The morning sun was bright. Jack Barakat sat on the front porch, staring out at the empty street. His fist was still aching from the night before. He had slept the bad memories away last night, and attempted to scrub them away earlier that morning, but nothing seemed to be making the sick feeling in his gut go away. The only solution he had to his problem was to drink, so by himself, Jack twisted the top off the vodka bottle and welcomed the burn in his throat.

Really, he didn't know how else to cope with the things going on inside of his head. These were things that he felt before, back in freshman year, things that were never supposed to return and cause so many problems in his life again. It was bad a few years ago, but now he didn't even know who he was. Fighting? Jack never got into fights, not even one like last night where he knew he could take the other person out easily.

Jack groaned and took another swig from the half-empty bottle. He was hoping that he could drink himself back to sleep. Maybe, just maybe, if he slept for long enough, he could wake up as a totally different person.

"You are a pussy," he mumbled to himself. "A man says what he's thinking. You're not a man."

He tried to justify he fear of the truth by reminding himself that it didn't make any sense. He was Jack Barakat, for crying out loud! He was the happy, fun-loving, goof ball that wasn't afraid to say anything. But the more he tried to find the courage to admit to himself that those things he felt in freshman year were real, just as real as they are now, the more he found himself feeling like a fool. He stuffed those ideas down once before, it wouldn't be so hard to do it again.. Right?

Wrong. His feelings were never so instense before. Not to the point that he would take them out on another human being in a physical way. The only way Jack could sovle this problem was with his liquor.

About ten minutes later, Jack heard the sound of footsteps growing closer to the door. He sighed, and stuffed the liquor behind his back. When he leaned against the railing, it wasn't even noticable. He pulled out his phone and dialed Tosh's number. She would, once again, be his escape from from reality.

It was during the second ring that the front door slowly opened. Lisa stood there, with her dark hair pulled up into a messy bun. She had one of his tee-shirts over her body, making it almost seem that she had no shorts on. A girlish giggle escaped her lips as Alex appeared behind her. Lisa stood on the tips of her toes and planted a kiss on his lips.

"I'll return this to you after I've washed."

"Don't worry about it, you can keep it," Alex smiled down at her. "It looks better on you, anyway."

Jack rolled his eyes. Tosh needed to answer her phone. Now.

"Well aren't you sweet?" Lisa put on her best flirt eyes. "It also looks pretty good off of me, if you know what I mean."

"I might," Alex smirked, wrapping his arms around Lisa. He was about to lean in for a kiss when he noticed a mess of sunk hair out of the corner of his eye. "Jack?"

Lisa whipped her head around. The girl had never been anything but nice to him, but at that moment in time, she simply looked annoyed. Of course, Jack couldn't blame her, not after the scene he caused the night before.

"Tosh!" Jack screamed into the phone, a smile on his face. He held up a finger to his friends and turned his head to speak into device. "Took you long enough."

"What's up B-Kat?"

"What are you doing today?"

"Meeting up with someone. Why? Trouble in paradise?"

"Uh-" Jack tried to find the proper words to say to Tosh, without saying too much in front of Alex and Lisa. They had gone back to their heart-felt goodbye, but Jack could still feel Alex's eyes on him. "Maybe. Do you have time to talk?"

"I guess." Tosh blew out the smoke of her cigarette. She could tell by the way Jack was breathing that Alex was around. "Tell me you had fun with me last night."

"I had fun with you last night."

"Good boy. Now make the best dirty face you can manage and say 'mhm' every now and again. No funny business, though. As soon as he's gone, you're spilling your guts."

"Mhm."

Tosh wasn't saying a word. Jack could now cleary hear the sound of her inhaling and exhaling cigarette smoke. He never approved of Tosh being a smoker, but that was the funny thing about Tosh, she didn't give a shit what anyone thought of her. That's why when his feelings started to eat him alive, he ran straight to her. No one would ever understand him like she did.

He foced himself to say 'mhmm,' as he watched Alex kiss Lisa one last time. She held tighty to his hand as he pulled away. It felt like a hours had passed before the brunette finally let go, making her way off of the porch. Jack felt nothing but grateful when Alex closed the door when she disappeared from view.

"That took for-fucking-ever."

"What's that?"

"Lisa," Jack sighed. "She was leaving."

"Oh, gotcha. So let me guess, your poor little heart hurts?"

"A little."

"A lot," Tosh snickered into the phone. "Come on, Jack, when are you gonna start being honest? Why don't you march your cute little ass in there and talk to Gaskarth?"

"I can't just talk to him. He said we needed space, what the Hell am I supposed to say without crossing a line?"

"Buddy, I'm gonna be honest, I don't care how many lines you have to cross. I love ya, Jack, but you're driving me nuts. Not because I can't stand you, but because I can't stand that thing you call a best friend. You have no idea how close I was to knocking him out last night."

"Last night was all my fault, and you know that. I don't know why I let these people get under my skin. I mean, I forgave you, didn't I?"

"You forgave me?" Tosh groaned loudly. She wished Jack was there to see her roll her eyes. "Yeah, right. Let's not get into that right now, you should just be thankful that I forgave you, B-Kat. Now listen up, you came to me asking for help. I've got the entire school convinced that you're my boyfriend, I've given you the best advice I can manage. You know I'll be here any time that you need but, but it's time for you to make a move, Jack. I don't care how you do it, just do it."

"I don't know how to tell him the truth, Tosh."

"Trust your gut, Jack. It's never wrong. I have to go now, but I want you to call me tonight and let me know if you've made any progress. Love you, Jack-A-Roo!"

"Love you too, Tosh."

Jack hung up the phone with a sense of uncertainty. The last thing he needed was to piss off someone who had gone out of her way to help him, but if he was going to be honest, he needed to start off by finishing the bottle of vodka behind his back.

Notes

It's starting to pick upppp! You guys better be glad I'm not writing this for the comments or rates. :P
I love you, dear readers. <3.