“Rian! Zack! Holy shit, you guys, you won't fucking believe what's happened to me today!” I shouted in glee as I attempted to run through the halls of Dulaney High. My best friends—and only friends, for that matter—were waiting for me by my locker, as they usually were, since nine times out of ten, I arrived at campus after they did.

“Jeez, Jack, what the fuck's gotten into you? In case you've forgotten, you're supposed to be the dick of the group in the morning,” Zack pointed out as I skidded to a halt in front of them, Rian simply laughing in agreement. He was right, though; I'm the farthest thing from a morning person in the history of people far from morning persons, ever.

I flipped them off as I doubled over in hopes of regaining my breath a bit quicker, and my friends stopped their teasing to wait patiently for me to speak up.

“Any day would be great now, Jacko,” Rian said after a moment with a sigh and roll of his eyes.

I stood up with one, final deep breath and turned to my locker, quickly spinning in the code and nearly jumping in excitement as it clicked open on the first try. “Alright, so, this morning I woke up late, a—”

“You're bursting at the seams because you woke up late?” Zack cut in, a smirk spreading across his face because he knew damn well that he'd interrupted me before I could finish, and that I hated when he did that more than anything.

“As I was saying,” I continued, not letting his dick move get in the way of my good mood, “I woke up late, but my mom let me use her car today, and I didn't have to beg or promise that I wouldn't fucking die or anything. Then, when I got here, I nearly fell out of the car and there was a fifty dollar bill just lying right in front of my face, and no one was around. Like, how fucking cool is that? In the words of Justin Timberlake, it is my day of lucky!” I stuffed my books into my locker and slammed the door shut before beginning a small dance in the middle of the hallway, not even caring that people were staring, or that I was bumping clumsily into said people.

“That's great, Jack,” Zack said with an unamused smile just as the bell rang. Since his class was on the other side of campus, he didn't have time to even say goodbye before he was pushing through the crowds to try and get to the end of the hallway as quickly as possible. My and Rian's first period, English, was thankfully just about ten feet down from the spot we were currently stood at, so we decided to just lounge around until the very last second or so.

“So why do you think you've been so lucky today?” Rian questioned as he leaned against the locker next to my own, motioning for me to do the same.

I shrugged before answering with, “I don't know, man, but I'm not gonna let it go to waste.”

“Does that mean you're finally gonna get the balls and talk to Gaskarth?” he asked with a sly grin, reaching out to punch me lightly on the arm.

“Shut up,” I hissed, not needing the entire school to know about my crush on the most popular and attractive boy on campus, who also happened to be quarterback on the football team. Sure, everyone knows I'm openly gay, and that he's openly bisexual, but he's at the top of the social ladder. I'm somewhere between the bottom and the middle; not really here nor there, per se.

“What? It was just a question!” he whined dramatically, feigning hurt innocence.

“Yeah, and no one needs to know that I have a crush on Al—” I started, but was cut off when Rian started grinning widely.

“Hey, Dawson, I was wondering if you'd heard anything about practice later today?” a smooth, slightly accented voice asked from right beside me, and I felt my face turn pale.

Well, paler than it had turned before he'd started talking.

“Yeah, man, coach decided to not have it today. Oh, by the way, have you met my friend, Jack, here?” Rian questioned him nonchalantly.

“Can't say I've ever officially met him, no, but we have classes together. We're all in the same first period, remember? Sorry, I'm being really rude,” he excused himself, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him turn to face me. “Hey, I'm Alex,” he said, his hand coming into my view.

My heartbeat sped up a decent amount as I reached out to grasp his hand in my own, giving it a quick shake as I avoided his gaze. “Jack.”

“Uh, well, I need to go talk to Burgess about my grade, so I'll see you guys in there, right?” he asked a little awkwardly after a few moments of complete silence between the three of us, which made me feel a little bad. Why'd I have to go and be such a rude dick?

“Sure, see ya in a few,” Rian answered, and when I knew Alex had walked away, I looked up to be met with his patronizing gaze.

“What?”

He shook his head at me, a sigh passing through his lips. “I can't believe you; he's right there and all you say is your name. Come on, Jack, you're better at flirting than that. If that could even be considered flirting. Well, let's go, then; bell's gonna ring in a few.”

I nodded and followed closely behind, walking to the room and plopping in my seat before the bell could go off and Burgess would have yet another reason to hate my ass even more than she already does. I don't even know what the fuck I did to her, but it's whatever at this point. I just have to make it through this year and I'll never have to deal with her again.

