Status: finished by the end of september~
Alex Gaskarth Must Die
FIFTEEN
‘Be nice today, okay?’ Jack pleads.
‘I will, I will!’ I insist. ‘We went over this, remember? I’m gonna be nice, no matter what shit he pulls.’ I smile triumphantly at Jack who nods approvingly back. ‘Speak of the devil,’ I say, nodding towards the doorway. Alex is backing into the room and, oh, look, he’s trailing a girl along with him. She giggles and wiggles her fingers at him as they part, and Alex nods towards us in greeting. I open my mouth to offer some scathing remark, but Jack gives me a look to silence me. ‘I wasn’t going to say anything!’ I insist. ‘Well,’ I amend, when he ducks down and begins chatting up a girl in the front row. ‘Maybe I was.’
‘You guys are ridiculous,’ he mutters. I smirk as I take a swig from my tumbler full of still-hot coffee, and we pass a few minutes making small talk as we wait for him to come over. He finally catches Jack’s eye, and we mime shutting up and coming over for him. He nods and smiles understandingly, but as soon as we turn away, he’s back down with the girl.
‘Jesus Christ,’ I groan. Jack rolls his eyes and waves his arms towards Alex.
‘Alex! Get the fu-’ He tosses a glance towards the teacher, who’s reading at his desk, but glances up every few seconds to check on us. ‘The fun over here! That’s you! The fun is you! Get over here! Now!’
Wait, Alex mouths. He holds up a hand, but Jack keeps shouting across the room and waving, while I just giggle beside him. It’s starting to attract Mr Bryant’s attention, so Alex rolls his eyes towards Jack at the girl and wanders over to us.
‘Dude,’ he says once he gets here. ‘Co-’
‘You have no right to accuse me of cockblocking,’ Jack says seriously. ‘Aren’t you and Lisa pretty big by now?’
‘Nah, we’re casual. Full license for other people. Hey, Rebecca.’
‘Hi,’ I say. I offer up a smile, because I did say I would try to be as nice as I can to Alex. Just like Zoe said: Even if most of Dulaney says he’s an asshole, doesn’t mean he actually is. I don’t actually know him, as much as the opinions I’ve absorbed seem to say so.
‘Well, uh, you guys ready for a day down at the middle school?’
‘Sure,’ Jack shrugs, at the same time I say, ‘No.’
Alex gives me a curious look. ‘Why not?’
‘My sister, Jane, goes there. She’s thirteen.’
‘Ah,’ Jack and Alex say together, just understanding. ‘Eighth grade,’ Jack finishes. ‘Our class?’
‘Yeah,’ I nod. It wasn’t that I hated my siblings or anything, they were just kind of… difficult. They were thirteen and fifteen, those ages where all you want to be is accepted and loved by your peers. Long story short, they’d succumbed to the lure of popularity and friends, unlike me. Sure, a few years ago I’d have fainted and had a panic attack at the mere thought of introducing myself to anyone, but it wasn’t like that now. Now, it’s my choice not to have too many friends; they just bog you down and take away time from other things. I’d like to have friends, yes, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather have a place at college and a job than a boyfriend and a party. Jane isn’t like me. She’s not a terrible attention whore, she just seems incredibly fake. She’s always giggling with a French manicure, always with a crush, always texting, always casting glances towards me, the socially stunted older sister, and rolling her eyes towards her friends as if to say, Yeah, I’m stuck with her. Sure, I do feel a little neglected as a sister, but mostly just sick of her and all her crap.
‘She can’t be that bad, can she?’ Jack says. ‘I met your brother, he was alright.’
‘What’s he like?’ Alex asks.
‘Like a frat boy trapped in a fifteen-year-old body,’ I answer solemnly, taking a sad drink from my coffee. Alex barks out a laugh and Jack rolls his eyes; Dustin shares the same affinity for those weird baseball caps that Jack wears all the time, and anyone who likes baseball caps can’t be all that bad, Jack says.
‘He’s just a normal fifteen-year-old guy,’ Jack insists. Mr Bryant waves a hand to round us up and we scoop up our bags and follow him out of the classroom as we troop down towards the middle school. It’s around a ten minute walk, and with my responsibility to pick my two younger siblings up for the past four years, I could probably do it half asleep by now.
I give Jack a look over the top of my coffee, which he laughs and shrugs off. ‘Really, Rebecca, I think he’s fine.’
‘Yeah, well, my sister’s ten times worse. No, wait, scratch that,’ I say, holding out a finger. ‘She’s a million times worse.’
‘Come on, she’s thirteen,’ Alex says.
‘Every day at dinner, when we have to talk about our lives-’
‘What,’ Jack laughs. ‘Who does that?’
‘My mom teaches elementary; some kind of group-bonding bullshit,’ I explain, before jumping back into my story. ‘Every day at dinner, it’s always some story about how her friend shouldn’t have gotten the $200 heels or how two guys want to date her and she likes both, or some ridiculous thing like that.’ After speaking, I realize how harsh I just sounded and I’m too scared to look up at Jack and Alex. I keep my eyes on the ground and say quietly, ‘I’m sorry, I sound really harsh. I just- I just want her to have a good head on her shoulders, a good life, you know? She talks like she’s twenty one and famous in Beverly Hills or something. I’ve seen too many girls like that here and I don’t want her to end up like them.’
