Young Love Was Such Dumb Love

John woke up at five forty-five in the morning, groaning as the alarm clock screeched at him, unwilling to get up until his younger brother threw a pillow at his head and cursed the fact they had to share rooms. John slapped his alarm clock, creating a awkward silence, he threw his legs over the bed and rubbed his eyes sleepily. He sighed grabbing a pair of shorts and a random t-shirt throwing them on before walking down the stairs, all with his eyes barely open.

The house was still dark and quiet since no one else was up. John tried to be as quiet as possible, grabbing his car keys and a power bar before slipping some flip flops on and walking out the door, ruffling his hair. He was making a straight line for his new car, well new to him. It was actually a vintage truck that he loved to death even if sometimes it didn't cooperate. A giggle coming from the darkness suddenly made his whole body go through shock, completely awake searching for the source. Just incase it was a murderer or a rabid raccoon, his fist clenched the keys for a make-shift weapon.

He looked up seeing Jack Mayer with his new Nissan Stanza in the Fallons' driveway, pinning a girl to driver's side door. She let out another small giggle as he kissed her, it was dark and John's eyes were still straining to adjust to being awake. John frowned as he saw the girl slip out from Jack's embrace and laughing over her shoulder, walked into the Fallon house. He knew it had to be Benny, he wondered if she had stayed out this late or if she just came out. More importantly he felt a jealous fire burning within him.

Three seconds later Max came out rubbing his eyes and waved to Jack, not even wondering why he was at the house. John waited for Max to get into the truck before starting it up. Max yawned and after greeting John turned to his side and dozed off again. John kept a watchful eye on Jack's car as he followed it all the way to Corona Del Sol High School, both of them getting ready for basketball practice. In season conditioning practices were wearing John down, but he knew this was all he had.

John parked in the first row of student parking since there was only basketball players there. Max was awaken from the sound of John's door slamming and he quickly scurried to catch up. John was taking wide strides to avoid Jack, because Jack was an asshole, he was the guy who took advantage of girls and bragged about it to everyone. Usually John could hear and ignore Jack's shit talking and degradation of women, but not Benny.

Max was complaining about how John and Halvo had made varsity while he had been stuck on Junior Varsity. John remained silent, luckily for him was no different than any other morning, which he was usually barely awake. They weaved their way through the athletic building to the locker room. The boys went to the their allotted locker and begun changing into practice uniforms.

"Jack! My man!" Someone cheered out loud, the sounds of hands slapping could be heard from John's locker. He just tried to change quickly and get out. Once he started walking out it was impossible to hear Jack bragging about how he was going to "pluck" Benny. Unfortunately, Max also heard this and his fist collided with Jack's chiseled face.

"That's my sister you asshole!" Max said before spitting at him. Both boys got numerous hits before being held back by a bunch of players. The whole thing happened so fast, but everyone's veins were pulsating with adrenaline. John was holding Max's right side, having to use the majority of his muscles to keep him from completely attacking him.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Coach Fox said coming in yelling at the top of his lungs. The vein in his forehead as protruding when he saw Jack who threw people off his arm and pointed at Max, both of them red with anger.

"He punched me in the face coach," Jack accused with a finger, wiping off some remaining blood from his now split lip. He was trying to keep his masculinity and stuck out his chest as it could make up the fact Max had gotten more hits off.

"He was talking about fucking my sister!" Max spat back and did the same action, ripping his arm free from John's hold. Coach Fox looked at both of them and shook his head, clearly they were both guilty of something and apart from school justice, athletic justice was a whole different story.

"Alright everyone to the gym! NOW!" Coach Fox screamed blowing his whistle, all the guys jogged out hastily clearing the room, some boys still slipping on pieces of clothing as they did so. They lined up in their individual teams, John leading the Varsity line, Halvo looked over with a concerned look on his face. Both of them turned towards Max and Jack standing in front of the two lines getting screamed at Coach Fox and the JV Coach Bridges. "These piss ant activities are exactly the little shitty things we expect from six-year-old girls! So the whole team is running until I say stop, Fallon, Mayer, y'all are running until the soles of your shoes are worn down and melted into the gymnasium floor!" He blew a whistle and they all took off.

Millions of sprints later, John was completely exhausted, but one of the only ones keeping his pace, while others died off. Coach Fox finally blew the whistle and allowed the team to stop while Max and Jack were going to keep running. Max clearly still pissed off and blaming Jack for his actions, and Jack probably thinking the same thing about him. Not that it didn't piss John off, but he'd rather just tell Benny and keep her safe.

John and the team made their way to the showers, completely exhausted and too tired to stand up. John's legs felt like jello underneath him, his knees threatening to buckle, but he kept on walking. After climbing into the shower and washing themselves as quickly as possible, they got dressed since school was starting in a couple of minutes. John's stomach groaned, completely drained from exercise. John rushed though the hallways as fast as his sore legs could carry him, until he crashed into someone knocking papers everywhere.

"Holy shit! I'm so sorry," John began before seeing a pair of familiar brown eyes grinning back at him. He continued piling on papers to her notebook and handed it back to her. Suddenly he forgot about his gelatinous legs and his heart started beating rapidly.

"Wow, John you should watch where you're going," She said, the smile on her lips clearly showing the fact she was joking. She was honestly really happy to see him, she was finally over him. Or at least she had convinced her head that she was. "Are you okay?" Right on cue his stomach let out a gargantuan roar and she chuckled grabbing his hand as they stood up.

"Where are we going?" he asked feeling light-headed and stuck in a reverie. There is no way Benny would be grabbing him somewhere after they had ignored each other for five months except for smiles.

"We're skipping school to get food, because you need it and I want it," She said matter-of-factly. John jutted out his bottom lip, completely okay with the situation, hoping that she would give him an opportunity to tell her about Jack and hopefully about his feelings for her. He was investing so much in hope, today had been turning out to be fairly odd despite the fact it was only nine in the morning.

"Your mom is going to kill me if she finds out I drove you," John said looking back at school dragging his feet to be stuck with a girl he was unhappily in love with. He looked at her denim shorts and American Apparel baseball shirt with purple sleeves and noticed that he had the same one. This of course caused his mind to go down the path of how they had similar fashion tastes because they had similar personalities and would be perfect for each other, if she could just see him.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing that she won't find out," Benny smiled back turning to see him studying her. She loved John's car, even though it was old and not completely reliable, it fit him really well. John scoffed at her answer, dubbing it a 'Benny answer'. Always with a smart-ass comment to say that made him laugh.

"So where to Ms. Fallon?" John asked once they reached his car and she was safely in the passenger seat. Late students were speeding to get into the parking lot just as the pair leisurely exited it.

"Where ever you want to Mr. O'Callaghan, the only thing on my list of demands is the place must serve breakfast," She smiled, pulling a pair of black sunglasses out of nowhere and placing them on her face nonchalantly. She turned and gave him that half-smile that he loved. "Not the day you had in mind when you woke up this morning, is it?" Benny grinned, John let out a laugh and nodded his head in agreement. When he had waken up this morning he had no idea it was going to be one of the best days of his life.