“This week we're going to be starting a project on Animal Farm,” she started as soon as the bell had stopped ringing. “You'll be working with partners, and I've already chosen with whom you'll be working. First we have Rian Dawson and Ashley Purdy.”

I never actually got to know Ashley, but, from the few times we had talked, I knew he was a really nice guy. Ladies man, no doubt, but he wasn't a total fucking douche about it; he still respected women, and that's probably why he had the respect of so many other people. He was also pretty quiet, reserved and into oldish music, but cute, even by my standards.

Rian got up to move and sit by Ashley, where they started talking as if they'd been old friends; I guess that's just what happens when you put two overly-nice guys together. Not that being overly nice is a problem or anything.

Ms. Burgess dragged on with her list, which I partially blocked out, but then she got to my name and I kind of jumped to attention.

“Jack Barakat and Alex Gaskarth,” she said in that bored, disdainful tone she always uses. My eyes widened as I looked across the room to where Alex was already looking at me, a smile spread over his face. He got up and walked towards me, sitting in the unoccupied seat directly in front of me.

“Hi again,” he said with another smile, and from this close, I could make out every detail of his face perfectly.

“H-hi,” I stuttered back, mentally slapping myself because fucking seriously, Jack?

Just then, Burgess got to the end of her list. “So I want you all to make me a model of the farm at the end of the book. Be as creative as possible. This sheet of paper that I'm passing out tells you what is expected of you. You must work on this outside of school, so you'll need to figure something out. Right now, though,” she continued on, but as before, I tuned her out. Rian would just tell me what I missed later on.

The bell rang and I didn't say another word to Alex. He tried to talk to me, most likely about the project, but I just kept walking because my fucking nerves were getting the better of me. Maybe it's not my lucky day after all.

Classes continued on, and soon it was lunch. I walked into the cafeteria, about ready to walk towards where I saw Rian and Zack already sitting when someone called my name. I turned towards the sound of the voice and saw Alex waving me over. I froze momentarily before figuring I could at least try and not be an awkward, rude, dick around him, so I changed my course and headed towards him and his friends.

“Hey,” I said, forcing a smile as I made eye contact with him when all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and die.

“Hey, um, you can sit, y'know. I promise they don't bite,” he said, gesturing to his friends, who were sat on both sides of him as well as the table.

“Maybe I like biting,” I replied with a shrug as I sat down. As soon as my ass connected with the seat, what I'd said hit me full force and my eyes widened. “I didn't, I... Oh, my god, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said...” I choked out, the words not coming to me.

He simply laughed in response. “Maybe I like it, too,” he said with a wink. If my eyes could've literally popped from my skull at that moment, they would've.

All of a sudden, one of Alex's friends, Josh, scooted closer and threw his arm around my shoulders. “Who's this, then? I'm Josh, mate, and you are?”

“This is Jack,” Alex answered him, saving me from the pain of having to stutter out my name.

“Oh, is this the really cute one who you've liked forever and would never see anything in y—” Josh began, but Alex shot him the deadliest look I'd ever been witness to.

“If you don't shut the fuck up, Franceschi, I will personally chop your dick off and then you'll have to join the women's soccer team instead,” he growled, but Josh only laughed in response.

“I thought as much,” he said before turning to me again. “Anyway, Jack, mate, this one right here, he's a keeper. A dick, but a keeper nonetheless. Just don't talk about how much he likes you in front of you, and you'll be okay.”

I looked back over to Alex, who was blushing furiously.

“Just look at those big, brown eyes, they're so dreamy,” Josh teased. “Oh, and those perfect lips, couldn't you just kiss them all day, Jack? And his hair, don't even get me started! I'm getting all flustered just looking at him!”

Suddenly, Alex stood up from the table. “Uh, can I talk to you, Jack? Somewhere else?”

I simply nodded and peeled myself out of Josh's grip, heading towards where Alex had started walking off to. I didn't know what to think about the information I'd been given, and I wasn't sure if Josh had been lying or not. He very well could've been, but the blush coating Alex's cheeks definitely suggested otherwise. Thankfully, he didn't bring it up.

“So, what I wanted to talk to you about was the project we've got in Burgess. Uh, when would be a good time for you? I'm free whenever you are,” he said, and this time, he was the awkward mess.

I thought about it for a quick moment before remembering that, oh yeah, I kind of don't have a life. “My schedule's clear,” I said, “so if you wanted to start on it tonight or something, that'd be fine.”

“Great, so, uh, we can do it at yours, if you'd like? You can give me your number and text me the address or whatever, it doesn't matter,” and with those words, his blush deepened.

