Secrets Don't Make Friends

Jack

"But you have to come tonight! It's my birthday party!!" My best friend, Cass, whined. Tonight her boyfriend, Rian, was throwing a party for her eighteenth birthday.

"I really wish I could Cass, but I'm too sick. I shouldn’t've even come to school today." I told her.

We were sitting at our lunch table waiting on our friends to join us. I was debating calling my mom and asking her to call the office to get me out of school. I had a cold, but I also had an AP Bio test so I didn't want to miss today. My mom and my boyfriend, Alex, told me not to come but I had already studied for my test and I didn't want to forget everything. I just had to get through lunch and take my test then I could rest all weekend long.

"But they'll be lots of alcohol! Rian got his sister to buy everything for us." She continued.

"I can barely breathe. I don't think a party is a good idea for me. I'll make it up to you by buying you dinner when I get better." I said and she sighed.

"Fine, I didn't want you there getting everyone sick anyways." She joked and I laughed.

"What's so funny?" I heard as I felt a kiss being pressed to my cheek and arms being wrapped around my stomach.

"Babe, don't get too close. I don't want you to catch my cold." I told Alex and tried to pull away from him.

"I'm the one who gave you the cold, I can’t catch it a second time." He chuckled and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Asshole." I mumbled and he kissed me on the cheek again.

"You're the reason he can't come to my party tonight." Class scolded him.

"Wait you're not going?" Alex asked shocked.

"Does it look like I'm going?" I asked pointing to my pink nose.

"Buuut Jack Rian bought so much alcohol for this party. We're supposed to go and get shit-faced together." He whined.

"Well you can thank yourself for getting me sick." I said and turned so I could cough away from the table.

"Now I feel bad. I can skip it and just stay home with you." He offered.

"No Lex, go. I'm just going to be at home sleeping anyways. One of us should go celebrate with Cass." I said and he nodded.

"Hey are you guys ready for tonight?" Rian asked as he sat down and kissed Cass.

"Everyone except for Jack." Cass grumbled.

"You look like you're dying." Rian told me and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Thanks." I said and he chuckled and apologized.

"Hey Zack." Alex said when our other friend, Zack, came to sit at the table with us. He nodded in response, not making eye contact, and pulled out his phone. Alex and Rian looked at each other to see if either one of them knew what was wrong with him. This was Zack’s first year here and once Alex and Rian found out he knew how to play bass they asked him to join their band. They seemed to be becoming good friends at first, but Alex told me Zack had been missing practice lately. They were really worried about him. I felt guilty because I knew why he had been distant for the past two weeks. I just didn't want to tell anyone. It all happened when we went to our football team's victory party two weekends ago.

*****

"I don't feel like smoking tonight. I don't want the smell on my clothes." I whined to Alex as he tried to hand me a joint he was about to light.

"Alright, alright. Just go stand over there so the smoke doesn't get in your clothes." He told me and I nodded.

I walked over to the other side of some football player’s backyard. I pulled out my phone to get on Instagram while I waited on Alex, Rian, and Cass to finish smoking. Zack walked over to where I was standing a few minutes later. I hadn't seen him since we first got to the party, but he was drunk now. He staggered over to me and I caught him before he could fall.

"You've definitely had enough." I told him and he laughed.

"I haven't had enough." He slurred. "What's in your cup?" He asked and pointed down to the red solo cup in my hand.

"It's water." I lied and moved the cup away from him. It was actually the rest of Alex's Jack Daniels and Coke I stole from him.

"Liar." He playfully rolled his eyes at me and I chuckled.

"Why aren't you over there smoking with your friends?" I asked.

"Because I'd rather be over here with you."

"Why?" I laughed.

"Why wouldn't I? You're cute." He said, catching me off guard. I didn't think about it too much because he had so much to drink.

"And you're drunk."

"Yeah I am drunk, but I'm telling you the truth. I think you're cute." He said in a more serious tone.

"Zack stop." I said and looked to make sure no one can hear him.

"Why what's wrong?"

"You're friends with Alex. You can't say things like that." I told him.

"We’re not really friends, we’re just in a band together." He said and I shook my head.

"You don’t mean that?" I said.

"I do! And I can’t stand to see you two doing affectionate things. I've actually been thinking of quitting that stupid band anyways." He said and I gasped. He was going to let his jealousy get in the way of their dreams.

"Are you serious? You can't do that!" I scolded him. I looked over to make sure no one was looking our way.

"I don't know. I might." He sighed.

