"Sing for me."

Alex stopped dusting my bedside table and looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. "What?"

"The other night you said that you liked to sing. I want to hear it." Of course I had already heard him sing before but he wasn't singing for me. I wanted to hear it, to experience it, up close and personal.

He dropped his rag and bit his lip. "I- uh. . . I don't like singing a capella when I have an audience and I had to sell my guitar a few weeks ago because we wouldn't have money for food otherwise."

I raised my eyebrows and stood up without a word. I walked over to my closet and, when Alex saw what I had pulled out, his eyes widened three times their normal size.

"Holy shit. It's beautiful," Alex whispered and let his eyes travel over the instrument in my hand.

I held the guitar out in front of me and admired it. Alex was right; it was beautiful. The six-string acoustic's wood was a swirly honey brown just like Alex's eyes. The neck was lined in gold and the pegs matched. It was a damn good-looking instrument.

"It looks like its never even been played," Alex marveled.

I chuckled at the obvious want and longing in his voice and how I could practically see his fingers twitching to press down on the strings. "That's because it hasn't. My father got it for me a few months back and I never got around to learning how to play it." I shrugged and shook my head to add emphasis. "Such a shame to see such a beautiful instrument not being used to its full potential."

Alex chewed on his bottom lip. "Maybe I could, uh, maybe I could teach you how to play," He suggested cautiously.

"You could. Or, if you want, you can just have it. I don't really have any desire to learn how to play. And you seem to need it more than I do," I said with a smile, seeing Alex's eyes instantly light up.

"Holy shit, Jack. You can't be serious. Are you serious?"

I held the guitar out to him and nodded. "I've never been so serious in my life."

He took the guitar from me and stared at his reflection in the wood. When he looked back up at me, I noticed tears forming in his eyes. "Thank you so much, Jack," He said, voice cracking slightly. I instinctively walked forward and put an arm around his shoulder.

"Why are you crying, Lex?"

He leaned into my side and let out a shaky breath. "No one's done something like this for me since before my parents died, especially someone that I barely know. It really means a lot, Jack. So much more that you know."

I felt my heart jerk slightly at Alex's little speech. "Well, hey, you're friends with me now. You can have anything you want when you have a friend like me."

Alex wiped the fallen tears off his cheek and pulled away from my touch. He walked over to where his bag was sitting on the floor by his bed and shuffled around in the small suit case until he had found what he was looking for. "So, uh, you wanna hear a song?" He asked with a timid smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

I nodded and realized that it was a guitar pick that he had pulled out of his bag. He sat down and rested the guitar in his lap. He twisted the pegs until the guitar was perfectly in tune. I sat down beside him and he strummed the opening chords to whatever song he was about to sing. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as the sound rung through the room.

And then he started singing. . .

"From the get-go, I knew this was hard to hold. Like a crash, the whole thing spun out of control. . ."

I listened to him sing. The melodies and rhythm of the song seemed to transport me to another world where everything was perfect and beautiful. The lyrics mesmerized me. The sweet and smooth, yet serious and slightly pained or hurt, tone of his voice combined to make something completely and uniquely Alex. Like the song said, I felt "stupid and fearless" at that moment and it felt absolutely amazing. I could only hope that Alex felt the same way.

He finished the song and looked at me with wide, expectant eyes that seemed to be begging me for my opinion. I didn't know what to say. I wanted to tell him how perfect the song was and how perfect he was, but I seemed to have forgotten how to form words. I had drawn a blank. Alex had made me completely and utterly speechless. So, I did the only thing that I felt confident I could do.

I leaned forward and kissed him.