Can't Help Who I Fall For

“Hey, angel,” I greeted, pulling Jack forward for a quick kiss. The last bell had just rung, and the halls were flooded with other kids all desperate to get away from this mandatory seven-hour-a-day hell. He hummed softly, pulling away to return my ‘hey.’ “So,” I started, reaching out for his hand and pulling him into the current, “are we still on for that date tonight? I mean, you’ll probably have to meet my parents, but I swear they’re nice people who don’t really mean any emotional harm… unless it’s to me, but I’m used to it. Sorry, I’m rambling now; do you want me to drive you home for anything? Sorry, am I being too clingy? You can text me and I can p—”

“Shut up,” he said around a small fit of chuckles, inadvertently causing me to grin as well. “I should probably stop at home to drop my shit off, and my mom’ll want to know where I’m going, who I’m gonna be with… y’know, that kinda stuff.”

It seemed like a lot for a seventeen-year-old boy’s mum to be curious about, but I let it slide and nodded, saying, “Well, I can drive you there, if you want? I didn’t get to meet your parents yesterday, so I could do that while you put your things away or whatever. I think it’s only fair that we both get it done and out of the way tonight.”

He sighed, seeming to deliberate my words before he nodded a reluctant agreement. “If you really wanna meet them, I guess you can,” he answered, but I shook my head in protest.

“If you don’t want me to right now, then it can wait,” I assured, squeezing his hand. “Do you still want that ride? I can wait down the road or something, if that’d make you feel better?”

“Yes to the ride,” Jack affirmed. “No to the waiting down the road. Just… I don’t know, I mean, I don’t think they’ll try and come out to meet you or anything, but… Stay in the car? Fuck, I haven’t even been dating you for an entire day yet and I just know I’m doing this wrong.”

“You’re not doing anything wrong,” I soothed, tugging him through the end of the crowd and out into the half-empty parking lot and towards where my car was parked near the exit. “You don’t want me to, and I totally respect that. I’m never gonna force you to do something you don’t want, and that includes this.”

“Really?”

“Of course, baby cakes,” I chirped in agreement, dropping his hand as we reached my silver Kia—a little beat-up, sure, but functioning and pretty damn comfortable nonetheless. After unlocking the car, I reached out for his things and opened up the back door, tossing it all inside as carefully as possible. By the time I’d climbed into the driver’s side seat, Jack had already made himself comfortable on the passenger side.

“You remember how to get to my house, right?” he asked, and I had to think about it for a moment before shaking my head, feeling my cheeks heat up slightly. He laughed, though, which totally worked in my favor, and I relaxed back into my seat before reversing out of the parking space and leaving the lot, taking careful note of each turn and stop sign we came to. It was about halfway to Jack’s that he spoke up—saying something that wasn’t more directions. “Do you think we’re taking things too fast?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, sending him a quick glance as I slowed the car to a stop at a red light.

“Like… I mean, like… This is all really fucking awesome because I like you and everything,” he started, teeth chewing absentmindedly on his lip as he chose his words carefully. “But I’ve only ever been in one relationship before this, if it could even be considered a relationship because we only lasted two months, and I just… I don’t know… We’re official, right? Exclusively Jack and Alex?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said, accelerating forward slowly before picking up the pace a bit more. “If you want us to be, that is. I mean, I’ve been calling you my boyfriend since last night, so if we aren’t exclusive just yet, you should probably tell me so I know to stop that.”

“No, no, I do,” he insisted, trailing out softly. I could practically hear his face scrunching up in frustration and concentration. “It’s just… maybe we should slow things down between us a little. We’ve only been a couple for, what, twenty hours now? I wanna be at this level with you, but… we hardly know each other, and I don’t wanna feel like… like you’re just using me or something, y’know?”

“I promise you, angel,” I started, taking my right hand off the wheel to blindly grasp his own, “that I’m not using you in any way, shape, or form. If you wanted to take things slower, all you had to do was say so. You don’t even have to come and hang out with me tonight if you’re not completely comfortable with it. Just let me know when you’re ready to take certain steps, and I’ll be right there with you.”

