As Alex approached school the next day, he began to dread it. What if Jack started being rude again or he doesn't give him his stuff back? Alex took a few deep, uneven breaths before entering the building and making his way to his locker. A person of some form sat right in front of it. Because Alex was the shy and awkward type, he didn't even glance at the person to see who they were. He just stared at his locker as though he found it deeply fascinating.

"Er, excuse me. Could I, er, get to my locker?" Alex asked carefully, still not looking at the person nor wanting to cause any arguments. The person's head shot up with such speed that Alex noticed it and he turned to look. It was Jack.

"Actually, don't, um, worry about it. You can stay there if you, er, want, if it means that you'll, er, leave me alone..." Alex mumbled quickly, trying to fill the awkward silence that had suddenly formed. Jack smiled that crazily cute smile he had and stood up. Alex gulped. Yep, Jack was hot. Very, very hot.

"Look, Alex. We got off on the wrong foot yesterday and I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I was a jerk to you. You're new, I get it. I was new here once too. It's not easy. I've been through more schools than you have boxer shorts probably so I know how you're feeling. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for giving you a hard time and taking your book. I could see how much it meant to you. I'm just sorry I guess. I'm waffling, aren't I?" Jack suddenly blurted out, smirking in a much friendlier fashion. Alex gulped again.

"Er, thank you, I guess. It's, er, no big deal really. I'm fine..." Alex muttered quietly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"No, it is a big deal. We have a lot in common, if what I've heard about you is true. I wanna be friends not enemies. Therefore, it is a big deal, because when you're the best man at my wedding I don't want you to mention how I treated you like shit on the first day we met," Both boys smirk, "Anyway, here's your stuff." Jack hands Alex his bag and Alex smiles, checking everything was still inside.

"Thank you Jack. You honestly don't, um, understand how much this book means to me. It's like... It's like my entire life in a book basically. I can't be without out." Alex smiles again. Jack returns it.

"Listen, we got to get to class so I'll catch you later, yeah? We could chat, get to know each other. Sound cool?" Jack asks, warily. Alex nods enthusiastically.

"Great! See you by the tree at lunch!" Jack yells down the corridor as they go their separate ways. Wow, Alex thought, this is really, REALLY weird.

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Alex sat on his usual branch on the tree. Even if Jack didn't turn up, Alex was still gonna continue with his lunch like normal. And he'd needed this break more then ever. Zack and Rian had be absolute arseholes all morning. Thankfully, Jack hadn't joined in with the teasing. He would look over at Alex every so often and roll his eyes at the idiotic and petty comments the pair were coming out with. No wonder Jack was the ring leader...

"Look at how he writes! So weird!" Giggle, giggle, giggle.
"He sits on chairs like a faggot!" Giggle, giggle, giggle.
"Oh my god! Look at his pen!" Giggle, giggle, giggle.
"Ohmigod! He brought his guitar into school! Such a faggot thing to do!" Giggle, gi- And Jack stopped them there.

"How is that such a faggot things to do, Rian? I play guitar, I brought it in yesterday! You know I've played guitar for a long time, Rian! Why would you say that?!" Jack snapped at them, causing a gasp to echo around the room.

"Sorry, man. We just thought that, well... We thought you'd find it funny because it was about Alex..." Zack mumbled, turning his head away. For an arsehole, he's pretty shy.

"Well, next time, put some thought into what you're actually going to say before you just say it, okay?! I was extremely rude to Alex yesterday and I've apologised already. I've come to a realisation that being rude to people doesn't make you even more popular. It just makes you more of an arsehole. I'm sick and tired of having to put up with you two thinking that we have to be mean to everyone we set eyes on, just to be popular. If I'm going to be popular its because people actually like me because I'm a nice person not because people fear me! Now, leave Alex alone or I'll get extremely pissed off and you know what I'm like when I'm pissed off," Jack yelled, "And I mean that!" Zack and Rian grumbled but left Alex alone for the rest of the lesson, thank god. He just hoped Jack wasn't going to stand him up, because he'd been sitting in that tree for a while now and he still hasn't here.

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Jack ran from the classroom of his second lesson, darting between the mass of people in a frantic frenzy, desperate to buy his lunch and get to Alex as soon as possible. Once in the cafeteria, he made his way over to the dinner queue. He bought his lunch (chips, a burger and a can of diet Coke, if you were wondering) and quickly made his way to the field. He was just about to exit the building when Zack and Rian stepped towards him.

"Hey, what happened in English, man? You weren't yourself." Rian says, nudging Jack's arm in a 'friendly' kind of way.

"It's none of your business, Rian. I've just come to a point in my life were I've realised that we're jerks and I wanna do something about it. The only difference between us three is that I'm actually going to change, whereas you two won't. Now, if you don't mind, I have some friendship building to get to..." Jack tried to push his way past but Zack's strong, muscular hand found his upper arm.

"You're not going anywhere, Jack. Not until you've apologised for being rude to us." He said, putting pressure on Jack's arm. Jack looked at him with confidence in his eyes.

"You think you're so cool, don't you Zack?" He spat, forcing Zack's hand away, "Well here's something you don't realise. You're not cool Zack! You hurt people for popularity and that is not something to be proud of. You're a jerk and a douchebag and it should be your who feels like shit, not Alex! I know I did start on him yesterday, but I've seen the error of my ways! You need to do the same! And so do you Rian! You're no better! You use words as your method of humiliation and, to be honest, that's the worst. Yeah, a punch in the face hurts, but that pain goes away. Words hurt, Rian, whether you want to believe that or not! I'm done being like that. It's time you did the same." And that's when Rian nodded to Zack and a muscular fist hit him square in the face.

