Trophy Eyes.

Alex comes over again on Saturday. Instead of actually talking to him, Jack holes himself up in his room - on the pretense of doing math homework - blasts his iPod as loud as it will go and texts him.

He’s been there almost two hours (and Jack’s only got through two hundred and forty three songs) when he texts Jack with something very important.

Your brother’s gone to the store for something. Can I come in?

Jack stares at his phone, disbelieving, with a blank look in his brown eyes. He opens up a text to reply, and quickly types the word ‘Sure’ before pressing send.

Within a minute, the door pushes open and Alex is standing there, a weak smile on his chapped lips.

“Hey.” He says. Jack nods in response. He feels the mattress dip as Alex sits down beside him. Jack glances over at him, but swiftly goes back to flicking through the songs on his iPod. The older boy looks at him sadly. He knows he’s done something wrong; he just has no idea what.

“Jack?” He says quietly. The dark haired boy looks sideways at him and smiles.

“You okay?” Alex continues, placing a gentle hand on Jack’s knee. He doesn’t flinch away like Alex expected him to do. He nods.

“Yeah.” He shuts off his iPod and pulls the headphones out “Just thinking about how this is the first time we’ve actually spoken.”

Alex smiles open mouthed and shifts so he’s lying down beside Jack. The younger rolls up his headphones and throws his iPod across the room, where it lands on a pair of discarded board shorts.

“So, you came in here why?” Jack asks, lying back down.

“No reason.” Alex replies after a moment of deliberation. He looks at Jack with his honey eyes and finds the younger looking back. Jack giggles - definitely the cutest thing Alex has ever heard - and sticks out his tongue.

Alex leans in and presses his lips to Jack’s in a less than chaste fashion. The younger flails against him but quickly stops when he realizes what’s going on. He kisses him back gently, slowly submitting to Alex as the elder straddles his hips.

Within a few minutes of heated kissing and fumbling, Alex is battling against Jack’s belt and pushing his pants down his legs. Jack’s trying desperately to switch the CD player by his bed to a decent volume, so Joe doesn’t hear anything should he return. Soon enough, Motion City Soundtrack is blasting out the top floor of the Barakat household. Alex laughs as he kisses Jack open mouthed and the younger forces his jeans down his legs.

Alex doesn’t honestly comprehend the situation enough - thanks to his drug-dependent brain - to realize what the repercussions of his actions could be.

Jack doesn’t care enough to stop proceedings, and even though he knows he’ll be killed by Joe should he ever find out.

*

Ten sweat-filled minutes later, they’re done. Alex hoists his jeans back up his legs and grins; pressing a few kisses to Jack’s jaw line. Jack pulls his jeans back up his legs and fumbles messily with his belt. Alex smirks crookedly, kisses Jack’s cheek and sidles away, back to Joe’s room. He’ll be back soon.

Jack sits and watches him go, Motion City Soundtrack still blaring through the speakers. He wants to voice the words that have been lying heavy in his throat the whole time. But he just can’t. It’s too late now, anyway.

He crosses his legs and stares blankly at his duvet, and that’s when realization slams into him full force, like an out-of-control shipping truck.

He just lost his virginity to Alex Gaskarth. His first time was a quickie just because Alex was bored.

And he bursts into tears.

He tries to regain his composure as he puts his shoes on and stares in the mirror. He quickly shuffles through his contacts until he finds ‘Welshie’ and his thumb hovers over the ‘Call’ button. He sniffles dejectedly, throws open his bedroom door and flies down the stairs.

Alex catches sight of a shape soaring past the open door of Joe’s room and hears a gentle sob as it moves. Guilt barely crosses his mind.

Jack pushes past Joe on his way out, and the confusion and concern on his brother’s face upsets Jack even more.

He can hear Joe calling out to him as he runs away, a searing pain shooting up his spine; a horrible reminder of what he did with Alex barely fifteen minutes ago.

He finally presses the call button and Aled picks up within two rings.

“Hello?”

“Aled, I’ve done something really fucking stupid.” Jack whimpers. He hears Aled’s breath hitch.

“Like what?”

“Can I come over? It’s kind of hard to talk about.”

*

Aled opens the door twelve minutes later to an exhausted Jack with tear stains on his cheeks. He guides him to the bed and sits him down, taking a seat beside.

“You okay?” He asks gently, his lilting accent doing nothing to calm Jack. He shakes his head.

Aled wants to slap himself for even asking such a stupid question; he’s crying, for God’s sake. Of course he’s not okay.

“Anything I could possibly fix?” Aled asks, trying his hardest to be helpful.

“If you’re up for breaking Alexander Gaskarth like a twig, then yes.” Jack replies, voice bitter and watery.

“Which I am.” Aled answers, throwing an arm around Jack “Would you like me to roundhouse kick him to death? I’m famous for them back in Wales.”

Jack smiles, and nods against Aled’s shoulder.

“That’d be nice.”

“Dare I ask what he did?”

Jack sighs and shuffles closer to him.

“Had sex with me.”