Destined To Explode

“Do your fans know that we’re cousins?” I ask Jack as I watch him tweet the picture of us decked out in our GK gear, Jack also wearing his Home Alone sweater before we start our film marathon, apparently giving an alibi as to why he wasn’t tweeting constantly. “Because otherwise this will look pretty sketchy.”

Jack laughs from where he’s leant against the wall, padded by pillows, my head leaning heavily against his shoulder and I punch him in the arm when his chuckling makes his collarbone dig into my head. “If they don’t then we are both going to be spammed to death with questions about us ‘dating’.”

“Oh great, just what I need; my work Twitter being bombarded with All Time Low fans hating on me.”

“I’ll sort them out when we stop this movie marathon.” He grins, using the remote to hit play on the Home Alone menu screen. “Now shut up, Kevin matters more to me.”

* * * *

“Jack, this is getting ridiculous.” I shake my head as I scroll through all the new @replies that I had received on my Twitter, the majority of them being alone the lines of ‘Jack’s mine, back off’, with others who somehow know my relation to Jack trying to correct them and in the midst of it all is Marky with the simple ‘haha’, which I can’t help but laugh at.

Jack’s snorting and smirking behind me, eyes scanning the laptop screen as mine do the same. “Just reply to a few of them, it won’t hurt. I’ll correct them all in my usual sarcastic way.”

“You did this in the first place.” I whine as I read a few ‘congratulations’ messages. “Jack, seriously do it soon, people think that we’re fucking or something.”

I watch him type into his phone and watch my screen for the little (1) to appear on the tab, thankful when I see the words of my cousin. ‘That’s my cousin, you perverts! I’m actually dating your Mom ;)’

“I can’t wait until they see you selling merch on tour.” Jack is hysterical again. “They’re going to think the same thing all over again, especially because you’re the merch bitch.”

“Jack, quit it. Most of them will have heard about the collaboration by then, so don’t try to make me paranoid and it’s easier to correct one person at a time, never mind a few thousand people who probably don’t even follow me.”

My phone rings from the bed and Jack being Jack dives for it, answering it without even looking. “Buddy the elf, what’s your favourite colour?”

I roll my eyes as I wander over, holding my hand out for the cell phone, raising my eyebrows in warning as he continues chattering into the phone, animatedly telling the story of the Twitter mishap to the poor victim on the other end.

“Jack Bassam, I swear if you don’t give me that phone –“

“Calm your tits, it’s only Alex; he likes me.” Jack grins. “Oh fuck off, Alex. Here.”

He shoves the phone into my hand as he pouts, arms crossing over his chest as he mocks being hurt. “You tell my cousin that you didn’t like him, huh?”

Alex laughs down the phone. “I actually said that I liked you more, but you know. I actually rang, to um apologise for yesterday.”

“Lex, listen, it’s just a bit touchy. I don’t want it brought up all the time and I know that you’re going to say something along the lines of; ‘not talking about it isn’t healthy’, but for now just let me deal with it by acting like it didn’t happen, yeah? You don’t understand how much I appreciate you and everyone else caring but I just want to forget about it and get on with my life without it looming over my head. You don’t need to be sorry.”

Jack’s arm wraps around my shoulders from behind and I laugh quietly when he starts rocking us from side to side. “Doesn’t mean that I’m any less sorry for how I left things yesterday. Do you think Jack would protest a lot if I came over for a few hours?”

I look over my shoulder at Jack, knowing that he can hear and he answers for me. “Jack doesn’t care as long as Jack isn’t forced to watch you two make out and Jack can watch Home Alone Two.”

Alex laughs. “I’ll be over in ten.”

* * * *

“Just how many people thought that you were fucking Jack then?” Alex mumbles when we’re all lazing about, Jack effectively dribbling on my calves as he sleeps, seeing as he had laid his head there in protest when I had chosen to cuddle with Alex for a little while.

“I don’t even want to try and count. I have never had so many replies at one time, even when I was giving GK shit away.”

“Shit’s going to hit the fan when they find out about us then, huh?”

I frown even though he can’t see me. He sounds so casual about the statement of there even being an ‘us’. Since the night we had kissed in Jack’s backyard (oh, how very High School of us), we had not brought it up in any way and neither of us had initiated anything else, unless you count the fleeting kiss that Alex had left me when he had taken the cocoa back into the lounge that very same night.

“I, um, didn’t realise that there was an ‘us’?” I daren’t look up at him, or even move at all as he stays silent, shifting a little to try and reach my gaze.

“Poppy, don’t go all fucking quiet on me now. Let’s just discuss what we both just said, okay? I clearly think that there’s something going on here and you don’t, which really needs rectifying before I do something that could be classed as rape or something.”

I can’t help but snort as I turn to face him, trying not to move my legs so that Jack stays in his slumber. “It’s not that I don’t think that anything is going on and I mean, what happened the other night was definitely something and I know that it’s not like you to be how you are – Fucking hell, this sounds so teenage angst that I wanna puke.” I sigh, running a hand through my knotted hair as I try to re-group my thoughts again into something that you wouldn’t hear a thirteen year old say. “Basically, you’re Alex. You were my first everything. There’s always going to be something there for me.”

Notes