“Well, I don’t want you to get bored with m—”

“Jack, I’m not going to get bored,” I interrupted, squeezing the fingers still laced between my own. “I waited this long to get you, and I can wait longer. It’s really not a big deal. If you wanna take things slow, then we will. From now on, I want you to initiate everything, okay? Hand-holding, hugging, kissing—the whole works. I’m not gonna stop you, and you’ll know if you’re comfortable with it or not.”

He seemed hesitant to agree, as though he thought I was joking or only pretending to care about how he felt.

“You’re half of this relationship, y’know,” I reminded him, turning down a road that I’d remembered taking the night before. I could see his house coming up on our right, and I slowed to a stop in front of it. Instead of letting his hand go, however, I held on and cut the engine, turning in my seat to face him a little better. “I want you to be able to tell me things, and that should include how you’re feeling about whatever we’re doing at the time. I know I’ve been kind of all in your business and whatnot, and I really wish you would’ve told me sooner, but I’ll try and give you more room now, okay?”

He simply stared at me for a few moments, eyebrows furrowed as his pupils roamed my face, probably looking for a sign of a lie. When he saw none, he nodded and leaned in, pressing our lips together briefly. “Okay,” was all he said before reaching for the door handle and opening the car door, releasing my hand and pulling his lanky limbs from my car.

I got out as well, reaching into the back to pull out his things and handing them over. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right? Text me or something if you want to, angel.”

“Am I not still coming with you?” he inquired, seeming slightly hurt as well as confused.

“I thought you wouldn’t want to,” I admitted a bit sheepishly, shrugging as a way to seem a bit more nonchalant.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he challenged, beginning the walk from where he was stood on the sidewalk and up to his house. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should follow until he was calling a, “You coming?” over his shoulder, hand on the doorknob of his front door.

After a moment’s thought, I closed the door and clicked the locks shut on my key before shoving it in my pocket and following my boyfriend into his house. Jack was still standing in the entryway as I approached, and he smiled at me as I got closer.

“I’m gonna bring all this stuff upstairs, if you wanna come with? We should probably try and actually get some of that project done, too. If Burgess hates you as much as she hates me, we’re both gonna be kinda screwed.”

“Lead the way, angel,” I prompted, waving my hand in the direction of the staircase—at least I knew that much.

Before we could even get two steps up, however, a voice was calling out a, “Jack? You home, baby?”

“Shit,” he muttered, allowing his head to drop forward for a moment before he was calling back a, “Yeah, ma.”

“She calls you baby still?” I asked, smile breaking across my lips. It only widened as I saw the blush overrun his cheeks.

“Doesn’t ma—”

“Oh, who’s this? Jacky, you didn’t tell me you were having company. I’m Joyce, Jack’s mom, sweetie, and you are?” I turned around to face a woman who looked to be in her late thirties, early forties. She had Jack’s eyes, and the same color hair, just a bit longer. She seemed to be a great deal shorter, too.

“Mom, this is—”

“I’m Alex,” I said, retreating down the few steps I’d managed to climb and then extending my hand out to hers. “Alex Gaskarth at your service, ma’am.”

She seemed momentarily taken aback before placing her hand in mine. “And how do you know Jack?” she asked. “I’ve never heard of him talk about an Alex before… well, he’s talked with Rian about this Alex he apparently has this 'huge' cru—oh… sorry, baby.”

“Well, that’s really good to hear,” I said, dropping her hand and stepping closer, as though I was planning on letting her in on some big secret, “because I’ve had a crush on this one kid named Jack, you might know him, for a while now, and I was hoping he’d go on a date with me tonight if I asked him. Do you think he’d say yes?” I was only stretching the truth a little bit, seeing as how he’d already agreed to my on-the-spot mini-date.

