Symphony of Sound.

Zack may or may not go running full speed at Jack the next morning on the way to breakfast, dragging the taller boy away from Alex and into a corner of the corridor.

“Rian kissed me last night.” Zack says, smiling slightly.

“He what?” Jack asks in disbelief.

“Kissed me! Three times, actually.”

“Okay, woah.” Jack replies, eyes widening. “Tell me. Now. Details. Give them to me.”

Zack laughs, elbowing Jack lightly.

“I think he thought I was asleep or something, because he came into my room at about three in the morning and-”

“He came into your room?” Jack exclaims.

“Yes. Now let me finish.” Zack replies sharply. “So he comes in my room, pushes my hair away from my face and apologizes for something –I don’t know what, to be honest. But he apologizes, then lays down next to me, and kisses my forehead twice.”

Jack squeaks, clapping his hands together.

“And then I opened my eyes and he kissed me, like, properly. Then fell asleep before I got to ask him why.”

“Oh my God.” Jack says, staring at Zack with a grin on his face.

“I know!”

“He’s your first kiss, right?”

Zack nods feverently. Jack laughs quietly at him, linking his arm with the smaller boy’s and walking with him towards the lunch hall.

“Do you think he finally noticed?”

“I hope so.”

What they don’t expect to see when they enter is Cassadee sitting happily beside Rian, one of the boy’s hands resting on her knee.

Jack and Zack exchange a glance before sitting down opposite them.

“Hey, Jack!” Cassadee says, far too cheerily. She stops then, fixes Zack with a look of contempt and looks back at Rian.

“Zack.” She says curtly, giving him a stiff nod. Zack gives Jack an incredulous look, rolls his eyes and pushes the cereal in the bowl around absently.

It’s when Rian kisses Cassadee on the corner of her mouth that Zack gets completely and utterly confused.

“What’s going on?” Jack hisses under his breath. Zack shrugs at the younger boy, just as confused as he is.

It’s when they both look up and see Rian and Cassadee kissing that Zack has had enough.

He stands, his appetite suddenly reduced to nothing.

“I’m not hungry right now, actually.” He says, leaving quickly.

It’s not long before he’s back up in his dorm, trying to distract himself with some book he borrowed from Andy over Christmas –The Catcher In The Rye. He’s pretty unimpressed so far.

Kara had been watching the whole situation unfold from across the cafeteria, and when she sees Zack leaving, almost in tears, she immediately marches over to Rian and gives him a good slap across the face.

“What the Hell?” He yells, glaring up at her.

“Do you not listen to a word I say?”

At this point, Jack chooses to slink away from the disaster scene in front of him and back over to the junior block, mainly to see if Zack is doing okay.

He’s cornered by Alex before he hits the stairs to the boys’ corridor and the older boy looks at him shiftily for a few moments.

“Uh, hey, Alex.”

“Hey, Jack.”

Jack stares at the blonde boy in front of him for a moment, raising an eyebrow as he steps from foot to foot uneasily.

“Any reason why you’re standing right in the middle of the doorway, Alex?”

“Is Zack upset again?” He asks suddenly. “Is it Rian?”

“Yeah, it is. He’s being a dick.” Jack says with a small nod and sigh.

“No change there then.”

“I know. I just feel so bad for Zack.”

“What did he do this time?”

“He kissed him.”

“He what?”

“That’s what I said. Apparently Rian kissed him last night, didn’t explain what was going on and then went back to Cassadee this morning.”

Alex frowns at the wall over Jack’s shoulder and ruffles his hair absently, knotting his fingers in his wild, dyed blonde bangs.

“He should open his damn eyes, even just a little.”

“I know. I’m just going to see Zack now, check if he’s okay. He didn’t bother eating this morning. I don’t blame him, personally.”

“Jack, can I, uh, ask you something before you go?”

“Sure, fire away.”

“There’s, uhm, this pizza place in Augusta, it, uh, it’s really good, and I was… I was thinking we could, on Saturday maybe, see a movie and get pizza? Like a, well, date, I guess.”

Jack winces, and frowns, knitting his eyebrows together.

“I… uh…” He starts, fumbling over his words.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to.”

“I’m really sorry, Alex, but it’s… it’s a no. I… I can’t.”

And with that, Jack pushes past the blonde boy with a sniff and disappears off into his dorm room.

Alex frowns after him, because honestly? He thought Jack liked him back.

Obviously, I thought wrong.