There’s a pause, and then Alex says softly, maybe a little reassuringly, ‘I think you’d be a great sister. She’ll turn out fine.’
‘Yeah. Thanks.’ All three of us stay silent then, unsure of what to say to break the silence. We stay like that long enough for me to drain my entire tumbler- which, to be honest, isn’t very long. Jack breaks the silence.
‘We should play a game,’ he states.
‘A game?’ I ask.
‘Yeah. Let’s play… Never Have I Ever.’ He grins at us, and Alex and I look at each other and roll our eyes.
‘With what? Coffee?’ Alex nods towards my tumbler, but I laugh and shake my head.
‘Empty.’
‘Well, shucks. What’ll we do now?’ Alex puts on a sad face and pouts at Jack, who laughs and pushes him away.
‘We could, I dunno, play the question game?’
‘The question game?’ I say skeptically. Jack nods enthusiastically. ‘What d’you do? Ask questions and then answer them?’
‘Pretty much, yeah.’ Jack shrugs when I give him an exasperated look at his ‘brilliant’ game.
‘Sure, why not?’ Alex says. I look at him, surprised, thinking he’d be on my side of the Jack’s Game is Stupid thing. He shrugs and smiles. ‘It’s only, like, eight minutes. It’ll pass the time.’
I sigh dramatically, as if it’s some great tragedy that I’m doing this. ‘Alright,’ I say.
‘Awesome,’ Jack says. ‘Now, the rules-’
‘Oh my God, there are rules for ‘the question game’?!’
-
From Jack B. to Matt F. (CC) on 12/03/05
i talked to Rebecca about the bday party for alex thing- she can’t do it but she got one of her friends to
Matt F. to Jack B. (CC)
awesome which one?
Jack B. to Matt F. (CC)
ashley
Rian D. to Matt F. (CC)
didn’t she lose her virginity to alex?
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
yeah so?
Rian D. to Jack B. (CC)
nothing, I just wouldn’t put it past her to poison his drink or something
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
wait what???
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
dude seriously
answer me
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
not cool bro
‘I will, I will!’ I insist. ‘We went over this, remember? I’m gonna be nice, no matter what shit he pulls.’ I smile triumphantly at Jack who nods approvingly back. ‘Speak of the devil,’ I say, nodding towards the doorway. Alex is backing into the room and, oh, look, he’s trailing a girl along with him. She giggles and wiggles her fingers at him as they part, and Alex nods towards us in greeting. I open my mouth to offer some scathing remark, but Jack gives me a look to silence me. ‘I wasn’t going to say anything!’ I insist. ‘Well,’ I amend, when he ducks down and begins chatting up a girl in the front row. ‘Maybe I was.’
‘You guys are ridiculous,’ he mutters. I smirk as I take a swig from my tumbler full of still-hot coffee, and we pass a few minutes making small talk as we wait for him to come over. He finally catches Jack’s eye, and we mime shutting up and coming over for him. He nods and smiles understandingly, but as soon as we turn away, he’s back down with the girl.
‘Jesus Christ,’ I groan. Jack rolls his eyes and waves his arms towards Alex.
‘Alex! Get the fu-’ He tosses a glance towards the teacher, who’s reading at his desk, but glances up every few seconds to check on us. ‘The fun over here! That’s you! The fun is you! Get over here! Now!’
Wait, Alex mouths. He holds up a hand, but Jack keeps shouting across the room and waving, while I just giggle beside him. It’s starting to attract Mr Bryant’s attention, so Alex rolls his eyes towards Jack at the girl and wanders over to us.
‘Dude,’ he says once he gets here. ‘Co-’
‘You have no right to accuse me of cockblocking,’ Jack says seriously. ‘Aren’t you and Lisa pretty big by now?’
‘Nah, we’re casual. Full license for other people. Hey, Rebecca.’
‘Hi,’ I say. I offer up a smile, because I did say I would try to be as nice as I can to Alex. Just like Zoe said: Even if most of Dulaney says he’s an asshole, doesn’t mean he actually is. I don’t actually know him, as much as the opinions I’ve absorbed seem to say so.
‘Well, uh, you guys ready for a day down at the middle school?’
‘Sure,’ Jack shrugs, at the same time I say, ‘No.’
Alex gives me a curious look. ‘Why not?’
‘My sister, Jane, goes there. She’s thirteen.’
‘Ah,’ Jack and Alex say together, just understanding. ‘Eighth grade,’ Jack finishes. ‘Our class?’
‘Yeah,’ I nod. It wasn’t that I hated my siblings or anything, they were just kind of… difficult. They were thirteen and fifteen, those ages where all you want to be is accepted and loved by your peers. Long story short, they’d succumbed to the lure of popularity and friends, unlike me. Sure, a few years ago I’d have fainted and had a panic attack at the mere thought of introducing myself to anyone, but it wasn’t like that now. Now, it’s my choice not to have too many friends; they just bog you down and take away time from other things. I’d like to have friends, yes, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather have a place at college and a job than a boyfriend and a party. Jane isn’t like me. She’s not a terrible attention whore, she just seems incredibly fake. She’s always giggling with a French manicure, always with a crush, always texting, always casting glances towards me, the socially stunted older sister, and rolling her eyes towards her friends as if to say, Yeah, I’m stuck with her. Sure, I do feel a little neglected as a sister, but mostly just sick of her and all her crap.
‘She can’t be that bad, can she?’ Jack says. ‘I met your brother, he was alright.’
‘What’s he like?’ Alex asks.
‘Like a frat boy trapped in a fifteen-year-old body,’ I answer solemnly, taking a sad drink from my coffee. Alex barks out a laugh and Jack rolls his eyes; Dustin shares the same affinity for those weird baseball caps that Jack wears all the time, and anyone who likes baseball caps can’t be all that bad, Jack says.
‘He’s just a normal fifteen-year-old guy,’ Jack insists. Mr Bryant waves a hand to round us up and we scoop up our bags and follow him out of the classroom as we troop down towards the middle school. It’s around a ten minute walk, and with my responsibility to pick my two younger siblings up for the past four years, I could probably do it half asleep by now.
I give Jack a look over the top of my coffee, which he laughs and shrugs off. ‘Really, Rebecca, I think he’s fine.’
‘Yeah, well, my sister’s ten times worse. No, wait, scratch that,’ I say, holding out a finger. ‘She’s a million times worse.’
‘Come on, she’s thirteen,’ Alex says.
‘Every day at dinner, when we have to talk about our lives-’
‘What,’ Jack laughs. ‘Who does that?’
‘My mom teaches elementary; some kind of group-bonding bullshit,’ I explain, before jumping back into my story. ‘Every day at dinner, it’s always some story about how her friend shouldn’t have gotten the $200 heels or how two guys want to date her and she likes both, or some ridiculous thing like that.’ After speaking, I realize how harsh I just sounded and I’m too scared to look up at Jack and Alex. I keep my eyes on the ground and say quietly, ‘I’m sorry, I sound really harsh. I just- I just want her to have a good head on her shoulders, a good life, you know? She talks like she’s twenty one and famous in Beverly Hills or something. I’ve seen too many girls like that here and I don’t want her to end up like them.’
There’s a pause, and then Alex says softly, maybe a little reassuringly, ‘I think you’d be a great sister. She’ll turn out fine.’
‘Yeah. Thanks.’ All three of us stay silent then, unsure of what to say to break the silence. We stay like that long enough for me to drain my entire tumbler- which, to be honest, isn’t very long. Jack breaks the silence.
‘We should play a game,’ he states.
‘A game?’ I ask.
‘Yeah. Let’s play… Never Have I Ever.’ He grins at us, and Alex and I look at each other and roll our eyes.
‘With what? Coffee?’ Alex nods towards my tumbler, but I laugh and shake my head.
‘Empty.’
‘Well, shucks. What’ll we do now?’ Alex puts on a sad face and pouts at Jack, who laughs and pushes him away.
‘We could, I dunno, play the question game?’
‘The question game?’ I say skeptically. Jack nods enthusiastically. ‘What d’you do? Ask questions and then answer them?’
‘Pretty much, yeah.’ Jack shrugs when I give him an exasperated look at his ‘brilliant’ game.
‘Sure, why not?’ Alex says. I look at him, surprised, thinking he’d be on my side of the Jack’s Game is Stupid thing. He shrugs and smiles. ‘It’s only, like, eight minutes. It’ll pass the time.’
I sigh dramatically, as if it’s some great tragedy that I’m doing this. ‘Alright,’ I say.
‘Awesome,’ Jack says. ‘Now, the rules-’
‘Oh my God, there are rules for ‘the question game’?!’
-
From Jack B. to Matt F. (CC) on 12/03/05
i talked to Rebecca about the bday party for alex thing- she can’t do it but she got one of her friends to
Matt F. to Jack B. (CC)
awesome which one?
Jack B. to Matt F. (CC)
ashley
Rian D. to Matt F. (CC)
didn’t she lose her virginity to alex?
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
yeah so?
Rian D. to Jack B. (CC)
nothing, I just wouldn’t put it past her to poison his drink or something
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
wait what???
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
dude seriously
answer me
Jack B. to Rian D. (CC)
not cool bro
♠ ♠ ♠
The rest of CH14 is up, so if it's not too much to ask, maybe click back and read that and then this again? I'm sorry! I just can't handle putting the rest of 14 here, because then Mibba will display what is really CH14 as CH15 and agkj a;ksdf I'm too anal for that and it would mess up my whole system ad;l j;ad./But yes, hello, I am kind of back! I've noticed my number of subscribers has magically skyrocketed up from around twenty to forty fucking three. Which is amazing. I could, like, fill a classroom up with you guys now. There are literally hearts in my eyes right now, so just- thanks. :)
Comments = me pushing back watching How I Met Your Mother, which is pretty much the most perfect show in existence, to update for you guys, which, come on, is a pretty big sign of commitment. ;)
-x, max.