I jammed my earbuds deep into my ears ignoring the morning sounds I usually found relaxing. I zipped my hoodie over my Sleeping With Sirens shirt trying to shield myself from the harsh November air. There was only two more days left until Thanksgiving break thankfully. I only had to make it till tomorrow then have a week off from school just kicking back and relaxing.

I doubt it would be relaxing though. With Mom in the hospital we would have to go visit her and then we have to travel to New York to visit Mom’s side of the family. Maybe they will let her out early? I visited her yesterday after Alex left. I asked her what to do and she told me it wasn't my fault and he probably was just scared and that I should give him some space. So, that’s what I’m going to do.

I stopped looking at the ground and looked back up straight. I could see the school now. I pushed my glasses with my index finger and walked across the grass to get the front doors. I seen Alex and his girlfriend in the corner of my eye and what the hell was she doing? She started pushing him up to me so I started walking quicker. He obviously hates me so why is she trying to get him to talk to me?

“Jack!” I heard her scream. I pulled out one of earbuds and turned around to see the two standing by me. “I’ll let you guys talk.” She smiled kissing Alex’s cheek making me want to roll my eyes but I didn’t. I stared at Alex waiting for him to hurry up. “Look Jack, I’m sorry about this weekend.” That's it?
“It’s fine. Now run along don’t wanna be seen with me.” I snapped. I knew his friends would be arriving in about ten minutes because they always arrived ten minutes before the bell rings.
“No, Jack,” He said grabbing my arm to keep me from walking away. Oh my God, he was touching me. I ducked my head he didn’t see me blushing and it worked.
“Okay, I screamed at you because I’m scared.” He whispered. He dragged me by the arm behind the school so nobody could see us.
“Of what?” I asked pulling my arm away from his grip.
“I don’t want to talk about that part but I shouldn’t have screamed at you like that. You were trying to be a nice friend and I took it the wrong way. Look, I don’t care if you’re gay. It doesn’t bother me. Hell, my own brother is trans. You think I’m that big of an asshole? Hey, you’re a dude thats kisses dudes, big woop. I don’t care! I reacted the wrong way and I know you just want to be my friend. And a-and, I want to be your friend. I know you are just my tutor and all, but why not make the most of it? We are probably going to be spending a lot of time together and I don’t want this friendship to go to waste, okay?” Alex finished his rant taking breaths of air since he spit that all out at once. I was stunned. I couldn’t even form words to come out of my mouth. He keeps making me breathless. “Please, say something.”
“Wow.” Was all I could say. “You really mean all of that?”
“Yeah, I do. Yeah, I know, it kinda sucks being friends with me because I never can actually talk to you in classes or at lunch because I have my reputation and everything but I want to be able to hang out at your house, I want you to come over to my house and actually hang out with me sometimes and not just Evan.” Alex said with a small smile.
“Then, how about we hang out tonight, we can try Algebra again.” I chuckled. Alex’s eyes lit up and he smiled.
“Yeah, I’d like that.” He said happily. He pulled me in for a quick hug making me go red. He pulled away and smiled again.
“Thanks for forgiving me. Now, I should go. Have fun blushing.” He joked before giving me another hug and running out to his ‘friends’ who didn’t suspect a thing. I peaked out from behind the building and he was ‘bro-hugging’ his buds and then hugging Cassie whispering something in her ear sending a pang of jealousy through my chest.

She got to hug him whenever she wanted. She got to kiss him when he’s feeling down. She gets to cuddle him at night when they watch movies. She get to let him spoon her when they fall asleep at night. She get’s to do everything I want to be able to do.

I put my other earbud in my ear and made my way into the school and seen the gang sitting down by our lockers.

“I thought you would never show up!” Cass yelled once she seen me walking down to them. I pulled my earbuds out and chuckled and sat next to Zack.
“Yeah, where were you?” Sally asked from beside Evan. Evan has a hopeless crush on Sally, everyone knows it except Sally. We’ve told him to make a move but he is always too nervous, so he is still stuck in the friendzone.

“I was just with a friend.” I said simply and they all stared at me shocked. “Why is that so hard to believe?!”
“Well, you hang out with us. You’re openly gay and 60% of the people here hate gay people and we both know this.” Evan said giving me his bitchy face.
“Awhh! Do you have a new boyfriend?” Cass squealed making Rian and Zack chuckle. I looked over at them for any type of help but they didn’t.
“No.” I muttered.
“Oh my god, you do don’t you?” Sally squealed.
“No! I don’t, I’m still the same lonely Jack.” I said getting annoyed now. All the guys were just laughing at the girls and I.
“It’s Alex isn’t it?!?” Cass screamed pretty loudly.
“No! Shut up!” I whispered yelled back.
“Awhh! You’re blushing!”
“No I’m not!”
“AWH, were you and Alex making out behind the school?”
“Do you guys hold hands?”
“Do you guys have sleepovers?”
“Do you guys cuddle each other?”
“Oh! Do you guys-”
“Guys!” Evan screamed making the two girls stop what they were doing.
“What?” They said at the same time.
“Jack, Rian, Zack, and especially me know that Alex is not gay or even bisexual. Yeah, so what? They hang out. That’s because Jack is Alex’s tutor. Now chill the fuck out. Let’s go Jack.” He got up and so did I. “See you guys later.” He said to Rian and Zack, completely ignoring the girls and I did the same.

