Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

The following Monday felt different for Alex. As soon as he arrived at school, something felt off. School was usually boring, but there was something about the aura surrounding his day that almost made him feel nervous. No one was where they were supposed to be; he had substitute teachers in both of his morning classes, which meant everyone sat in the wrong seats. Lunch even carried on the trend, and Alex was surprised to find only Sam at their table. Natasha was nowhere to be seen, and Marissa was sitting at Zack's usual table with said boy. Rian and Jack were missing from that location, and Alex could not see Rian anywhere, but he soon found Jack. Heading toward Sam, Alex decided to talk to Jack later, as his friend looked eager that someone was finally joining her.

"Hey, Sam," Alex sighed, sitting across from her. In no way did he want to sound down about anything, but it was hard to hide when he had had such a weird day. Marissa was texting Zack all morning, which he could understand, and Jack was completely gone from math, which he knew nothing about.

"Hi!" Sam greeted him in reply. She seemed awfully cheery, and Alex wondered about the reason behind it. "How's your day going?"

"Okay, I guess," Alex answered, his eyes focused behind her, on his boyfriend. "Pretty boring."

Sam nodded, before asking, "What're you looking at?" She spun around, and when she turned back to face Alex again, she had a look of sympathy on her face. "Have you talked to him today?"

"No," Alex mumbled, "He wasn't in math."

"Yikes," Sam laughed nervously, "Maybe it's true, then."

"What's true?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Jen, one of my friends who has a class upstairs during second period, told me she saw Jack and some other people putting up posters around the school. They're trying to start another co-ed soccer team for the spring, and they got permission to skip class. Apparently, when they were finished or whatever, someone saw Jack making out with this girl, Chloe." Sam said, and Alex was surprised how casually she could deliver him such news. Seeing his expression drop significantly, she continued. "It's probably just a rumor, though, so I wouldn't worry about it. You guys aren't that serious anyway, right? She's the blonde he's sitting with right now, if you're wondering."

Alex looked past Sam once again, taking note of the girl Jack was talking to. She was pretty, and even if what Sam told him was not true, seeing her talk to Jack made him want to either curl up and disappear, or run as far as he could from the situation. Along with her, there were some other girls at the table Jack was sitting at, too. Alex told himself it made sense, since he was probably talking to them about their upcoming soccer team, but of course, his mind was left to wander.

"I'll text him later," Alex decided, and Sam hummed in agreement.

"Sounds good. You don't want to talk to him now, though?" Sam asked. Alex took one last peek over her shoulder, and as he saw Jack laughing along with the girls at his table, he nodded his head.

"Yeah, it's fine." He was going to give his boyfriend the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it's not like they needed to be together every hour of every day. They both deserved space, including separate friends. Alex trusted Jack with this freedom, of course, but all throughout the rest of lunch, he could not keep his mind off of what Sam had told him. Just because he trusted Jack, did not mean he trusted whoever Jack was with.

Surprisingly, English seemed a lot more normal than the beginning of Alex's day had. His teacher was there, which he was thankful for, because it meant he could ask his questions about the test they had coming up next week. It was an interesting class, too, because their teacher welcomed a new student as soon as the bell rang. His name was Max, and he had curly, light brown hair.

"That's funny," Sam whispered to Alex, "You always see that kid at school named Max in T.V. shows, but never in real life. Now we have one!"

Alex chuckled in response, but quieted himself down when the teacher directed the new student to the seat behind him. It was the only seat left in the class, since Sam and Alex sat on their own in one of the back corners of the room. Alex tried to pay attention to the lesson as the class moved along, but it was hard when the boy next to him was constantly looking over at him, which he very much noticed. Pulling him out of his unsuccessful concentration, Sam slipped a tiny, ripped piece of paper onto Alex's desk, and he looked down to read it.

'He won't stop staring at you!'

Turning to look at Sam, Alex responded by mouthing, 'I know.' Watching as Sam scribbled out another note, Alex rolled his eyes fondly. He was not sure whether Sam was excited for herself, or for him, but whichever it was, it made sense since Sam was basically boy crazy.