By now, we were walking by my locker. “Yeah, hold up, lemme just get a pen,” I said, turning to twist the combination into my locker. Apparently my lucky streak was still going strong because it opened with no troubles, as it had this morning. I grabbed a sharpie and held my hand out. He looked a little confused for a second before he put his hand in mine.

I put my number on the back of his hand and had him repeat it aloud to me once I was done so I knew he could read my messy scrawl. When I knew he had it, I threw the sharpie back into my locker and reclosed it. Just as I was about to turn back around, the bell rang. I faced him again just as the hall started to flood with other people.

“I'll text you later then, yeah?” he asked, grinning widely. I simply smiled back and nodded. “Well, bye, Jack.”

“See ya, Alex.”

---

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, but Rian and Zack were pretty excited when they found out that I gave Alex my number. I kept the fact that Josh kind of let it spill that Alex likes me because, let's be honest here, he was probably just being a dick or something.

It bothered me, though, so when Alex texted me asking for my address, I decided I'd ask him about it. He's been here for about an hour now, though, and I've yet to bring it up. We've basically just been discussing what we'd need and sketching out where things should go for our model.

Finally, I'd had enough wondering.

“Hey, um, Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“About earlier, with Josh... Was what he said true?” I asked timidly, feeling pretty weird about talking about it.

“Look, Jack, it's okay if you don't, y'know, have feelings for me or anything. I'm not gonna hate you for it or whatever, but yeah, it is true,” he blurt out after a few moments of silence, so quickly I almost didn't catch it, and his gaze avoided mine altogether.

I stared at him for a minute or so in shock. The only thing I managed to get out was a quiet, “Why?”

“Why what?” he pushed, glancing up at me.

“Why me?”

“Well, I can't very well help who I fall for, Jack,” he answered with a slight smirk, and wow, I pretty much melted on the spot. “So, yeah, I'm sorry about him, and I really hope this doesn't make things awkward between us or anything.”

I burst into uncontrollable laughter once he'd finished speaking, but stopped as soon as I saw how hurt he looked. Well, almost stopped. I was still giggling just the slightest as I said, “I've had a crush on you since, like, forever.”

“I... You... Wait, really?” he inquired, his face lighting up with hope.

I nodded in response as his grin grew before it fell just the slightest. “So, what do we do now?”

“I dunno,” I answered honestly with a shrug.

“Well, I like you, and you like me... and as far as I know, we're both single... so... I think we should, like, go out. I mean, if you want to,” he suggested.

“Does this mean you're my boyfriend?” was all I said, and he nodded, a grin spreading across his face. “Then yeah, I'd like to go out with you... and be your boyfriend. I feel like Ginny Weasley right now.”

He burst into a round of hysterics at that, and I blushed even though it was completely true. “Why do you feel like... like Gin... Ginny?” he gasped out as he wiped a few stray tears from his eyes.

“Because I'm going out with the popular guy who is like the captain of the biggest sport on campus who I've also had a crush on forever,” I answered, my blush deepening.

“You get cuter every fucking day,” he sighed, sounding as though we'd been together forever or something. “Oh, I should get going now, though,” he said as he jumped from his seat and gathered his things.

I followed him out of my room and downstairs, where he stopped to face me in front of the door. “So, I'm kinda really glad we got, y'know, partnered and shit, because we probably would've never had this talk if we hadn't... well, we probably wouldn't have had this talk if Josh hadn't said anything, so I guess I'll be nice and let him keep his dick... But, um... can I, uh... Can I kiss you?”

I didn't say anything, just leaned down that little bit to push my lips against his. I've imagined how his lips would feel against mine numerous times before, but the real thing is so much better. We kept it innocent and short, to my distaste, but he mumbled a quick, “I'll see you tomorrow, boyfriend,” against my lips, causing my stomach to do back flips.

He pulled away momentarily, but leaned in to press his lips to mine once more before he whipped open the door and practically ran to his car. I wasn't sure whether to gush over it, or if I should just laugh, so I simply watched him jump in his car, a smile that mirrored my own on his face as he backed out of the driveway and took off down the road.

I closed the door and leaned against it as I thought back through the day's events. Maybe now that Alex is mine, my lucky days will continue.

Notes

this story has like 50+ updates on mibba and i don't wanna have to repost them all here but i think it'll do good on this site lmao so u kno if u like it sub it and rate it and stuff so i know my efforts aren't totally useless pls n thnk
god this is so old and terrible oh my god it gets better i promise