You Belong With Me

Taylor’s P.O.V.

As soon as I got into the cafeteria, I saw Jack standing in line for food. He was pretty hard to miss with his black band hoodie with the hood over his Orioles hat and his bright red skinny jeans with chucks on his feet. No guy in our school ever dressed quite like Jack and actually made it look good.

“Where’s Alex?” I asked when I walked up to him. I thought Alex and Jack would walk to lunch together since they have almost all the same classes.

“He had to run to his locker to drop off some books. He said he would meet us here soon.
So how have your classes been since I last saw you?”

“They were pretty boring as usual. I already have homework in my math class.”

“Dude, I can’t believe you are taking Calc AP. You’re such a nerd.”

“Yeah says the guy who is in remedial math.”

“Ouch! You just hurt my feelings.” He turned away from me in fake irritation. I hugged him from behind, but he still pretended to be mad.

“I’m sorry, Barakuda. You’re not stupid, you’re just special,” I said, trying to keep a straight face.

“Damn straight I’m special!”

“So do you forgive me?” I asked, giving him the puppy dog face.

“I can never stay mad at you.”

“Good. I like that. I don’t think I asked you how your day is going.”

“Nothing too eventful. There are some hot girls in my classes, though. This makes Jack very happy.” Only Jack would speak in the third person. Again, there is no one else quite like him.

The lunch line finally began to move. Jack handed me a tray and we started getting our food. However, some of our options were not quite that appetizing.

“Why the fuck would they have Brussels sprouts on the first day of school? Who eats that shit?” Jack said as we finished paying for our food and went to find a table.

“Contrary to popular belief, Jack, there actually are some people in the world that like them. You and I just aren’t one of them.”

“Those must be the people with damaged taste buds due to too many ~sexual favours~,” Jack responded. I slapped him on the shoulder with the hand that was not carrying my tray. “What? It was nothing personal,” he laughed.

“Maybe not, but it was gross and I’m about to eat.”

“Did you forget who you were talking to?”

“Good point.”

We finally found a table near the door in the crowded cafeteria. You had to get here early if you wanted a good table in the back.

“Seriously though, I wonder where the hell Alex is. He should be here by now,” I said as I sat down facing the door.

“It’s Alex. He’s always slow.”

“That’s true, but usually not this slow.”

“Speaking of our good friend Alex, he has an interesting story to tell you if he ever decides to get his ass over here,” said Jack, trying to stifle a laugh.

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say he had an interesting reaction to something a certain extremely hot girl said to him.”

It took me a minute to fully understand what he was saying, but, when I did, I started to laugh. “Did she notice?” When Jack nodded, that sent me into a complete fit of hysterical laughter as I imagined Alex’s embarrassed face. Then, as if right on cue, Alex walked into the cafeteria hand-in-hand with said girl.

Katelyn Gander.

Of course. If you ever saw the movie Mean Girls, Katelyn Gander was Regina George in the flesh. She was the most popular girl in school, supremely known for being rich and getting exactly what she wanted when she wanted it. Now, it appeared she wanted Alex. She took advantage of the fact that every guy in the school nearly wet his pants as she walked by in the hallway. She always managed to manipulate her way into the hearts of the guys she wanted and then she would use them shamelessly. Everyone in the school knew that she was the epitome of all bitches, but somehow she always made them forget that fact when she was around. She was the kind of girl who had the power to ruin you and she made everyone scared shitless.

I couldn’t stop myself from wondering why Alex would even give her a second thought though. I mean, yes, I absolutely cannot deny the fact that she’s beautiful, but he has heard all the same stories I have about her and how she loves being a heartbreaker. He usually does not go for the typical popular girls, but she seems to hold some kind of a spell over all the guys she wants.

When they came into the cafeteria, their hands broke apart. She went into the lunch line and he saw us and immediately started walking toward our table. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

“Hey guys,” Alex said as he stood between me and Jack. He leaned over and put one hand on the back of each of our chairs. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be sitting with Katelyn today.”

Ok, scratch that. It was worse than I thought.

“Ok, Dude,” said Jack. “Tell me all about it later and try not to get any more boners. I’m not sure if your pants can take so much action in one day; you wouldn’t want to rip your crotch open.”

I watched as Alex’s whole face went beat red and he slapped Jack over the head. I had to hold on to my seat to make sure I didn’t fall off laughing so hard. As soon as Alex saw my reaction, he pouted and stalked off to join Katelyn in the lunch line.

I watched as he reached for her hand and smiled sweetly at her. I had never quite seen him smile just like that before. When he looked at her, his whole face lit up and he could not seem to wipe the smile off his face. I noticed that his eyes even seemed to have an extra gleam in them, as if he was receiving a reward every time he looked at her. She was smiling back at him and talking animatedly about God knows what, obviously flirting shamelessly with him. He even paid for her lunch and then led her to a table across the room from us. All the while, their hands stayed connected.

When I saw this interaction, at first, I couldn’t explain the feeling that I got. It was as if I was speeding down a large hill on a bumpy road feeling my stomach drop and almost making me nauseous. This was definitely not anything I had ever felt before. Suddenly, I couldn’t look at them anymore. It was as if the view of the smiling couple was burning my eyes and it was painful. I quickly looked away.

Jack seemed to notice this action. “What’s with you?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said, taking a sudden interest in the food on my tray.

“No, there’s definitely something.”

“Jack, seriously, there’s nothing wrong.”

“Then why aren’t you looking me in the eye? When you are hiding something, you always look anywhere but at my face.”

