Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

"Alex-"

"What?"

"Alex."

"Okay. What?" Alex asked again, letting his head fall onto the pillow beneath him as he looked up at Jack. He was a bit disgruntled by the interruption.

"I came here to talk to you. Not to make out with you," Jack remarked, laughing lightly.

"You kissed me first," Alex pointed out, turning his head to the side in annoyance. Jack kissed his cheek lightly, nudging it with his nose as he replied.

"C'mon, baby. Please?" Jack said, moving to lay down beside Alex as the blond sighed. Contrary to his vocalization, though, he cuddled up closer to Jack, fitting himself nicely against his chest. He could feel lips touching his hair momentarily, a kiss being placed on top of his head before Jack spoke again. "I missed this."

"Me too," Alex admitted in a calm voice, "I don't know why we let that last for more than a few days, let alone a couple weeks."

"I don't know either," Jack agreed. His whisper was ever so light, the tone matching the sincerity of his words. Alex did not quite know how to react to what he was saying. "But I didn't want to bother you. I didn't even know if you wanted to be together still."

"Of course I did." Alex said, the words somehow coming out strong and true in the low voice he was also speaking in. Muffled into his shirt, Jack almost could not hear his boyfriend. Almost.

"Lately, it doesn't feel that way." Jack continued, and Alex's chest clenched at the words.

"I'm sorry," Alex said, a bit louder this time. "I didn't mean to, Jack."

"I know you didn't," Jack swallowed, "That's my point. We let it get this way, and you didn't even mean to. And then when it was all over, you didn't do anything about it. The trip starts tomorrow, Alex. What if I didn't decide to come here tonight? What would have happened?"

"I really don't know," Alex murmured. "I have no idea."

"I just want to know why." Jack said simply.

Alex cleared his throat. "I don't want to make it sound like it was your fault," he began, "Because it wasn't. But I really didn't mean to, either. I just felt like you were annoyed by me. Annoyed by who I was with and how I was spending my time. I felt like you didn't want to deal with it. In reality, it really hasn't been much time, but it felt like a long time to me, trust me. I just didn't want to bother you. I'm glad you came over, because you're much braver than I am."

"You've never annoyed me," Jack bit his lip. "I don't like hearing that. I just got a little frustrated, is all."

"I don't understand it," Alex said. He waited for a reply, but when Jack had still not responded after about half of a minute, he looked up at the older boy. Jack had tears running down his cheeks, and Alex could feel the heart in his clenching chest finally break at the sight. "Don't cry," he murmured, throwing his arms around Jack and pulling him close. "Why are you crying? You're going to make me cry."

"He likes you," Jack sniffled, "He's in love with you, Alex."

"No he's not," Alex brushed off the comment, but Jack was not having any of it.

"Yes, he is." He said angrily, and Alex jumped at the sound, still cuddled around Jack.

"Jack, shh. It's midnight." Alex reminded him calmly.

"Sorry," Jack said softly. "But I know he is, and imagine if you were me. Imagine if that's what you believed. How would you feel?"

"Terrible," Alex admitted.

"Exactly." Jack hummed.

"I love you, though." Alex said.

"Do you?" Jack asked, and Alex furrowed his eyebrows.

"Don't doubt me." He grumbled snarkily, and Jack smiled into him.

"I love you, too," he said, "So much."

"I know," Alex nodded, backing up to look Jack in the eyes. He had tears forming in his eyes now, too, and they laughed at each other when they caught sight of the other's blurry eyes. "I understand how this could be bothering you now. Please don't let it. I still think you're wrong, but I promise you have nothing to worry about anyway."

"Yeah," Jack shrugged, "I'm just being a dick, I'll try to stop. I bet he thinks I hate him too now. Not that I care."

Alex rolled his eyes, but grinned regardless. "I'm just really glad you're here. We have to be at the airport tomorrow and I'm not even done packing, but I think this is more important than forgetting something stupid."

