Jack.

When I awoke the next morning, I woke with a smile when I saw Alex snoring softly beside me. I had my arm draped around his waist and his back was nestled snugly into my chest. We fit perfectly together. I loved waking up beside Alex. I’m not sure why, I think that it was the feeling of having someone next to you in the morning. It was nice to be able to wake up and be able to cuddle with someone. I loved being able to snuggle into Alex’s back with my nose nuzzling his neck.

Later on today, Alex and I would be flying to Chicago, and I was excited for our trip away. It was coming at the perfect time. It was something we both needed right now, and judging by the way he was yesterday, Alex really needed it. Thoughts of last night brought a grin to my sleepy face. I think that I’ve found the perfect way to cheer Alex up from now on. Although, I know that if we hadn’t been disrupted when Alex’s dad called, then we would have probably gone all the way. In a way, I was glad that we hadn’t gone further. I really wanted our first time together to be special, and I didn’t want it to be to have been after Alex had been upset. Our time would come soon, that I was certain of.

I was distracted from my thoughts when I heard Bella cry, letting me know that she was up for her morning bottle. A quick glance at my watch confirmed that she was awake just on time. It was six-thirty am, and she always woke up at this time which gave me enough time to get us both ready for the day. I’d be dropping her off at day care as usual, and Matt would be picking her up later that evening.

“Morning Bella,” I started as I made my way over to her cot, and grabbing her bottle from the drawers beside it. “Are you ready for your bottle?”

Bella stopped crying as soon as she saw me, and her face turned into a huge smile as she lifted her arms up indicating that she wanted to be lifted up. I carried her back to bed with me, crawling back into the warm covers as I lay my head against the headboard and sat with Bella nestled in my arms as she drank her bottle. Alex remained dead to the world beside me. There were times when Alex was asleep that it was impossible to wake him. I wasn’t paying too much attention so I didn’t notice Bella pull her bottle from her mouth and throw it in the direction of Alex. It landed with a bump on the side of Alex’s head, and it resulted in Alex waking up with a jump.

“What? Who?” He started, his eyes half-lidded with sleep. “I’m up.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as Alex sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and running his hands through his hair. This was another thing that I loved about waking up with Alex - the part where he actually woke up. He was always so sleepy when he woke up, and if something woke him up he always looked so disorientated as he got his bearings and figured out where he was. He’d jump up, his hair would be sticking out in a million different directions, then he’d smile up at me and cuddle into my side like he was doing right now. In short, he was cute whenever he’d just woken up.

“Good Morning, babe,” I said, smiling as I kissed him. “Sorry for waking you up but a certain Miss Bella decided to throw her bottle away when she finished with it.”

“It’s okay,” he grinned as he took Bella’s hand in his. “I’m up, now I can keep you company. Thanks for the wake up, Bellabear.”

~*~*~*~

“Yay! We are going to Chicago,” Alex sang as we drove up the freeway on the way to the airport. We had dropped Bella off at day care and now we were on our way. “I can’t wait to see Danny. I haven’t seen him since the evening he collected me from yours, and you all had your big catch up. That was so long ago, we weren’t even together at that stage.”

I could only smile at Alex, nodding my head as I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. He was barely able to keep still in his seat, and he was constantly fidgeting. Alex was so adorable when he was excited. He got excited over the smallest things so, this trip was really making him excited. In the end, I had no option but to reach over and grab his hand, lacing my fingers with his as he brought it to rest on my thigh.

“We were lucky that Matt agreed to look after Bella otherwise, we’d have been left with no choice but to see the tour when it came to Baltimore, and that’s not for another few months.”

“We can go to that one too,” Alex offered. “It’s sold out, like tonight’s one but Danny would be able to get us tickets. We’d have to get a different babysitter though as Matt and Cass are going to that gig.”

I grinned as everything finally began to make sense. Now I knew why Matt had been so eager to babysit. Don’t get me wrong, Matt has been a major help with Bella but he’d seemed extra eager to get us to Chicago. “Let me guess, you bribed Matt with tickets to Fall Out Boy and maybe promised him a meet & greet too, just so that he would definitely be able to mind Bella tonight. You really wanted to come didn‘t you?”

“Maybe,” Alex replied as his cheeks reddened slightly, “It‘s just that it was the perfect plan and I wanted us to be able to get away, after what I knew would be a stressful week. We can be ourselves in Chicago babe, we won‘t have to constantly have to worry about who‘s around us whenever we get into the car or go out. No one knows us there. We can be a proper couple, even if it‘s just for a few days. I love you so much, but I just hate the fact that our relationship would be looked down on just because you‘re my teacher.”

“I know that it sucks, Lexi but there’s only two months left and then I won’t be your teacher anymore.”

I frowned slightly at Alex’s little speech. In reality, he’d only been voicing what had been going through both of our minds. That aspect wasn’t the nicest area of our relationship, and it sucked that we always have to plan our dates and time together in places where we could be sure that we wouldn’t be disturbed.

