Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

At Zack's house, he, Jack, and Rian did what they usually would, absolutely nothing. Sitting at the table with a bag of chips in the center, not even bothering to put them in a bowl, they talked lazily about school, sports, and whatnot. Eventually, they had gotten on to the topic of Alex.

"I'm assuming he's better now?" Zack asked, "From what happened last week."

"Yeah," Jack nodded, "He's good."

"Fuck," Rian sighed, "That must've been scary."

"Very," Jack confirmed, "I've always known it was serious, but it was definitely a reminder of how serious it actually is. I mean, I'm always careful with him, but now I'm trying even harder."

"What do you mean?" Zack questioned, and Jack smiled at the way his friend looked so intrigued. It made him glad how much his friends actually liked and cared about Alex.

"Dude," Jack chuckled, "Have I never talked about this before? I can't even kiss him if I think I might've eaten something he can't."

"How do you remember?" Zack raised an eyebrow, "Sounds tough."

"It was at first," Jack hummed, "But it's become natural now."

Deciding to change up the mood of their conversation, Rian spoke up. "It must have been terrible for you with him gone for an entire week. You haven't gone without sex for that long in, like, years."

As Zack cracked up at Rian's joke, Jack rolled his eyes. "Okay, first of all, no. Secondly, we-"

"'We haven't had sex,'" Zack laughed, interrupting his friend and mocking Jack's tone of voice. He and Rian were poking fun at the pace of Jack's relationship in comparison to his others. They thought it was great Jack found somebody he could finally be with for a while, but it was rather funny when they asked for updates and Jack told them with a frustrated expression that nothing had still happened.

"Actually, you dumbfuck," Jack intervened, "If you didn't cut me off, you would have heard. We did yesterday."

"Oh," Zack and Rian said at the same time, with Rian following up with "Nice,"

"What," Jack smiled, shaking his head, "You guys can talk about it until it becomes a real thing?"

"It's just a little weird," Rian admitted.

Nodding in response, Zack added, "Yeah. It's different."

"How come?" Jack frowned, and at this, Rian began to worry.

"No, no, no," he shook his head profusely, "Not because he's a guy. It's because we think of him as one of us. Like, imagine if we," he motioned between himself and Zack, "told you that we fucked. It'd be kind of weird, right?"

"I guess," Jack nodded, "I think I see where you're coming from."

"Usually when you tell us shit, it's mostly about some girl we don't know, so it doesn't matter. With Alex, though, he's our friend, so it almost seems kind of intrusive." Zack explained.

"Wait," Rian said, "he doesn't mind you telling us, right?"

"No," Jack laughed, "I'm pretty sure at least Marissa already knows, too." Deciding to let the jokes go, Jack asked Zack honestly, "How are you and her, by the way?"

Shrugging, Zack said, "I don't know. Fine, I guess. Somewhere just past friends, which is good with me right now."

"Good," Jack nodded, looking at Rian next. "Have your eye on anyone?"

"Oh, please," Zack chuckled, "Did you not see him back at the bakery?" When Jack shook his head, Zack continued. "Right, Alex was there, you weren't paying attention to anything else. Cool. Anyway, Rian was totally drooling over that new girl."

"Was not," Rian grumbled, "Fuck off."

"You definitely were," Zack confirmed, looking back at Jack. "He was."

"She's cute," Jack hummed, "You should go for it."

"Maybe," Rian agreed.

"You want me to get Alex to talk to Marissa for you?" Jack offered, but Rian shook his head.

"Nah," he said, "Not right now."

When Alex walked into English the next day, Sam was not in her seat. He looked around, keeping his eyes low so he would not actually make eye contact with Sam, and he was satisfied when he spotted her from across the room. She had moved seats, it looked like, which worked perfectly well for Alex. Max was still in the same area, though, so Alex headed over to him, dropping his bag by his feet and taking a seat.

"Hey," Alex greeted him, "How've you been?"

"Same as usual," Max shrugged, "What about you? It's been over a week since I've seen you here."

"I'm guessing nobody told you anything?" Alex asked, realizing how dumb his question was only after Max nodded. Of course nobody told him, the only other person he talked to was Sam, and she, too, had been distanced. "Oh. Well, I was in the hospital. It's no big deal, I'm fine now."