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Alex was starting to get worried. Lunch had started 20 minutes ago and Jack had seemed really excited about hanging out. Maybe he was faking it to see how Alex would react? He rested his head against the trunk of the tree and took some deep breathes. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the best case scenario. The lunch queue was long. Jack had needed to pee and hadn't got a hall pass. Jack had forgotten his lunch money so had to go home to get it. Jack had forgot. Jack had-

"Hey..."

Alex's eyes snapped open and his head jerked downwards. Jack stood below him, a drinks can gripped in his hand. He had an ugly purple bruise around his left eye and a split lip. He had blood running from his eyebrow and he looked as though he'd hurt his ankle. He'd been beat up.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?!" Alex cried, jumping down from the tree.

"I'm fine..."

"Well that's a lie... Here, let me help."

When Jack didn't protest, Alex opened his bag and got out his bottle of water. He twisted the cap and tipped some water onto Jack's eyebrow. He let it run down Jack's face a bit before he pulled out an unopened packet of tissues and dabbed the wound to help clean it. He then set to work on Jack's eye. He took the can of Coke and wrapped in another tissue before placing it into Jack's hand and telling him to press it gently to his eye. Jack did as he was told in silence and let Alex begin work on his split lip. Alex carefully folded yet another tissue and used some water to make it damp before telling Jack to part his lips slightly. Jack did so and Alex pressed the damp, folded tissue onto the cut. Jack winced a bit but it didn't hurt him. Then Alex took Jack's hand and replaced the tissue on his lip with the cold Coke can. Jack made a noise of contentment as the swelling began to go down. Alex smiled.

"See? Not so much of a faggot now, am I?" Alex teased, pulling a smirk and raising his eyebrow.

"You're not a faggot, Alex. You never were. And thank you for helping me even though I was a jerk to you." Jack gushed.

"Hey, no problem dude. Wanna tell me what happened or...?" Alex questioned, not wanting to force Jack to tell him but wanting to know all the same.

"Well, it started when I left second lesson to get lunch. I went to the canteen, bought my lunch and made my way out here. Just before I left the building, Zack and Rian cornered me and had a go, so I defended myself and you. Next thing I know, Zack's throwing his fist in my face. And then Rian joins in and before I knew it, I had a busted ankle, a split lip, a black eye and a cut on my eyebrow." Jack sighed and opened the can of Coke. He took a large swig of the cool liquid and smiled at Alex. Realisation hit Jack's face.

"And they stole my lunch!" He nearly yelled, folding his arms angrily.

"Hey man, that's mean," Alex said, "They had no right to do that to you. Fucktards..."

Jack laughed.

"My eyebrow hurts." He said, giving Alex an exaggerated look. Alex giggled. He fucking GIGGLED!

"Alright Jack. Let me have another look."

Alex crouched down in front of Jack and leaned forward. He brought his hand up to move some of Jack's eyebrow out of way so he could see the cut. That's when he noticed Jack looking up at him through his eyelashes. Their eyes met. Jack darted his eyes away and blushed a ferocious shade of red. Alex giggled. Again. Jack was just adorable! He carried on checking the wound, before deeming it okay and looking at Jack. Jack looked back. It was like one of those classic movie moments when the two main characters are about to kiss. What, thought Alex, why am I thinking those kind of thoughts about Jack?! He was hot, sure, but Alex wasn't gay! Okay, so maybe he was. But that didn't change anything. He couldn't kiss Jack! Jack was straight. Right?

What Alex was unaware of was that Jack was thinking almost the exact same thing. In fact, Jack had realised something Alex hadn't: that he really wanted to kiss Alex. He could see how easy of an opportunity it was and Alex was hinting, quite obviously to be honest. So Jack went for it. He leant forward slightly and nudged Alex's nose with his own, to make him look at him. Once Alex had flicked his eyes to Jack's, Jack leant forward even more and barely brushed their lips together. Alex, clearly shocked by Jack's actions, pulled back but Jack stayed where he was. Alex looked at Jack before thinking, what the heck, and kissed him back. Jack smiled beneath their kiss and applied more pressure. Alex moaned a little bit when Jack placed his hand on Alex's neck and pulled him closer. This was okay actually, he thought. Scrap that, this was perfect! Soon, Jack felt Alex's tongue begin to lap at his lower lip, begging for entrance.

"Not in school, Alex. I don't wanna get caught." Jack mumbled against Alex's lips.

"You're already kissing me, faggot. You may as well just give in."

And just as Alex finished his sentence, the field went quiet. They had literally a minute to get to class. Alex jumped up and grabbed his unattended lunch and his bag. He caught Jack checking out his arse and smirked.

"If you want this booty, Barakat, then you'll meet me outside school at half 3." And he strutted off to his third lesson, leaving Jack to gawk at his departing words. Fuck, Jack thought, he's hot.

Notes

Hey bee uut tee ful peepals!!!!
You seriously don't understand what your comments do to me!!! They are as bee uut tee ful as yoouusss!!!!!
Little bit of drama in this chapter, I know. Poor Jack, but hero Alex!! Woop woop!!! Also some fluff if you hadn't noticed. And hey! Did anyone spot the Jalex? XD expect more of that and drama!!!
Love you alls!!!!!

Love,
Abby
<3