Alex packed his suitcase sullenly, of course he was excited to go see his dad but he was also rather upset about leaving Jack. A week long break for Thanks Giving and he wouldn't be spending any of it with his boyfriend...and seeing as how technically this was their first holiday that they'd be dating over...Alex was a bit more than upset.
"I wish you could stay home with me." Jack mumbled as he plopped onto Alex's bed and pouted at the teacher.
Alex simply rolled his eyes since he'd heard Jack say that at least ten times within the last hour. Although he did find it kind of sweet with how upset Jack was getting over his departure.
"It's just a week." Alex said soothingly as he pushed his suitcase off of the bed and joined Jack, pulling the younger boy into his side.
"But I haven't been apart from you for that long since we started dating. Even before then I've seen you more than that...I just wish I could go with you."
Alex smiled and kissed his boyfriends hair. "I'll call you and I'll even send you pictures, you won't even have a chance to miss me."
"I doubt it." Jack muttered, pout evident in his voice. But he could do nothing about Alex's leaving, after all he had family that needed him just as Jack had his own at home that needed him too.
-
"Alex!" The young teacher's father shouted as he looked his son up and down on the small front porch of his home. "It feels like I haven't seen you in years."
"I know it does Dad." Alex chuckled as he enveloped his father into a tight hug.
"So, how's it been?" Alex's father questioned once they were seated in the living room of his home.
"Things are good...I've gotten a really good group of kids this year. I started up a poetry slam that goes on every Friday...I'm just really happy there." Alex smiled for a moment, debating on if he should mention his now existent love life but his father beat him to it.
"What about a special someone? I'm sure you've at least been on dates since you moved." Alex blushed, his cheeks an embarassing shade of crimson.
"Yeah...I am dating someone."
Alex's father cocked a brow and smiled.
"And what is this said person like?"
"He reminds me of mom...he's really sweet and has an interest in music theory too...I just think he's really good for me." Alex finished with a smile, the thought of Jack only making him blush even harder and pull at the long sleeves of his shirt.
"Do I get to meet him anytime soon?"
"Uh...when summer break starts? I've talked to him about it and he's really looking forward to meeting you but winter break doesn't work well for any of us since I'm coming back here and he's got to be with family." Alex but down on his lip and took notice of his father's wide set smile and crinkling eyes.
"You two are serious enough to be thinking of meeting each others parents?"
"Yeah." Alex laughed. Of course he'd already met Jack's parents at the parent teacher conferences just a week prior. He liked Jack's mom, she was probably one of the nicest parents he'd met with the entire day. He was pretty wary of Jack's step father but until Jack bought something up about him Alex had decided to keep that to himself. "He's actually been pestering me about it since our first date. But I think now we're actually pretty serious."
His father nodded in approval, obviously conjuring up more questions about his son's love interest ; really as an English professor he couldn't help but have questions and an inert curiosity. But those questions would have to wait, as the doorbell cut him off before he could utter another word.
"I've got it." Mr. Gaskarth muttered as he stood up from his recliner and set off for the door. A few moments later Alex's father was walking back into the living room, Kyle following right behind him.
"Lex!" The peroxide blonde exclaimed, smiling wide, before tackling his friend on the couch wrapping his arms around the teacher's shoulders.
"Hey Kyle." Alex choked out still regaining his breath once Kyle had gotten off of him.
"Lex, I've missed you so much! And I've got a ton to tell you...Trav wanted me to go with him for break but I didn't want to just bail on you and your dad. So I was wondering if he could come over tomorrow night and just bring dinner?" Kyle rambled on, directing his question at Alex's father.
"Of course. It'd be nice to see Travis again." The eldest man in the room said, baring his teeth happily at the youngers.
"Awesome! So what are we doing the rest of tonight? I'd really love to watch a movie and just chill out. This week has not been kind to me."
"I don't think its been kind to anyone." Alex's father mumbled as he walked over to the movie cabinent, opening it so that Kyle could have his pick.
-
"So I brought Chinese. I hope that's good." Travis said, smiling up at everyone else in the room, his eyes lingering on Kyle a few moments longer than they did on anyone else.
"That's fine. I live off of the food from Little Wok." The old and fading English professor said, ready to dig into their meal.
Alex rolled his eyes at his father. He'd been scolding him about eating out so much since he'd gotten his own place. Sure Chinese food was good but so were meals that you can cook on your own and don't increase your risk of a heart attack.
"Hey Alex can I talk to you for a minute?" The ginger haired boy said from where he stood across from everyone else.
"Sure thing Travis." Alex replied, looking at Kyle who was frowning lightly at his boyfriend, clearly confused as to why he'd want to speak to Alex.
Travis ignored the furrowing on Kyle's brow and lead Alex into the kitchen where he shut the door and leaned against the counter. He looked relatively upset, not nessecarily at Alex but in general, with everything.
"Alex...I really need you to back me up with Kyle. You're really the only person he considers family other than his mom and he rarely even gets to speak to her." Travis sighed and ran a hand trough his shoulder length red locks. "I need you to approve of us cause without that Kyle's not going to give me another chance this time around...he might even move on now I-"
"That's the problem Travis. It's always about you when you two are together. You don't treat him the way he deserves to be treated. You treat him according to what you want and that's not how relationships work." Alex shook his head. In all honestly he couldn't believe he was even having this conversation with Travis. Travis was begging him for approval so he could have another chance after this one; which was probably the fifth and that's just in the past year. "When you can prove that you can treat Kyle the way he deserves to be treated then I'll think about it. But quite frankly you don't deserve another chance and you most definitely don't deserve Kyle."