“Jez! They are so annoying sometimes.” He complained as we headed down the hallways with a few more minutes to spare.
“Yeah, they are. Thanks for sticking up for me.” I smiled at Evan.
“No problem, they were annoying the hell out of me. But just curious, where were you this morning?”
“I was with Alex.” I said simply not wanting to go into detail.
“He wasn’t with his ‘friends?’” He said making quotation marks with his hands when he said friends.
“It was before they came along. I guess Cassie was watching out or some shit like that.”
“Oh, alright. Well gotta go!” He yelled before running down to the other hallway since he was a year younger than me. I quickly walked to first period and sat in my normal seat.

---

The day seemed to go by ever so slow. The girls and I made up at lunch so I didn’t have to worry about that anymore. But once the bell rang dismissing everyone, I rang to my locker grabbed my stuff and ran out of that building. I put my earbuds in and listened to Pierce The Veil until I got home.

Once I arrived my home I threw my backpack on the ground, petted Sugar and walked into the kitchen. I opened the freezer and seen a bag of heaven. Pizza Rolls. I poured some on a plate, way more than one serving and popped them into the microwave.

I sat down at the island and scrolled through social media not like I had a social life or anything. A message from Alex popped up on my screen and I clicked it quickly.

From Alex: House?

To Alex: Mine?

From Alex: Be there soon (=

I smiled at the text but put my phone down since the microwave beeped. I hope he doesn’t think I’m a pig for eating these. I ate about four pizza rolls when the doorbell rang. I wiped my mouth and pushed my glasses and walked over to the door. I opened it up with Sugar sitting on my toes and jumping on Alex right when I opened the door.

“No! Sugar, down.” I said trying to get Sugar off of Alex.
“It’s fine, Jack.” Alex smiled getting down on his knees and petting her. “Who’s a cute puppy, you are, you are, yes you are!”
I found it adorable how Alex was talking to her, it was so cute. While he was on the floor petting her I looked at what he was wearing. He was wearing another one of his flannels but with a blink shirt underneath. He had his, what seemed to be signature grey beanie and some black skinny jeans that hugged his privates and butt way to much. I gulped and looked back at Alex’s face and he got off the floor.

“I’m going to kidnap your dog one of these days.” He joked as we walked into the kitchen with Sugar following Alex.
“No, you will never take her away from me.” I laughed throwing her a Pizza Roll.
“Holy shit, I thought I was the only one who still ate these.” He laughed grabbing one and popping it into his mouth.
“Nope, they are like the best food ever.”

---

It was now about six o’clock and we were finishing up our last problem. “Okay, try this one on your own.” He looked at me and sighed before putting his pencil on the paper and trying to figure out the problem. After about five minutes he looked back up at me and put his pencil down.
“What’d ya get?” I asked cheery.
“...87x+-34p-48y+2j=-89y?”
“Yes!” I screamed happily.
“Wait- seriously?!?” He asked in disbelief.
“Yeah! You got it right!”
“Yes!” Alex screamed giving me a high five.
“See, I knew you could do it!” I smiled at him.
“Thanks Jack.” He smiled shyly. I just chuckled at his sudden weirdness and said, “well we still have another hour till you have to go, want to just hang out?”
“Yeah sure.”

