When I got out of my last exam and saw Jack going through his locker at the end of the hallway, I realized that I felt significantly better than I had in a while.

Well, excluding how I felt when I’d made Jack come, of course, but that had definitely been different.

I watched from the end of the hall I was in, merely waiting for my boyfriend to close his locker and for there to be a big enough break in the crowd. As soon as the opportunity arose, I secured my backpack on my left shoulder and ran full speed at him.

Jack looked up, probably having been alerted by the heavy sound of my footsteps, just before I could reach him. If anything, it just made lifting him into the air and throwing him over my right shoulder as I continued moving that much easier.

“Alex!” he gasped out, which was soon followed by a round of his adorable and perfect laughter. A few people around us turned to stare at what I was doing, but I didn’t stop running until I’d pushed my way through the front doors and stepped out into the cold, afternoon air.

My boyfriend was still giggling when I set him onto the concrete in front of me, his dark eyes sparkling and his grin stretched wide. His arms immediately wrapped around my neck. I let my hands grip at his hips for a moment before they slid around until my forearms were pressed against his lower back, pulling our bodies together.

“You’re so fucking cute,” was all I could think to whisper. Those words were simple, and they’d sure as hell been said often in the time that we’d been together, but it still caused him to bite his lip and look away. When his eyes met mine again, I leaned forward to press our cold lips together.

“You’re cuter,” he mumbled against me.

Pulling away from him just a bit, I quirked an eyebrow in question. “Are we really gonna do this whole ‘who’s cuter’ thing? Because I think we both know that there’s no way you’d win. None of that ‘agree to disagree’ stuff, either. I could just eat you up,” I teased.

Then, Jack’s eyes glinted—something I wouldn’t have expected from him. He didn’t say much in response, just a quiet, “Yeah?” to which I gave a nod.

A shake of the head was all he did in return before he was moving his arms to wrap them around my own waist and leaning his head against my shoulder. The shiver that racked my spine when his freezing nose pressed to the skin of my neck just had him letting out another huff of a chuckle. With a sigh, I was squeezing him closer and rubbing my hands against his back in hopes of warming up a bit.

My eyes closed as I basked in the feeling of him pressed up against me for just a moment. They slipped open again at the feeling of being watched, and, of course, it had to be him. Out of pure instinct, my entire body tensed, but I couldn’t look away.

He knew I was watching. He knew damn well, yet he didn’t look away. There was no emotion on his face, not from what I could detect, but he didn’t seem fazed at all about the eye contact we made. If anything, that just made my skin crawl even more.

Jack took notice.

“Pumpkin?” he asked, standing up a bit straighter in my arms. “Baby, hey, what’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. Oli was still leaned casually against his car, ignoring everyone who attempted to talk to him as they walked by to get to their own vehicles.

Just then, Jack’s glove-covered fingers were pushing into my cheek to turn my head back in his direction. I complied, but my eyes stayed glued to the boy no more than twenty feet away. A few light taps on the cheek took care of that problem, but not for long before I was glancing back over.

“Alex… Alex, baby, look at me,” he demanded, voice stern, and I had to bite at my lip before doing so. “He can’t do anything to you. He can’t do anything to me. No one can; there are too many witnesses right now. You’re okay. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. Now come on—we can go back to mine. There’s something I really think we need to talk about. I’ll make us some hot chocolate and we can cuddle on the couch after. How’s that sound?”

Honestly, I couldn’t think of a single thing that sounded better. Sadly, all I could do was give a weak nod. There was a weak smile, a firm kiss, and then contact was briefly broken so that our hands could be linked together between us. With that, I was all but dragged to my car. Once there, Jack pulled the keys from my back pocket with a kiss to my cheek and waved me around to the other side.

“I can drive, angel,” I said, reaching out to take them back. My boyfriend shook his head and moved his hand away from me.

“I can drive, too. Just go sit in the passenger seat, okay? You can tell me all about how your exam was on the way. Go on, it’s fucking cold out here.” When I didn’t move right away, he sighed. “I have the keys, Alex. I will leave without you.”

“I’m stronger than you, y’know,” I grumbled in response, but I still moved around the car and climbed into it when the doors were unlocked.

Jack shoved the key into the ignition as I tossed my bag between the seats, and he took a few minutes to allow the car to heat up before beginning the journey from the parking lot to his place.

At the first stop sign, he turned and grinned at me. Of course, my annoyance and paranoia slipped away with just that one, simple look. “Come on… tell me all about how I saved your ass this semester again.”

---

Jack and I were cuddled together on his couch an hour later, empty hot chocolate mugs on the coffee table beside us. We’d been silent for a while, but I knew it wouldn’t last much longer. Jack had said before we left campus that there was something he wanted to talk about, and I was sure that whatever that something was didn’t have to do with my grades.

