Can't Help Who I Fall For

“Alright, Gaskarth, that’s enough for today,” coach said after I’d finished my fifth set of laps. Everyone else on the team had left, and I’d been kept behind as a punishment and a way to make up for my missed practices. I probably would’ve been able to leave sooner, too… if I hadn’t spent my time blowing kisses to Jack in the bleachers and not glaring when he and Josh would laugh at something. I didn’t think any of it had to do with me, but not even a week ago and my boyfriend was quite obviously intimidated by my best friend.

I wasn’t jealous. I was actually really glad that two of my favorite people had gotten along with each other so quickly. I was just—

“We can’t afford to not have you and Sykes on this team,” coach was saying, pulling my attention from where Jack was laughing so hard up on the bleachers that he had to lean himself against Josh. “I had to put my ass on the line to keep both of you. One more suspension from either of you and there’s nothing I can do. You want to stay quarterback of this team, don’t you?” he questioned, placing a large hand on my shoulder as a way to get me to hold eye contact.

“Yeah, of course. There’s not much else I’d rather be doing, sir,” I assured him, doing my best to keep my focus on his face.

“Now don’t worry—when Sykes gets back in a few days, he’ll hear the same story. I heard that he started it, so he’ll probably get it a little worse than you, if that makes it any better. I just need both of you boys to realize that even though you’re the quarterback and he’s the captain, that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to your actions. Do you understand, son?”

A nod, a “Yes, sir,” and then he was waving me toward the locker room as a dismissal.

I tried to get either Jack’s or Josh’s attention by frantically waving my arm in the air as I jogged towards the locker room, but they were so consumed in each other that they didn’t notice me.

That was perfectly fine, though.

There was nothing wrong with that.

I didn’t mind at all.

It definitely wasn’t all I could think about as I took a quick shower, changed into my regular clothes, and gathered the rest of my things.

The sun was finally just starting to go down far over the horizon as I walked back outside, sending a wave to coach as he walked past me to turn off the lights and lock the place up. Jack and Josh were still chatting away up in the bleachers (seriously, hadn’t they run out of things to say to each other by that point?), and neither noticed as I trudged my way up the stairs to the right of them.

When I was only a few feet away and they still hadn’t noticed my presence, I ducked down. It was almost on hands and knees that I slithered my way up until I was behind Jack, hidden behind his slim body enough that Josh hadn’t seen me as I crept closer.

As soon as I knew that the distance was small enough between us, I lunged toward Jack and wrapped my arms around his waist, pushing my wet hair into the side of his face and rubbing it against his skin. He shrieked at first, causing Josh to jump from beside him, but it wasn’t too long before they were both laughing at what I’d done.

Jack was still wriggling in my hold, thin arms trying to push me away as I buried my face in his neck, nipping at the smooth skin underneath my mouth.

“How did you like watching practice?” I asked after another few moments, hooking my chin over his shoulder and scooting forward so that our bodies were a little closer together.

“It was a little boring when it was just you running,” he answered honestly with a shrug. “I don’t really like football all that much either, so I didn’t understand what was going on when you were all split up and playing against each other. It’ll probably be more fun when there’s a full crowd and people cheering to let me know when I have to cheer, too.”

“I’ll make sure to teach you all about football,” I vowed, kissing at his damp cheek before he turned and puckered his lips for a more proper one.

“That’s okay,” he replied, shaking his head before gesturing to my best friend. “Josh already said he would. He already started pointing things out. He promised to teach me more about soccer, too. Maybe you could teach me about baseball or something? Oli’s brother is on that team. Ramsay is, too, right?”

I grit my teeth at the mention of Oli (even though the focus was more on his brother, a guy whom I actually had no qualms against), but I nodded my head and answered, “Yeah, Ramsay’s on the team. I’ll bring you to a game one night, alright?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he agreed, leaning back into me. He seemed much more comfortable with being around and touching me than he had the week prior. It wasn’t a bad thing, just kind of confusing. I liked it, no doubt, but it didn’t really make any sense. How could he get more comfortable with me if I wasn’t even around?

Shaking the thought from my head, I pressed a kiss to the back of Jack’s neck and nudged him off of me. Standing to my feet, I stretched my sore muscles out—giving out a highly pornographic groan in the process—and reached my hand out to help my boyfriend to his feet as well.

Josh followed suit, and we all began the walk out to the front of the school building, our cars (including the coach’s) the only three left in the lot. It felt great to see my own car again for the first time in over seven days, and I could only pray that the principle had stuck to her promise and no one had managed to siphon the gas while it was unattended.

Goodbyes were exchanged between Jack and Josh as well as Josh and myself before my best friend clambered into his vehicle and sent us the bird, peeling out of the parking lot before we were even able to respond to it.

