Drama By Name

It was twelve fifty on Saturday afternoon, and Alex could not sit still. Whether it was the fear of what Rian's reaction might be or the three cups of coffee he’d had since ten that morning, no one knew. All they did know was the Alex had taken to pacing up and down the living room, and it was putting everyone else off. Tay was lying on her back on the floor, next to her was Matt sat cross-legged, while Zack and Jack sat on the sofa, both watching Alex walking back and forth. It was driving them all a little bit mad, until Tay spoke up.

“Oh for fucks sake, Alex! Keep still, you’re making me feel motion sick!” At her words Alex immediately flopped down on the sofa between Zack and Jack, looking somewhat lost.

“Alex, it’ll be okay!” Jack shifted in his seat and took hold of Alex's hand, squeezing it gently.

“But what if he goes ape-shit?” Alex looked at Jack, eyes filled with worry, “He’s a lot faster than Zee. He might attack you. He might wake my mom up. She might find out everything. Me might-“

“Oh my god, shut up!” Zack sighed from Alex's right, “It will be okay. Just remember ‘Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind, don’t matter’.”

“Wow,” Matt said from the floor, “That’s pretty philosophical there, Zack.”

“Not really,” Zack shrugged and slouched lower on the sofa cushions, “I read it in a leaflet on coming out.”

“Still good advice though.” Tay shrugged and sat up, crossing her legs and watching the three boys on the sofa. “Look, Alex,” Alex turned to face her, still looking pale and worried, “It’ll be fine, trust me. Rian's a good guy, and he always just goes with the flow anyway. Cass wasn’t even taught by Jay, so she’ll probably be fine with it. It will all be okay, trust me.” She smiled reassuringly, and Alex smiled back, finding some hopeful truth in her words.

“Hey, Jay?”

“Yeah?”

Alex blushed a little, “Could you, er... Wait in the kitchen?”

“Why?”

“Well, I don’t want Ri freaking out right away, and-“

“He won’t freak out, Lex.” Jack took both of Alex's hands in his and smiled softly.

“Oh come on, Jay,” Zack said from Alex's other side, “He’s going to freak out a little bit.”

“Well,” Jack thought for a second, “I guess so. Just promise I don’t have to stay in there the whole time?”

“I promise,” Alex said, leaning closer and taking both Jack's hands in his own, “Just, let me tell him first and see how he reacts, yeah?”

“Okay.” Jack smiled and leaned forwards, bringing their lips together in a slow, soft kiss, ignoring the others protests of disgust. Moments later, though, they sprung apart at the sound of the doorbell.

“Shit.” Alex breathed, his lips still only centimetres from Jack's, “They’re early.”

“It’s okay Lex. Don’t worry,” He stood up and started backing towards the kitchen, holding Alex's hands until their arms could no longer reach, “I’m just through here, remember. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Alex smiled and went to answer the front door and Jack shut himself in the kitchen.

“Hey, Alex.”

“Hiya.”

Alex opened the door wide and let Rian and Cassadee step inside and shrug off their coats, hanging them on the end of the balustrade.

Rian quickly turned to Alex, and expectant look in his face. "So, what did you want to tell us?"

“Go sit down and I’ll explain, okay?”

Alex ushered the couple into the living room. They greeted the other three and sat down, Rian on the sofa and Cassadee on his lap. Matt stood up and took a seat next to Zack and linked their little fingers together as a sign of affection, smiling sideways at each other.

Alex stood facing the group, not knowing what to do with his hands and resisting the urge to start pacing again. He settled for putting his hands in his pockets and looked at Rian and Cass. “Right, so...” He fidgeted on the spot and took a deep breath, “You know at Matt's party, you two walked in on me in the guest room?”

“Yeah?” Rian said as Cass snickered behind her hand at the memory.

“Yeah, well... You were right. That was Matt's brother.”

Alex jumped slightly at the yells that were suddenly directed at him, one from Matt of “Oh no, not in the house!” and one from Rian of “I fucking knew it!”

Alex took another deep breath, “Matt, no, not at your house. Nearly, but no. And Ri, yes, you were right, but only because Zack knew about the cross-dressing from Matt.”

“So,” Cass piped up, “What does that have to do with this?”

“Right...” Alex was even more nervous now, and there was no going back, “Well, that wasn’t the first time I’d met him.”

“You’d been seeing him already?” Rian asked, the excitement still audible in his voice.

“Yes... Kind of.”

“What do you mean, ‘kind of’?”

“I mean, technically, we couldn’t be together.”

“Oh yeah,” Rian was hit with a small wave of realisation, “He’s like, twenty five or something, isn’t he?”

“Twenty four actually, but there’s more.”

“Oh?” Cass raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Alex.

“Yeah...”

“Come on, spit it out...” Rian shifted and sat up a little straighter.

“He, urm... He worked at the school.”

“Fucking hell Alex!” Rian shouted, but was quickly hushed but the rest of the group.

“Shut up Dawson!” Tay hissed from her spot on the floor, “Alex's mom is sleeping upstairs.”

Rian threw her an apologetic glance then looked back to Alex, “Do you have any fucking idea how illegal that is? What was he, like, a T.A. or something?”

Matt turned in his seat, little finger still linked with Zack's, “You don’t know my last name do you?”

“Fuck...” Rian breathed, his voice full of worry, excitement and anticipation, “No, I don’t. Who’s your brother?”

Matt somehow managed to keep a straight face as he answered, “My real name is Matthew Barakat.”

“Barakat.” Rian repeated plainly. Not even a second later, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped and he whipped his head back round to look at Alex. “Barakat? Fucking Barakat?”

Cass was sat with her hands over her mouth in shock, whereas Rian looked absolutely livid. Alex was glad that Cassadee was sat on her boyfriend, as Alex feared that, otherwise, Rian would have literally jumped out of his seat.

“Mr. Fucking. Barakat. Our fucking teacher?”

Alex nodded timidly, sensing Rian's horror.

“That fucking sicko!” Rian practically growled, bringing all eyes in the room to him, “He was our fucking teacher...”

“Ri,” Alex spoke quietly, not wanting to annoy Rian any further, “He wasn’t-“

“That’s... Fuck, why didn’t you call the police?”

“Because, he didn’t do anything wro-“

“Didn’t do anything? Alex, he’s a fucking paedophile! That could have been any one of us!” Rian's voice was steadily rising, and Alex was slowly stepping backwards.

“No, Ri, please, he wouldn’t-“

“He is a predator, Alex. He’s fucking sick in the head.”

“Ri, that’s-“

“No. You can’t excuse him, Alex. He’s fucking brainwashed you, he-“

"Shut. The fuck. Up." Jack had opened the kitchen door and walk in, standing himself in front of Alex. The whole room fell into silence as Jack and Rian stared at each other for a moment.

“You sick fuck.” Rian said in a low, threatening voice.

Before anyone could predict what would happen next, Rian had quickly and carefully move Cassadee from his lap and stepped across the room, swinging his fist at Jack. Alex had seen what was coming and tried to move Jack out of the way. Jack had not moved, but he hadn’t been hit either.

In his attempt to push Jack, Alex had stepped forwards and, unable to stop himself, Rian's fist had connected with the underside of Alex's jaw, snapping his mouth shut and catching his lip between his teeth.

Alex was knocked down. Hard. As he fell, seemingly in slow motion, he caught his head on the coffee table. The room went black.

Notes

Guys, your guessing game is weak ;)

I may or may not be able to post the final part of this chapter tomorrow as I'm SEEING OF MICE AND MEN!! Ahhhhh!!