Jack flopped onto his bed and sighed staring up at the plain white ceiling. Alex had been acting weird lately, no not weird...distant almost. Alex had sworn that nothing was going on but his frantic text message had Jack more than on edge.
A short while later Jack found it in him to get up from his bed and make his way downstairs. He didn't bother to tell his mother he was going out, he'd been a ghost to her since Thanks Giving she'd barely even glance at him when they were in the same room. Jack really didn't expect much more from her but he still wished she'd just come around already and be the parent he thought he'd known before just two weeks ago. Jack did his best to shrug off all thoughts of his mother's immaturity and clamered into his car to take the short drive to Alex's.
-
"Hey babe." Alex beamed as he opened the door for Jack. He was in a considerably different mood than Jack had expected to find him in.
"Hey." Jack mumbled, hugging the elder closely once he'd shut the door. "What's up? Your text was a little cryptic y'know."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. But I've got good news." Alex said pulling away from the younger.
"What is it?"
"I talked to my dad and figured out a way to see both of you on Christmas."
"Oh yeah?"
"Uh-huh. I can stay with him Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and then leave after breakfast so we can spend the night together."
"Lex that sounds perfect!" Jack smiled wide clearly delighted that he hadn't been receiving bad news when he came over.
"I hoped so. Anyways I made dinner for two and was wondering if you'd stay since its the weekend and all."
"Course I'll stay. Being with my awesome boyfriend beats homework and terrible parents any day." Alex half heartedly smiled and led Jack into the small dining area of his apartment.

A half an hour later the pair were seated at Alex's table eating and chattering over nonsense until the elder dropped into a serious tone.
"Jay...you know how we're kinda serious now?" Jack blushed and nodded rather pleased with the fact that Alex thought them to be in a serious relationship. "Well I want to keep that going and I was thinking we need more security." Jack nodded again, slower this time trying to grasp onto exactly what Alex was saying."I was thinking maybe I could pretend to date someone to cover our tracks y'know?"
Jack frowned and put down his fork onto the side of his plate. He was confused and the slightest bit angry. Yeah maybe They weren't as careful as they could have been but Jack was smart enough to sense danger and he knew there was none surrounding their relationship. But then again he couldn't predict the future so maybe Alex was right to want to cover their tracks.
"Y-yeah." He murmured and looked down at his plate.
"Listen Jack I'm just looking out for us. I promise nothing's going to happen I just need a little more security y'know?"
"Yeah... Hey Lex you love me right?"
"Of course, why are you asking?"
"Cause that's all I need to know, I trust you so do whatever to think is best for us."
Alex smiled and reached placing a hand over the younger boy's. "You're the best Jacky." Alex murmured and leaned forward to press his lips against the younger's.
-
Nearly an hour later they were on Alex's bed cuddled close murmuring sweet nothing's back and forth. And Jack was enjoying it although he was overly aware of the fact that Alex was yearning for a bit more. Yeah they'd been a lot more intimate than they'd been at the beginning and Jack was rather pleased about that but he could tell that they weren't going fast enough; quite honestly he was growing rather bored of taking it so slow. So he interrupted their round of seemingly empty words that carried a heavier meaning between themselves.
"Alex...do you think it'd be too soon to maybe...like, go further?"
"What do you mean by go further Jay?" Alex asked as he brushed the younger's fringe out of his face. "Like...y'know." He mumbled hoping that Alex would catch his drift, which he did after a few moments laughing just slightly.
"Well its up to you. I'm fine with waiting for you as long as you need."
"Well...I think I might be ready...I guess I'm just tired of waiting." Alex propped himself up on his elbows and gazed at the younger boy for a few moments before saying anything else.
"Why are you thinking about that? You know how I feel already and you know exactly how I operate...we haven't talked about this in awhile."
"Yeah, but I kinda feel like we need to talk about it. I just want you to at least know that I'm thinking about it and I want to go further."
"Well I could've guessed that through your body language...but thanks for telling me about it."
"You're such a dick." Jack laughed now sitting up himself. "If you knew why didn't you bring it up?"
"I didn't want you to feel like I was pressuring you or anything. Honestly what would you have thought if I'd been the one to bring it up?"
