You're the Cherry I'm a Cigarette

Alex

"Alex, Honey, come on we can't be late." Nana called upstairs to me. She took me to school since Grandpa had to be at work earlier in the morning.

"Coming!" I called down. I grabbed my backpack and ran down the stairs. I didn’t dread going to school today because there was a chance that I would get to see Jack again. I didn’t expect him to stop and talk to me, but seeing him in the hall way was good enough.

I followed my grandma to her car and we both got in. She drove me to the front of the school and stopped to let me out.

"Remember to try and make more friends today. Maybe some that you can sit with at lunch. I don't like the thought of you being all alone here." She told me and I nodded.

"Oh, I actually met some people in my chemistry class that invited me to sit with them today." I said.

“That's great! I’m so happy you are adapting so quickly.” She reached over and hugged me. I knew she was still worried about me having second thoughts about leaving my mom. But she had no reason to worry. “Have a nice day." She pulled away and kissed me on the forehead.

"Okay, you too, bye." I told her.

I got out of her car and walked into the building. I went to my first class of the day which was health again. Jack, Rian, and Zack all weren't in there when I walked in. I sat down in the same seat as last time since it seem like everyone sat in their same seats.

Rian and Zack walked in before the bell rang, but Jack was nowhere to be found. Coach Perry got up to start today's lesson and the door opened a few seconds later.

"Barakat, it's so nice of you to finally join us in class. Why don't you give me fifty push-ups for being late today and missing the first day.” He demanded.

"Yes, Coach Perry." Jack sighed and dropped down to the floor.

I tried my best not to look at him while he did the push-ups, but he looked really good while doing them. He did the push-ups with ease and sat down in the seat next to me. He smiled at me and I tried my best to smile back without turning red. We weren’t able to speak because Coach Perry had begun speaking. He went over the first lesson which was mostly definitions. He finished ten minutes early and gave us the rest of class as free time.

"Shit, you assholes didn't tell me he was teaching this class." Jack complained to his friends.

"I could have sworn I told you that." Zack chuckled.

"You didn't! Did I miss anything important the first day?" Jack asked.

"Nah he just went over the materials and stuff we'll need." Rian told him, and he nodded.

"Hey hero." I heard Jack say and felt a tap on my shoulder. I began to turn red as
"Oh my gosh, I'm not a hero." I chuckled.

"Yeah you are, plus you're honest as hell. Do you know how many people would have kept that bag for themselves?" He asked, and I shook my head no. "A lot of people."

"I probably would have kept it for myself." Zack joked, and Jack rolled his eyes at him.

"I do owe you big time. How about you come hang out with us and try your first hit today?" Jack asked. I'd never been asked to do drugs before. I never put myself in that position because I didn't want to end up like my mom. If I said 'no' would Jack try to peer pressure me into doing it?

"I actually have something to do after school today." I lied. As much as I did want to hang out with him, I didn't want to seem lame because I was too afraid to try it.

"Oh okay. What are you doing on Friday? Brendon is throwing a party, you should come." He said, and my palms began to sweat. I knew he was just being nice to me because I returned his drugs to him.

"Yeah um that sounds great." I said. I didn't even know who Brendon was. I also didn't know how I was going to ask my grandparents to drop me off at a high school party.

"Cool. Here." He handed me his phone. I looked down at it and froze. Was he really asking for my number?

"Just add your name and number." He said, catching my attention.

My body temperature went up as I added my name and number to his phone. I handed Jack back his phone and he texted me from his phone. "I can pick you up if you need a ride there." He said causally while scrolling through his phone.

"Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea to ask my Grandparents to drop me off at a house party." I said, and he laughed.

"Don't worry about it, I got you." He said, making me smile.

The bell rang, and it was time to go to our next class. I grabbed my backpack slowly stood up and packed my things away.

"Hey which lunch do you have? First or Second?" Jack asked.

I had to look down at my schedule quickly because he made it hard for me to think. "I um have First lunch."

"Oh cool me too. Look for us, we usually sit at the tables towards the back left." He said.

"Okay." I said kind of shocked.

"I'll see you there." He added and smiled.

My stomach did back flips as I walked to my next class. I felt so confused because it seemed like Jack was hitting on me. I've never had a guy I like actually like me back. Usually it was the guys I didn't like. Jack had to just be being nice because I returned his bag.

I sat at my desk next to Kellin and said hi to him, Cass, and Lynn. I was happy he didn't bring up lunch so I wouldn't have to decline his offer right now. I was going to make an effort to sit with them later just in case Jack's niceness wore off in a few days.

"Cass, did you hear about Brendon’s party?" Kellin asked.

"Yes!! We're definitely going!" Lynn exclaimed.

"Have you ever been to one of Brendon's parties?" Cass turned and asked me.

"No, I have no idea who he is. This is my first year here." I chuckled.

"Oh sorry." She laughed. "Well he plays football here, and his dad is super rich. Every year he throws a huge party and only invites juniors and seniors. This year it's supposed to be huge since it's his senior year. So we're going and you should too." She told me.

Jack told me he would take me, but having more friends there wouldn't hurt. "Yeah that sounds like a lot of fun." I agreed.

We stopped talking so the teacher once the teacher began teaching. I didn't pay attention at all in class. All I could think about was Jack inviting me to sit with him at lunch. This was probably going to come back to bite me since I didn't understand Chemistry. Lunch was right after this class anyways so I couldn't blame myself for being so eager.

"Hey Alex, you're still sitting with us today right?" Kellin asked after class ended.