The next day, Jack spotted Alex's parent's car as he and his own parents were searching for a parking spot at the airport. Once they stopped, Jack gathered his luggage and made a beeline for Alex's vehicle, which happened to be parking in the opposite direction of the entrance. Oh well, he was excited. His parents would just wait for him to catch up again.

"Hey," Jack said, as Alex stepped out of the car. He looked surprised to see Jack, but accepted the kiss that was offered to him as the taller boy stepped closer, tugging on the waistband of Alex's sweatpants to pull him in. Alex's parents made an appearance just as they separated, and hand in hand, the pair made their way into the airport with their mothers and fathers. When they found the meetup spot, Jack could see a group of parents, as well as his group of friends, and a teacher who seemed to be checking off names. They each signed in individually with their parents, and then walked over to their friends. Jack was kind of glad he and Alex came in together, because now Alex was his for the trip from the start. He would have been anyway, but Jack was feeling like being dumb about it. Rian, Zack, Marissa, Natasha, and Max all greeted them, and Jack thought about how lucky going on a trip to Europe with his best friends- and Max- made him. Except not really Max.

From then on, everything moved quite swiftly. From saying goodbye to their parents to going through security, the group stayed excited and alive, until they finally found themselves on the plane. That was when everyone realized they would be stuck there for almost half a day. Their seats had been ordered in alphabetical order, but when the group found their section, Jack looked at Rian. "Dude."

"Yeah?" Rian asked, a little confused. When Jack nodded behind him at Alex, though, he rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever, man. It means I get the window seat." When he saw Zack looking longingly across the isle at where Marissa sat on Alex's other side, though, he sighed deeply. "Actually, you all can just slide down, Zack can have the end seat, and I'll take his. I'm such a great friend." Rian mumbled all of this as he made his way out of the section, nodding at all of the wide grins he was receiving from his friends. Taking his seat next to Natasha, he greeted her, as well as Max, who sat on her other side.

On the other end of the isle, Jack whispered to Alex. "I'm kind of glad he's all alone on the end."

"Don't be a dick." Alex warned him, narrowing his eyes. "You said you would stop that."

"Right," Jack laughed, "Sorry, 'Lex."

After a few hours of movie watching, Alex and Marissa both found themselves awake between their sleeping boyfriends.

"Alex," Marissa said quietly, "When did you and Jack make up? I thought you were fighting, but you guys walked in holding hands earlier."

"He came over last night," Alex admitted, "It was kind of unexpected, but we had a good talk."

"What went wrong?" Marissa questioned. Alex leaned forward to look down the row, taking note of the headphones in Max's ears before answering.

"He thinks Max is in love with me. I don't think so, but he's taking it really rough. We just kind of agreed to disagree last night." Alex explained.

"Hm," Marissa hummed, "I can see it."

"Not you too," Alex sighed.

"I'm not saying anything," Marissa said defensively, before moving off of that part of the topic. "It's a good thing he decided to come to you last night, I guess."

"Yeah. He basically hates Max now, but I think he always has. At least he and I are all good now, though. His surprise visits always help out with that." Alex chuckled.

"You're so lucky that you can do that. If I did that with Zack, my parents would kill me." Marissa sighed.

"Well," Alex smiled, "My parents didn't really know. I mean, Jack stayed over another time and they didn't kill me, but my mom was a little perturbed."

"Still, that's a lot better. Plus, you guys get to share a room on this trip." Marissa added, and Alex decided he could give her that one.

"Alright, true. That does suck for you." He said.

"I wonder if the teachers care if you guys are dating or not," Marissa wondered, "What could they do about it?"

"I don't even think they know," Alex said, eyeing the two adults who sat a couple rows behind them, before looking back over at his boyfriend. He brushed Jack's hair out of eyes softly as he spoke again. "And I'd like to keep it that way."

Notes

!!! :-) !!! :-) !!! I ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING !!!

updates still won't be as frequent, maybe every other week now, but i'm getting excited about this story again. let me know your thoughts on this chapter!

thanks to Alltimegabi for commenting <3