"...I would have felt like you were pushing me."
"Exactly." Alex stated, rather smug in proving his point. Jack just rolled his eyes and cuddled in closer to the elder. He did have quite a few other options but seeing as how he'd be coming over tomorrow night Jack felt that making Alex wait just a little while longer for what he had up his sleeve was perfectly okay. Besides he'd said it himself that there was no need to rush so in that case Jack was taking his sweet time.
"Well you're okay with taking the next step, yeah?"
"What do you think?" Alex laughed, turning the slightest shade of pink.
"Lex, can't you be serious for a second? This is kind of a big deal...like my virginity and all."
Alex sighed and sat up, bringing the younger to sit up with him. "I know it is, I was scared for my first time too but honestly thinking about it so much...well it's not helpful to anyone. You'll know when you're okay with it."
Jack sighed and rested his head on the elders shoulder. "Well how did you know the person was right?"
Alex chuckled at that. "I didn't, I just knew that I was really into him and at the time he made me really happy. It wasn't really knowing that he was right it was feeling that he was right."
The teen took a few moments to mull Alex's words over before letting out another heavy breath of air and letting his curiosity get the best of him.
"What happened between you two that you're not together now?"
"Well he moved from England to the states and after we graduated he wanted to go back home. He asked me to come with him but by then I wasn't really the same person as when we first got together, thought he was better off without me."
"Not that I'm really upset with that decision, because I'm really happy to be the one that has you, but I don't think anyone can be better off without you."
Alex smiled and hugged the younger closer into his chest. "That's sweet but until college outside of school I was a mess. All I did was break down about my mom being sick and I'd just fall apart thinking about the future y'know? I thought I'd be a fuck up and Kyle would leave me behind to be this famous drummer, which I haven't lost hope on, and that Oli would realize how bad I was for him and we'd break up in the worst way possible." Alex shurgged looking indifferent about his past.
"Oli was is name?"
"Yeah."
"Did you love him?"
"I don't really know, we were together for three years...I was able to let him go pretty easily and they say if you love someone let them go right? Well I think I was able to let him go a little too easy to have been in love."
Jack nodded finding it rather intriguing to learn more about Alex's past love life. Sure it was slightly upsetting to think of Alex being with anyone else but he consoled himself with the fact that Alex was with him now and no one else.
"What about you Jacky, have you ever thought you were in love before?"
"No...I actually really didn't think about being in love until I met you...well there was this one guy but almost everyone else I dated was just to be with someone so I wouldn't feel so lonely."
"Did you ever date anyone you really liked?"
"Yeah...the guy I dated right before my parents got divorced...I was really head over heels for him, he said he felt the same way but I got scared and broke up with him."
Jack shrugged and smiled lightly. "I'm kinda glad I had that experience though cause now I know how it actually feels to like someone enough to get over my fears."
"Well I'm glad that you like me that much...I actually think that this year I would have been pretty lost without you."
Jack blushed at that and smiled. "I'd be pretty lost without you too...and I'd probably be failing music theory by now too." He giggled, looking down casting shadows over his cheek bones with his long lashes.
"Well I'm happy to have helped save your grade." Alex teased and pulled the younger closer into his side. "Do you want to sleep over tonight?"
"I wish...tomorrow night? I've got to meed with Cass and the guys tomorrow morning."
"Yeah, tomorrow night then." Alex grinned mischievously at that and let out a chuckle. "Is it alright if I have another game planned for us?"
"I guess I'm up for whatever you have in mind." Jack grinned back, not so secretly looking forward to tomorrow night with quite possible the most perfect person he'd ever come in contact with.
-
"So, we'd head out to California first, yeah? Then make our way to Arizona and try to be in D.C. in about two weeks after that." Zack said, his pen tracing the map they had sat in front of them in the latter's bedroom. He and Jack along with Cassidee and Rian were planning a summer road trip that'd been all they'd talked about the whole of Sophmore year and saving up for.
"Can we visit Oregon too?" Cass asked from where she was cuddled into Rian's side.
"Depends on how much money we've got and if we stay overnight." Zack replied still looking studiously over the map.