“Jack, please just leave it alone,” I said severely.

“No, Tay, I won’t. Five minutes ago, you were laughing along with me and now I can’t even get you to look at me. Ever since Alex came in with Katelyn, you have been acting weird.”
When I didn’t respond, he seemed to come to a realization. “Oh my God. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before! You’re jealous!”

“What?” I said finally looking up, anger flaring in my eyes. “Why would you say that?”

“Because I saw the way you looked at them when they were standing in line together holding hands. You had this kind of disgusted look on your face.”

“Well, you’re wrong,” I said looking down at my food again.

“Am I?”

After that, we ate in silence. I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Alex and Katelyn every once in awhile. They seemed to be unaware of the world around them. His eyes never left her face. He never looked over here, not even once. For some reason, that really bothered me more than I had originally thought it would.

“Maybe you’re right,” I said, finally breaking the silence between me and Jack. “Maybe I am jealous. I guess it’s just because I’m not really used to him hanging out with anyone else besides us. He’s never eaten lunch with anyone else and it’s just kind of weird. He didn’t even ask us if it was ok if he went to sit with her.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It is kind of weird to see Alex branching out, but maybe he needs this. After all, like you said, he’s been hanging out with us his whole life. Maybe he needs to meet new people. And we’re not his parents, so he does not need to ask our permission for anything he does.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s just that I’m used to having him to myself, so it’s odd to see him hanging out with other girls again. It’s been awhile since his last serious girlfriend. I guess I should just be happy that he’s over her, but I really don’t want him to be hurt like that again.”

Alex’s last girlfriend, Kelly, had broken his heart and stomped on it. They had been seeing each other seriously for two years and he repeatedly told her how he was completely in love with her. Last Valentine’s Day, he walked in on her in bed with his good friend Jason. Later, she told him she never loved him and she was just using him for sex. That night, he got a fake I.D., went to a bar, and got completely trashed. The sight I saw when I went to pick him up almost made me drive to Kelly’s house and beat the shit out of her. He was just lying in the middle of the dirty sidewalk holding a corona bottle with a whole bunch of throw-up right beside him. He also had a bruise on his right cheek and a split lip; he must have gotten into a fight. I tried to pick him up off the ground, but he just kept on falling back down. I had to seek help from a stranger just to get him to stand up. I brought him up to my room, supporting his weight the whole time. After he finished throwing up in my bathroom, I helped him into my bed and wrapped my arms around him. “How could she do this to me?” he wondered out loud and turned to me with the most broken look I have ever seen. He could not hold in his emotions anymore. I took his head in my arms and he began to sob. To this day, that is the only time I have ever seen him cry.

Five minutes later, the bell rang, sounding the end of lunch. Jack put his arm around me as we walked out of the lunch room together.

“Don’t worry about Alex,” he said. “I’m sure everything will be fine once we get back into the swing of things with school again.”

“Yeah you are probably right,” I agreed. “I just have to try to be a little less over protective about my best friend.”

“Yeah, let him turn back into the man whore he used to be,” Jack joked.

“For his sake, I’m grateful that we had decent Sex Ed teachers back in freshman year. With the amount of girls he slept with, there’s no telling how many S.T.D.s he would have now if he didn’t know the benefits of a condom and how to use it.”

“I still think there’s a good chance that he has herpes, or maybe crabs. Did you ever see if he scratches it a lot?”

I laughed and lightly hit Jack again. “No, you douche! As if I was ever looking!”

“Oh you know you were and you just don’t want to admit it.”

“Yeah whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Anyway, I have to go to my locker before class, so I will catch you later.”

“Ok,” he said and I gave him a quick hug goodbye and walked toward my locker.

When I got my books and shut my locker, I nearly jumped a foot in the air. Alex was standing there laughing at me.

“You scared the crap out of me!” I huffed.

“That was the idea,” he laughed.

“Butthead. So how did lunch go?” I asked pretending to be interested.

“Great! Actually, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“What’s up?”

“Katelyn said she wants me to hang out with her after school, so I was thinking maybe I could give you my car keys and you could drive yourself home. Is that cool?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said, trying to swallow the frog in my throat.

He took his keys out from his pocket and handed them to me. “Thanks!” he said, kissing me on the cheek. “I’ll call you later,” he said as he walked away from me. I watched him as he disappeared completely from my view and then slowly began to walk to my class in the opposite direction.

Driving home alone gave me a chance to think about the day. As far as first days of school went, it pretty much sucked. I had this awful feeling in my stomach that things between me and Alex were about to change. For the first time in my life, I hated that he wanted to be with another girl instead of me. It took all the effort I had not to just suddenly stop the car in the middle of the road when I had this thought.

Jack was right; I was completely and utterly jealous. Katelyn was robbing me of my best friend and I hated her for that. If things had been normal, Alex and I would have been driving home together joking about our day. But, things weren’t normal, not anymore. I was upset that I couldn’t look into those deep brown eyes and wonder what they were thinking. But, the thing that bothered me the most? If I had thoughts like this about any other guy, Alex would have been the first one I would have gone to. Now, I was as confused as ever with no one to turn to, not even my best friend. Especially not him. This will be the first secret I have ever really kept from him.

The next question was why. Why would I feel like this? I never had a problem when he was around his other girlfriends. I mean, Alex was practically a brother to me. There was my answer. Alex was practically a brother to me, past tense. I no longer thought of him like a brother; I thought of him as so much more than that. I slowly came to the realization that I was in love with Alex Gaskarth.

Shit.