We started watching some old episodes of The Walking Dead because they were better in both our opinions.
“So what are you gonna do once it’s Thanksgiving break?” Alex asked from beside me. We were both laying in my bed.
“Well, I’m gonna visit my mom if she isn’t out of the hospital by then. But, she probably will still be in their unless some miracle happens. But other than that, my dad, my two cousins and I are going to be driving up to New York.”
“I hope your mom is out of the hospital by then. She seems really nice.” Alex smiled probably not knowing what else to say but that is understandable.
“How about you?”
“Well, my family comes to us for Thanksgiving because nobody dares to try to keep Evan, Lacey, and I all in the same care for 8 hours straight.” He laughed, “my aunt and uncle come down with my niece. Well she is really my cousin but she always calls me Uncle Alex, I don’t know. But other than that nothing else really. All they do is try and force me to say what I want for my birthday.”
“When is your birthday?” I asked.
“December 14th. I usually throw a huge party with bunch of alcohol and stuff but I don’t think I want to this year.”
“How come?” It’s time to break down some walls.
“Well, I always do something I regret and it ends badly. So I think I’m just going to lay low this year.” Alex said looking at the T.V. and not me.
“What happened before?” I asked cautiously.
“That’s enough talking for one day.” He laughed putting his index on my lips shushing me. I blushed at the action, trying to contain myself. He laughed and pulled his finger away.
“Do I really make you blush this much?” Alex laughed and I just stayed quiet pushing my glasses. “Don’t worry, I’m flattered.” I just rolled my eyes and laughed.
“Okay,” Alex said quickly turning to me. “I've told you about my a bit, tell me about yours.”
“You’ve told me nothing.” I laughed.
“I don’t care. Tell me shit.”
“Um well, I’m sixteen. My favorite color is purple, my favorite food is anything to do with pizza, my fav-”
“Enough with those. I’ll ask you questions and you answer me, got it?” Alex said strictly. I nodded my head.
“Born?”
“Here; Baltimore.”
“Birthday?”
“June 18th.
“Summer Birthday, nice! Who was your first kiss?”
I paused at that question, what am I post to say? I’ve never had a first kiss yet. I guess Alex noticed that I didn’t respond and he tried holding in a chuckle.
“It isn’t funny!” I pouted.
“Ok, ok. I’m sorry. You’re so cute and innocent.” Alex laughed grabbing my cheek and squeezing it making me hit it away with a laugh. Wait a second- did Alex just call me cute? No, no, of course not. He’s only being friendly.
“If you haven’t had your first kiss, how do you know you, uh, y’know like guys?” Alex asked.
“Well, uh, I guess in middle school I found myself looking at guys more than the girls. Loads of girls would ask me out and I would always say no. In Freshman year, I found myself looking at this one guy a lot and I really liked him a lot. So I kinda just came to terms with myself and came out. Sorry if I made this awkward or anything.”
“No, no. D-don’t apologize. I asked. Who was this guy?” He asked. He actually seemed really interested.
“Just this one guy, no one important.”
“Me?”
Yes. “Nope.”
“Interesting.” He said weirdly. “Did your parents accept you?”
“My mom accepted me right away. She kinda already knew from the things I liked, the way I dressed, stuff like that. My dad was kinda shocked at first. He always wanted a son that would marry a beautiful woman and grow up with children. But then I explained that I could do the same things. I could marry, I could have kids. Then after that he accepted me 100%. Most of my family were okay with it. My Grandma wasn’t okay with it but then she died so we’re all good now.” I said making Alex and I chuckle a bit.
“I’m glad they accept you and everything.” Alex smiled. “Jack, I-”
“Jack! Where are you?” I heard Dad shout cutting Alex off.
“Up here!” I screamed. Dad ran up the steps and walked into my bedroom.
“Jack your Mom is co-” He seen Alex sitting in the bed next to me and smiled at him, “Oh, uh, sorry. Hi, I’m Jack’s dad, Bassam.”
“I’m Alex Gaskarth.”
“Are you Evan’s brother?”
“Yup, the wiser and older one.” Alex said making us all laugh a bit. Dad then looked at me and said, “Jack why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?”
“No- uh, Dad, Alex, w-w-we’re not dating.” I stuttered nervously.
“Oh, uh, oh. My bad.” He laughed awkwardly, “well your mom is coming home Wednesday so she can come with us to New York. That’s what I came up to tell you. It was nice meeting you Alex.”
“You too Mr. Barakat.” Alex said. Dad smiled and then walked out of the room. Silence. Awkward silence.

“I’m so sorry about my dad. He jumps to conclusions. If you don’t want to be my friend anymore, I understand.” I apologized quickly. There goes another friend…
“What? Why are you apologizing? Everything's fine.” Alex smiled.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, thanks.” I said quietly.
“Aren’t you excited your Mom is coming home?” Alex asked.
“Yeah actually I am.” I laughed.
“I can’t wait to meet her.” He smiled and glanced at his phone. “Sorry but it’s almost seven. I should head home.”
“It’s fine. I’ll walk down with you.” He grabbed his stuff and put it in his bag and we walked down the steps and to the door. Sugar, of course, ran up to him to say a quick goodbye. After he was done petting Sugar he smiled at me. “I’m taking her home.”
“In your dreams.” I joked.
“You’re just a daydream away!!!” Alex screamed to Sugar as she ran away making us laugh.
“Thanks for tonight, it was really fun. It got my mind off a lot of things. Wanna hang out tomorrow too? Y'know since it's break and all. Maybe you could sleepover at my house before you leave for New York?”
“Yeah, sure. That sounds fun.” I smiled. He actually wanted to hang out, again!
“See you tomorrow.” He smiled hugging me, a little too close for it to be a friendly hug but I didn’t mind. I just wrapped my arms around him and hugged back. Once I pulled away I swear I seen him blushing this time. “See ya.”
“Bye, Alex.” I smiled sweetly. He smiled once more at me and when he did I could totally see him blushing. I made Alex Gaskarth blush! He exited my house and shut the door behind him. I stared at the door for another a minute in a daydream until Dad put his hand on my shoulder.
“There is no way that boy is straight.”

Notes

Okay so this was sooooooooo long! 7 pages and 3000+ words! Holy!
Do you guys like long chapters like this or short ones? Let me know! ( :
Also, this story is a little behind in time and everything but I'm gonna try and get Thanksgiving over and done with in the story this weekend so then the times will match up for Christmas (: