Don't Make This Easy, I Want You to Mean It

“You kissed Alex in the hallway?!” Marissa shrieked, storming over to me at lunch. I was currently sat between Alex and Jack on the bench I’d found them on the other day, but Marissa had paid it no mind when she’d come over and screamed at me.
“You did what?!” Jacked shouted, jumping from his seat and gaping at the pair of us. I shrank into Alex, trying to make myself as small as possible, while he wrapped his arm protectively around my shoulder. The pair of them seemed to tower over me, looks of anger (and even hints of disappointment) in their eyes. I felt guilty at their reactions, knowing that all I had to do to avoid this was simply not give into Alex’s charm and I’d failed miserably.
“Relax, guys, it’s not what you think,” Alex responded, as smooth as ever. “I kissed her. People were staring at us and making up their own rumours anyway, so I thought it’d be fun to drag a little more gossip out of it. It meant nothing.” I felt my stomach drop at his words. I already wanted so desperately for him to feel something for me, that I was attaching meaning to things he and I did without ever thinking about it. Hell, he and I slept with people without feeling anything for them, never mind a ten-second kiss in the hallway. While he tried to say he had some feelings for me (in the guise of his mystery girl), I had more than a notion that it was simply the unattainable that he was being driven crazy over. If he could have me, it would be game over.
“What do you mean people were ‘making up rumours anyway’?” Marissa asked suspiciously, beating Jack who had only just opened his mouth to speak.
“Well, first of all, Jasey decided to shout to her entire Spanish class that we were fucking,” he smirked at me, while I bit back a laugh. I had a knack for creating rumours from nothing. “And then there was the fact that we were holding hands in the English corridor before class.”
“What do you mean you were holding her hand?” Rian spluttered. “I mean, you fuck girls without thinking twice about it, but you never show affection. Everyone is going to think you’re taken and no girl is going to go near you on Saturday with Jasey’s reputation.” Alex laughed at Rian’s words while I spun my head to glare at him.
“What do you mean ‘my reputation’? What reputation?”
“Every girl in school knows that if they messed with you, you’d kick their ass.”
“Oh. That reputation,” I smirked. I felt like it was the signature facial expression of Alex and I and there always seemed to be one of us smirking at someone.
“What does it matter anyway? I’ll be looking out for my mystery girl with Jasey,” Alex shrugged, ignoring the exchange between Rian and I.
“Actually, Alex, about that…” I started, biting my lip. I’d had chance to think last night about the realities of going to another party with Alex and actively planning on spending time with him as drunk as I had been last week. It was quite clear that I could barely control myself around this boy sober never mind after a couple of drinks with lowered inhibitions. “They’ve asked me to do some overtime at work and, honestly, Marissa and I could really do with the money right now.” I saw Jack shoot me a brief, annoyed look at my words. I knew he was beyond opposed to my carrying on this charade and wanted Alex to know the truth as soon as possible, and he more than likely saw Saturday as his opportunity to get me to confess.
“What? You’re going to back out on me now? Come on, Jase, I could really do with your help on this. Can’t you just pull the shifts another time?” His eyes pleaded with me and I had trouble looking away. I felt like just agreeing based on that look alone. I was wrapped around his little finger already, and I didn’t know if he knew it, but he most definitely played on it either way. I began to shake my head in refusal when I heard Marissa scoff.
“Jasey Rae, you are going to that party if I have to drag you there myself,” she scolded. I rolled my eyes as I looked at her, seeing the stern expression on her face.
“But mom!” I whined, sarcastically.
“Come on, Jase, we don’t need the money that much. Just go out, have some fun, and try not to make any stupid mistakes.” I laughed at her final comment. She knew as well as I that I always made some form of stupid mistake.
“Fine,” I huffed, folding my arms and pretending to act annoyed with the four people around me. “If you insist on forcing me to party instead of being a responsible adult, I will.” I saw Alex’s eyes light up as I finally agreed, before he pulled me into a tight hug.
“You have no idea how much this means to me,” he breathed. I felt a smile tugging at my lips at his words, already willing to do all I could to make this man happy.
“Are they always this sickeningly cute?” Marissa asked, disgust lacing her voice.
“Always,” Jack responded, sounding just as disgusted as Marissa did.