"Bu-"
"No 'buts' Travis. I'm sorry but you fucked it up on your own. I'd rather Kyle move on and never see you again than get hurt for the millionth time because you couldn't speak with more compassion or keep it in your pants. And before you come running to me for help you need to prove to him that you're worth the fight so that he doesn't have to ask me what I think. I'm pretty sick of being your counselor simply because you don't know how to be a good boyfriend." Alex shook his head and turned to leave the room, not bothering to even look at the blue eyed boy.
Maybe the truth hurt but Travis needed to hear it more than anyone else and Alex didn't regret a word of what he said.
-
Kyle lay on the floor of Alex's childhood bedroom that they'd be spending the rest of the week in. He was singing along to Madonna songs as he munched on a family size bag of Doritos, looking like quite possibly the happiest being on Earth.
"How the hell did I ever get to be friends with you?" Alex laughed from the bottom bunk of his loft bed, barely looking up from his phone screen.
"My amazing singing skills attracted you to me, duh." Kyle laughed right back. He sat up and examined his best friend for a few moments before speaking again. "How are things with Jack?"
Alex blushed and his lips curled up into a smile. "Things are good...I told him I love him and he said he loves me back...I dunno, I'm just really happy with him." He giggled slightly and tapped on his screen to read the new text from none other than Jack. "I'm texting him right now, he says hi."
"Tell him I said hi back...hey Lex?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you really think you and him are okay? Like y'know with not getting caught and stuff." Kyle bit his lip, concern coming clear through his eyes and tone. "Cause I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. And Jack doesn't deserve for anything to happen to you either cause he really cares about you too..." Kyle smiled grimly and looked up from the floor. "He needs you just as much as I need you...I know I don't know him that well or anything but when I met him...he really does need you a lot more than you know."
"Ky, what's brought this up? I promise you that we're being careful and I'm gonna be here for the both of you...but why are you so worried all of a sudden?"
"Cause...I-I...things are bad with Travis again and I can't do it this time. I really can't." Kyle looked down again, clearly on the verge of tears. "And when I lose him you're all that's left...and if I lose you...I don't have anyone else to turn to. J-just...and I honestly don't wanna see Jack get hurt either. Especially not by having you ripped away from him just because you two are in love. He doesn't need that and you don't either."
Alex nodded and mulled Kyle's words over in his head. He knew that Kyle was completely right but he really didn't want to have this conversation now. Especially not when he was back home visiting his father. And he really didn't want to think about the possible negative consequences of his and Jack's relationship.
"Kyle please don't stress about any of it okay?" Alex sighed and leaned back onto his elbows. "I promise everything's under control and if something does go wrong we'll just figure things out from there."
Kyle nodded and got up to shut off the stereo. "I guess you're right." He sighed and raked his fingers through his white-blonde hair. "Are you ready to call it a night yet?"
"Yeah, I promised Jack I'd call him before bed though." Alex blushed lightly as he tapped on the icon for Jack's contact on his phone. "It'll be just a minute." He blushed even harder as he pressed the phone to his ear. Kyle only smiled at him and climbed up to the top bunk, his body making the springs of the mattress above Alex's head softly creak.
"Hey Lex!" Jack practically shouted into the phone, trying to drown out the sounds in his background.
"Hey, are you at a party?"
"No. I've just got family over. Hold on I'm gonna go to my room." A few minutes later the extra noise cleared and Jack was speaking again. "So how is it at your Dad's place?"
"Everything's good, its nice seeing my dad again. I missed him." Alex smiled to himself for no reason in particular and bit down on his lip. "What about you? It's gotta be nice seeing your family."
"Honestly I'm not so happy about having them over...I mean Zack's coming over with his parents for dinner tomorrow night but that's the best of it. My actual family kinda sucks, especially since Billy Joe has his family here tonight. I dunno..." Jack sighed on the other end of the phone. "Hold on a sec, someone's at my door."
"Kay." Alex said softly. He felt pretty bad for Jack, he sounded genuinely upset about his family being over or lack thereof. Alex could only imagine how upsetting it had to be to have to embrace completely new people as family after years and years with people you grew up around. "Babe I've gotta go say bye to everyone, call me in the morning?"
"Course. Talk to you later Jacky. I love you."
"I love you too." Alex could practically hear Jack squirm happily at the words on the other end of the line. "Bye Lex."
"Bye Jacky."
Alex hung up his phone and tossed it to the foot of his bed.
"I've got the light." Alex mumbled as he got up before flicking the light switch off. He made his way back to bed in the dark, already feeling drowsy. He lay down, his prior tiredness leaving him being replaced with restlessness.
Alex stared into the darkness of the room and sighed. Jack was all the way back home and he couldn't call again that night...and Kyle's concern was really eating at him. Maybe he and Jack weren't being careful enough. People from other apartments could have seen Jack come up to his apartment. Other students could have taken notice to how his eyes lingered on the other boy in class. Teachers could have been taking note of how frequently Jack visited Alex's classroom. Yeah most of those were little things, but they all added up.
Alex shut his eyes and in doing so tried to shut out the world but his thoughts just wouldn't stop. Never in his life did he think he'd date someone younger than him let alone someone he'd get in trouble for dating. Maybe if he wasn't a teacher things would be alright. Maybe if he quit his job at the school and interned for the news paper that was hiring he could date Jack without worrying anymore. Maybe if he just changed the circumstances to work in their favor he and Jack could be alright for just awhile longer. So that's exactly what he'd do. After break he'd find a way to cover their tracks. There was no way in hell he was letting Jack go so he was going to do all he could to keep their relationship safe.
He didn't know exactly what he'd do but Alex was damn sure that he was going to do something.

Notes

Uhm...lol this is uhm...i don't really know but the next chapter should be in Jack's point of view with his family (I'm really excited because I have lots of ideas for his step-dad)...okay yeah I'm off to go swim suit shopping.