Believe Me, I'm Lying

The rest of the week is a strange one for Jack.

On Tuesday morning, like he promised, Alex has Jack’s coffee ready and waiting for him. Jack walks up, past the line and drops two bucks on the counter, taking his drink. Alex looks over from the cash register and smiles at him, and then Jack is on his way again. When Jack is leaving for home later that afternoon, he bumps into Alex again, this time much more gracefully. The younger boy is not quite as flustered as he was the day before, but still, he’s sort of shy. He smiles at Jack with a nervous expression and when Jack asks him what class he has now, he tells him that it’s his English class. And then Jack lets him be on his way.

Wednesday, though, Jack gets a little bit more information out of him. This time he’s waiting for Alex outside of the school and he discovers that Alex takes the bus because he doesn’t have a car. He’s saving up for one, though, he assures Jack, because he’s really going to need one soon. Jack asks him why he doesn’t just have his girlfriend drive him, or something, because surely this kid must have a girlfriend, right?

But Alex surprises him – in a great way – when he says shyly, “Yeah no boyfriend or girlfriend at the moment.” He clutches his books close to his chest and stares up at Jack with wide eyes and suddenly Jack is curious. He wants to know more about this boy. And that’s weird for him, because normally he doesn’t bother with getting to know the person he wants to sleep with. He just goes for it. But with Alex, he wants to know so much more. And it’s kind of scary. So, Jack abruptly ends their conversation, using the excuse that he needs to pick up his fiancé from the nail salon (which is actually the truth). He looks back only once as he’s walking to his car, seeing Alex’s face painted with confusion.

That night, Jack goes out. He gathers up Caleb and Kyle and they go out to a bar. The main purpose of this is to forget about Alex. Because it’s starting to scare Jack how much he’s been thinking of the younger boy and how badly he wants to get to know him. He voices these concerns to his friends, and they assure him that it’s alright and find him a guy to talk to for the night. Of course, he ends up taking the guy home with him. But it really does nothing to keep Alex out of his head. While he’s lying in bed, with the stranger sleeping next to him, Jack realizes that maybe he should just accept it. Maybe Alex is what he needs.

So, with this epiphany-type-thing that Jack had the night before, he approaches Alex on Thursday with a new kind of confidence. He walks out of his building at the same time that Alex is getting off the bus in front of the school, books in hand and backpack hanging on one shoulder. And they stop and talk for a few minutes. Alex mentions that he’s twenty two (Jack wants to ask why he’s still in school but he refrains), and that he lives alone in an apartment downtown. His favorite subject is English and he really likes the summer weather much better than the fall. Jack tells the younger boy that he feels the opposite way about the weather, but he also enjoys English.

After this small exchange, they stand there sort of awkwardly, Alex inching slowly towards to door because he doesn’t want to be late for his class. Jack decides that he just needs to go for it, because if he doesn’t do this now, he will have to wait to see the boy again until Monday. And he really doesn’t want to do that.

“I’ll let you get to class – but um, I was just wondering if you’d want to do something Saturday? Like, hang out…?”

Alex’s eyes widen at the offer, “You and me? Why?”

“You seem cool – I mean, if you don’t wanna hang out then that’s fine-”

“No I… I can hang out. But only during the day. After one.”

“Okay… Do you wanna meet at like-”

“There’s a really good pizza place near the Coffee Bean. You want to meet up there?”

Jack nods, knowing the exact place Alex is speaking of, “Sure. At one?”

“Yeah. One.” Alex nods to himself before turning around quickly and pulling open the large doors to the university. He disappears inside and Jack just stands there smiling to himself like an idiot.

*

On Saturday, Jack wakes up at twelve. He stares at his ceiling for a few minutes, reveling in the fact that his bed is empty and void of Ashley’s presence. He knows that she’s probably in the kitchen or living room or something, because she definitely stayed over last night, but it’s nice to just be alone for right now. And then he remembers that he’s meeting Alex in an hour.

He curses at himself as he stumbles out of bed and into the bathroom, wondering why he had to pick today of all days to sleep in. Of course, he did go out last night with Caleb and Kyle and Ashley and a few of her friends, and he got home pretty late, but that doesn’t mean he can blow this chance with Alex.

After a fast shower, Jack stands in his room, picking through his clothes with a towel around his waist. He throws shirt after shirt onto his bed, not finding one that he likes. He’s already picked out his usual black skinny jeans when Ashley comes into the room.

