Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

"Have you talked to your parents yet?" Alex asked Jack, trailing behind him. They were walking home after school, and since it was nearing the end of March, it was getting warmer. Alex was tired, and the temperature really was not helping.

"Not yet," Jack answered quickly, "Do you want to go to the park instead?" They had plans to go to Jack's house, but since the weather was nice, he suddenly changed his mind.

"Sure," Alex nodded, "But why not?" It had been a while since he brought up the whole trip, a week or two, more specifically. He thought Jack was more excited about it.

"I don't know. We should go get get drinks, it's way too hot." Jack offered, stopping to turn around to look at Alex. Admittedly, he laughed right away, which only made Alex more irritated.

"Fuck off, I'm tired." He grumbled, and Jack just smiled.

"Do you want me to carry your bag?" Jack asked, and Alex shook his head.

"No, it's fine. You have your own, you don't need to carry mine." Alex said, taking the opportunity to catch up to Jack. Jack took his bag off of his back anyway, and Alex rolled his eyes, but he let him carry it. It honestly was a lot easier to walk that way. After stopping at a gas station to get some drinks, the two boys made their way to the park, dropping their bags in the shade under the tree. Alex followed Jack as he lay down on the grass, and they used their backpacks as pillows.

"You never answered me," Alex began, turning to Jack. "We really need to talk to our parents soon."

"I know," Jack mumbled, "You look really cute today, by the way."

"Stop changing the subject," Alex said, narrowing his eyes.

"Okay, grumpy," Jack said, sticking his tongue out at Alex.

"I don't want 'grumpy' to become a thing," Alex pouted, rolling back onto his back.

"Then stop being so grumpy all the time," Jack reasoned, shuffling closer to Alex and resting his head on his chest. Eyes closed, he smiled as he felt Alex lift his hand to play with his hair. Jack liked when Alex did stuff like this, he felt like he took care of Alex so often, it was just nice to physically be in his arms sometimes, too.

"You're changing the subject again," Alex whispered, "Stop being dumb and tell me what's going on."

"Why do you have to ruin all of our best moments?" Jack laughed, and Alex scrunched his eyebrows together.

"When have I ever done so?" He asked, continuing to play with Jack's hair as he tried to recall any moments.

"The first time we had sex, maybe? You cried, remember?" Jack said, trying not to laugh as he felt Alex tense up.

"I'm sorry, okay? I-" He started, but Jack did not bother to let him finish.

"I'm just messing with you, sweetheart. It's all fine. I guess I just don't want to tell them, because they're going to need to ask me questions. About us, I mean." Jack finally answered, to Alex's relief.

"You're still worried about that?" Alex asked, trying his hardest to sound like it did not hurt him just a little bit.

"Yeah," Jack sighed, "I mean, obviously they know we're together, but it's just going to be weird when they realize they're going to have to ask me about how we're going to room and stuff. I don't want to hear my mom ask me if we're still together and if I think we should be sharing a room or not, and I don't want to see the way my dad ignores it when she says it."

"I'm sorry, love," Alex murmured, "You're going to have to deal with it eventually, though, huh? Maybe it's better you do it now."

"I guess so." Jack agreed. "Maybe we can go talk to them in a bit."

"Good idea," Alex confirmed, "Then I can talk to my parents tonight."

"Why haven't you asked yet? You're not worried about it, too, right?" Jack asked, shuffling off of Alex, as they rolled over to face each other again.

"I was just waiting until you did," Alex shrugged, "And no, I'm not. My mom asks me about you a lot, actually."

"Really?" Jack chuckled, "About what?"

"Anything," Alex smiled, "I like that she cares so much. It's like she was never even somewhat disappointed, because now she gets to do the whole 'talking about boys' thing that she would've thought she only could've done with a daughter."

"So you don't think it's going to worry her then?" Jack asked, and Alex shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. I mean, she lets have sleepovers, and I'm almost positive she knows we're having sex. Thankfully, she hasn't asked about it yet." He explained.

"Hopefully she won't," Jack smiled.

"She probably will," Alex shrugged, "Whatever."

"Do you want to go to my place now?" Jack asked, and Alex thought about it for a second.

"Nah, we should stay here for a bit." He decided, moving closer to Jack. Kissing his lips softly, he added, "Then we'll go."

