Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

At the beginning of lunch on Monday, Jack practically chased Alex out of their math class. He jogged after the blond, who was walking away rather quickly, for half of the entire hallway, until he finally caught up to him. Grabbing his hand from behind to get him to slow down, Jack smiled at the way Alex lit up as he turned his head to face him.

"What's got you in such a rush?" Jack chuckled, as both he and Alex slowed down.

"Oh, nothing," Alex shrugged, "I'm not really a fan of the hallways. I like getting places quickly."

"And where are you going?"

"The cafeteria."

"Want to join me today?" Jack asked hopefully, swinging his and Alex's hands back and forth.

"Actually," Alex frowned, "I promised Marissa this morning I would join them today."

"Oh. That's alright, Lex."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, we were together all weekend, anyway. I don't want to keep you from your friends."

"Thanks, Jack. I'll see you after school, too, right?" Alex grinned, and Jack nodded in response.

"Right," Jack let go of Alex's hand as they approached the cafeteria, pulling him in for a quick hug instead, "I'm glad you remembered."

Alex nodded, before turning around and waving goodbye to Jack. He watched Jack wave back, before heading over to his table. Realizing it would probably be a good idea to find his own friends, Alex looked around for them, but could not see either Marissa, Sam, or Natasha. Their regular table was empty, and just when Alex was about to go back into the hallway to look in the classrooms for them, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He has received a text from Marissa letting him know that her and the other two girls were outside. With a relieved smile, Alex walked across the cafeteria, opening the double doors on the opposite wall, and heading outside.

It was fairly warm out, which Alex figured was why they were eating lunch outside today. As he walked along the building to the tree he had spotted with his friends lounging beneath it, Alex thought about how glad he was to have located the girls today. Being on your own sucks, but being on your own when you do have friends is just embarrassing. Of course, Alex could have totally gone back to Jack if his friends turned out to be busy, but he was nowhere as comfortable with Jack's friends as he was with Jack. There was something about Jack that was automatically inviting, something that drew him in, yet comforted him at the same time. Jack seemed fun, like he would not judge anything you did, and like he would like you as much as you liked him, too. Jack's friends were a lot less readable, though. From what Alex could tell, they were great guys, but he just did not know them well enough, yet, especially not enough to invite himself to their table.

Marissa, Sam, and Natasha were situated in their usual triangle, but Sam and Natasha moved away from each other to make room for Alex once they spotted him out.

"Welcome," Sam announced, "To our tree!"

"Your tree?" Alex laughed, catching Marissa shrug in response out of the corner of his eye.

"Yep, we've sat here every day that it's been nice out, since freshman year."

"Hmm."

"So, Alex, what'd you do this weekend?" Natasha asked, noticing she maybe should not have done that when her question earned a squeal from Sam and a gasp from Marissa.

"You had a date, right?" Marissa asked, and Alex nodded in reply.

"Yeah, I did. I told Jack, and he was really nice about it. We just hung out."

"And?" Sam pressed on, and Alex sighed in response.

"And we hung out the next day, too, and we kissed."

"Ooh!" Marissa chimed in, "Like once, or a lot?"

"Um," Alex chuckled, "Kind of a lot?"

"Congratulations!" Sam chirped, standing up and skipping around their circle, "You did it! You did it!"

"Sit down, Sam," Natasha laughed, and Sam huffed, before taking a seat.

"Tell us about it?" Marissa questioned with a smile.

A few hours later, and Alex was waiting on the bleachers once again. He was not alone this time, though. Sam had seen him heading out to the field, hand in hand with Jack, and caught up to Alex when Jack had parted ways with the slighter boy.

"Hey," Alex greeted, as Sam sat down beside him, "I didn't know you were coming."

"Yeah, one of the other guys invited me. I didn't know you were coming, either." Sam answered.

"Jack invited me."

"I know, Alex." Sam laughed, shaking her head. "Y'know, I mean, obviously he does this because he likes spending time with you, but I think he also does it because it's something he's good at, and he wants you to see that."

"You're right, he is good, though."

"See? It's working, he's like that."

"Well, if you are right, it's kind of cute. I'd still come if he were on the bench for the whole game, too, though."

"Gosh, you guys are cute."

Sam ended up teaching Alex a lot about the sport of soccer (She had no answer as to why it was not called football in America, though,) as the game flew by. He learned the rules of the game, and he learned what each player was expected to do. Upon hearing this information, Alex also became aware of the fact that Jack's position was especially important, as he was supposed to take care of most of the scoring. Sam made it clear that up front positions were not the only important ones, though.

Alex tried to listen to Sam as he focused on Jack, but he soon realized he was not very good at multitasking between the two things. He was mesmerized by Jack's confidence, how he moved, and how happy the game made him. He was ecstatic for Jack, but it only made Alex wish even more that he had a 'thing.' It had bothered him more and more recently, not having a specific hobby or talent that he could attach his name to for people to figure out who he was. Alex let that thought go for now, deciding he would maybe bring it up with Jack another day, as the older boy was nice to talk to about subjects like this. He tried to pay attention once more to both Sam and the game, but eventually it was all over. Sam was standing up to head home, and Jack was approaching Alex, still dressed in his uniform.

"Hey," Jack took Alex by the hand, something he noticed the American boy was quite fond of, "You're coming to Rian's party, right?"

"Rian's?" Alex asked, tipping his head to the side in question. He was almost positive he had heard Rian played basketball, not soccer.

"Yeah, Rian's. My parent's don't really like when I have too many people over anymore, so Rian sort of hosts them for me, now. There's been a couple incidents." Jack explained, tugging Alex back in the direction of the school, so he could get changed.

"Oh," Alex hummed, following slightly behind Jack.

"Yeah. I'm gonna get changed quickly, and we'll go, okay? It's still sort of light out, so we can walk from here."

"Okay."

Alex waited outside as Jack changed, and the other boy re-emerged shortly, ready to set off to Rian's house. They walked hand in hand, and Alex giggled once he noticed it again.

"What?" Jack asked, unsure of what was so funny.

"You like holding hands," Alex observed, "It's nice."

"Hmm," Jack thought, "I guess I do."

Alex's experience at his first party was a lot more different than he had thought it would be. Of course people were drinking, but it was not outrageous. A couple people were smoking, too, but it was not like people were offering him meth. Everyone was generally calm, and Alex was actually sort of enjoying himself. Currently, he was sitting beside Jack on a couch, and they were accompanied by Rian, Zack, and a few other guys from jack's team. Alex found it a little bit funny how no one made any comments about he and Jack, whether it be about how they were both boys, or how they were acting rather close in general. This obviously pleased Alex to no end, and he was glad he was able to relax into the arm Jack had thrown around him as he just listened to Jack and his friends talk. Occasionally, someone would ask him a question, and he would answer in the simplest way possible. He was never rude, though, and neither was anyone else. No one pressed on, even when they did ask innocent questions about Alex and Jack's relationship, and that made Alex smile as he responded to his peers. He could also see Jack grinning from where he sat, looking proud of Alex every time he spoke to someone new, as well as looking generally proud to be by Alex's side.

Notes

woah so i'm meeting all time low tomorrow

also don't forget to comment/vote/check out my other stories yadda yadda yadda

(another thing i haven't mentioned before -- this story isn't actually titled after the green day song lol)