"Do you guys think maybe Alex could come with us?" Jack finally asked as the question had been sitting at the back of his head for the last two hours. All of the others in the room looked at him, each set of eyes were quizzical and showing confusion.
"You really think that'd be a good idea?" Rian questioned frowning slightly. Jack shrugged and looked over to Zack for his input.
"I'm fine with it as long as I'm not a complete fifth wheel cause I don't have anyone going with us." Zack stated looking over to Cassidee."What about you Cass?"
"I guess it's cool, I get not wanting to be apart from who you like this summer." Cass smiled and looked to Rian who was smiling down at her. "Anyways...Zack I thought you were still with Katie."
"Oh...yeah we broke up?" Zack offered.
"When?" Jack asked rather baffled, Zack was usually pretty secretive about his love life but he'd always at least notified him of a new relationship or break up.
"Like the week before school started...Its fine guys I'm happy single anyway."
"But you two were so cute together." Cass pouted, more or less showing her sympathy. "Are you sure you don't have anyone new?"
"Well...I mean sort of...I guess but we're not like a thing, I come by where they work after their shifts-"
"Hold up a second." Rian interjected, not caring that he'd just cut Zack off mid sentence. "You're avoiding the words her and she...dude whats up?"
"I...uh..."
"You don't hav to tell us anything if you don't want to." Jack said softly draping an arm around Zack's muscled shoulders. "No...I'm not uncomfortable with telling you guys its just...I dunno I'm not used to it really...I think you get what I'm saying better than anyone else." Zack directed the majority of his statement at Jack looking at him the entire time. It really didn't take long until Jack made sense of what Zack was saying and putting puzzle pieces together.
"You're dating the barista boy aren't you?" He said just audible enough so that only Zack heard him, the older teen nodded and blushed a bright red. "Awh! Zee that's so cute oh my gosh! Why don't you try and go on a real date?"
"Did we miss something?" Cass asked she and Rian frowning at the other pair of teens.
"You guys know Jaime right?" Zack asked finally looking up from the floor.
"Preciado?" Rian asked already putting the pieces together. Zack nodded looking back to the floor beginning to blush again. "Just ask him out officially then, he doesn't shut up about you in math...I should'a guessed."
Zack's face lit up and smiled wide at that. "Really?"
"Yeah he constantly asks me about you, I guess I know why now."
"Okay usually I'm not the buzz killer...but can we pretty please go out to lunch like I was promised because I would not have come over if I knew 'breakfast' was just toast and an apple." Cass said pointedly at Zack.
"Okay okay, we can go now. We can finish mapping stuff out later in the week yeah?"
Everyone else agreed and began to get up ignoring Zack's feigned upset pout wanting to finish figuring out what they'd be doing for their road trip. But he followed behind the rest of the group out of his house. Once they were on the sidewalk Jack let himself and Zack fall behind Cassidee and Rian.
"So...since when did you go for guys?" Jack teased keeping his tone just serious enough so that Zack knew he wanted an actual response.
"I dunno...like I've always been attracted to guys but I've never liked one before now." Jack nodded and smiled actually rather proud of his best friend for not flashing around the 'I'm bi-sexual, love me, we can have hot threesomes' tag around like so many of the kids at their school did- although the vast majority of those were girls.
"Well I'm glad you're happy...but this better not mess up our casual sex on Saturdays." Jack laughed which just made Zack blush a bright red when Cass and Rian turned around to send glares at their friends.
"Shut up Jack." Zack finally said after a few moments of gaining his composure. "But yes we can still hold hands and cuddle."
The younger teen smiled and took it as an invitation to tangle his fingers with the other boy's. Even if they were both in relationships the pairs friendship was something unexplainable...and things like this, well some things just never change.

Notes

Well I was going to post this yesterday night but I stayed up rediculously late watching the Hawks game (WE BETTER GET THE STANLEY CUP BRO) and then I was going to post it earlier today but I was hanging out with my crazy friends (we worked on our youtube channel--> you can watch our video here) all day and then I went shopping with my mom and just got home. So here it is, I hope you like it and noticed that the past few chapters have been titled after Paramore songs-- and that I'm holding out on you all with Jalex shenannigans. Good day/night loves.