He frowns, quickly heading to his dorm for his jacket before heading out into the snow for a walk.

The snow isn’t as bad as it was over Christmas –it’s melting a little now, which is good, since school starts back up on the thirteenth, a few days away from now.

He doesn’t know where he’s going, really, just in some random direction to calm himself down. He’s more upset than he figured he would be if Jack said no.

He’s dragged forcefully from his thoughts by Evan’s voice, and the noise of the younger boy’s crunching footsteps as he runs up behind him.

“Hey,” The smaller blonde boy says with a smile, “you okay?”

“Not really, no.”

“Why is that?” Evan asks, somewhat intrusively.

“Promise not to laugh?”

“Promise.”

“I asked Jack out, he said no, now I feel like a moron so I’ve come for a walk to take my mind off things.”

“Oh. How come he said no? I thought for sure he liked you.”

“Yeah, so did I. Apparently not.”

“I’m sure he has a reason to say no, Alex.”

“Yeah, that he doesn’t feel ‘like that’ for me.” Alex sighs, frustrated, air quoting awkwardly –considering he’s wearing mittens.

“Do you want to build a snowman, or something? It might help take your mind off things.”

Alex glances sideways at the younger boy for a second, seriously considering saying no before realizing that the smaller boy is right. It will distract him, at the very least.

The idea and relative fun of playing with or in snow should wear off by the age of about thirteen, but for Alex and Evan, that time clearly never came.

They build a pretty impressive snowman between them, almost as tall as Alex. The only main flaw is its entire lack of a face of any description –which amuses Alex no end.

“Thanks for this, Evan.” Alex says as they go wading through the snow back towards the school buildings. “I really needed something to take my mind away from everything.”

“You’re welcome.” Evan says with a smile, nearly stumbling over. Alex catches him by the arm, though, and stops him from falling over. Evan gives him a thankful smile.

The snow might be melting from its original ankle depth, but now it’s starting to freeze over, and ice can be pretty lethal when you’re not expecting it. Alex remembers one rather interesting New Year’s Day when Rian had almost gone flying across the courtyard and into Mr. Nicholson, one of the Science professors, back. They didn’t let him forget that one for quite some time.

They pass Rian and Kara outside the cafeteria (the latter of which is still yelling at the former –something along the lines of ‘Remember what I said, breaking hearts is seriously not cool. At all.’) on their way, and they situate themselves in front of the blazing fire to attempt to warm themselves up and defrost a little.

Jack appears not long after, but chooses to go flying past the both of them and out of the door before either of them have chance to say anything to him.

“I guess he’s upset about something.” Alex says with a shrug, flicking absently through the channels on the TV, until he settles on a classic episode of The Simpsons. “I’ve never seen him move that fast.”

“I figured as much.” Evan replies, wrapping the blanket Alex had ‘borrowed’ from Nick’s room for the both of them tighter around them. “Fuck, it’s cold up here.”

“Language, Kirkendall.” Alex says with an amused smirk, poking him in the side. Evan rolls his eyes.

“You’re too young to be swearing, Mister.” Alex continues with a smirk.

“Hardly. I’m not even a year younger than you, Gaskarth.”

“Whatever, the point still stands.” Alex laughs back, smiling. “I’m older than you, you’re supposed to listen to your elders.”

“You just gave me a licence to call you old, you do realize?”

“Damn you and your logic.”

Zack chooses this point to appear from his dorm, wrapped in what appears to be at least seven layers of woollen clothing. He mumbles a hello and moves over to them quickly. They both look up at him as he rearranges his scarf absently.

“Have you, uh, seen Rian around anywhere? I kind of don’t want to run into him if I can help it.” Zack stutters out, feeling somewhat guilty because he doesn’t want to see his own best friend.

“He was outside the cafeteria with Kara when we came back about fifteen minutes ago.” Evan explains.

Zack winces a little –Kara is probably screaming at him loud enough for everyone within five hundred miles to hear- but nods anyway, making a mental note to avoid everywhere even remotely near the cafeteria and lunch halls.

“Alright, thanks.” Zack says, biting at his lip. “If he… if he comes looking for me, tell him you haven’t seen me, please? I kind of don’t want to talk to him right now. I know it sounds kind of weird and-”

“It’s okay.” Alex says with a soft, lopsided smile. “We’ll tell him we haven’t seen you all day.”

“Thanks.” Zack replies, ducking his head a little as a thank you.

And with that, Zack is gone too.