Head on Collision

Alex’s POV

What the heck has gotten into me? Was I flirting with Jack? Was that what that just was? I walked away from Jack slowly; no doubt leaving him completely confused by my behaviour. Unless, he caught on to the flirting. Wait what? Did I want him to catch on to the flirting? Am I interested in Jack like that? Do I like him like that? Do I like him as more than just the best mate he had become in such a short period of time? Was I falling for him? Was I falling for that goofy mush ball that was Jack Barakat? I smiled to myself as I entered the English class room. I was. I was falling for him. What an odd feeling.

I slid myself into my seat near the front of the classroom, beside Jack’s currently vacant one. I smiled again. It felt kind of weird but not out of place. Jack’s a nice guy; a really nice guy. Sure, he’s not perfect. He’s a bit of a mental case but in possibly the best way. I feel like I know him better then I know myself; not that that's hard. He paid attention to me, he helped me out and he comforted me in a time of need. He could have just ignored me on that first day, but he didn’t. Not to mention standing up for me yesterday with Chris and his cronies.

His reaction to my new look was priceless. He was shocked but I could tell by the way he stared at me that he loved it. He was literally checking me out. Jack was checking me out. Holy shit.

What if I told him what I was feeling? What if I said, “Jack. I think I like you.” What would his reaction be? Would he freak out? I wouldn’t freak out if he said that to me, would I? Oh god. I chewed my lip. What if he actually feels the same way? Am I even ready to commit to someone again? Am I ready to commit to a guy? I sat back in my chair and crossed my ankles in front of me; crossing my arms across my chest.

“Good morning class,” Ms Coleman's voice interrupted my thoughts and filled the room.

I sat up properly; leaning on the desk.

“Alright,” Ms Coleman started; leaning against her desk gingerly picking up a stack of papers from her left. “I’ll be handing out your very first assignment of the semester today.”

The class groaned. Seriously; if you don’t want to do assignments, why bother coming to school? I’m sure we wouldn’t miss you.

“It’s a poetry and short story assignment,” Ms Coleman continued; ignoring the objection. “What you have to do is find a partner. You will write one poem and your partner has to write one in response to yours, so they tell a story; sort of.”

I smiled at the task. This will be easy.

“Now, find your partner and I’ll hand out the task,” she instructed.

I sat back in the chair again as she approached my desk.

“Where’s Mr Barakat?” she asked.

“He’s in the principals office,” I told her.

“Oh,” she frowned at his absence. “Do you mind being paired with him? He’s pretty hopeless so it should be an easy task for you to beat.”

“Well, he’s not hopeless,” I argued; offended by what she said about Jack. “But alright. I’d like to be his partner.”

“That’s settled then,” she nodded and handed me two task sheets. “Make sure he gets that.”

I heard some of Chris’s friends in the back snigger. Chris was probably with the principal with Jack. I waited until Ms. Coleman finished her round of the class room and made it back to her desk; turning to the board and writing a heading across the top, before turning around to Chris’ mates.

“I’m not afraid to smack you all like Jack did to Chris,” I sneered at them. Where was this confidence coming from? “You guys want a broken nose too?”

I continued to glare at them as they fell silent; looking taken aback by my threat. I looked up from them as Jack entered the class room; frowning with his arms crossed across his chest. He didn’t look happy.

“Thank you for joining us Mr. Barakat,” Ms. Coleman told him sarcastically.

“You’re welcome,” came Jack’s smart-ass reply.

Jack walked over and sat heavily into a chair; dumping his bag on the floor. He lay his head on the table; his face looking in my direction. I mimicked his action; looking at him. He smiled as his eyes met mine and he sat up.

“What happened?” I whispered to him.

“Just detention,” he shrugged.

“You seem pretty pissed off for it to be 'just detention',” I stated.

“Yeah, I am,” he frowned again. “He got fucking nothing. Not even a slap on the wrist. I told the principal everything; bullying me, calling you a fag and all that. He just said he didn’t want to hear it and that “physical violence will not be tolerated.’”

I stifled a laugh at his imitation of the grouchy principal.

“That’s bullshit,” I shook my head.

“I know,” he sat forward in his chair; leaning on his elbows.

“Anyway, we got an assignment,” I told him and slid his copy of the task to him. “We’ve been partnered. We have to like write a poem each; like yours will be a response to mine or vice versa and they tell a story.”

Jack groaned and I looked at him; disappointed.

“What? Don’t you want to be my partner?” I asked him softly. I looked down; picking up the string of my hoodie and chewing on the end. I looked up to Jack when he rested his hand on my leg under the table.

“No no. It’s not that,” Jack assured me with a smile. “I just hate poetry. I can’t write to save myself.”

I smiled back at him; relieved. I looked down at his hand on my leg and he moved it quickly; crossing his arms on the table. He suddenly looked nervous or something.

“I’ll write the first one then,” I offered; resting my hand on his leg this time to tell him that I didn’t mind. He loosened his arms and turned to face me; leaning against the wall beside him. “And you write the response.”

“Deal,” he grinned and held out his hand.

I slid mine into his slowly. We shook hands; both of us not loosening our grip. I swallowed; grazing my teeth along the side of my bottom lip. I smiled ever so slightly at Jack and he dropped my hand like a hot potato. He turned back to the front of the classroom; a blush creeping its way on to his face. I turned to the front also; a grin forming on my face.

