Trophy Eyes.

When Joe arrives at Alex’s door on Saturday morning, and when the younger answers the door with his baby brother in his arms, Joe just wants to apologize more.

“Yeah?” Alex says breathlessly as he throws the door open. Theo’s squirming as Alex attempts to get him settled on his hip.

“Uh, we have to do our Spanish assignment.” Joe says blankly, glancing from Alex to his brother. He decides they look kind of alike.

Alex’s eyes widen and he nearly drops the kid.

“Uhm, Theo, go play with Harry.” Alex says quietly, setting his brother down and shepherding him into the house. He looks back up at Joe.

“I completely forgot.” He says sheepishly. He’s waiting for Joe to completely flip out and try to kill him.

“I figured.” is all Joe says. Alex hesitates, as if he planned on saying something, before opening the door and letting him in.

“My room’s upstairs.” Alex says, gesturing at the staircase, “It’s the door without the bright colors.”

Joe nods, and he’s only a few stairs up when he hears Alex shouting his mom.

“Mom! Where did I put my Spanish textbook?”

The first thing Joe notices about Alex’s room is how dark it is. Even with the blind up and the lights on, it’s still pretty difficult to see. There’s a notice board on the wall by the door, and Alex has covered it with photographs and other memoirs. Joe sees a few Blink 182 and Warped Tour tickets from years gone by among all the photographs. They’re mainly of Hayley, John or Victoria, which surprises Joe. He always forgets they were friends.

He notices one photo near the bottom that’s different to the others. He leans a little closer to get a better look. It’s of Alex, Aled, Daniel and Andrew, and it looks pretty recent. He silently wonders if Jack knows that his friends have befriended Alex.

Joe pulls back quickly when he hears the door open and Alex appears in the doorway with his book.

“Brother was skiing on the laminate flooring with it.” He sighs as he sits down on the floor and flicks through the book. Joe takes a seat opposite him and starts rummaging through his bag for his copy of the book.

“When do we have to finish this by?” Alex asks. He’s really quiet, and that worries Joe a little. Alex is never quiet.

“He wants the planning on Thursday and then the performance the Thursday after.”

Alex suddenly freezes and goes pale.

“We have to perform this? In front of the whole class?” Alex asks, and his eyes are desperate as he stares at Joe.

“Yeah, I think so.” Joe replies.

“Fuck.” Alex mumbles, “I can’t speak it that well. I can write it just fine, but speaking it is a different matter…”

He stares at the book on the floor uneasily as he speaks.

“Relax. It’s not like anyone who speaks Spanish professionally is gonna hear it. And besides, when you do speak it, your accent’s pretty good.”

Alex smiles weakly but doesn’t say anything.

“And more of the grade rests on the writing part than the actual speaking.” Joe says. He’s trying his hardest to reassure Alex, but he has no idea why. He’s supposed to hate the kid, for crying out loud. Alex nods and finally looks up at Joe.

“I’m sorry for, y’know, punching you in the face the other day.” Joe mumbles sheepishly, running his fingers through his short hair.

“It’s fine.” Alex answers, looking back down at the book again, “I’m sorry for being an asshole to your brother. I guess you just found out?”

“Yeah. He told May the day it happened but didn’t tell me because they thought I’d freak out at him or you. I did both anyway, but hey…” Joe trails off.

Alex rises and goes over to his ridiculously messy desk, fumbling around for something. He eventually finds it, and ‘it’ turns out to be a box.

“Could you give him this?” Alex asks, handing Joe the box. He can see the elder’s about to ask what it is, so Alex cuts him off.

“It’s my way of saying sorry. Again.”

Joe nods, and places the box carefully inside his bag.

“Did you hear he had an argument with Aled?” Joe asks, watching as Alex settles himself again.

“No, I didn’t. Aled’s not mentioned it at all, but he did seem a little down.” Alex replies, leaning back and using his hands to support him.

“Apparently, he did something to help you. So Jack thinks he’s taking your side. Aled, Andrew and Daniel tried to tell him that they weren’t taking sides, but he wouldn’t have it. He’s just blanking Aled because ‘he started it’, supposedly.” Joe explains, sighing. His brother can be so childish sometimes.

“Wow. That’s a little… pathetic.” Alex says. As much as he adores Jack, the ‘taking sides’ argument is for toddlers, not teenagers.

“Aled’s such an awesome kid too. They did help me out with something, but they offered. I didn’t force them to do it.” Alex continues. Joe nods, and closes the textbook in front of him.

“I'll leave the box out. It has his name on it, and Jack’s a nosy bastard. Go figure.” Joe states with a smile.

Alex laughs, and closes his book too.

Joe catches himself thinking something he never thought about before.

Maybe Gaskarth’s not so bad after all.