He Doesn't Look A Thing Like Jesus; But He Talks Like A Gentleman

“One more time,” Alex said as he took the pencil from out of his ear as he furiously scribbled something down on paper. The boy with the shaggy hair was very into the band that he had previously started with his best friend, and his new found friend Zack Merrick.
“Alex,” Rian warned, it was Christmas Eve and they had been working on this one song that Alex had been writing for almost three hours now.
“Please, please, I just thought of another line.” He said not lifting his head from being down staring at the paper in front of him. Rian looked to Zack with wide eyes almost begging him to back Rian up yet Zack just shook his head and looked away as if saying ’I’m staying out of this one.’
“Alright ready?” Alex asked swinging his guitar in front of him and Zack nodded while Rian made no reply for which Alex took as a yes.
Alex started with his guitar and Zack came in right before Rian did before Alex began to sing.
The light’s out. I still here the rain, these images that fill my head, now keep my fingers from-
Zack joined in as a backup singer
making mistakes, tell my voice what it takes to: speak up. Speak up and keep my conscience clean when I wake.
Don’t make this easy I want you to mean it-
That’s when Alex added something in, Jaseyyy he sang. Both Rian and Zack’s eyebrows rose as Rian faltered what he played and Zack continued singing the next part as Alex elongated the name
Say you’ll mean it.
Alex joined back in with Zack with the usual lyrics from there, You’re dressed to kill, I’m calling you out. Don’t waste your time on me.
At that point Rian abruptly stopped whipping his head to Alex who looked at his friend confused.
“What, was that?” Rian asked feeling at an utter loss and tilted his head at his friend.
“What was what?” Alex asked.
“Jasey?” Rian said tilting his head skeptically at his friend while Zack watched intently not speaking a word.
Alex looked down not saying anything placing his guitar on Rian’s bed beside him, before looking up at his friend and shrugging.
“Dude, are you singing about my cousin.” Zack couldn’t help but let off a smirk and Alex turned to glower at Zack who then tilted his head downward to hide it.
At that point the singer opened his mouth to say something before a girl cleared her voice and the three males turned to the doorway where Rian’s sister and Chase stood with an amused look on her face.
“Chase’s here.” Rian’s sister Bianca said dully before walking away bored.
“Ready to go? I told Jack that we‘d be there at three,” Chase pressed with a smirk not leaving her small face.
“Hey Chase,” Zack greeted the girl with a warm smile, the two of them weren’t super close but had bonded since she was with Jack and he and Jack were not only cousins but best friends. Also since Alex and Zack were spending more time together that inevitably meant more seeing Chase for Zack since she and Alex were nearly inseparable.
“What’s up Zack?” Chase asked before waving to Rian.
“Practice,” Zack answered with a smile as Rian threw a greeting chase’s way.
“Let’s go,” Alex said with no goodbye to the boys and he passed Chase in the doorway and walked out to his car, “Uh bye!” Chase yelled out to the boys in Rian’s room who looked at one another like ‘what the hell just happened’.
The smaller girl quickly caught up to her cousin hopping into the passenger’s seat of his car, she’d had her father drop her off at Rian’s so that she and Alex could ride together to their destination.
“What’s up?” she asked Alex rubbing her hands together and leaning towards the heater freezing from being outside with no jacket even though she’d only been exposed for about thirty seconds.
“Only you wouldn’t wear a coat in this weather,” he remarked shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
“Shut up, Mr. Jasey,” Chase teased and Alex’s face instantly got a pout while speeding off from Rian’s house towards his destination.
“Not a word. While we’re there. Not one word,” he threatened as he popped in a blink-182 CD into his car stereo.
“Like I would say anything. Are you really going to be like this the whole time-,” Alex cut her off by turning up the music very loud and blocking her out. Chase looked sullenly out the window sulking yet unable to wait to see Jack she’d missed him since she hadn’t had much of a chance to see him since school had let out for winter break. He and his family went away just returning the prior night, and unfortunately Chase was not used to being away from Jack for so long.
Alex however was dreading this meeting, he wasn’t sure how but he’d let his cousin convince him to go and meet Jasyn and Jack at a coffeehouse. Well if he was being honest with himself the Jasyn part didn’t need much pushing. Yet Alex wasn’t psyched about being so close to Jack Barakat on his free time. Sure he sat at the same lunch table but there were always more then five people between the two boys preventing any argument or dispute that may or may not have gone down otherwise. Truth be told, he’d never actually had a conversation with Jack, and he knew that Chase had pushed and pushed for him to give Jack a chance, and Alex couldn’t help but give in to her.
Plus on the drive over, all Alex had to do was remind himself that it would only be for a few hours, and that he would get to see Jasyn and give her, her gift, all while making his cousin happy.
The drive took a while due to them picking out a popular place about twenty minutes out of town, none of them wanted to chance a run in with family members, or big mouthed family friends. Plus the coffee shop that they’d picked was a private owned place with excellent quality drinks. As soon as they pulled into the parking lot a wide smile crossed Chase’s face when she saw Jack’s car parked and she had to hold in a happy squeal. Alex shook his head at Chase knowingly and she hopped out of the car before he’d even turned the engine off.
“Jeez, hold on a minute C,” he said irritated as she was bending into the backseat of his car taking out her gifts that she had for Jasyn and Jack. Jack’s gift was in a large box that she was struggling with carrying and her little box for Jasyn looked almost shrunken in comparison. Alex sighed placing the strings on the small bag containing the gift he had for Jasyn around his wrist as he sighed.
“Here, let me take that,” he said shooting Chase a look to which she warmly smiled and dropped the box over Alex’s outstretched arms gaining an ‘oomph’ from the boy.
“Thanks Lex,” she gave him a big smile before bounding in front of him to the coffee house. Alex was grumbling thinking she left him stuck with no assistance but as soon as he reached the door it was held open for him by Chase.
He followed her to a table in the back corner of the small shop and placed the gifts on the table. The first thing he saw as he looked up was Jasyn sitting with her arms folded across her chest giving him a smirk, and Alex took a deep gulp while trying to deny the butterflies filling his gut.
“Hey,” Jasyn nodded to him and he smiled warmly back in response.
“Hey Jasey.”
Meanwhile at the other end of the table, Jack couldn’t contain himself and wrapped Chase into a tight embrace to which she reciprocated. He had missed the way that she fit perfectly into his arms, almost like a puzzle piece. Neither wanted to end the embrace, and all he wanted to do was kiss her until he couldn’t breathe anymore but neither of them was big on public displays of affection plus Jasyn and Alex were there and both of them were sure that neither Jasyn nor Alex would like to see them making out the whole evening.
Instead when they pulled apart Jack lightly kissed her on the lips sweetly for a brief moment before they each sat down.
Jack sat besides Jasyn and wrapped his hand with Chases who sat across from him besides Alex. For a minute no one spoke before Chase nudged Alex, and greeted Jasyn.
“Hey J,” she said with a smile which Jasyn returned, “Hey skank.”
Alex finally found his vocal cords and as weird as it sounded to him, it sounded almost uncanny to Jack.
“Hey man, how are you?” Once again a silence came over them and Jack paused. “Uh great now, how about you?”
“I’m pretty well,” Alex responded formally and offered a small smile which Jack returned. Chase couldn’t have been more proud of the boys for being civil and even Jasyn was taken aback and held a large smile on her face.
After the four of them all had warm drinks and had gotten past the initial awkwardness of being out in a group. The conversation flowed freely and each of the boys found themselves laughing at one another.
“So then Alex began to roll on the floor foaming from the mouth,” Chase laughed as she was finishing her story, and Jasyn was laughing so hard it was silent.
“Dude!” Jack exclaimed, “I remember that party! That was the party where I did one keg stand too many-,”
“And ended up in the neighbor’s lawn with makeup and only a pair of boxers and a bra on!” Jasyn finished and Chase couldn’t help but feel like they were all connecting.
“Bra and makeup?” Chase cocked an eyebrow and playfully withdrew her hand from Jack’s.
“Thanks, Jase.” Jack scoffed looking hurt and downing the rest of his drink while taking his and Chase’s empty cups and went to throw them away.
Jasyn stuck her tongue out at her brother, before Alex intercepted, “its ok Jack, it’s not like Chase just painted a pretty picture of me a second before. ‘Rolling on the floor foaming from the mouth’?” Alex smirked taking his empty cup and Jasyn’s and following Jack to the garbage can.
“If you only knew half the stories I had on Chase,” Alex shook his head thinking of a couple good ones that Chase would kill him for if he ever repeated them to Jack.
“Ooh, I want to hear those! I’ll even throw in a couple good ones of Jasyn’s!” Jack excitedly responded as they sat back at the table.
“What about me?” Jasyn asked narrowing her eyes.
“Alex was just telling me he has a couple good stories on Chase here-,”
“And my buddy Jack was going to tell me some good ones about you.” Alex finished.
Both the girls eyes widened in fear and Chase lunged herself at Alex covering his mouth.
“Ok! Now I REALLLLYYYY want to know!” Jack laughed and she shook her head keeping her hand over her cousin’s mouth. At that point Alex let his tongue out of his mouth and licked Chase’s hand. In response the smaller Gaskarth squealed and jumped about fifteen feet away from him in a matter of seconds. At that point the whole coffee shop turned their attention to the table and Chase instantly reddened. And Jack and Alex found this absolutely hilarious, in fact they high fived.
“You two,” Jasyn said motioning to the two hysterical boys, “Are assholes,” she shook her head before leaning over to her side and picking up a gift bag and sliding it across the table to Chase.
“Here, this should make you feel better.” she smiled a side smile. “Merry Christmas.”
Chase grinned broadly and looked into the bag moving the tissue paper around. Finally when she grasped something tangible, she pulled it towards herself and laughed aloud. Inside the bag was a bra. The strapless bra was black and had a checked pattern and rimmed in silver design. Chase had instantly recognized it, it was a replica of the beautiful three million dollar bra that Marisa Miller had worn for the Victoria Secret’s Runway Show.
Alex groaned and looked away wrinkling his nose when he realized what exactly his cousin was holding. While Jack’s jaw dropped before he got a devilish look in his eye and his mouth turned into a smirk and he wiggled his eyebrows at Chase who blushed looking down before Jasyn spoke again.
“Look at you Jasyn, looking out for your older brother.”
“Ew, don’t want that mental image!” she exclaimed to which Alex groaned again.
“Noo, Chase, now you have a bra from Victoria’s secret just like every other girl.” she offered a smile.
The boys looked at one another confused but Chase jumped up bounding towards the girl and tightly wrapped her arms around her. It had surprised her that Jasyn had remembered something so miniscule, but then again Chase was learning not to underestimate the Barakat girl, she was full of surprises.
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome, it’s just a bra,” Jasyn laughed and Chase knew that the dark haired girl would never understand the sentiment the bra had on her.
“Now it’s your turn!” she yelled grabbing the small box she’d delicately wrapped and sliding it to Jasyn before plopping down on Jack’s lap suddenly. It startled Jack who suddenly had trouble focusing on anything and everything and Alex looked away quickly watching Jasyn intently.
He watched the way she carefully used her finger nail to peel the tape off the paper, the way she unwrapped the gift crease by crease. Gently. Finally when the paper was completely unfolded, without a rip or tear, Alex watched as Jasyn’s lips crinkled slightly in the corners and her eyes sparkled at the Tiffany’s box. Stealing a look at his cousin he could see that her eyes were lit up too. Chase had always loved shopping for and giving gifts then receiving them. Lifting the top off of the classic green box Alex couldn’t help but be entranced by Jasyn’s lips as it formed into a full smile showing off her teeth. He slowly looked up her face up to her eyes which were still sparkling entranced by the gift from Chase. Suddenly Alex’s palms began to sweat he hoped Jasyn would like his gift as Chase had promised and reassured him.
”I hope you like it. I saw you admiring mine, and now we can match!” Chase exclaimed happily.
“Of course I like it. I love it!” Jasyn said and her three companions all smiled widely. Jasyn was almost never out rightly enthusiastic about anything so they knew that the girl was clearly pleased.
As the four chuckled to themselves Jack took notice that Alex had not once taken his eyes off of his sister in minutes. He could not completely decipher the look on the Gaskarth’s face but he wasn’t sure if he liked it. The one thing Jack could think was that Tommy had never looked at his sister like that, so it couldn’t be that horrible. Wanting to leave the two of them alone for a moment he took Chase’s hand and his gift for her in his other hand before pulling her up with himself.
“C’mere.” he said into her ear before turning to Jasyn and Alex. “We’ll be right back,” he announced.
Chase grabbed the jumbo gift she had for Jack and followed him to the other table he walking towards.
“I’m pretty sure that that gift is bigger then she is,” Jasyn smiled as Alex laughed watching her trying to put the bracelet on herself.
“Need help with that?” he asked leaning closer to her. Jasyn was about to say a witty remark that implied a ‘yes’ but before the words came out her breath caught in her throat. Alex was very close to her and she couldn’t deny that he was very attractive. Before she could muster up any words Alex’s fingers were gently on her wrist clipping the bracelet on. And then they were gone, and Jasyn tried to hide the fact that she missed the warmth of his fingertips.
“Thanks,” she finally recovered enough to say, meanwhile the boy was trying to hide a smile. He was secretly ecstatic that he could have that kind of effect on the girl who liked to keep such a poker face on all the time. “Uhm, I have something for you too actually,” Jasyn said hiding her blush behind her hair as she reached into her blue purse and fishing around until she pulled out a small wrapped item.
“Thanks, but you didn’t have to.” Alex said taking the gift from her noticing it was soft.
“I know,” Jasyn smiled.
Unlike the Barakat girl though Alex ripped through the paper in a matter of seconds and when he saw the gift he instantly started to laugh.
“I figured you’d need something to cover up that mop of hair,” Jasyn stuck out her tongue and Alex instantly put the gray beanie on his head.
“I love it,” he smiled, “I’m never going to take it off. Even when I’m a famous lead singer!”
“Psh, yeah like that’ll ever happen,” Jasyn laughed before Alex began to pout.
“Well, before you tear me down anymore, I better give you your gift to distract you,” he said sliding his bag over to her hoping that she’d love it as much as he’d loved her gift
“Please. your ego can take it. Trust me,” the dark haired beauty promised as she dug into the bag before taking out her gift. Her heart skipped a beat.
It was her favorite perfume. She’d run out about two months ago but the smell was so beautiful and she thought it complimented her perfectly.
“Alex…How’d you know?” she asked softly, and it was now his turn to blush.
“Well, Chase said girls love perfume. And when I smelled it, I instantly recognized it as something you’ve worn. Plus I thought it was really pretty like you.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Alex Gaskarth wanted to smack himself. ’Really Pretty like you?’ He sounded to himself like a cheesy eight year old boy. Now full of doubt and insecurities Alex would have been alright not looking up until he left, that was before he felt it. Jasyn’s perfect lips placing a soft kiss on his cheek. It was everything Alex was ashamed to admit that he’d imagined and he instantly shot his head up wondering if it was a hallucination before he found himself questioned, can people feel hallucinations?
However when he looked up again to once again seeing Jasyn blushing he knew that it was real.
“Thank you.” she said thoughtfully and he knew that she meant it.
“Oh my gosh Jack! Did you see that! I knew perfume was a good idea!” Chase spoke to Jack excitedly squeezing his hand. Jack nodded thoughtfully as he smiled lightly. Everything was good. He was with the girl he loved. His sister was sitting with a boy, who although Jack was still wary of him, looked to be completely infatuated with his sister and she seemed to reciprocate though feelings.
“I did,” he said finally answering her verbally before stealing a kiss just as his sister had, although he placed it on her lips, and Chase answered back by moving her lips in motion with his. She never thought that she could feel this way with a boy. Let alone having that boy being Jack Barakat. But she knew, she would not give it up for anything else in the world. Surprisingly Jack was the one who pulled away.
“I really did miss you,” he whispered into her ear.
“Me too, too much,” Chase said getting a look of discontent on her face. “I don’t like to be away from you.”