“What are you doing babe?” she asks, wrapping her thin arms around his waist, “Are you going out?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jack responds as he holds up two different shirts, “Which should I wear?”

She steps back, eyes focusing on the two shirts in Jack’s hands, “Well, where are you going, exactly?”

“I have a lunch meeting,” Jack lies smoothly, “I just wanna look nice. Impressive.”

“Then go with the black shirt,” She decides, “And add a white tie.”

“Thanks. What are you doing today?” Jack slips his arms through the sleeves of the black button up shirt and then starts to work on the buttons, looking at Ashley the whole time.

“I’m going to do some shopping. And I won’t be here tonight – I’m going to visit some friends out of town and I’ll be sleeping there.”

“Okay,” Jack nods, “That’s cool. I’ll probably just hang out with Kyle and Caleb or something.”

She frowns, clicking her tongue, “I wish you wouldn’t hang out with them.”

“They’re my best friends… I don’t understand why you don’t like them.”

“They’re immature and don’t act like they should – they’re upper class, Jack. They should at least try to act like it.”

Jack shakes his head, “They can act however they want. And I’m not going to stop being their friend just because you want me to. I might do a lot of things you ask of me but that’s one thing I definitely can’t do.”

He doesn’t wait for her response, grabbing his jacket off his bed and slipping it on as he walks out of his bedroom. He hears her sigh as he walks down the hall, but he doesn’t really feel bad. He might be wrapped around her finger for the most part, purely for the sake of his share of the company, but his friends are one thing she can’t control.

*

The pizza place is just down the block from the Coffee Bean, and when Jack walks in, he sees Alex immediately. He’s sitting at a small table near the window, looking down at a paper coffee cup that’s obviously from his workplace. He’s tracing his finger over the top of the cup and he looks really adorable and innocent. Jack looks down at his cell phone and realizes that he’s nearly twenty minutes later than he should be. He’s surprised Alex is still here.

Jack approaches the table and slides into the seat right across from the younger boy, grinning when Alex looks up at him with a startled expression.

“Did I scare you?” he teases, tugging off his jacket and draping it across the back of his chair.

Alex’s eyes widen and he grips his coffee cup, “N-no, not at all. I just wasn’t paying attention.”

“Alright, then.” Jack waves over a waitress who comes over to their table with a wide smile and an upbeat voice. She takes their orders, which are fairly simple, and then retreats back towards the counter to place it.

That’s when Jack decides he needs to start making some progress, “So did you have work today?” he asks, trying to start up a simple conversation, “Or did you have off?”

“I have off on the weekends,” Alex explains, still fiddling with his coffee cup nervously, “I usually use them to catch up on all my homework and stuff.”

“Oh. Am I keeping you from doing that right now?”

Alex shakes his head, “No. I was up early and got it all done.”

“Oh well that’s good…” Jack nods to himself, feeling a little awkward suddenly. And he doesn’t know why.

But then Alex is talking again, stumbling over his words at first but quickly gathering himself in time to sound somewhat intelligent, “I thought you weren’t going to show up today, honestly.”

His voice is quiet and Jack strains to hear him over the noise being made by all the other customers in the room, but by reading Alex’s lips and catching bits of his sentence, he pieces it all together and smirks, “I don’t ditch people. Especially not cute boys like you.”

On cue, Alex is blushing and looking down at his hands. He smiles slightly though, as he says, “I’m not cute.” Then, he’s frowning, suddenly remembering, “You’re engaged.”

Leaning back in his chair, Jack raises his eyebrows, “You’re not going to tell her about our little date, are you?”

“D-date?” Alex splutters, pushing his cup away from him, “This is a date?”

“I dunno… If you want it to be, it can. Because I think you’re cute. And a really sweet guy, from the times I’ve talked to you outside of school. So, what do you say? Wanna try it out?”

Alex narrows his eyes, staring Jack down. He has the coffee cup back in his possession again and is picking at the paper, pulling it apart. “I… I haven’t been in a relationship since I was in high school… And even though I’m pretty sure dating a man who’s engaged is totally a bad idea… I can’t… I can’t pass this opportunity up, because I really feel a connection with you, you know?”

Jack nods eagerly, because yeah, of course he’s felt it. “The thing with my fiancé… it’s complicated. And I’ll be able to explain it to you if you stick around.”

“Well… then count me in, I guess.”