"Oh, actually this guy in my first class asked me to sit with him and his friends. . . He's kind of cute so I took him up on the offer." I didn't want to seem rude so I told the truth so he wouldn't think I was blowing them off for no reason.

"Ooo what's his name?" Cass asked.

"It's um Jack." I said.

"Please don't tell me it's Jack Barakat." Kellin groaned.

"Yeah it's him. Why?" I was curious of his reaction.

"He's just an asshole. Well to me anyways." He sighed.

"That's because your brothers are best friends." Lynn told him.

"That's not an excuse. Plus you know what he does right?" Kellin asked me. I guessed he was talking about the fact that he sold drugs.

"Yeah I know."

"Okay, I just didn't want it to catch you off guard. Just be careful around him, Alex. You can always come sit with us if you want."

"I will, and thanks." It was hard to think of Jack as a bad person, but I kept Kellin's warning in the back of my head.

I walked to the cafeteria with them, but we split up once I saw Jack. I told them bye and walked over to stand in line with him.

"Please don't tell me you befriended Kellin." Jack complained to me.

"I did." I chuckled. "What's wrong with that?"

"Uh nothing we just aren't big fans of each other." He shrugged.

"Is it personal?" I asked.

"Kinda. Plus, his brother and my brother are best friends and he's always blabbing to his brother about me which gets me in trouble with my brother." He rolled his eyes. "But anyways how was your other class?" He asked, changing the subject.

"It was alright, it was chemistry." I told him as I grabbed a tray of food. "I heard more about that Brendon guy's party but I still don't know who he is." I said and he chuckled.

"You'll see him this weekend. He'll be the guy passed out before everyone even gets there." He joked, and I chuckled.

We paid for our food and walked out of the cafeteria line. I followed Jack to his table and he patted the spot next to his. I sat down and told Rian and Zack hi. I listened to them tell Jack new rumors they heard about the party. I didn't speak again until Jack started asking me questions.

"Did you just move here, Alex?" He asked first.

"Yeah I've only been here in Baltimore for like two weeks."

"Oh where did you move from?"

"Maine. I came to live with my Grandparents." I told him and looked down. I didn't want to go into too much detail.

"That's cool." He said, taking the hint. "I don't know much about Maine, but I bet you'll love it here in Baltimore."

"My grandma said the same thing. I don't know yet, I haven't done anything here yet that's wowed me."

"The party this weekend will definitely ‘wow’ you. It's gonna be wild."

"Yeah I've been hearing about it all day."

"Cool! The party starts Friday at eight but we probably won't leave until nine." He said, and I nodded. I don't know how my grandparents would feel about me leaving the house so late.

"That sounds great." I said anyways and he smiled at me.

"Hey, can you guys help me think of a way to ask Cassadee to go to the party with me? I don't want her going with anyone else." Rian told Jack and Zack. I followed his eyes to the table Cass was sitting at. I didn't know he meant her.

"We don't know her, how are we supposed to help you?" Zack complained.

"I have chemistry and math with her." I said, and Rian looked at me desperately.

"That's perfect, do you think you could ask her what she thinks of me? Like just try to find out if she finds me attractive or anything." He begged.

"Yeah I can try." I told him and he took a deep breath.

"Thanks Alex."

"No problem." I brushed it off.

"I'm going solo, that way I can hit on as many girls as I want." Zack said making us laugh.

Lunch was practically ending so we started moving to throw our trash away. I saw Cass, Kellin, and Lynn still sitting in their same spot. Kellin was looking over to make sure I didn't need help or anything. I was going to try to walk to history with him so I could tell him he had nothing to worry about.

"Hey, I'm going to skip next period and go meet up with Brendon to make that sale." Jack told Rian and Zack and they both told him they'd see him later. "Alex, I'll text you later alright?" He told me.

"Okay." I said shyly.

I watched him walk away to go join Brendon. He did one of those weird high-five things and slid a small bag into Brendon's hands. Brendon looked down at his hands and then stood up to follow Jack out of school. It was going to take some time to get used to Jack being a drug dealer.

I told Rian and Zack bye and went to catch up with Kellin, Lynn, and Cass as they walked. They slowed down when they saw I was behind them.

"Hey how did it go?" Cass asked excitedly.

"Yeah was he a complete dick or has he not shown that side of himself yet?" Kellin asked and Lynn chuckled.

"It went pretty well, he was still nice. He even asked me to go to Brendon's party with him." I said and Cass gasped.

"Aw that's so cute!" Lynn said.

"Yeah I wish a guy would ask me to go with him." Cass added and I smiled. I took this opportunity to tell her about Rian.

"Well actually do you know Alex's friend, Rian?" I asked.

"Yeah the super cute one." She said, and I laughed.

"I guess he has nothing to be worried about." I said and she looked at me confused. "He wanted to ask you to come to the party with him, but he didn't know if you liked him or not."

"Oh my god really??" She asked frantically, and I nodded. "Of course I'll go with him!"

"Kellin and I will be each other's dates. Right Kellin?" Lynn said.

"Actually, that cute guy in my math class is gonna be there. So I'm going to try to make a move on him." Kellin said and Lynn sighed.

"I'll find someone at the party." She pouted.

We had to leave each other to go to class. I walked to class with Kellin since we had the same class. I wanted to ask him more questions on why he thought Jack was a jerk, but I decided not to. I liked Jack so far and I didn't want to hear anything that would ruin my feelings for him.

Notes

Lol Alex is so innocent. Next chapter is one of my favorites!