Ever since the first moment he laid eyes on Alex, Jack knew that his life was changed forever.
Although, once he started to actually get to know the boy at first, it was no secret he disliked him.
He was cocky as fuck, an asshole and a complete tool.
Only idiotic girls would fall for him.
Or so Jack thought.
Things started to change between them the day Jack wore a Green Day shirt to school.
Walking late into his first class of the day, all eyes went on Jack, causing him to shift uncomfortably under all their gazes.
The teacher kept babbling on while writing on the board, completely unaware of his appearance, so he took the oportunity and bolted to his seat.
Only a second after he had sat, the teacher finally turned around, looking at him in confusion once she noticed him.
"Barakat, have you been here this whole time?"
Keeping a straight face, he nodded, trying his hardest not to laugh as he spoke.
"Yes, I have, Ms. Smith. Maybe you should get your eyes checked."
Rolling her eyes as the class let out snickers, she ignored his comment, clearing her throat before grabbing a worksheet and passing it out.
"You may work with a partner on this, but it's due at the end of the hour."
As soon as Ms. Smith reached her desk, what seemed like the entire class began talking.
Sighing to himself, Jack looked down at the assignment, already knowing that he was stuck doing this on his own.
To his surprise, after a moment, he heard the sound of the chair next to him being pulled out.
Glancing up, Jack saw that it was Alex Gaskarth that was taking the seat next to him.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
They never really talked much, and to be honest, Jack didn't really like him.
Whenever he saw the older boy in class or in the halls, he got a strange feeling in his gut that he completely loathed.
While all they had made was small talk, Jack had managed to convince himself that Alex was an asshole, even though he didn't have much reason to.
Grinning like a fool, the older boy set his stuff down on the desk without glancing at it, turning his entire body towards Jack.
"I fucking love your shirt."
Looking down, the lanky boy hadn't even paid much attention to what he put on this morning since he was in a rush, but it was a Green Day shirt.
"You're a fan of Green Day?" Meeting Alex's eyes with his own, the feeling finally returned to Jack's gut, but he ignored it, since his excitement of finding someone with similiar music taste took over.
"Hell yeah I am! They're one of my favorite bands!" Alex was clearly just as excited as the younger boy, his voice loud enough for most of the people around them to hear, but he didn't seem to care.
"Do you listen to blink-182? Or Face to Face?" Jack's voice was hopeful, all assumptions he'd made about the boy in front of him were suddenly gone and replaced by what felt like a blossoming friendship.
The older boy nodded enthusiastically, "I love both of those bands. I learned how to play All The Small Things last week on my guitar."
All of a sudden, Jack was hit with happiness that he had never felt before, having to take a deep breath to calm himself down before he spoke again.
Who knew that some dude could have this effect on him?
"It's official, you're my best friend now, Gaskarth. You need to come over and jam with me sometime, I play guitar too."
Laughing, Alex's grin grew impossibly wider, giving Jack the chills.
Tearing off piece of his worksheet, the older boy scribbled his number onto the paper, then handed it to the lanky boy.
"Text me tonight, okay? We should probably get this worksheet done before the bitch comes and separates us."
Jack chuckled as he nodded and stuffed the number into his pocket, then the twosome began to work together on the worksheet.
For the first time in his life, he felt like something was finally going right.
Ever since that day, they were literally inseperable.
There was never an Alex without Jack or a Jack without Alex.
No one ever questioned it.
In a way, it was almost as if it was fate for them to become best friends.
Just as it was fate for them to come together with Zack and Rian.
Once their band was formed, it just gave the twosome more of an excuse to spend time together.
When band rehersals were over, they'd spend countless hours just hanging out, talking about anything and everything.
Jack and Alex could never be bored together, it was impossible.
A lot of their conversations would be about the future of their band.
"Hey, Jack... You still up?"
"Yeah, I'm here, 'Lex."
Letting out a loud yawn, Jack stretched his arms over his head, then he rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, sitting upright and finally opening his eyes as he glanced over at the clock on his nightstand.
3:33 am.
"Holy shit, it's late." The younger boy mumbled to himself, finally looking over at his best friend who was lying next to him.
"Sorry if I woke you up, I just couldn't stop thinking about things." Alex was nibbling on his bottom lip, his body was turned to the side, his elbow propped up as his head rested on his hand.
"I wasn't really sleeping anyways," Letting out a quiet laugh, Jack's eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion and concern as he looked down at the older boy.
"What's on your mind?"
Alex shrugged, his eyes looking around the room at everything except the boy in front of him.
"Just, y'know, the future of our band and stuff."
"Oh, that again?" A small smile appeared on Jack's face, his body now turning as he slightly scooted down on the bed so he was facing his best friend.
"Yeah, that again," the nerves that Alex had been feeling about this subject had gone away as he let out a laugh.
"What about it, sexy Lexy?" Jack's tone was teasing as he called Alex by the nickname he had came up with for him. Although, he wasn't really kidding, Alex was pretty sexy.
