~Alex's POV~

We walked back to Jack's house; it wasn't too far away from school. Apart from our encounter this morning with Tyler, no one said anything to me or Jack, which I was glad about. I didn't want him to get hurt all because of me.

"Right, we're here!" Jack stated. We were now holding hands, as no one from school (that we knew of) lived in Jack's neighbourhood. It felt nice to have Jack so close to me, the touch of his hand sent sparks shooting through my body. He was special.

We both came to a stop outside a petite house, all painted white, with a lovely front porch with a rocking chair in the corner. A little white picket fence surrounded the house, and there was a pathway from the gate to the front door, each side of the path surrounded by brightly coloured flowers, and lush green grass.

"Aw, Jay, this is so cute!" I almost squealed, it was like a house from a fairy tale.

"You know what's cuter?" Jack whispered, "That name you just gave me." He giggled, and I could feel myself blush under his stare. "No, scrap that, the name is cute, but your blush is better!" I felt the colour in my cheeks go deeper, this was so embarrassing!

"Come on, let's go inside." Jack bounced up the path, with me following, our hands still tangled together.

Jack then let go of my hand, to find his keys and open the door. "Mom?" He shouted as he walked into the house. I followed and the smell of Christmas punched me in the face. Strange, considering the month.

"Jack?" I heard someone shout, it sounded like it was coming from the back of the house. "I made gingerbread men for both of you!" After following Jack further into the house, I was greeted by a woman, slightly smaller than me, with the same features of Jack.

"Hello dear, you just be Alex!" She walked over to me. I reached out to shake her hand, but she pulled me in for a big bear hug.

"Yes, hello Mrs Barakat." I greeted politely, after being released from her friendly embrace.

"No, call me Joyce, honey! Mrs Barakat makes me sound like an old woman!" I gave a light hearted laugh at her response.

"Um, mom, can we take these upstairs?" Jack asked, shoving another gingerbread man into his mouth. He'd already ate three since we stepped through the door.

"Of course, Jacky." she said, as she grabbed his cheeks, and wiggled them, like he was a child.

"Okay, mom, stop, you're embarrassing me now.." Jack tried to wiggle away, his cheeks turning slightly pink. She finally let go, and Jack started to head upstairs, me behind him.

"Be safe!" Joyce shouted up afterwards. Her personality was just like Jack's, like mother, like son, I guess.

"Oh my god, mom, shut up!" Jack kept facing forward, concentrating on not dropping the biscuits. Although I couldn't see it, I could imagine his face to mimic mine right now, with the same shade of red in his cheeks.

We came to the first door on the left, and stepped inside. His room was filled with posters, there wasn't any chunk of uncovered wall left. In his corner stood 2 guitars, one purple, and a black one. As soon as I saw the purple one, I went up to it straight away.

"No way! Is this a custom made ESP?" I asked, I was almost stunned into silence, it was beautiful.

"Yeah, I got it for my sixteenth birthday." Jack replied.

"Wow, it's amazing!" I complimented. It really was, I've wanted a custom made guitar for ages, and I'd nearly finished saving up the money. My parents told me they would get me one, but I wanted to earn it for myself.

"So are you, you know? You're amazing." Jack looked at me, he was such a smooth gentleman.

"Aw, come over here so I can kiss you!"

He took 2 strides toward me before we connected our lips. They moulded together perfectly, and moved in sync, just they they were designed to be with each other. We stood there kissing for a few good minutes, then pulled away slightly out of breath. We sat on the bed together, and finished off the gingerbread men whilst we talked. I reached over to put the now empty plate onto Jack's bedside table, when I spotted a photo in an ornate frame. It was a family photo.

"Hey Jack, who are these people?" I picked up the frame carefully, and shown Jack the photo.

That's me, my mom, my sister May, my brother Joe, and my dad." He pointed each person out individually, his finger lingering over his brother and sister whilst he stared at the picture, a mixture of happiness and sadness on his face.

"Have May and Joe moved out?" I asked, I didn't mean to be rude, I was just curious, I didn't know he had any family, apart from his mom.

"Um, no." Jack paused. "May and Joe died in a road accident, when I was eight years old." Jack whispered, his voice cracking halfway, sounding like he was about to cry.

I felt terrible now, he had it so much worse than me, yet he was the strong one. "Oh, Jack, I'm so sorry.." I whispered, whilst a stray tear escaped his right eye. I scooted closer to him, wiped the tear away, and hugged his side.

"It's fine." He sniffled. "My dad left shortly after they passed, he couldn't take it anymore, he just walked out on us, leaving me and my mom to care for ourselves." I hugged him tighter.

"Shh, it's okay," I tried to comfort him. "We don't need to talk about it now." I hugged into him tighter, this time I was the one comforting him.

"Thankyou, Alex." Jack said, his voice sounded strained and tired.

"Sleep now, you sound tired." I cooed into his ear. No more than 10 minutes later, his quiet snore filled the room.

With all this talking about road accidents, my mind wandered back to when I was eight.

I was travelling to my friends house on the bus. It was the first time I'd taken the bus on my own, the housekeeper my parents hired at the time normally took me, but I wanted to be brave and go alone, it was only 4 stops away anyway. We stopped at a traffic light, and when the bus started to move again, a lorry came crashing into the side I was sitting on. I remember that day like it was yesterday. The accident was fatal, 5 people died, with 9 taken to hospital. I was one of the 9. A shard of glass had plunged into my leg, which knocked me unconscious, I nearly bled to death. To this day I still have a big scar, running right from the top of my thigh to just underneath my knee cap. I've never been on a bus since then. When I come to think of it, it rings a bell that 2 siblings died in the crash. It couldn't be related to the accident that Joe and May were in, could it?

The thought was pushed out of my mind when Jack groaned. "Alex?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you stay tonight?" He asked me, his voice raspy.

"Yeah, I'll stay. Go back to sleep, I'm here."

"Thank you, again, Lex."

I kissed his forehead and turned over, Jack turning slightly too, and wrapping his arms around me, so we were spooning. I had never felt safer in any other place than his arms.

Notes