Joyce’s face lit up by about tenfold at just that, eyes darting over to Jack as a giggle fit for a schoolgirl slipped past her lips. “I don’t know, but he’d be crazy to say no to someone as handsome as you.” She grinned at me, and I did so right back.

“Okay, well, we’re gonna go upstairs now, ma,” Jack interrupted, gaze fixing dangerously on mine.

“It was great meeting you, Joyce,” I said before turning back around and following Jack as he trudged himself up the rest of the staircase.

“Hey, don’t look so upset,” I cooed as his bedroom door was closed behind me. “I think that was a pretty good first-meeting, if I do say so myself. At least she didn’t pull out the baby pictures or something… which my mum is probably gonna do when she finds out you’re dating me… happens every time.” I grimaced to myself as Jack sighed, shook his head.

“She would’ve if we’d stuck around any longer,” he disagreed, moving around his room to drop or pick things up.

“Well then what are we doing up here? Let’s get back down there,” I prompted, hand moving to hover over the doorknob as I smiled at him.

“Alex,” he warned, but it didn’t last long, seeing as how he smiled right on back, gaze dropping to the ground. “I don’t know how you did it.”

“Did what?” I inquired, moving to throw myself on his bed as he searched for an empty bag to hold all of our necessary supplies.

“Got her to giggle like that. And she didn’t even attempt to interrogate you, and she didn’t say anything about me not being allowed to go on a date because it’s a school night or some stupid excuse like that,” he explained, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Gaskarth charm,” I decided with a shrug. “I can get pretty much anything I want just by flipping that little mental switch.”

“Really now,” he hummed, shoving papers and craft supplies into a duffle bag before zipping it all up.

“Yep. Got you, didn’t I?”

“For now,” he agreed, moving towards the door. “Come on, I’m pretty sure I have everything we’ll need.”

“What do you mean, ‘for now’?” I queried as I stood from the bed and, once again, followed him through his house and down the stairs like a lost puppy.

He shrugged. “I mean, like I said earlier, we hardly know anything about each other. There’s a chance we might not work or something, y’know? I mean, I want us to, I really want us to, but… y’know?”

“Yeah,” I affirmed, having to hold in a sigh. Jack let one out, however, and then his hand was slipping into mine.

“We just gotta work our way up, okay? Besides, if we end up being different, then we have that whole ‘opposites attract’ theory to go on.” Before I could come up with some sort of response, Jack was shouting out a, “We’re gonna leave now, ma. I’ll be back later.”

“When later?” came Joyce’s voice from what I’m assuming was either the living room or the kitchen.

Jack looked to me, and I shrugged, yelling an, “Is eleven-thirty okay?”

It was silent as we waited for an answer, but then she was bustling from the dining room. With a quick inspection of us—more specifically, our interlocked fingers—she nodded. “No later than eleven-thirty, got it?”

“Of course,” I agreed, sending her a reassuring smile.

“Well, alright. You boys have fun,” she said, shooing us towards the door. “Bye, baby.”

“Bye, ma.”

The front door clicked in place behind us, and I couldn’t contain myself from inquiring, “Where was your dad?” Of course, I realized how terribly worded that had been as soon as it left my mouth. Before I could recover myself, Jack was shrugging.

“Sometimes he’s home from work late, sometimes he’s early. Today was just a late day, y’know?”

“Oh,” was all I could say, nodding my head. As we reached my car, I undid our hands and then took the duffle bag from off his shoulder. I was a little more mindful of the bag’s contents when placing it in my backseat than when Jack had been packing it, and then I was climbing into the driver’s seat. “Now was that so hard?”

“There’ll be more meetings at some point,” he assured, holding his left hand out for my right as I started the car.

“Joyce isn’t even half as bad as my parents are,” I argued, lacing our fingers together and squeezing.

“Wanna bet?” he challenged, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, I do. What’s the prize?”

“Loser has to kiss the winner,” he decided, and I could hear the smile.

Smiling to myself, I nodded and turned the wheel with my freehand to pull onto my street. “You’re on, angel.”

Notes