'He's cute, right?'

Alex simply raised an eyebrow at his friend this time, turning back toward where the teacher was explaining their lesson. At this point, he could feel both Sam and Max giving him side glances, and it was the second time that day where he just wanted to disappear. Finally, their teacher was finished giving their lesson, and directed the class to do their work on their own. Instead, Alex pulled his phone out from his pocket underneath the desk, opened it up, and decided to text Jack. If his boyfriend replied normally, he would realize there was no reason to be worried.

Alex Gaskarth, 1:04 PM: Hi

Alex barely had to wait a few seconds before Jack replied.

Jack Barakat, 1:04 PM: Hey, baby! How's your day going?

Alex Gaskarth, 1:05 PM: Alright. I miss you

Jack Barakat, 1:06 PM: Miss you too. Come over tomorrow? I can't today

Alex Gaskarth, 1:06 PM: Sounds good, love

Alex was forced to look up from his phone when he heard the person to his left speaking to him.

"Boyfriend?"

Max was leaning over slightly to Alex's side, and Alex could tell his eyes had been trained to his phone, before they were looking up at him. They looked kind of like Jack's, but they were smaller, and they were not nearly as dark. They also did not look at him in the same way.

"Uh," Alex replied, trying to avoid eye contact. It was a hard question to answer, because he never knew how someone would react. Besides, this kid had no reason to be asking about his business, anyway.

"Sorry," Max could sense Alex's uncomfort, and he backed up. "I saw by accident, and I put two and two together. But, hey, maybe I'm wrong, and Jack is a girl's name. Just trying to make conversation."

"Oh," Alex mumbled, feeling sort of bad for not answering him earlier. Obviously, he was going to be no trouble, so Alex nodded. "No, you're right. He's my boyfriend."

"You're British," Max smiled, and Alex nodded once again. He certainly knew where he was from. The surprise other people got was understandable, but it got old after only a few weeks, all those months ago when Alex had arrived in America. "That's cool. You came here recently?"

"Yeah," Alex responded, "At the beginning of the year."

"Cool," Max hummed, "I'm from California."

"Why'd you move?" Alex questioned, finding himself surprised by doing so. At first, he has not cared about making conversation with Max, but now he was genuinely interested.

"My parents split up," he shrugged, "And my mom always wanted to live here. I decided to come."

"That sucks," Alex said, "I'm here because my dad got a job."

"Your first time in America?" Max asked, and Alex nodded. "Wow, must've been weird."

"It was," Alex agreed, "But I made friends soon enough, and they showed me around."

"Well," Max smiled, "If you're such a seasoned citizen now, why don't you show me around? We can hang out after school, if you're not busy."

Taking a moment to think about the offer, Alex weighed his options. Upon doing so, he realized there actually were no cons. He could never have enough friends, and this kid seemed nice enough. It was not as if he was cheating on Jack, because Jack hung out with girls and boys all the time. There was no difference. Alex had no interest whatsoever in Max that way, and he hoped he was just misinterpreting the few things Max said that were slightly flirty. Either way, as long as Alex held his ground, he would not be doing anything wrong. Besides, Jack was busy after school, too, and it was good that Alex was finding new stuff to do with new people.

"Sure."

Notes

ooh shit! what do you guys think? is jack guilty? what do you guys think of the new character, too? i'm really glad to finally be posting this chapter, because it's been pretty boring until now. i hope you all liked this part!

also, some other things: firstly, i won't be posting the week after next, and probably not the week after that, either. it sucks, because stuff it starting to actually happen in this story :^( i'll be seeing you all next week, though, for sure!

secondly, i've mentioned this before and it still doesn't affect you guys, but i'm officially done writing this story for the next little while! i have 49 chapters, and 50 is being saved for either ending it or just continuing it as usual. i'll be deciding that later in the year, maybe around may or june, when i've finished the other two things i'm going to start working on. again, i have chapters that'll last me until june, so it won't really matter for you guys.

thanks for reading, and thank you to tiredbydesign for commenting :^) <3