As Alex climbed on top of him, practically gluing their faces together, Jack attempted to mumble, "We're in public, Alex." All he got in response was a giggle.

Later on, at Jack's house, Alex was vividly reminded of the day Jack came out to his mom. He was hesitant as they entered the house, and Alex took his hand to calm his nerves. Jack found his mom upstairs, on the way to put his and Alex's things in his own room. Taking a quick trip to said destination, the two boys came back quickly into the hallway again, Jack's hand still grasping Alex's. "Mom?" Jack said, as she was fixing something in the closet, "Can I ask you about something?"

"Sure, Jack," Joyce looked at her son expectantly, and Alex squeezed Jack's hand. Jack knew it was not a big deal at all, but when it came down to it, he knew his parents were the most important thing to him, and he did not want to lose them.

"So, there's this school trip," Jack began, "To Paris, this year. It's at the beginning of the summer, and I was wondering if I could go. I'd work the rest of the summer to pay you back. Alex is thinking about going, too."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Jack's mother hummed, "I'll need to learn more about it, and we'll have to talk to your father, but you can let the teachers in charge of this know that we're interested."

"Cool," Jack grinned, "Thanks, mom." Leading Alex back to his room, Jack was stopped when his sister walked out of her room.

"I couldn't help but overhear-"

"Of course you couldn't," Jack interrupted.

"Shut up. You want to go to Paris?" May finished, and Jack nodded. "Wow, I really wish I had friends that wanted to go, it's good that you have Alex."

"Some of our other friends might come, too," Jack added. They had not talked about it much, but Marissa, Natasha, Zack, and Rian were all interested in the trip, too.

"Well, good luck. It'll be fun," May said, then turning to Alex, "Nice to see you!" Alex smiled in response, glad that May was so hospitable even though he was at their house practically every day. Taking Alex into his room finally, Jack shut the door, and lay back onto his bed.

"I'm tired."

"Me, too," Alex replied, taking a seat next to him.

"Lay with me," Jack whined, tugging on Alex's shirt. Alex did as he was asked, laying down next to Jack, but on his stomach.

"Do you think Paris is as cool as everyone makes it out to be?"

"I think it'll be as cool as we make it out to be," Jack offered. In all honestly, he was not sure.

"That's lame," Alex snorted, "But it is going to be pretty nice, regardless. I'm going to Paris with my first boyfriend."

"You're so cute," Jack smiled, and Alex leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

"Never thought I'd be such a world traveller at sixteen." Alex grinned.

"You have to take me back with you to England one day," Jack suggested, and Alex laughed.

"Hopefully we'll get to that point, Jack."

"Agreed. So, what do you want to do now?" Jack asked. Alex shrugged in response.

"Maybe I'll go home. I have a lot of homework." He decided, raising an eyebrow at Jack as his boyfriend poured at him in response.

"You can do it here," Jack offered, and Alex shook his head with a smile.

"We suck at actually getting work done together, and you know it. Maybe I'll have time to ask my parents tonight, too." Alex explained. Now that Jack's mother seemed to be on board with their vacation plans, he knew she would back him up in convincing his own mom.

"Okay, that's true," Jack laughed, "I'll see you tomorrow, then." With that, Jack walked Alex to the door, and Alex spent the majority of his semi sweaty walk home thinking of how he would start this conversation with his mother.

Notes

hello friends! i'm a little late, but better than never. sadly, i haven't written at all this past week- all summer has me doing is working and sleeping :^( hopefully my plans to write a ton aren't lost, and this is just me making up for lost lazy time during the rest of the year. it's crazy, i usually have about ten of these chapters stocked up, and am working on my other two stories, but i only have four of these written now, and i've been doing nothing! ahh! crossing my fingers that things pick up soon. if all goes well, horseshoes will continue, and ocean avenue and death of a bachelor won't die out. so, how are your guys' summers going? finished all your exams? done anything fun? i've gone to the pool and beach and stuff like that, and i'm getting my last report card tomorrow- my last exam was a week ago, though. being free is nice. thanks for reading this super long rant, and thanks to SophieGaskarth, Costati, Alltimegabi, and piercethealltimemiceandmen for commenting on the last part :^)