Dark Eyed Dreamers

I felt a little disappointed that I hadn’t seen Jack before Math. Walking into the classroom I took a seat at my usual place. Pulling my work from my bag I greeted Rian who was already there, sat to my left. I set my stuff on the desk in front of me and crossed my legs, resting my chin on my palm. As the students crammed into the room I noticed a familiar boy sprint past the threshold and take my face in his hands.

“I’m so sorry,” he muttered kissing every square inch of my face.

“Jack. Jack it’s- Jack it’s fine really,” I replied trying to get through to him. I sighed. “Jack get off me,” I smiled. He pulled away, running a quick hand through his hair before letting out a breath and taking a seat to my right.

“Dude, where’ve you been?” I heard Rian ask leaning forward to talk to Jack as the lesson began and people took to their desks.

“Alex, have you heard about tomorrow?” He whispered as I acted like I wasn’t listening.

“Yeah. There at noon?” Rian asked.

“Right. Yeah he just wanted to go over some of the plans,” he finished almost miming the words. Plans? I began to wonder about what he could possibly mean. And why was he keeping this from me? I shrugged it off, taking a blank page from my binder and scribbling a few notes with my pencil. Moments later I let my pencil lie across my fingers, glancing up to the analogue clock above the desk at the front of the room. Folding my legs once more I shifted forwards leaning my cheek to my palm.

“Anna,” I heard barely above a whisper. I turned to my right and tilted my head to the side. “I want to talk to you later,” he smiled. I returned the smile, nodding before turning my attention back to the front. “Hey,” he continued. I turned back to him, taking my hand away from the desk to give him my full attention.

“Yeah?” I asked lightly.

“It’s nothing bad, but it’s kind of big,” he explained biting his lip. I furrowed my brows and tilted my head once more.

“What’s going on?” I asked curiously. He simply smiled, taking my hand that was hanging from the desk, into his own.

“I’ll explain everything later,” he promised. I smiled before turning back to the lesson that was going on in front of us. The minutes seemed to drag on as my anticipation got the better of me. I had subconsciously been tapping the pencil against the wood of the desk numerous times until it was finally time to leave. Making our way to meet the others I was almost begging Jack to tell me what he needed to.

“Come on! You know how impatient I get!” I ranted jutting my lip out and knitting my eyebrows together. Neither he nor Rian gave me an answer to this; instead they found it hilarious and burst into fits of laughter.

“I’m pretty sure I know what he’s gonna tell you, just hang in a few minutes and you can have alone time,” Rian answered putting an arm around me putting emphasis on the letter ‘o’. My eyes flittered to Jack every few seconds as we continued to walk. Time seemed to go so slowly as we walked. I bit down on my lip, suddenly feeling anxious about what he had to tell me. What was going on that nobody was willing to just tell me? As we neared the clearing students spilled around us before making our way to a picnic table we all gathered at. “You guys talk, just come back whenever you’re done,” Rian nodded taking his arm from around me and walking ahead of us. I frowned at his back before turning to the Barakat stood next to me.

“Jack, what’s going on?” I asked in confusion. He smiled lightly, pulling me away from anyone else and into a small secluded area not too far away. We both sat on a low brick wall as Jack turned to face me.

“Obviously Alex had a talk with me and Rian this morning,” he began to which I nodded. “And don’t freak, honestly it’s nothing spectacularly big and none of us are gonna wake up in a small room with our lives at risk if we don’t complete a task set by a little tape recorder.” I laughed lightly at his little Saw reference. Only he could turn a serious situation into something like that. “But yeah, we’re gonna be making a record. So we’ll be in the studio for a little while which means we can’t spend much time together,” he finished averting his eyes from mine and biting on his lip. I felt myself smiling at how he’d included me with this. I leant forward and wrapped my arms around him pulling him into a hug.

“I’m so proud of you,” I whispered before feeling his head lift.

“You’re not mad?” He asked sounding astonished.

“Of course not, yeah I’m a little disappointed but this is a dream and I don’t want you to think I’m holding you back,” I replied ruffling his hair. I felt his arms quickly wrap around me and pull me into a tight hug. “Ribs Jack,” I choked out before he let me go and turned to face me with a large grin on his face.

“I’m so happy you’re okay with this,” he beamed.

“Of course I am,” I laughed rolling my eyes.

“It’s amazing to know you’re still my best friend,” he smiled before taking to his feet and holding his hand out to me. I took his hand and stood up. Our feet led us back over to the others as we gently sat down and listened in on the conversation. He was right, it was great to know we were still best friends.