Jack’s POV

I still couldn’t believe I had blushed in English. The damn bastard, Alex, made me blush. I never blushed; never! The day had plodded on quite quickly after that. Alex had been talking all day. We had even more conversations. In Spanish he swore at me in Spanish; telling me I should practice all the time. I had cocked my eyebrow at him as if to say, you’re kidding right?

“Jack. Si alguna vez quieres entrar en mis pantalones , usted practicar su español,” he had smirked.

Of course, I didn’t know what he had said to me; until I looked it up in a Spanish to English dictionary. All I remembered was pants. I was confused.

I currently sat beside Zack in the back of our maths classroom, scamming a way to get out of there.

“I’ve got a stink bomb,” Zack scrawled on a piece of paper and slid it to me subtly.

I looked at him and grinned; nodding. I sat writing notes down off the board. Zack picked up his bag and unzipped it; peering inside. Half his arm disappeared as he went to the bottom of the bag. He grinned at me and nodded. He pulled the plug on it and waited until the teacher turned around to slide it under the girl diagonally across from us’ chair. He sat up; zipping his bag back up and waited for the smell to consume us all. I sniffed subtly and the smell of rotten eggs hit my nose. My hand flew to my nose and my eyes watered.

“Fuck! What’s that smell?” someone down the front yelled.

“Dean watch you lan..... oh my goodness. What is that awful odor?” the teachers face screwed up and he pulled a hanky from his pocket and held it over his mouth and nose. “Everyone outside immediately. Let’s go.”

The teacher led the way out of the classroom; closely followed by a bunch of squealing cheerleaders and the rest of the class. Zack and I left last; high fiving as we crossed the horizon of the door.

“We’re awesome,” Zack grinned; swinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Oh, we so are,” I agreed.

“I got to piss,” Zack announced. “I’ll see you in the cafeteria.”

“Alright man,” I nodded and turned towards the cafeteria myself; walking quickly to avoid being questioned by my maths teacher.

I stepped through the swinging doors of the cafeteria; the smell of something cooking filling my nose. Probably the lovely “mystery meat” they served every day. I looked up and found Alex sitting at one of the tables; the one we had sat at on his first day. I smiled at him. He had his beanie back on; he was hunched over a text book. His fringe hung in his face. He looked up a little; sticking his pencil in his mouth and picking something up on his left. As I approached I noticed it was his calculator. He was doing math; or chemistry.

“Hey,” I greeted him with a smile.

He looked up slowly and smiled in return.

“Hey yourself,” he told me; closing his text book.

“Are you giving up?” I asked; sliding onto the seat beside him; keeping a distance but sitting close at the same time.

“No,” Alex shook his head. “It’s almost done. I just happen to think that you’re more interesting than my maths homework.”

“Oh really now?” I asked; smirking and leaning on the table looking at him.

“Definitely,” he nodded.

I smiled at him.

“Hold on,” he adjusted his beanie. “The bell hasn’t rung yet. Why are you out of class? You aren’t ditching again are you?”

“No,” I shook my head and leaned close to him; my face really close to his ear. He tensed. “Zack and I let off a stink bomb in maths.”

“You didn’t?” Alex whipped his head around quickly; his nose colliding with mine. “Sorry!”

“It’s alright,” I replied; rubbing my nose. “And yes. Yes we did.”

“You are bad, Jack Barakat,” he shook his head at me.

“I am,” I smirked. “But you love it.”

“Oh do I now?” Alex asked me; his voice dripping with both sarcasm and flirtatiousness.

The bell rang loudly; echoing through the hall. I kept my eyes trained on Alex’s face; memorising the curves of his features. He had such a pretty face. Yeah, that’s right. A pretty face.

“Hey guys,” Rian's voice joined us at the table.

I tore my eyes away from Alex; leaving him smiling.

“Hey man,” I held out my fist and he knocked his against mine.

Rian sat down across from us; pulling out his sandwich and a bottle of water.

I shrugged and decided to get out my lunch too; an apple and a ham and cheese sandwich.

“What’s on yours?” Rian asked me.

“Ham and cheese,” I smiled; taking a bite.

“Damn,” Rian frowned. “I’ve got baloney. What about you Alex?”

“Oh. I already ate. Had some of that mystery meat,” he answered Rian with a look of disgust. “It was awful.”

“Guys guys!” Zack came bounding into the cafeteria. He dodged his way past the growing masses. He collided with a girl from the grade below us and she blushed like a loon. “Shit sorry babe. Guys! Guys! Guess what?”

Zack kneeled on the chair beside Rian and we all looked at him. I exchanged a glance with Alex who wore the same expression as both Rian and i.

“Well, aren’t you going to guess?” Zack asked excitedly.

“Why don’t you just tell us, Zack?” Alex suggested.

“You’re no fun, Gaskarth,” Zack plonked himself down on the chair and pouted like a child. Alex shrugged. "Well, there’s a beach trip or party or whatever on Sunday.”

“And?” Rian pushed.

“Well, it’s open to everybody,” Zack grinned. “Are we in?”

“I'm in,” Rian shrugged. “I’ve got nothing else to do on Sunday.”

I looked over to Alex who wore a smile.

“You two in?” Zack asked.

“Are you?” Alex turned and asked me.

“I’m in if you are,” I shrugged.

“I guess we’re in,” Alex grinned.

“Excellent,” Zack nodded and pulled out his lunch.

I looked over to Alex and smiled at him. I grew kind of nervous. I wasn’t sure how I was going to react to seeing Alex in his board shorts; or how my body was going to react anyway. But, would I pass up the chance to see his body for the first time? Fuck no.