There was nothing wrong with calling your best friend sexy, right?
Alex laughed again at the nickname, rolling his eyes playfully at the guitarist, before suddenly growing serious.
"We're going to make it big, right? Like Green Day and blink?"
His eyes were wide as he looked at Jack, his voice and eyes displaying hopefulness.
"Of course we are, we're going to be bigger then them. We're going to sell billions of CDs, tour across the whole fucking world, sell out almost every show and we'll be swimming in bitches, booze, and cash."
Jack's voice was completely sincere, all except for the last part, he was kind of joking about that.
Something about the bitches part almost felt weird to say as he felt his stomach turning, but he ignored it for the time being.
"You promise, Jacky?"
"I promise."
Sure, it was a silly dream, but they were young and naive teenagers who still had their whole lives ahead of them.
There were times their conversations took serious turns, though, especially when Alex talked about losing his brother.
One night in particular was something that Jack would never forget.
Even before the hectic touring and odd schedules, the boy still had sleepless nights.
He was never more thankful for them then he was that night.
Tap, tap, tap. Jack suddenly sat up straight in his bed, eyes widened as he looked over at his window.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," he muttered, stumbling out of bed walking towards the window, his heart racing nervously.
Clearing his throat, he said tried to speak in an intimidating voice, but failed miserably, "Whoever the fuck is out there, I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it."
"You really need to work on your lying skills, Barakat... Will you open the window? It's fucking freezing out here."
As soon as the familiar voice spoke, his nervous heart beat grew faster as he started to feel the strange feeling in his gut that he got whenever he was around Alex.
Opening the window, he helped pull the older boy into his room, quietly closing the window behind him.
A frown crossed his features as his eyes focused on Alex in the dim moon light.
His hair was a complete mess, an extremely rare sight, his clothes were completely mismatched, his shoes were even different pairs. Although that wasn't what had Jack frowning, it was his face.
Alex's cheeks were puffy and moist, a dead giveaway that he'd been crying.
What the skunk haired boy saw in the other boy's eyes is what really made him ache.
While the vocalist was fantastic at putting on an act and pretending that everything was perfectly fine when it wasn't, the guitarist understood him better than anyone else and could practically see into his soul.
In his eyes, Jack saw pain, unfathomnable pain that was screaming for help. Screaming for someone to come in and repair the broken pieces.
Without a word, the skunk haired boy wrapped his arms around the older, pulling him close against his chest, Jack's hands soothingly rubbing Alex's back as he murmured into his ear.
"It's gonna be okay, Lexy. I'm here. You're safe with me."
The older came apart in younger's arms, sobbing against his chest so that it was muffed, clutching tightly onto the guitarist.
They stood like that for what seemed like hours, until Jack gently pulled Alex towards his bed, still managing to keep his arms around him as they both collapsed on it.
Clearing his throat, the vocalist took a few deep breaths as he calmed himself.
The guitarist didn't take his eyes off of him, moving one of his hands up to Alex's hair as he ran his fingers through it.
"It's... it's my brother. I had a nightmare about him," Alex finally managed to speak, his voice coming out in a whisper. His tone even sounded broken.
"What happened in the nightmare?" Jack's tone was gentle, fearing that if he spoke too loudly, the boy in his arms would crumble to pieces.
"It started out as a memory of us when I was younger... We were sitting on the bed in his room and he was saying something to me. Except, I couldn't hear the words. His mouth was moving but nothing was coming out. I tried to speak, but I couldn't make a sound either. Then all of a sudden, he disappeared. Just like that, he vanished. I tried screaming for him, but nothing was coming out, and... and," he couldn't finish his sentence before he was suddenly sobbing against Jack's chest again.
Feeling tears coming to his own eyes, his arm that was around the boy pulled him as close as possible, while his hand was still stroking his hair.
Seeing his best friend like this was fucking tearing Jack apart.
All he wanted to do was make things better for Alex, but he had no clue how.
There really wasn't a way to make what happened to his brother change, so all the guitarist could do was comfort the vocalist to the best of his ability.
Once the sobbing died down, there was complete silence.
It wasn't an awkward one, it was a peaceful one.
Alex wrapped his own arms around Jack, somehow pulling them even closer to each other as he tangled their legs together.
The feeling in the guitarist's stomach was stronger than ever now, yet he still couldn't put his finger on what it was.
The vocalist mumbled something inaudible against Jack's shirt.
"What was that, Lexy?"
In reply, he heard soft snoring as he felt Alex's muscles relax against him.
Watching the boy sleep, he felt a bit weird, but he couldn't help it.
Even in slumber, he looked fucking perfect.
Honestly, he wished that he could stay here forever cuddling with him.
Then, that was when he finally realized what the feeling in his stomach was.
He was in love with Alex.

Notes

I'm sick, it's early, no one is up, I'm too lazy to find medicine to knock me back out, so I figured I'd write this up. Sorry if there's any typos or something that doesn't make sense. Leave comments to let me know how I'm doing!