Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Jack was early to get to the front of the school where Alex and he had planned to meet at the end of their day. His last period teacher did not care much if everyone left a few minutes early, so he spent a couple more minutes digging his foot around in the snow as he waited for Alex. It had only been a couple days, but he already missed the younger boy more than he thought he would. Everyone else seemed to be nagging him about anything and everything, but Alex was always calm and reasonable, and he really needed to spend some time with someone like that.

Hearing a pair of feet crunching in the snow close to him, Jack looked up. "Hey, b- Oh, hi, Chloe."

"Hey, Jack," Chloe smiled, fixing the beanie on her head as she walked up to Jack.

"What's up?" Jack asked absent mindedly, craning his neck to the side to see if Alex was coming yet.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," Chloe mentioned shyly, and taking more interest in the subject, Jack focused his attention on her. She grabbed his hand, folding it with hers and stepping closer to him. "Somebody told me you were interested in me, and I was just wondering if that's true."

Scrunching his eyebrows together, Jack had a hard time containing his confusion. He was pissed off, but he knew this was not Chloe's fault. He had a feeling he knew who was behind this. "Uh," Jack said, biting his lip, "I'm in a relationship, Chloe."

"I know," she sighed, "But maybe you didn't want to be, anymore. Obviously I wasn't going to help you cheat, but I thought I'd ask. You're a nice guy."

"I'm sorry," Jack shook his head, stepping back from her. "You're nice, too, but whoever told you that was lying."

"Hmm," Chloe hummed, frowning. "I'll have to talk to her about that."

"You and me, both," Jack agreed, nodding his head. Chloe left soon after, and Jack was alone for a while more. Eventually, he checked his phone for the time, and was surprised to find out half an hour had already passed. He had no texts from Alex, which was awfully weird. Typing out a message of his own, Jack sent it, as he paced back and forth.

Jack Barakat, 3:31 PM: Hey, where are you????

Waiting fifteen more minutes, Jack was beyond worried about his boyfriend. He still had not received any texts, so he decided to head over to Alex's home. Knocking on the door a while later, Jack tried not to look defeated as Alex's mother opened the door.

"Hi, Jack." She smiled, "Are you looking for Alex?"

"Hello," Jack greeted her, "Yes, I am."

"He's not home right now, hon. I'll be sure to get him to call you when he is, alright?" Isobel assured Jack, and he nodded.

"Alright, nice seeing you," Jack mumbled, turning around and heading home.

When Alex finished his last class that day, he already had all of his stuff ready to go. He just had to stop at his locker quickly, before he was leaving the school and entering the frosty air outside. Looking to where Jack said he would be, Alex realized his boyfriend was not alone. Instead, he had a girl standing very close to him, and she looked to be holding his hand. They were talking about something that seemed pretty important, and of course, Alex's mind drew toward the worst things. Jack recognized the girl to be Chloe, they same girl Sam had warned him Jack had been messing around with. At first, he had not believed her one bit, but seeing the two together in such a close proximity to each other tied everything together. Was Jack trying to hide it from him? Is that why he seemed so concerned at the moment? Whatever it was, Alex did not stay to see the rest, fleeing in the direction of the forest, instead. How could Jack do such a thing without telling him? Had this been going on all along, and Jack was just really good at hiding it? Or, was Alex mistaken? Maybe Chloe was just a really good friend? It seemed unlikely, though, since what Alex saw matched up so perfectly with what Sam said.

Alex tried his best to hold his tears in as he stomped his way through the trees. As a result, everything became blurry, and he had to slow down in fear of tripping. More than anything, he was confused. Confused about how Jack felt, confused about the older boy's motives, and confused about their general lack of communication in the last few days. Wiping his eyes with his sleeve as he approached the clearing he knew by heart, Alex was stunned when he lowered his arm. Jack's and his beloved fort standing was replaced with a pile of trash, remnants visible of what once was. This only caused Alex to sob some more, and not knowing what to do, he knelt down beside the wreck. Sifting slowly through the remains, he fished out a couple items he thought he and Jack would like to keep, shoving them into his pockets before standing up again. Kicking at a piece of a tree branch half heartedly, Alex decided it was time to go home. The only person he wanted to tell about this was Jack, and he did not want to think about Jack at all.

"Marissa?" Alex spoke quietly into his phone a while later. He had made it home in one piece, and was now cuddled up in his bed with a permanent lost look in his eyes. "Are you busy right now?"

"Hi, Alex!" Marissa responded cheerily, which brought out the smallest smile from Alex, just like it usually did. "No, I'm not. What's going on?"

"Do you want to come over?" Alex sniffed, trying not to make it seem too serious. "I have something I want to talk about."

"Sure," Marissa smiled from her own end of the phone. "I'll be there soon."

Alex was too lazy to go get the door, so he shouted half-heartedly for his mother to let his friend in instead. He threw in an apology for good measure, but it did not quite matter, as Isobel could tell something was up.

"It's nice to see you again, Marissa," Alex's mother greeted, then speaking in a lower voice, "I don't know what's going on, but thank you for coming over. He won't talk to me."

"It's not a problem," Marissa nodded, before heading upstairs to Alex's room.

Knocking on Alex's door softly, Marissa was surprised when it swung open immediately, and she was being wrapped in a tight hug.

"What's wrong?" Marissa hummed calmly, pulling back from Alex as he sniffed once again. She had been right when she had heard him sniffling on the phone, he had definitely been crying.

"It's Jack," he sighed, slumping down onto the floor next to his bed. Marissa followed him, and joined him where he sat.

"What'd he do?" Marissa prompted, which caused Alex to frown.

"A couple days ago, Sam told me someone told her Jack was making out with some girl during second period. Obviously I didn't think it was true, but I saw him with the same girl after school, and they were holding hands and standing too close when Jack was supposed to be waiting for me. I didn't want to talk to him, so I went to that fort in the forest we built that I told you about, but it was completely destroyed." Alex said in a rush, resting his head on Marissa's shoulder when he was finished.

"Oh, Alex, I'm so sorry." Marissa sighed, "Jack really doesn't seem like the type. Have you checked your phone?"

"Yeah," Alex nodded, "He texted me, and my mom told me he came by."

"Maybe there's a misunderstanding," Marissa suggested, "Why don't you want to talk to him?"

"I'm just really upset," Alex explained, "About the fort, too."

"That sucks," Marissa sighed slowly again, "Who do you think did it? You don't think it was him, do you?"

"What if he's trying to tell me something?" Alex said softly, and Marissa's face fell.

"I don't think he'd do something like that to you, Alex," she said, shaking her head. "It's worth asking about. Promise me you'll talk to him when you feel better?"

"Yeah," Alex sniffled, "Okay. I will."

"Good," Marissa mumbled, before pushing Alex upright. "Let's do something, yeah?"

"I'm hungry," Alex said, realizing he had not eaten much that day, too occupied with Jack. "I didn't even eat after school."

"Of course you are," Marissa laughed, shaking her head.

Notes

hey friends! i'm back! i'm sorry i left at such a bad time in the story, but let me know what you think! there will be a new part of Death of a Bachelor up soon, too. :^) meant to update last week, but i've just been so busy. there'll be a new part up in a couple of days, though!

also!!!! i've made an instagram! leave your username in the comments, or follow me and i'll follow you back. it's @jalexpolice

thanks for reading!