew household. The shorter boy seemed to be struggling from the weight of Jack's arm, and Roger worriedly told him to let go and offered to take care of it. However, Simon still persisted on assisting.
Jack kept on slurring, incoherent string of words about his blonde boyfriend and how he'd die to take him back. He kept on leaning his head on Roger for support, but Roger would just push his face back in an aggressive manner, causing for the redhead to lean his head on the opposite direction, which is on top of the shorter boy's head. Simon just froze and gave a nervous laugh as he tried to push Jack's face away from him, scrunching his nose at the process from the toxic smell of alcohol. They finally reached Jack's room and as Roger loosened his clutch from the redhead to lay him down on his bed, Jack clung onto Simon and whispered a small I love you Ralph before kissing the shorter boy's cheek.
Needless to say, Roger ended up punching the maniac cold, leaving Jack face down on his bed that night.
The bright light that shone from the window awakened the miserable Jack Merridew, who was drooling on his sheets. He frowned uncomfortably and slowly opened his eyes. He found himself sprawled down on his stomach, before trying to push himself up. He flinched and elicited a loud grunt as his head throbbed in an excruciating pain he couldn't explain, worse, his jaw felt incredibly sore that he thought it was dislocated for a moment. He mentally cursed and wiped the saliva off the side of his mouth, before he stood up from his bed, a hand on his forehead, and making his way to his bathroom to grab an Aspirin.
Memories from the day before slowly dawned upon him.
Ralph. His Ralph. Had broken up with him. After three years of dating. The blonde never even gave him a proper reason why. He just came and told him that he doesn't want to be in a relationship anymore.
The redhead took a glass of water and quickly drank it with the pill, before aggressively throwing the glass on the floor, shattering it to pieces.
He can't accept this. He can't and he'll never be able to. He had to get him back- even if it's the last thing he'll do. That's all he could bloody think of.
As Jack returned to his bedroom, he rummaged his bed sheets to find his phone, only to find it in his jean's pocket still. The redhead have his best friend on speed dial #3, the first being his dad, and the second being his current ex lover. He waited for the phone to ring a few times, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor, before somebody finally picked up the other line.
"What do you want?"
Jack heard the snappy tone on the latter's voice, but decided to ignore it. "Rog, you guys told me that you'll help me with Ralph. Now what's the plan?"
Silence ensued the other line that had Jack thinking that the dark haired boy probably hung up, but when he briefly checked the screen of his phone, the recorded time of their call was still ongoing. "Rog-"
"No." The voice firmly cut him off.
"Wai- what?" Jack asked, an obvious shock and confusion in his voice.
"Why don't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
"...You...don't remember anything about last night, do you?"
Jack felt another pain shot through his head as he held up his free hand to clutch his forehead, massaging it gently. "What? What the fuck happened?"
"...Do you at least remember dragging all of us to the bar so we can listen to your pathetic breakup story?"
"...Yeah?"
"Who took you home?"
"Wasn't it you and Simon?"
Roger stayed silent for a few seconds then urged the redhead to continue, "Keep going."
Jack scratched his head irritably and retorted, "Okay, and then you guys didn't even bother laying me down on my bed properly! What's the point of these question of yours?!"
Silence took over the other line once again. Jack waited for a few more seconds, before finally checking if he's still talking to someone.
Roger hanged up.
Muttering a curse, Jack threw his phone back on his bed, and walked out of his room. He made his way down the stairs, whilst holding the back of his neck with one of his hand. Boy, he really can't remember much about what happened last night. He sighed as he made his way to the kitchen, recognizing the fact that there's really nothing much to remember. He got broken up with, called his mates later on for a drink, got drunk, and got taken home by Roger and Simon. That's it. So why the hell is Roger so fucking aggravated with him? Did he do something else? Shit, did he do anything indecent?
Well, that's not really important right now. He could care less of the details of his drunken ass last night. He has to work on getting his lover back.
Jack rested his arms on the kitchen counter, trying his absolute best to decipher how he could change Ralph's mind. He considered coming to his place later on, but at the same time, he felt like he should give the other boy some space. Like Simon said last night, he probably just needed to clear his head a little.
Clear it of what, though?
They've been together for three years already, and everything seemed so fucking fine and dandy, so what the hell is his problem? What the fuck did Jack do wrong?
The pain on his chest is so overwhelming that he completely ignored his rumbling stomach.
In the past three years they've been together, Jack rarely prepared himself breakfast. Usually, it was Ralph that would come over and surprise him with whatever he would cook for him. The blonde was a morning person. And he would leave for work right after eating breakfast with Jack. He mostly cooks a pancake with two eggs and a bacon that's formed into a smiley face, or sometimes he would just make the both of them a sandwich.
Memories flooded his brain and the pain on his chest just kept growing stronger and stronger.
Jack ran a hand through his head, fiery blue eyes glaring daggers at absolutely nothing. It sure was a surprise. About four days before the fair boy ended it, he stopped stopping by in the mornings. And Jack, never really thought about it too much. He was so damn sure that Ralph was probably just busy, or he was just in a hurry to get to work. But apparently, something else was wrong. He was too surprised yesterday. The red head remembered asking him weakly why he wanted to end it, yet he just looked at him with an expression that clearly said he's giving up. He hated that look so fucking much. He had done it a lot in the past, yet it never bothered him so much since lately.
Does he have someone else?
Fuck.
Jealousy surged his veins and the burning feeling in his stomach felt too excruciating. He bit his lip at the extremely unpleasant thought, not realizing that he bit too hard and has drawn a little blood out.
He felt lost. Jack Merridew felt lost. He can't believe that his life would go through the point where he won't be able to function properly without a certain person by his side. He is or was extremely bull-headed. And perhaps, that's before he met the fair boy. Don't get it wrong, he's still as cocky as ever, just maybe less. He desperately tried to push the negative thoughts aside and focus on his goal. He's not going to give up on him. He loves Ralph. He really does. He did, and he always will. Even when he thought that he's incapable of feeling such emotion, yet it happened. And he knows deep inside, that Ralph loves him back just as much.
Ralph is his. He belongs to him.
'And I belong to him as well.'
He has to get him back. No matter what it takes.
A/N: Okay, so I've been thinking about this au for a while and I tried my best to write the first part of it. This is basically just the prologue, and I'm pretty sure I made numerous of grammar mistakes. English is not my first language nor is it my forte, but hopefully you guys like it.