Walls

"What the fuck?" Jack sputtered, earning an angry look from a passing teacher.

I shook my head, "It's not what you think."

"So you're not planning to break Alex's heart?" he yelled, "because that's what it sounded like."

Jack glared at me, his brown eyes aflame with bitter fury. I opened my mouth but words refused to leave my lips. I stuttered and stumbled but I couldn’t voice a coherent thought. All I could think of was Jack telling Alex and Alex hating me. They were best friends. It would happen. Especially if Jack didn’t believe me when I told the truth.

“Jack, I swear to you I would never hurt Alex,” I finally spit out, “I know it sounded bad but I can explain. Please don’t say anything to Alex.”

“Explain,” he huffed angrily.

“I can’t. Not here. I’ll meet you at your house after school and tell you then,” I whispered, seeing Alex out of the corner of my eyes.

“If I don’t like what I hear, I’m telling him,” Jack hissed and walked off.

I barely had a moment to catch my breath before Alex wrapped his arms around my waist and spun me around to face him. He grinned and planted a soft kiss on my lips before giving me a tight hug. I smiled back weakly and shut my locker. Alex laced his fingers with mine and started tugging me toward our next class.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked while we walked, “You seem, I don’t know, zoned out or something.”

“I’m fine,” I shrugged.

Class seemed to pass by slowly. Usually the last class of the day always goes by really slow because I keep staring at the clock praying it will be 2:20 so I can finally go home. It went even slower because I was freaking out about talking to Jack. I was not looking forward to that. I’d just regained his friendship, I didn’t want to lose it again, nor did I want to lose Alex.

“I want an explanation and I want it now,” Jack barked the second I walked through his front door.

“It was Meg’s idea,” I mumbled and sat on the couch, “They hooked up once and now she hates him. She’s planning on embarrassing him at Fall Formal and I swear to you I never wanted to be a part of this. I really do like Alex.”

“Why don’t you just tell Meg you’re not gonna do it?” Jack threw his hands up.

“I want to but I… I can’t. She’s my only friend. If I tell her I don’t want to go through with it then I’ll have no one,” I said softly.

“No one?” Jack laughed, “You’ve got me and Rian and Zack and Kara and, most importantly, Alex.”

“But I’ve known Meg since kindergarten,” I protested.

“Well I don’t think Meg is a very good friend. And I don’t think you’re being a very good girlfriend,” Jack said, more calm than before.

“He only asked me out today,” I pointed out, “I really haven’t had enough time to prove myself.”

Jack smiled a little but his face soon grew serious again, “You have to tell Alex.”

“If I don’t tell him, he’ll never know,” I said, “Where’s the harm in that?”

“What if he hears Meg or somebody else talking about it? It’ll kill him. He really really likes you, Jersey,” Jack told me, “And if you don’t tell him, I will.”

My breath hitched in my throat and my mind filled with visions of Alex, but not the happy Alex who just asked me to be his girlfriend. A furiously angry Alex who’d just found out his girlfriend was using him appeared in my mind. I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t be the reason he felt that way. I couldn’t break him more than he was already broken.

“Okay, I’ll tell him.”