“Me neither.” Jack agreed before he took his gift out placing it into the girl-on-his-lap’s hands and then wrapped his hands around her waist. “Which leads me to my gift.”
Chase gave Jack a toothy grin before devouring the wrapping paper off of the gift just like Alex and completely unlike Jasyn. It was a Gaskarth thing.
“Jack,” Chase said in a warning voice. The box was somewhat large and velvet with a Ron Herman logo inscribed at the top. “This is probably really expensive,” she said sadly, “I can’t take it.” Chase tried to hand the box back to Jack.
Jack’s eyes widened, before he spoke softly into her ear again, “Baby, you haven’t even opened the box yet to see the real gift.”
Sighing Chase opened the box, before gasping. Just as she thought the gift was beautiful but she could never imagined how beautiful it was. There sitting on a dainty pure silver chain was a diamond encrusted heart connected to a key.
“See now you’ll never have to worry about being away from me, because you’ll always have the key to my heart,” Jack said simply and in that moment Chase wanted to just make love with him right there in the café.
“I love you,” she blurted out wrapping her arms around his skinny neck and kissing him again not caring if she was putting a show on for the staff, or Alex and Jasyn or any of the other strangers there. She was in love with Jack Barakat and he had just bought her the sweetest gift and she wanted everyone to know it. But before she completely got into the kiss she pulled away, “Wait! I want to give you your present!” she said throwing herself off the boy and throwing the large gift onto him.
“Well I think this weighs more then you, and it isn’t quite as cuddly,” Jack said feigning strain as he held the box.
“Oh shush it Barakat and open the present.” Chase rolled her eyes in a play annoyance but she was really very anxious to see his reaction to gift. After the paper was ripped off, in a neater manner then both the Gaskarths but far less precise then his sister, and the box was opened Jack was rendered speechless. Sitting before him was the Rickenbacker325 signed by John Lennon himself, one of Chase’s most prized possessions, and he knew that Chase had seen him admiring it.
“I know that I didn’t technically buy this, but I saw you eyeing it and-,” Chase was smiling but it faded when she heard the seriousness in his voice. “Chase I can’t take this.”
The girl furrowed her brow before quickly regaining her composure and her facial expression into a blank face, “Then I can’t take this,” she said trying to hand the jewelry back to the boy.
“No, it’s just. This is fucking priceless, and yours and I would feel way too bad taking it-,”
“Jack, I love you. You really liked it a lot. I didn’t care for it that much, or at least half as much as I care for you. So please take it, you’ll get better use out of it then I ever did,” Chase coaxed him into it and soon Jack’s figure loosened, “Ok,” Jack relented as he gave into the idea while Chase grew a giant smile.
“Good because this necklace is beautiful and I do not want to give it back!” she proudly exclaimed as she placed random kisses all over his face exerting a laugh from Jack and everyone else in the coffee house except Jasyn and Alex who pretended to gag and then laughed at their own little joke in unison.
++++++

“Ready to go in?” Chase had asked Alex before hiding her necklace under her shirt and she could hear her cousin as he audibly gulped.
“No?” he said it more as a question while he stared at the resturant that held the usual Gaskarth family Thursday night dinners. However ever since things had began to change in Alex’s immediate household, so had the family dinners. His father was moved out of the house completely now, and Elizabeth never went anymore. Also, Alex who used to go faithfully every week, now came sporadically. However especially since this Thursday was Christmas Eve and Alex and Chase had already been out together it was pretty much a given that he would go, although he hadn’t been in three weeks now.
Alex hated to admit it but he was nervous about going to dinner with his own family, especially without his mother there. But Chase had reassured him, honestly, that no one said one word about him or his mother when he wasn’t there.
“Just remember you always have me,” Chase promised squeezing his arm lightly before she climbed out of the passenger’s seat and he followed her into the restaurant as time seemed to be running slow. And Alex thought of the words Chase said, and she was right he always did have her but he didn’t feel like he had anyone else for him in there. Including his sister and father.
“One word and we’re both out of here,” Chase promised her nervous cousin as they headed towards the back room. Slowing at the sound of voices the teens stopped listening for a moment.
“I should have known it!”