The Boy With the Pink Bass

“Ooooooooh, there they are!” Rian nearly shouted as Alex and Zack entered the school’s cafeteria. They had their forearms interlocked, holding hands tightly, and were walking almost on top of each other. Alex liked it that way. He liked having someone he could show his affection for. The two walked across the large, noisy room and over to their table, getting a couple of cold looks in the process. Not exactly everyone in the school was gay friendly, but neither boy really cared.

“Yeah, hey Ri,” Alex greeted his friend with a sarcastic smile and sat down, not letting go of his boyfriend’s hand.

“So, you guys are like, gay for each other now?” Rian asked with kind of a blank tone, but the couple could tell he was kind of interested. Gay couples were not exactly normal in their high school.

“Yep, that’s one way to put it,” Zack answered Rian’s question, and gave Alex a playful nudge on the arm and flashed him a wide, toothy grin. Alex smiled back, and leaned in to nuzzle Zack on the neck. He planted a light kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek, and left his head sitting on Zack’s shoulder. He liked being close to his boyfriend; he saw no reason to go back to his original position. So he sat with Zack’s hand still firmly in his grasp, leaning on his boyfriend. Just then, Jack walked over to the table and plopped himself down next to Alex, slamming his tray on the table rather loudly. Alex looked over at Jack and righted himself, a bit concerned about Jack’s current demeanor.

“Hey Jack, what’s wrong?” Alex asked, still holding Zack’s hand.

“It’s….It’s nothing. No big deal. Just one of those days.” The boy replied, with a hint of anger in his voice.

“You sure?” Alex responded. He was concerned, usually Jack wasn’t like this. Alex couldn’t really remember the last time Jack had something legitimately bothering him.

“Yeah,” Jack’s response was short, bleak and dripping with some sort of irritated emotion that Alex couldn’t really pinpoint. He remained silent for the rest of lunch and looked like he really couldn’t be arsed to say anything, so Zack, Alex and Rian just kept their casual conversing to themselves. The rest of the period was uninteresting and a tad awkward, thanks to the very sullen boy that was sitting right next to Alex.

After about five minutes without a word being spoken, Alex felt a pair of warm arms snake around his waist, as his boyfriend’s head rested lightly on his shoulder.

“Hi,” Zack muttered, a big, childish grin stretching his cheeks to his ears. This action gave Alex the best feeling inside of him, like butterflies but warmer. He felt Zack’s body snuggle up against him, and the shift of weight nearly made him fall off his wobbly chair. But, having Zack’s arms around him felt so amazing. Alex turned his head to look at his cute boyfriend, who was staring back up at him with eyes shining like stars.

“Hi cutie,” Alex grinned, and leaned in to peck Zack on the nose. Alex giggled a little, which drew one very cute giggle out of Zack. He nuzzled the tow’s foreheads together, and Zack leaned up to kiss him, pressing pretty firmly against Alex’s lips. The kiss lasted longer than Alex had expected, but he was fine with that. Zack slowly increased pressure on Alex’s lips, causing the whole world around him to seemingly melt away, leaving just Alex and Zack sitting there kissing. For some reason, kissing in public was so much better than in the privacy of Zack’s bedroom.

Zack leaned his head to one side and parted his lips slightly, allowed Alex access into Zack’s mouth. The blond boy slid his tongue into the other’s mouth and began to move his mouth in sync with Zack’s. They were probably getting a ton of looks, but who really cared? This was just too awesome. In public, kissing Zack. It felt just so, so great. He felt Zack increase his pressure just a little bit more, pressing his soft, warm, moist lips against Alex’s just a little more. With each small movement, Alex got more butterflies and kissed his boyfriend back even more.

It was when Alex lifted a hand up to cup Zack’s delicate face that he heard Jack speak up.

“Oh for fuck’s sake will you two just STOP?” Alex pulled away from Zack abruptly and looked at Jack, both surprised and angry at what his friend had said. Rian, too, looked at Jack with surprise and anger. Jack was never usually this immature. In fact, he was usually turned on by guys making out in front of him. Jack’s face immediately turned red and his eyes went as big as dinner plates.

“I…I’m sorry…” He muttered, jumping up from his seat and walking briskly out of the cafeteria, head hunched over.

Alex looked over at Zack, confused about what had just happened. Zack had this pained look on his face, though. He looked like he was about to cry. Alex didn’t really understand, but he was curious.

“You okay, baby?” Alex asked soothingly as he lightly stroked Zack’s thigh. Zack nodded pretty unconvincingly, while his lips shaped into a babyish pout.

“I just don’t want to upset Jack. I know you and him are like, best friends and I feel like I upset him just now.”

“Oh, baby, no it’s not your fault. He’s just having a bad day. I should probably go see what’s wrong.” Alex planted a soft kiss and Zack’s forehead and rose from his seat to find Jack.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Alex had barely stepped out of the cafeteria when he saw Jack, curled up in a corner with his forehead on his knees and arms wrapped around his shins. Something was really bothering him, and Alex was concerned. The blond boy walked over to his friend and sat down next to him, and Jack looked up at Alex. Jack’s eyes were red and puffy, and there were a couple small tears falling slowly down his cheeks. Alex wrapped an arm around his shoulders in hopes to comfort him.

“Jack, what’s wrong?” Alex sympathized.

“It’s…I…nothing.” Jack exhaled, assuming his fetal position once more. Alex heard a muffled sniffle come from his friend’s nose, and his back heaved once.

“Obviously it’s not nothing, Jack. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“No, you’ll think it’s dumb,” Jack whined, head still buried between his knees. Alex rubbed his quietly sobbing friend’s back in an attempt to console him.

“Jack, come on. You’re one of my best friends. You can tell me anything, no matter how dumb you think it is.”

Jack turned his head to face Alex, “Okay…uhm…well…let’s leave it at the person I like is going out with someone and yanno it just makes me feel like crap…or something.”

“Aww, Jacky,” Alex sympathized, pulling his friend closer to him and rubbing across his back, “I know how that feels. Hey, why don’t you come over later? Me ‘n Zack are gonna watch a movie tonight, maybe that’ll cheer you up, huh?”

Jack righted his head and looked at his friend, his lips twisting into a weak little smile, “Really? Will Zack mind?” he asked, hoping Zack wouldn’t mind.

“Naw dude he’ll be good with it,” Alex reassured. He gave Jack a little pat on the back and stood up, reaching one arm out to pull Jack up from his seat on the floor. Jack sniffled, wiping his eyes and slightly runny nose on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. He grasped Alex’s hand and Alex hoisted him up off the ground.

“Alright, you wanna go back in?” Alex asked him. Jack nodded and gave a squeaky little ‘mhmmm’ in approval. With that, Alex and Jack walked back into the lunchroom where Zack had been making awkward conversation with Rian, waiting for his boyfriend to return so they could keep kissing.

And, that they did, without knowing what it was doing to Jack; the other boy who had a massive, massive crush on Alex.