~*~*~*~

Our flight was full this morning and, I was glad to be seated and away from the cramped tight aisle of the cabin. Around us, people were pushing past each other trying to get to their seats. I sighed contentedly as I lay my head back into the head rest. Alex had taken the window seat, and I was seated beside him. Alex’s hoodie was thrown casually over the gap between our seats and, my hand was conveniently placed in Alex’s away from the view of other passengers. The seat next to us was empty but I knew that it wouldn’t be for long. Sure enough, I caught sight of a family walking down the aisle. A mother, a father, a teenage son and, a toddler daughter. The parents and their daughter slotted into the row directly opposite from us while the teenager sat beside us. He couldn’t have been more than fourteen, and he immediately started blushing when he took his seat.

“Mom,” he started, leaning across the aisle attempting to be quiet but failing miserably. “I can‘t sit here. Can we switch? That‘s my English teacher!”

Now, it was my turn to blush as I realised why he looked so familiar. He was in my Freshman English class.

“Jason, hush up and stop complaining. Turn around and don’t be rude.” His mother scolded while I sighed softly as the only thought to run through my head was how it was going to be a long two hours.

“Umm, hi Mr. Barakat,” he muttered as his mother passed him his backpack and waved in my direction. The look of shock on her face was evident when she realised that I was her son’s English teacher.

“Hello, Jason. How are you? Are you going to Chicago on holiday?”

“Nope, we have to get a connecting flight in Chicago. I’ve got to go to a family reunion so I won’t be in class next week. Don’t worry though, my mom made me bring my schoolwork with me so that I won’t fall behind.”

I felt Alex’s body vibrate with laughter as he tried to disguise it by making it look as if he was laughing at something on the screen of my iPhone which he had hi-jacked before he had come to sit beside us. Freshman’s were always so eager to please. Thankfully, I was saved the hassle from answering when the airhostess made her rounds on the plane, making sure that we were all buckled up.

~*~*~*~

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned as we walked through the arrivals lounge. “Laugh and you can sleep on your own tonight.”

Alex knew me too well though, and my threats were simply ignored. It wasn’t long before he was pissing himself laughing. He was laughing so much that he was literally hanging off my arm as his forehead rested on my shoulder.

“Mr. Barakat, I’m so sorry.” He laughed as he remembered the events on the plane. “Could you maybe explain this part for me, I don‘t quite get it.”

It had been a very interesting flight and I was glad to get off of it. Jason had spent the whole time talking to me and asking endless questions about the poetry that we were studying at the moment. The last thing that I had wanted to do on my day off was talk about school work. Alex and I hadn’t been able to say so much as one word to each other and I was forced to more or less ignore him for the entire flight.

“Babe, please don’t.”

“Seriously, Mr. Barakat, he was more or less flirting with you. I’m used to the chicks doing it but not other guys. I’m the only guy who can flirt with you.”

“Ok, you have a valid point but can you please stop calling me Mr. Barakat?”

Alex stopped short, not caring about who he disrupted as a tonne of people rushed passed us, all of them eager to get out of the airport. He stretched up slightly, whispering in my ear.

“I think that it’s sexy,” he whispered sending shivers down my spin as he cheekily bit slightly on my earlobe before moving his mouth away as quickly as it had been placed there, and grabbed my hand once again as we continued into the main part of the airport. Danny had said that he’d send someone to pick us up as he would be busy with load in. Once again, Alex stopped dead in his tracks and I was left confused as to why we’d stopped this time.

“Stupid little smartass thinks that he‘s so funny,” he scowled, his brow furrowing. I followed his glare to a tall, bald scary looking guy standing in the terminal holding up a sign that I assumed was for us. “Jalex Barakarth? Who does he think he is, some sort of comedian?”

I couldn’t help but smile as I led Alex in the direction of the driver. Danny would be the type of person to come up with a combination of both our names.

“It is kinda funny,” I grinned. “You have to admit it.”

“Jack and Alex?” The guy asked as we approached him and we nodded in response. “Hey, I‘m Joe; I‘m one of the bodyguards on the tour. Danny was busy at load in so I‘ve come to pick you up instead. Follow me to the car and I‘ll take you to the hotel.”

The whole journey to the hotel, Joe had talked animatedly about the tour and the crowds at each gig. It wasn’t long before we pulled up at a fairly big and luxurious looking hotel. “Here‘s your stop and here‘s your room key. It‘s room 206 on the second floor. Danny said to take some time to freshen up and he‘ll meet you both in the restaurant for lunch at one pm.”

When Alex and I reached our room, we found a fairly spacious room with a nice king-size bed and a balcony with a city view. It was so nice. Alex went to the bathroom and I threw our bags into the corner as I flopped down onto the bed. When I landed on the bed, something bounced off of the pillow and hit my head. I was so shocked to find a similar square foil package with a post it note attached to it. Most hotels leave chocolate on the pillows but I presume that Danny hadn’t thought that that would be adequate so, instead, we got condoms with a handwritten note reading;

Safe sex is great sex.

This was typical Danny and it brought a smile to my face. When I sat up and looked round, I saw the ‘packages’ scattered all around the room on various different surfaces.

“Babe, remind me again why the hell I’m friends with him? There are condoms everywhere!” Alex stated with a smirk on his face. “All of them have notes with smartass comments. Look at this one, Please use me and this other one says Keep it safe!”