Six Feet Under the Stars

Alex woke up the next day lying on his back on the common room floor, Robert using his chest as pillow, which made the older teen smile to himself. He had to admit that the freshman was beautiful in his own way, especially right now with sleep-tousled hair and a peaceful face.

Propping himself up on his elbows, carefully, so as to not disturb the sleeping boy, Alex looked around the room at the other passed out bodies. William and Jesse had taken the only two couches in the room, leaving the rest on the floor. Pete and Patrick were curled up together in a corner, and if Alex hadn't known any better, he would've taken them for a couple. Ryan and Brendon were in another spot laying on top of each other, and Gerard was sleeping in the center of the room with Frank on one side of him and Bert on the other side. Alex couldn't see Zack, so he supposed that he had gone back to his room to sleep on a bed instead of the floor.

Alex felt something shifting on his chest and looked down to see Robert blearily looking up at him with sleep clouded eyes. "Good morning," Alex said quietly, smiling at the younger boy.

"What time is it?" Robert yawned, running a hand across his face, seemingly trying to wipe away the sleep.

Alex brought his hand up and looked at the cheap, plastic watch circling his wrist, glancing at the numbers on the small display. "Almost eleven," he replied.

"Too fucking early," Robert muttered, resting his head back against Alex's chest.

"Again with the swearing," Alex chuckled as he laid back down.

"You swear all the time," Robert murmured, as he adjusted himself on Alex, trying to get comfortable.

"But that's different," Alex contended, moving his arm to behind his head, using it as a pillow, "I'm old and shit, and you're all innocent."

"You're barely a year older than me," Robert replied, looking up at Alex's face again, "And I'm not nearly as innocent as you seem to think I am."

"That's true," Alex conceded, but then continued, "But its just that you've been so quiet the whole time I've known you, and last night you really came out of your shell. I mean don't get me wrong, its great, you're an awesome fucking person and I like that you're talking more, but its just that I'm not used to you being so...unnervous, I guess would be the word."

Robert shrugged noncommittally and responded, "I don't know, I guess I'm finally starting to feel more comfortable around you and Zack and last night, everything just seemed so great that I didn't think I had to be afraid of embarrassing myself. I don't know if that makes sense, but its just that I have to like, get really used to a person before I can start talking casually with them, like what we're doing right now, without having to force it."

"I used to be like that," Alex said, looking up towards the ceiling, "I was so scared that everyone hated me that I wouldn't talk to anyone. I had really bad social anxiety and sometimes I'd get panic attacks if I was pushed into social situations. It still happens honestly, but not as much and I'm better at controlling it, but I get what you're saying. It took my best friend, Rian, all of fifth grade to get me to talk to him. I still don't understand why he was so determined to be friends with me."

"Well, maybe he could tell that you're an epic dude," Robert said, smiling at the older teen, "Because you are."

"Thanks, man," Alex smiled, then sat up when he heard one of the couches creaking. He looked over to see William sitting up, pushing his fringe out of his face.

"What fucking time is it?" William called over to Alex.

"Eleven ten," Alex called back, glancing down at his watch to verify this information.

"Shit," William muttered, then said, louder, "I gotta get home, tell the other guys I said bye."

Alex nodded, and watched as the older boy made his way towards the door. As he got to the door, William glanced over his shoulder at the other two and said, "By the way, you two are really cute together," which made Robert blush which made Alex laugh.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Alex flopped down across his bed after he walked back in his room, having been kicked out by Zack after he woke up. "You missed one hell of a party," the blonde called over to his roommate, who was sitting at his desk, researching some queen for his British history class.

"I heard," Jack replied, not even bothering to look at the other boy, "Pete already texted me chewing me out for not going."

"They were so good, man," Alex sighed, "I had no idea that Patrick could sing like that. And it got fucking crazy. Robert even crowdsurfed."

At that, Jack did turn around, a look of surprise on his face. "Freshman Robert?" he questioned doubtfully, "Almost never talks Robert? He crowdsurfed?"

Alex propped himself up on his elbows to grin at the brown haired teen and replied, "Hell yeah, man. He really let himself go last night. It was actually kind of awesome."

Jack smiled a little bit too and responded, "Well, I'm happy. That kid is way too uptight."

Alex laughed and then asked, "So what are you doing today? Working on your paper?"

Jack sighed and looked back at his laptop briefly before slamming it shut. "If I look at one more royal family tree," he said, turning back to Alex, "I think I might kill myself."

"Good," Alex smiled, "Because I want to go into town. Zack says there's a pretty cool mall, and I want to check it out."

Jack shrugged and replied, "It's okay, I guess. There's a pretty rad record shop and a Hot Topic, but that's pretty much it."

"Still better than sitting around here all day," the blond responded, getting up off his bed and walking over to Jack's desk to tug on the younger teen's arm, "Now come on, the bus is going to leave soon."

Jack rolled his eyes and stood up saying, "I just can't say no to you, baby."

Alex responded by batting his eyes and saying, "You know it," and then nearly collapsing in a fit of giggles.

"How did I wind up with such an idiot for a roommate," Jack muttered, shaking his head.

"Oh, you know you love me, Jacky-poo," Alex smirked back, leaning against the taller boy.

"Never call me that again," was the only thing Jack said in response as he moved away from Alex and walked out of the door.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Jack, come here," Alex called across Hot Topic from where he was standing in front of the vinyl display.
"What?" the brunette asked as he walked towards his roommate.

In lieu of responding, Alex just turned around and thrust a record, Enema of the State, in Jack's face, grinning widely.

Jack sighed and said, "You don't even have a record player, Alex."

Alex pouted back and replied, "That's not the point, Jack. It's like, the principle of it or whatever. And anyway, my parents might get me one for Christmas."

"So you're going to spend twenty dollars on something for 'the principle of it'?" Jack questioned, raising his eyebrows a bit.

"Well, when you put it like that," Alex huffed, followed by a muttered, "fucking killjoy" as he turned to put the record back in the stand.

Jack rolled his eyes, "You're so fucking sensitive. You're like a delicate flower or some shit."

"At least that means I smell good," Alex retorted, smirking, "Unlike some people."

"Hey, I smell perfectly fine, Gaskarth," Jack replied, a look of mock hurt on his face.

"Whatever, Barakat," Alex smiled back before picking up the record again, "Now loan me five bucks cause I really want this principle."

Notes

Hey all. So here's the new update, which has actually been on Wattpad for a bit, but I've too lazy to repost it here oops. Anyway, I might not publish again until late July/August because I'm doing NaNoWriMo Camp, so that's probably going to take up most of my writing time. Thank you for reading!