Jack

The next day, I strolled into school early. Well, early for me anyway. I hung around the front, lighting one up as I watched people come to school. Some girls gave me that 'should talk to him or not' look, knowing it's rare to see me here with free time to speak. I ignored them all though, I was in need of any attention right now and I had an appointment with a Mr. Gaskarth.

Soon enough, there was a nice car that pulled up, and I saw the caramel hair I had been looking out for but I was not happy to see him in khakis, and a red, plaid flannel. He still looked like he was dressed up. I saw him wave to his mother before walking up to school. As he came up, he seemed to be looking at the ground so I walked up to make sure he saw me. When I was close enough, I blew some smoke towards his face.

“Hey! What- oh...hi Jack.” He said, looking up.
“Why are you wearing that?” I asked looking over him.
“I-i can;t wear what y-you-” He tries stuttering out an excuse, but I stopped him.
“Why?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Doesn't matter, you can wear it tomorrow. For now, are you wearing an under shirt?”
“Yeah, why?”
“What color?” I asked, ignoring his question.”
“Um, I think black...”
“Prefect.”

I bit the cigarette in my mouth an started unbuttoning the shirt, slapping his hands away when Alex tried to protest and stop me. Once it was opened, I popped the collar, rolled the sleeves to his elbows and looked him over. This was....better. But not quite good enough. Taking the basically finished death stick from my mouth, I burned a hole in the collar and flicked it away.

“Jack! I liked this shirt.”
“That's what you get for not listening to me,” I smiled. “Come on, bud. Let me walk you to class.”

I slung a arm around his shoulder and started talking as we walked in. I asked him if he listened to that cd yet and he said he 'didn't have time.' I told him to tell me when he does, and I'll let him borrow some of my own sometime. As were heading to his locker, we happened to walk by a couple of thick-heads, picking on that Stump kid like usual. I didn't think anything of it, but Alex stopped.

“That's my friend Patrick.” He went to turn and stop them but I tightened my hold.
“Dude, you do not want to tussle with the football players.”
“But, Patrick...” He ad looking so pathetically concerned I sighed and turned.

“Hey Jonathan.” I called, making him look at me.
“What do you want Barakat?” The leader of them asked, he currently had Patrick by the collar as the poor loser was clutching a book.
“Let the kid go.”
“Why do you care?”
“Don't question me, and fucking do it.” I said, feeling irritated.
“Wow, didn't know you were into charity cases.” Jonathan let go of Patrick and glared at me. No wait, not me, his eyes were looking past me to Alex. I side-stepped, cutting off his eye contact. “Whatever, don't make a habit out of this, Barakat.”
“Whatever.” I scoffed watching the boys leave. I wanted to walk away but Alex walked past me up to Patrick to make sure he was okay. I listened to the two of them mumble things before Alex turned to me, smiling.
“Thanks, Jack.”
“Yeah yeah,” I shrugged and went to walk away, calling behind me. “Have fun with your buddy, and keep your weekend open. We're hanging out again.”

With that, I disappeared down the hall, leaving Alex with his friend.

Notes

Aww, Jack is kind of nice. Kind of.