"No you just need to sleep this off. You'll be much better in the morning and it'll be like none of this ever happened. I won't say anything and you don't either." I demanded and he stared down at me.

"My feelings aren't going anywhere, Jack." He said.

"I understand that, but I need you to suppress them until they do go away." I said, annoyed. Zack didn't say anything after that. He just walked away with a hurt expression on his face. I sighed and walked back over to Alex without saying a word about what just happened.

*****
I wasn't going to stay anything to Alex about what Zack said to me. It would only ruin their “friendship” and the band. I didn't want to be responsible for that so I kept my mouth closed. I also didn't go around Zack alone. I didn't want him to bring up that night, it was too awkward to talk about.

The bell rang signaling it was time for us to go to our last class. Alex helped me up and grabbed my backpack for me.

"Just in case I don't see you guys after school, have fun for me tonight." I told Rian and Cass.

"We will and get better soon. I'll try to visit you tomorrow if I'm not too hung over." Cass told me.

We said bye and Alex walked me to my last class. His class was right across the hall so we had time to talk outside of our class for two minutes.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you tonight? I can make you soup and we can watch Home Alone and cuddle." Alex offered again. As tempting as that sounded he's been talking about this party all week with Rian. He really wanted to go and I didn't want to be the one to stop him.

"I'm sure, baby. Like I said I'm just going to go to sleep as soon as I get home. Plus my mom already offered to make me soup when she gets home. So I'll be all taken care of." I assured him.

"Alright I'll make sure I'll drink enough for the both of us." He said and I laughed. I knew he wasn't joking.

"Okay I should go sit down and get ready for my test. Hopefully all this coughing doesn't distract me." I told him.

"You'll be okay." He said and kissed me on the forehead. I smiled and thanked him before going to class.

I felt pretty confident after taking my test. It was kind of similar to the review, which I was very thankful for. I walked out of class and Alex was waiting for me. I smiled and grabbed his hand so we could walk out of school together. We walked to the parking lot where Rian and Cass were standing. I couldn't help but notice Zack's car was already missing.

"Where's Zack?" Alex asked Rian.

"He already left." He shrugged. "I don't know what's up with him lately, but I'm worried."

"Me too." Alex sighed and I nodded.

"Maybe something's wrong at his home." Cass said.

"Maybe he just needs space." I said and they agreed.

"Well we're gonna go. We need to finish setting up the house for tonight and I need a few minutes alone with the birthday girl." Rian said, making Cass chuckle and Alex and I fake gag.

I followed Alex to his car and he opened the passenger seat for me. I thanked him and got in. I looked down as I thought about what was going on with Zack. I felt like I was lying to Alex by not telling him the truth. I was so deep in thought that I didn't hear Alex talking to me.

"Babe." He shook my leg to get my attention.

"Hmm?"

"I said do you want to stop for anything before I take you home?" He asked.

"Can we stop by Walgreens? I need throat spray. My throat is starting to burn." I told him and he nodded.

Alex drove us to Walgreens and bought the medicine for me. He also bought me a box of tea because a pharmacist told him it would help with my nasal congestion. He took me home next and helped me into my house. My mom wasn't home yet so he wanted to make sure I made it to bed okay.

"I'm so lucky to have you." I told Alex as he pulled my jeans off for me. He had already sprayed my throat spray on my throat and made that tea for me. He was probably doing this because he felt guilty for getting me sick.

"Yeah you are." He joked and I rolled my eyes. He put my legs into my bed and tucked me in. Then he turned my DVR on so I could watch my soap opera from earlier today. I laughed because he knew exactly what I wanted to watch.

"Okay you have your soap opera, your tea, two bottles of water, and a banana. Do you want anything else before I go?" He asked.

"No that's everything. Thank you!" I said.

"Your welcome, Jack. I'm gonna let you rest and go help Rian sand Cass finish setting up. I'll be by tomorrow after band practice. Actually I don't know if we'll have practice. I need to text Zack and see what he wants to do." He said and I looked down. I really hoped that Zack did leave their band over his silly crush on me. They were working really hard and they even caught the eye of some record company here in Baltimore. They didn't need to throw that all away.

"Okay have fun! You can tell me all about the party tomorrow." I said before going into a coughing fit.

"I'll call you tonight if I'm not too fucked up."

"Okay. Love you."

"Love you too." He said and kissed me on the cheek.

