Go Around

Lisa was pilling her books into her locker and deciding which books to take home and which to keep at school. When she looked at all the homework she had planned for the next few days, she decided it would be better if she took all her text books with her, leaving her locker completely vacant.
“Hey Lisa,” a voice said and she turned at her name.
She moved her locker door and peaked around, she saw Jack leaning up against the locker that was next to hers and a smile spread across her face. She had always suspected that Jack had a little crush on her, but she would never say anything to Alex about it because she didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable when all of them were around each other. “Hey, Jack,” she said, shutting her locker door.
As odd as it may seem, Jack was one of the people who made Lisa the most happy. He always knew what to say when she was depressed and she knew that she could always count on him to be there when she needed him the most.
She cocked her head to the side as he started taking steps toward her. Her long brown hair fell in front of her face and Jack stroked it out of the way. “Why didn’t you get a ride home with Alex?” Jack asked, recoiling from her as though he had touched something hot.
She smiled and let out a little laugh, “Because I needed to stay here to redo a lab in my science class and he didn’t want to wait for me,” she told Jack and rolled her eyes. Jack laughed at the ridiculous excuse.
Even though Kennedy had told Jack that she and Alex had broken off their little forbidden love fling that they had going on, Jack knew better. When Lisa had told Jack about Alex refusing to kiss him, Jack put all the puzzle pieces together and it took all he had not to call up Kennedy and ask her what the fuck she was doing.
Jack was fully aware that Kennedy would love Alex more than Lisa ever did, but that did not make her the better woman for Alex over all. Alex needed someone he could rely on, someone who would party but not take it too far, someone who wouldn’t sleep with some random guy just for a good lay; he pretty much needed a girl who was the complete opposite from him.
“So…” Jack said as Lisa leaned up against her locker, staring into Jack’s eyes, “what do you think of Kennedy?” he asked. He knew that everybody loved Kennedy because she was a great girl, she knew how to have fun, and she was loyal, but sometimes Kennedy rubbed people the wrong way, particularly when she had sex with other girls’ boyfriends.
Lisa looked at him like she was a little confused at first, but she snapped back to attention, “I like Kennedy. She’s really nice and she’s quite honest and I’m not really used to that with girls,” Lisa admitted sheepishly and looked down at the ground when she let out a little laugh.
“Oh yeah, she’s one of a kind,” Jack said, scuffling his foot on the tile beneath him. He tried not to sound hateful on Kennedy because he really did love her, but sometimes he really hated the decisions she made because most of the time they were just selfish.
Lisa’s smile fell, “You sound mad,” she observed and Jack looked up at her and smiled.
“How much do you know about Kennedy and Alex?” he asked, hoping that just by asking he hadn’t opened a huge Pandora’s Box.
Lisa cocked her head to the other side and she wondered why he was bringing this up, “I just know that they went out last year but that they just stopped,” she told him. That’s exactly what Alex had told her, but he had never told her what they’d just stopped.
Jack looked up at her from underneath his eyelashes, “Do you want me to tell you the entire story about them?” he asked even though he knew that it wasn’t really any of his business.
Lisa looked a little trepidacious because part of her didn’t want to know because she didn’t want a reason to be paranoid about their relationship, “If you think I should know… that there’s something I should know,” she said, repeating herself.
Jack thought about it for a minute; did Lisa really need to know about Alex’s and Kennedy’s previous relationship? Probably not, but under the circumstances with Kennedy and Alex still having sex and being in love with each other, Jack thought that it would be better if he told her.
“I think it would be better for you to… understand,” he told her, now not quite so sure of what he was doing.
“Okay, then tell me, Jack,” she told him, clenching her books tight to her chest, and Jack could tell that she was really nervous about what he wanted to tell her.
“Kennedy and Alex dated last year… kind of. They kind of had a secret relationship that was more like friends plus benefits than anything else. They were really involved in each other and… they truly loved each other. Alex cheated on Kennedy; Kennedy found out then cheated on Alex. Kennedy broke it off because she didn’t want to be in a serious relationship and Alex did, with her anyway. They stopped talking and Alex was really, really mad. One night she went to Alex’s house and they had sex and she left him a note that said I love you. –K. and he used to carry it around with him in his wallet, but after he started dating you he stopped carrying it around with him. I think he actually just put it in a drawer somewhere. Anyway, the next morning he went to her house to tell her that he loved her too to find that she had moved – just left in the middle of the night. To New York,” Jack told her. He hadn’t intended to tell Lisa anything because he knew that she really wouldn’t want to know how involved and enamored by each other they really were, but Jack had told her and Lisa looked a mixture of devastated and confused.
She looked at the ground and her face was hard. “Why didn’t anybody tell me that earlier?” she asked in a monotone voice.
“Because no one wanted you to feel awkward around Kennedy,” he told her, reaching out to touch her arm but she withdrew from him.
“If you guys had told me, I wouldn’t have become friends with her which means that none of you guys would have ever forgiven her,” Lisa told him, looking him dead in the eye.
“Alex didn’t want you to know because he didn’t want you to hate her because, even though he doesn’t love her anymore, he still has feelings for her,” Jack lied to her. He hadn’t intended to make her upset, so he decided not to tell her that Alex was still passionately and irrevocably in love with Kennedy.
Jack knew. Rian knew. Zack knew. Hell, even Kara knew. Everybody but Lisa knew.
“Do you think he still loves her, Jack?” Lisa asked, looking up at him desperately from underneath her eyelashes.
He could tell her the truth, yes, he still loves Kennedy and will always love Kennedy no matter what you do to stop it. It’s not your fault, it’s no one’s fault, they’re just so involved with each other that they don’t care or see who they hurt. or he could lie no, he doesn’t love her anymore. They were in love once, but he found you and he loves you… he’s in love with you. “No, he doesn’t love her anymore. They were in love once, but he found you and he loves you… he’s in love with you,” he told her and she smiled at him.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Do you need a ride home?” Jack asked, prepared to give the prettiest girl in the whole wide world, in his opinion, a ride home.
“That would be great, Jack,” she told him and they walked out of the school together, arm in arm. He opened the door for her and pulled out of the parking lot.
Truth be told, he had ran home, asked his dad if he could borrow his car and drove it back to the school just so he could give the prettiest girl in the whole wide world a ride home. Only problem was the prettiest girl in the whole wide world was dating his best friend who was cheating on her with the sexiest, fiercest girl in the whole wide world.