"What happened?" Max inquired, eyes squinting as he looked worriedly at Alex. Sam had been right last week, he definitely was cute, Alex decided. Before his head went into a spin, he told himself it was fine to think that. He did not even like Max in that sort of way. Alex reasoned that he was just nervous and touchy about the subject because of what Sam had done, regarding him supposedly cheating with Max. Realizing there was absolutely nothing going on, and that he could not let Sam ruin his friendship, Alex answered with a small laugh.

"Allergies," he smiled, "A whole lot of them."

"Allergies can put you in the hospital?" Max asked, and Alex nodded. "Allergies can kill me," he explained, "Dairy, specifically."

"That's terrible," Max sighed, "Wow, I've never met anybody like that before. Remind me never to offer you food, ever. I don't think I've read the ingredients on anything in years."

"Don't worry about it," Alex laughed, "I can take care of myself just fine."

"That's great," Max nodded. He noted that class was almost about to begin, and not wanting to have to catch Alex later, he asked, "Do you want to hang out after school?"

"Um," Alex bit his lip, "Jack's coming over to my house after school."

"Oh, don't worry about it, then. Maybe-" Max started, but Alex waved him off.

"No, no, it's fine. I'll ask him if you can come," Alex suggested with a smile, pulling out his phone to send Jack a quick text.

Alex Gaskarth, 12:14 PM: Can I invite Max after school too?

Jack responded only a few moments later, easing Alex's nerves about the situation.

Jack Barakat, 12:14 PM: Whatever you want babe

"Alright," Alex said, looking back at Max, "He said it's cool. Meet us outside the front doors, okay?"

After struggling through the rest of the school day, Alex was glad to see Jack waiting for him outside. Running up to him, he was pulled into a hug, before Jack's hand slipped down to take a hold of his.

"How was your day?" Jack asked, and Alex shrugged in response.

"Meh," he sighed, before he spotted Max and waved him over. "You guys ready to go?" Both of them nodded, and they made their way to Alex's house, conversation flat as Alex tried to figure out how to make Jack and Max more comfortable around each other. Once they reached his home, he invited them into the kitchen, and they all took seats at the table.

"Does anyone want anything to eat?" Alex asked, and Max shrugged while Jack nodded.

"Don't you have popcorn?" Jack asked, and Alex nodded, going into the pantry to fetch said snack. While he was doing so, Max tried to strike up a conversation.

"So," he mumbled, "I hear you play soccer?"

"Yeah," Jack nodded.

"Cool," Max responded, trying not to visibly cringe at the terrible conversation. He was grateful when Alex came back, falling into a rant about how much Sam had annoyed him in English that day. Max considered how Sam was across the room and had not done anything to Alex, but he let him talk, because Alex had the right to say whatever he wanted to about her at this point.

"I don't get her," Alex grumbled, "She just moves across the room, and whenever we make eye contact, she gives me this stupid expression before looking away. I don't even think she's sorry."

"Everything fine now," Jack smiled at his boyfriend, trying to get him to calm down. "You don't need to be mad about it anymore."

"I guess," Alex sighed, "I'm just sad that I ruined their group, is all."

"I don't think you ruined it," Max piped up, "You didn't do anything wrong, and I don't think they would want to be friends with someone like her, anyway."

"That's true," Alex considered, "And I'm still talking to both of you, too, which is good."

"Definitely," Jack nodded, "Now why don't we watch a movie or something?"

Max had to leave before dinner, while Jack stayed over at Alex's house to eat. This gave them some time to talk, and Jack had some nice things to say about Max.

"You're right," Jack grinned, "He is cool." Alex nodded in agreement, as Jack continued. "Except when he looks at you. I don't like that, but otherwise, he's cool." At this, Alex could only laugh.

Notes

yo! how's everyone doing this week?

i've been trying to work on things other than this story lately, and hopefully i'll have a part of my death of a bachelor jalex series up by the end of the week (AND HOPEULLY FINALLY OCEAN AVENUE NEXT WEEK).

let me know what you guys thought out this! thanks for reading, and thank you to Alltimegabi for commenting on the last chapter :^)