A Little Therapy

His back slammed against the wall, his backpack crushed between the stone and his own skinny bones. Lips were forced against his, teeth were nipping and hands tugging and all Jack really wanted was to breathe for a moment. But he knew these lips, knew that taste of cigarette smoke and cheap alcohol and so he adjusted enough to push Alex away. “No,” The boy said firmly, avoiding eyes so not to give into the temptation of the apparent Incubus that was his friend. “Wh-whatever Kellin did to p-piss you off…” The blonde was startled, had to blink and breathe to figure out how Jack knew that his best friend had upset him. Then he wondered if the ebony haired boy himself really knew. “You just h-have this look…” Those dark eyes cast to the sidewalk, that look where Alex looks so furious and heartbroken at once, where all he wants is to scream but is trapped within the confinements of his body, he saw that look where his jaw clenched and knew he was fighting back tears. Because in the space of a handful of moments, Jack knew Alex; so instead of kissing him, he wrapped his arms around the elder and held him close, allowing him to bury his face in his neck.

“I hate him,”
“No you don’t,”

Silence enveloped them both, so the younger boy pulled away and intertwined their fingers, tugging him towards Alex’s house (He certainly was not going to his home). Jack didn’t expect his friend, lover or whatever they actually were, to speak, and he rarely did so himself. It felt as though he were having another one of his silent conversations with Vic, for Alex he suspected it was more foreign for him being best friends with a walking sound effects machine.

When they got to the front door, shaking fingers closed around the jingling keys, caramel eyes blinking through tears that were not used to being cried. The door unlocked and the two filed in, closing their cage behind them before taking off up the stairs. In the confinements of their own heads, Jack watched every inch of his friend shake before he tumbled into his arms. So used to needing comfort he barely knew what to do, but to hold the other close and listen to his sobs. “All that time…all that hell…that fear of losing him…and he knew,” The ebony haired boy didn’t know what to do, what to say, he understood Kellin’s reasoning and yet he understood Alex’s dejected anger. “He just knew, and never once helped me…” There were tears on his baggy blue shirt, awkward hands rubbing circles under a leather jacket “Never once said it was ok,”
Jack pulled away eventually, searching through his pockets for a lighter and packet of cigarettes, pressing them into the other’s shaking hands. He took Alex’s jacket and hung it off the edge of the bed, watching as the trembling fingers lit up a shaky end. Then there was an unspoken ‘It will be ok,’ As he hooked the honey haired boy’s speakers up to his own battered phone, playing out an angst ridden Nirvana song that made his friend smile with thanks.

The younger lay down next to Alex, snatching a cigarette from the silver packet between them and lighting himself, the smoke danced between them like the only barrier that lay in their mind, so easy to reach through to the other side. Yet all was hazy and it made the duo feel sick to lie in their own cancerous poison for too long. “You should dye your hair,” Jack finally speaks “I’m thinking electric blue,” He doesn’t stutter, doesn’t fear, he isn’t even shy or stammering but the elder doesn’t prolong the fact. He just smiles.

“You should do something with yours, maybe highlights or something?” Jack hums in reply, his father would kill him for sure, but it didn’t matter, he’s already dead for the most part as far as his parents are concerned. The feather haired boy turns on his side and blinks through the cloud of smoke. “Want something stronger?” Alex asks, as if noticing the glimmer of pain in the other’s eyes, it seems both of them needed to push away reality for a while as the shorter nods shyly in reply. He clambers over the corrupting one, as he puts out the cigarette and clambers under the bed.

There’s a glass object and Jack knows what that is but he can’t believe he’s using it as Alex leaves and returns with it only this time it has about 1/3 water at the base. A bong. He’s going to, for all the entire times he’s walked passed them, heard his father mutter disgustingly about them and his mother wrinkle his nose, use one. He watches the nimble and practised movements of a boy who was obviously not an addict yet so dangerously close to wanting to depart from reality forever. He packs the bowl with ground up pieces he’s seen Kellin roll up cigarettes with before. Alex asks with his eyes if he’s sure he wants to go through with this, and all the Lebanese boy does is smile softly in return. The biggest corruption scam in the world, destroying the innocence of a Barakat. “Put your mouth here, lips inside, good” It’s the softest he’s ever heard the Essex born boy speak, watching with a little eagerness that for once he’s the leader of the pack and Jack is all too willing to be enriched by his knowledge, obeying him simply. “Watch my lighter, once it lights properly, inhale at the same time,” he struggles with the sparks at first, but in mere seconds the ground up Marijuana is glowing red and he withdraws the lighter. “When it’s half full with smoke, then come away, it’s your first time rookie, I don’t need you sky high,”

Jack wants to laugh as he inhales. He doesn’t laugh because he’s concentrating here, he distantly here’s Alex’s instructions but all he gets is “Ok, no pull away, hold the smoke in your lungs,” And he does for a moment before he’s coughing and spluttering because he inhaled far too much. His eyes land on his best friend, who covers up the place where the younger’s lips had just been, grabbing his later again. The way Alex does things enthrals him on good days, but his fingers slip across the lighter, the dark eyes close, and there’s a hand wrapped around the stem in a way Jack imagined he would wrap his hand around other things (The smoke is probably intoxicating him about now because he swore he wouldn’t usually think like this).

Only when he allows the smoke to exhale it’s slow and beautiful, his eyelashes are closed and curled against the twisting smoke; when they open they stare so deep into each other that their pupils dilate immediately and their hearts race. They pass the bong between them, the skill adapting until they don’t have to force a smile anymore. “Why do bad people exist?” The shorter has his body laying between the others legs, his head on his shoulder and the bong being repacked. “Why do the people we’re supposed to love most treat us as if we’re shit?” Alex takes the first hit this time, but he tilts Jack’s head up and exhales passed the other’s lips. Their jeans are tight but their too far gone to give a shit, especially the darker eyed one.

“You’re my new best friend, Kellin was a dick,” He allows Jack to sit up, the lighter passed into his long fingers. “But I don’t know what my best friend is supposed to be like, now that I think about it, I kind of just feel like I was his wingman or his fuck buddy, he knew I was in love with him for five years, and he used me,” He whispered sadly, looking a little fragile as he buried his face in the other’s neck “You…You better not do the same,” For someone who was previously so happy, he looked rather dejected now. “Please,”

Jack nods numbly, because he’s unsure what he could possibly say now, in this situation, to make anything better. So he takes his gulp of heavy air, lets it set his lungs ablaze and shoves the glass of infinite back. They’re both silent, the smell intoxicating before the American born winced and muttered out “Man, my head hurts,” There’s a silence and it’s really not funny, but his companion snorts anyway, leaning their heads together gently. “’s not funny!” Jack whines, his dark eyes soft and wide, his pale lips pulled into a pout before he’s being pulled into his friend’s lap. He’s quiet but they’re both laughing.

They’re both still laughing when Alex puts his lips to Jack’s again, but this time it’s so soft they swear their floating.

Notes

Aye sorry this took so long!

Dedicated to all those who commented on the last chapter, reading your comments definitely gave me the get-up-and-go to write this chapter. Jack is going to be so corrupted.

So far what I have for Kellic is:

Title: Tangled In The Great Escape.
Rating: R
Summary: Kellin and Vic have been dancing around each other for years. But what started out as a joke will lead to much damage; betting on someone's virginity could end up betting on someone's life.

I will try to update more often!

I have a fanfiction blog on tumblr called alltxmelcw I take requests and stuff so feel free to send me a ship and prompt and I'll dive for it!

See y'all later bubblebutts :P