With Jack and I being the only two left in the lot, my fingers tightened around his, pulling his body a little closer to mine and directing us over to my beat-up, silver Kia. As soon as the automobile was reached, I was tugging at Jack’s hand until he was stood in front of me and pushed him up against the side of the car, locking him in place with my hands on the metal at either side of his slim body.

“So,” I started, pausing to pucker my lips and get a kiss—I’d really gone back on my whole ‘I want you to make the first move every time, Jack’ thing, hadn’t I?—before leaning in to rub his jaw with the bridge of my nose. “My dad wants me home, like, right now. I could bring you to your house real quick if you want, but I have a feeling that you kinda don’t wanna be there anytime soon, right?”

Jack sighed but nodded his head to my guess, tilting his head to the side until it could rest comfortably against my own.

“I figured as much. You wanna spend the night with me? My parents won’t mind, I have clothes that will definitely fit you, and I’ll even get you breakfast in the morning. I know we’re still really early in this, but there’s a guest bedroom down the hall from mine that’s honestly better than mine, and I don’t think our relationship status should really get in the way of me helping you out. If anything, our relationship status should just be more a reason to help you out. Kinda like how a friend would help a friend, but we get to kiss each other and stuff. It’s loads better.”

“I don’t have to share a bed with you?” he asked after a few moments’ thought. It kind of hurt, in all honesty, but I understood that he still had some hesitance about doing certain things with me, whether it was behind closed doors or not. Earlier that afternoon had only proved that.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” I swore, pulling back so that he could see just how serious I was being.

He seemed to deliberate my words for another minute or two before he was biting at his bottom lip and nodding his head somewhat reluctantly. “Lemme just call my mom and let her know that I’m not gonna be coming home tonight,” he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone and wave it around in front of my face.

I nodded and stepped aside so that he could take care of whatever he needed to. After digging through my backpack while he talked on the phone and paced here and there on the pavement, I finally found my key and unlocked the doors, opening the back door and tossing my bag inside.

Jack appeared by my side a few moments later, his phone halfway back into his pocket and his hands fumbling to get his bag from off of his back to throw it into the back with my own.

“So what’d you tell her?” I inquired as I reached out to help him, pulling it off of his body slowly and them placing it on the ground behind the driver’s side.

“I told her that, um… that I had a p-project with Rian and th-that I was gonna stay with him for the night so that we-e could get a good head start on it. I don’t think I’ve ever l-lied to her before. I mean, maybe when I w-was younger about stupid things-s, but n-not for a long ti-time,” he confessed, teeth still chewing at his bottom lip as he looked at me, creases pulling his forehead together.

“Is that why you’re stuttering?” I asked gently, not wanting him to get self-conscious about it. I thought it was pretty damn cute, if I was being honest.

Instead of answering me verbally, though, he merely blushed under the brightening streetlights just outside the school’s front gates, gaze moving to the ground between us before giving a barely-there nod.

“Hey, come on,” I cooed when he didn’t show any immediate sign of just brushing it off and moving forward with our plans. “You need a break from being there, angel. That’s all this is, okay? It’s just a little break. Tomorrow you’ll feel a little better, and you’ll be able to go home and not worry so much all the time. You’re not going to miss everything important if you’re away from your house and parents for one night, I promise. It’s also not going to kill your mum because you told a white lie. We all do it at some point, and it’s not like it was something life-threatening or anything.”

“What if s-she decides that you’re n-n-not good enough for-or me?” he mumbled in response.

“Well, clearly I’m not good enough for you as it is,” I retorted, reaching both arms out to grip gently at his hips when he scoffed. “I’m serious. You’re, like, the full-package deal, and I’m just plain, ol’ Alex Gaskarth.”

Jack scoffed louder at that, shaking his head and disagreeing, “You’re fucking the Alex Gaskarth, and I’m just Jack Barakat.”

“I still don’t understand why everyone feels the need to put the word ‘the’ in front of my name,” I said in a weak attempt at a distraction.

It seemed to work since my boyfriend shrugged. “It’s, like… you’re important and popular and just… you matter to almost everyone in this godforsaken place, whether they’d like to admit it or not.”

“Do I matter to you?” I inquired, throwing him a quick curve ball.

“What do you mean do you…? Of c-course you matter to me,” he hurried out, wide eyes widening just a little bit more.

“Well, you matter to me,” I said, pulling our bodies close together, basking in the warmth his body radiated against mine, especially the feeling of our foreheads leaning together, our noses rubbing against each other’s, and his hands curling gently around the back of my neck, “and I think that’s the only thing that should matter.”

Notes