I smiled to myself and started my soap opera from the beginning. By the time the first commercial break had started I was already asleep. I woke up when my mom came home, but that was only to eat and take more medicine. She brought me some Nyquil which knocked me back out. I slept through the entire night without waking up to cough once.

I woke up the next morning to my usual coughing fit. I laid in bed until my coughing became unbearable and I went to find my mom for more medicine.

"Mom!" I called out to see where she was.

"I'm in the kitchen, Jack." She said and I walked there. I saw she was making breakfast for us. "I was just about to come check on you after I finished. I could hear you coughing all the way in here." She said.

"It's just a dry cough now, I think I'm finally starting to get better." I told her and sat at the table.

"Have you talked to your friends about Cass's birthday party?" She asked and I chuckled.

"No they're probably all either too hungover or still passed out." I said.

"Yeah especially with all that alcohol you told me Rian bought." She agreed. My mom was a young mom so she knew what we did at most parties cause she did the same things not so long ago. She got pregnant with me when she was only fifteen. So now that I was seventeen she was thirty-two. It was kind of cool that she was younger than most parents. She was more understanding of my problems and more lenient when it came to letting me go out with my friends. She only cared that she knew where I was going and how I was getting back home.

My grandparents were more authoritative figures. If they said something than my mom and I both would do it with no hesitation. Sometimes it felt like me and my mom were siblings when my grandparents were around. They didn't live with us, but their house was only five minutes away from us.

"Have you told Alex about what Zack told you?" She asked and I sighed.

"No."

"Why not? I told you, you better do it before he finds out on his own. You know that boy hates when you hide stuff from him." She chuckled.

"Yeah I know. I just don't want to be in the middle of all that drama." I said and she sat some toast, eggs, and bacon in front of me.

"It's just high school. All these secrets and shit won't matter once you graduate."

"It sure feels like it will."

"It won't. And make sure you call your grandma and tell her you need money for your college applications. She told me she'd pay for them for you." She said. My grandma and grandpa often paid for stuff for me. My mom was a single mother and I was their only grandchild so they usually spoiled me.

"Okay. I'll call her this afternoon. I think I'm only going to apply for Baltimore University since it's right up the street. I don't want to go off. I can't survive in another city or state without you."

"Mhmm and because Alex will be here in Baltimore too working with that record company if they sign them." She said and I chuckled.

"Yeah I guess that too."

"You're not slick. But I don't want you going off to far either. I don't know what I'd do without my big baby." She said and kissed me on the cheek.

"I might still be contagious." I warned and she backed away.

We continued to eat our breakfast and talk about what we wanted to do over the weekend. I most likely was going to spend all today with Alex once he came over and my mom had a date with some guy she met on one of those dating apps. Sunday we usually ate dinner with my grandparents so it was a family day.

We sat at the table on our phones until the doorbell rang. It was too early for Alex to come over. He should have still be sleeping off his hangover and my mom said she wasn't expecting anyone. My mom got up and locked out of the peephole.

"It's Zack." She mouthed to me so he wouldn't hear anything. What was he doing here? "Do you want me to open it?" She mouthed. I was on the verge of saying no in fear that he wanted to talk about our conversation last time, but I didn't for some reason.

"Yeah, go ahead." I whispered.

My mom pulled the door open and gave Zack a big fake smile that I couldn't help laughing at. "Hey Zack. Are you here to see Jack?" She asked him.

"Yes ma'am." I heard him say. My mom let him in and I waved at him.

"Hey what are you doing here?" I asked. It was really awkward to see him standing in my kitchen. He was only ever here when Alex and Rian were here too.

"Hey I was wondering if we could talk. There's something I need to tell you." He said and my palms began to sweat. I should have told my mom not to open the door for him. I should have known he was here to confess his love to me again.

"Um is it about what we talked about last time?" I asked nervously.

"No no it's not that." He said and I looked at him curiously. "It's about Alex." Now I was really curious. What was he telling me that Alex couldn't tell me himself?

"Oh okay." I could tell he wanted to talk to me alone. "Uh we can go to my room." I said and he nodded. I got up and went to my room and he followed.

Notes

Hi guys! I know this is like five months late, but I've been scared to post this story. I like the concept of it but the story line might not be perfect. Just tell me what you think about it along the way so I know if I should change anything. I'm going to post the next chapter on Friday and we'll go from there.

Also I know I say this every time I post a story but I'm 86% positive this will be my last story. It's like halfway through my stories I get a new idea that I have to write. Somebody stop me if I try to write another one after this one lol

Title Credit: Take Cover- All Time Low