Stay Seventeen

Only an hour had passed before the two boys collapsed into the sand. They were both covered in sand and wet from the knees down. They were panting from chasing each other around with handfuls of sand and tackling each other. Their hair was strewn around messily with grains of sand raining down. The two of them were on their backs, laughing for no particular reason.

When their laughter had quieted down, they stayed on their backs. A silence hung between them, but it wasn’t anything awkward.

During the beginning of the hour on the beach, they had both kept their distance, shuffling across. It was when a wave washed up and caught Alex’s feet, making him leap into Jack and send them into the sand when they started to joke around more. The game started with flicking water before it transformed into flinging dirt and it finally became a game to try and tackle the other person.

Jack and Alex stared up at the navy sky that was decorated with sparkling stars. The only thing that made a noise was the hum of the waves rolling in and the occasional breeze that made things skitter on by. Other then that, it was completely silent between the two. Alex was fine with it; in fact, he liked how quiet and comfortable it was. Jack on the other hand, didn’t like the silence one bit. He sat up, brushing as much sand as he could off from his back. Alex observed him carefully.

“Twenty questions,” Jack suddenly blurted as he turned to face Alex. The older boy pushed himself up, ruffling his chocolate brown hair.

“Um…” Alex bit his lip as he folded his hands in his lap. He never really liked sharing things about himself, but he also wanted to get to know Jack better. He had grown to like him a lot over the past few hours they had met. Sighing, he bobbed his head reluctantly. Jack grinned excitedly, clapping his hands. Alex had noticed that he did that a lot whenever he got his way.

“I’ll ask first!” Jack exclaimed. Alex shrugged, not caring about who went first.

“Okay…,” he tapped his chin, “last name?”

Alex scoffed, shaking his head. “Is that the best you can do?”

“Hey, I’m only starting slow.”

Alex gave Jack a sceptical look before answering his question.

“It’s Gaskarth,” he mumbled. Alex had always been embarrassed of his last name, mostly because of how it was so uncommon. He had tried to look for another Gaskarth in the world, but came up with zilch. Jack also found it uncommon and decided to try saying it.

“Gask-arth. Gas-karth. Ga-skarth. Gaskarth?”

“Stop it. You sound stupid,” Alex muttered, his cheeks flaming once again. Laughter was bubbling from Jack’s lips, but he decided not to comment on Alex’s pink face for the hundredth time that night. Instead, he nudged Alex.

“Your turn.”

The older hummed as he thought, his tongue poking out. Jack waited patiently, just lying back on his elbows and admiring how Alex looked. When he had first laid his eyes on Alex, he thought he was cute. Now, though, Jack thought he was absolutely fucking adorable.

While Jack’s thoughts wandered, Alex snapped his fingers in front of his face. That didn’t seem to even faze him. He rolled his eyes as he placed his hand on Jack’s chest and gave him a hard push. Jack hit the ground with a thud, an ‘ooomf’ leaving his mouth. Jack looked up at Alex with a joking glare as the other boy smirked down at him.

“That was rude,” Jack whined as he sat back up, his arm twisted over his shoulder to rub a sore spot. Alex shrugged.

“You were ignoring me.”

Jack rolled his eyes as he motioned for Alex to ask his question. The older boy scooted closer to Jack, his shyness suddenly disappearing. The devious smirk on his lips made Jack feel almost nervous, but when the question left Alex’s lips, he scoffed.

“What was the most embarrassing thing to happen to you?”

Jack shook his head like he was disappointed in the question.

“Thought you could do better than that, Gaskarth.”

Alex backhanded Jack lightly, but still chuckled.

“Shut up and answer it,” he demanded. Jack sighed, glancing up at the starry sky and thought.

Jack Barakat was never the smoothest kid around. He was a tall boy with gangly limbs that were out of his control sometimes. You could almost say he was a klutz at times. For example, there was a time in ninth grade where he was talking to a girl he liked until he tripped, and unfortunately for him, he had tripped on a flight of stairs. He was sent tumbling down and was eventually brought to the hospital for his broken arm. There was also the time where he was trying to tug something out from his locker, but only managed to send a wave of papers into his own face and littered the hall.

Jack felt like burying himself because he really did not want to share any of these stories with Alex. He actually wanted to befriend the kid. So, instead of answer the impatient Alexander who was picking up specs of sand and tossing them into the breeze, he plopped onto his back. The other boy stared at him strangely as Jack only shrugged and grinned.

“Goodnight!” he shouted as he flipped over to his side. He knew Alex wasn’t going to let him just go like this, but it was worth the try.

Alex huffed, gripping Jack’s sides and shaking him violently.

“Answer me!” he whined as he continued his vigorous shaking. Jack slapped his hand over Alex’s and flicked it off his side, mumbling something like ‘fuck off’ before snuggling into his own arms. Alex retracted his arms and crossed them childishly, wearing a pout to match. “That’s unfair.”

Jack rolled over with an over exaggerated frown. “How so?” he questioned.

“Because,” Alex shouted with his arms flailing, “I answered one of your questions!”

“Go to sleep,” Jack groaned, ignoring what Alex had just said. He shut his eyes and tucked his arms under his head. Alex’s pouted jutted out further, even though he knew Jack couldn’t see. Instead of arguing with Jack, he sighed.

“It’s sandy and cold, Jack. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep. And I’m not in my own bed.”

Jack opened one eye and peeked out at Alex. The other boy noticed Jack could see him again and formed a pout on his lips. Jack rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

“There are two bodies here, Alex,” he informed the other boy. Alex quirked an eyebrow at him, making a motion for him to go on. Jack rolled his eyes at how clueless the brown haired boy was. He decided to show Alex what he meant instead of retorting with a comment.

Jack leant forward and wrapped an arm around Alex’s waist. The older boy squealed at how ticklish it felt. Jack lied back down, bringing Alex with him. Alex soon found himself stuck awkwardly between Jack and his arm. He squirmed and managed to wriggle his arms out so wasn’t stuck in such a stiff position. He dropped his head onto Jack’s chest and let his arms fall beside his own head.

“Oh,” was all that left Alex’s lips as he realised what Jack meant. The younger mouth glanced down at the figure that was cuddled up against him.

“But,” Alex suddenly spoke up, “I’m still not home.”

Jack chuckled, wrapping his other arm around Alex and squeezing him gently.

“At least you’re warm and not on the sand,” he shot back with a smile as he closed his eyes.