“Can you imagine how much worse they’d be if they were actually together?”
“Don’t make me think of that,” Jack replied, making gagging sounds at the image Marissa had put in his head. “My best friend and my best girl cuter than they are now? I’d be constantly puking.”
“Should we annoy them even more? I can act way cuter than I am right now,” Alex whispered to me. I nodded, stifling a giggle as he and I pulled away from each other. One of his arms remained firmly around my waist and the other found its way to my hair. “You look cute with your hair down,” he started, twirling the strands of it in his fingers.
“You look cute whenever you do anything,” I responded, pecking his nose lightly. I felt a warmth on my own nose soon after.
“You taste good,” he told me. I was a little stunned, realising he had in fact just licked my nose. I wrinkled my nose in disgust, shutting my eyes tightly. “You even make angry gremlin faces look cute.” I opened one eye, looking at him sceptically as he grinned at me.
“I will bite you,” I threatened.
“Don’t tease me like that,” he groaned, leaning on me with all of his weight.
“Ugh! Alex, get off me! You have cooties!” I tried to suppress my giggles so as not to give up the game with Jack and Marissa, who were currently shooting us disgusted looks.
“Is cooties codename for unbelievably sexiness? Because if it is, you have cooties too.”
“Guys, quit it! I can’t take any more of this,” Jack whined, interrupting us before I could finally give in and start laughing at Alex’s remarks. We’d pretty much pushed the charade as far as I could cope with, so Jack’s remarks were not unwelcome.
“Well, honestly, this is your fault,” I told him, smiling sweetly. “You’re the one who introduced us, and now you can’t have him back. Alex is giving his love to me now instead of you.” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively at Jack, who pretended to gag.
“So, it’s true then?” A voice asked to our left. We each turned to look, knowing exactly who to expect before we did. “Jasey Rae is fucking Alex Gaskarth.” I rolled my eyes at the dark haired girl in front of me, standing in front of two of her cronies. I occasionally ran into her when the weekend’s gossip was doing its rounds, however she rarely had anything to say to me that I hadn’t heard before. As a general rule, Jodie Stephenson stuck to flirting with Alex in the hallways and swooning over him when he wasn’t looking. If it was to do with Alex, of course she was getting herself involved.
“Yes, Jodie, Alex gives me unbelievable sex every night whenever I ask for it.” Alex head snapped back around to face me, raising his eyebrows.
“I do? What about when I want it? Do I get it every time I ask?” I noticed the smirk creeping onto his face and bit my lip.
“We’d be arrested for indecent exposure if I gave you it every time you wanted it,” I laughed.
“You guys are disgusting,” Jodie commented. “I mean, really Jasey, could you be any more of a slut?” I snorted at her words. If Jodie was known for anything, it was for chasing boys hopelessly and breaking up relationships. At least I kept to boys who were single, or boys I didn’t know to be otherwise.
“Honestly, Alex doesn’t seem to mind how much of a slut I am, so it’s all fair game.” I watched her face twist at my words and I knew I’d hit a sore spot.
“Quite frankly, Alex loves how much of a slut you are,” Alex winked at me. “And Alex would like to take you to the janitor’s closet so you can show him, once again, just how good you are at being a slut.”
“Oh, baby,” I responded, pushing out a small moan to make it seem like we were serious. Jodie stared at the pair of us dumbfounded as Alex growled at me softly, picking me up from my spot on the bench and throwing me over his shoulder, making his way back to the school building. I shrieked with laughter as he made his way to the parking lot, setting me down once we’d reached solid ground, but not letting go of me fully.
“I’m done with school, Holly,” he sighed, resting his chin on the top of my head and pulling me in to him. My heart raced at the sound of my name from his lips. Any time anyone called me by my given name, it made my stomach turn, but he made it sound adorable. “I’m sick of everyone thinking I care about what they say. And I hate when they try and call you out, it’s sickening.”
“Honestly, Alex, girls like Jodie call me out daily. If I was concerned about it, I wouldn’t be making jokes at my own expense.” I loved the way he felt like he had to stand up for me, but I knew I was perfectly capable of doing that on my own as well. “Come on, let’s just bail.”
“Where to?”
“Alex, I have my own apartment, where do you think we’re going?”

Notes