Still, I hoped to put it off for as long as possible.

“Y’know,” I started when I heard Jack let out a content sigh, “this is my favorite way to cuddle with you.” He hummed, as though to ask why that was, and I continued. “I can feel your heart beating against mine, and almost every inch of our bodies is touching but it’s so vulnerable and innocent, and… and I don’t think you know what you do to me ‘cause even just like this, my heart starts beating like crazy and it’s just because it’s you. Everything you do makes me feel stupid, and I never thought you’d see anything in me that was worth agreeing to be my boyfriend, especially since the first time was on short notice and now I don’t deserve you because of how stupid I was, and—” I rambled (my voice becoming strained with emotion the more I spoke), only stopping when Jack propped himself up on my chest and held a finger to my lips.

Our eyes met and he gave me a small smile. “I can feel your heartbeat, too, y’know,” he pointed out. “You also don’t gotta tell me how I make you feel every day. You make me feel the same way. You’re not stupid, I see everything in you that you don’t, and I know for a fact that I couldn’t have ended up with anyone better. Besides, what was I supposed to say to you when you first asked me out? I’ve had the biggest crush on you since, like, freshman year.”

I puckered my lips, kissing the finger still pressed against my lips, before mumbling around it, “I like when you talk about liking me.”

“Really?” he asked, both sounding and looking a bit skeptical. “I always think I sound kinda creepy when I do.”

I shook my head, kissed at his finger again, and muttered a, “Not creepy, cute.”

My boyfriend gave a quiet laugh before smiling down at me. His hand moved to the side of my face, his palm pushing to my cheek and the pad of his thumb dragging along my bottom lip before he was leaning in to kiss me. When he pulled back a few moments later, it was with a sigh. I knew what was coming next before he could even make another move.

“I think that we should talk more about… about what happened. All of it,” he said slowly, eyebrows furrowing on his forehead as he bit his lip.

“Jack…” I groaned, letting my eyes slip closed. I didn’t want to talk about anything that had happened in the past, not between us and not between anyone else. What I wanted was to forget everything and move on, but no matter how often we went over it, he still persisted.

“Baby, please, just listen to me. I care about you so, so God damn much, and I fucking hate how it’s all affecting you. You’re not talking to me like you used to. You’re letting it all eat away at you from the inside. I’m scared, Alex. I’m scared of what’s going to happen. To you, to me, to us. If we… if we can’t talk about how we feel, this isn’t going to work out. I want us to work. I want to be with you for a long time. But if you can’t be honest with me, if you can’t talk to me and let me help you when something’s wrong, then… we’re not going to make it. I’ve told you this so many times, and the only reason I haven’t ended us for good is the fact that I know you need time to get over everything, but… I think we need to tell someone about what happened. I still have that video saved to my phone. We could go to the police and file a threat and assault. Or we cou—”

“I’m not going to the police,” I disagreed. “I’m not… I can handle it. There’s nothing to be concerned about. I overreacted, that’s it. I promised you that I’d protect you no matter what, and I meant that.”

“You didn’t overreact,” he stressed. His eyes slipped closed before he was leaning our foreheads together. A deep breath was taken through his nose, and then he continued. Only, he sounded a bit different. “You… what if he tries it again next semester? What if he corners you somewhere else? What if I don’t call to ask where you are and distract him enough so that you can get away?”

“Jay, he’s not going to—”

“P-please,” he whimpered, voice cracking. Then, the first tear was hitting my cheek and causing me to jump. “Th-this is just as h-hard for m-m-me as it is f-for you-ou. I h-hate knowing-ing th-that they’re j-just getting a-away w-with every-everything. I c-can’t do a-anything about-t it.”

“Angel,” I whispered, not even knowing what to say to make him stop crying. Apparently, that wasn’t the right thing to do because the next thing I knew, he was shifting just enough to bury his face in my shoulder. The gates seemed to open with that, and then his body was shaking with his sobs.

“P-please,” he said again, hardly noticeable over his crying and with how muffled it was against my shirt. “Can’t y-you do thi-this f-f-for me? F-for us? I-I just w-want it-t to st-stop.”

And as my arms pulled his body impossibly closer to my own, all I could do was give a nod and hushed, “I’d do anything for you. First thing tomorrow morning, I swear I’ll… I’ll e-mail the principle. And I’ll tell her everything. I just… will you be there for me? If she has to talk to me in person, will you be there with me?”

Jack didn’t answer at first, but he did give a cough and a sniffle before nodding and shifting to press a wet kiss to my neck. “Y-you don’t even h-have to ask.”

Notes