Never Too Soon

Jack spends the next day for equal parts watching tv, messing around on his guitar, and sulking pathetically. He's trying to figure out some sort of a picking pattern for a Blink song in the living room when Rachel comes in. She paces back and forth while reading her psych textbook, which Jack thinks (but will not tell her) is kind of impressive.

"So, have you talked to him yet?" Rachel says, and surprisingly, there's no hint of amusement in her voice. It's completely deadpan, instead, which Jack supposes is some sort of a step-up.

"No," Jack says guiltily honestly.

Rachel rolls her eyes, sitting down on the couch with her textbook still intact. "Well, you should. Don't let him think you're not interested, or he'll move on, because I don't think you need me to tell you this, but, he can do much better than your skinny ass."

"You shouldn't even be allowed to say that, you're fifteen," Jack complains.

Rachel shrugs. "Piss off, you know I'm right."

And the worst part is that she totally, totally is.

--

Since Rachel could not possibly be less helpful, Jack decides to call Rian, who (of fucking course, because this is Jack's life we're talking about and nothing ever works out nicely) is stoned out of his mind when he picks up the phone.

"Jack," Rian says, voice serious. "Dude, I love you so much. You're awesome, you know that? You are so awesome," He tells him. Jack appreciates the sentiment, but he's not sure it was what he was looking for in calling Rian for advice.

"Um," Jack says. "Sure, but, what do I do about Alex trying to seduce me in the middle of a coffee shop? Anything to say about that?"

Rian becomes predictably silent. "Dude, chocolates. Wasn't there something about chocolates?"

"I'm going to hang up, now," Jack says.

"Yeah, you should probably do that," Rian agrees cheerfully.

--

Jack decides to do what makes the most sense, and what makes the most sense is for him to man the fuck up and invite Alex over to, you know, talk about feelings and other very masculine things.

He texts Alex if he wants to come over and Alex replies that he'll be there in ten, and in eight minutes flat Alex is in his living room.

And Jack doesn't even have to buy Alex chocolates, in the end, because Alex apologizes first.

"I don't know what I was thinking," He's saying, "it was rude of me to act like that when Lisa was there and obviously you were uncomfortable and I-"

Jack cuts him off by kissing him, tangling his hands in Alex's perfect, stupid hair. The kiss is pretty chaste, to Jack's dismay, but he can't fairly complain because he's the one who pulls back. "So, I kind of like you a lot," Jack tells him, "And I don't know why you're apologizing because I'm stupid."

"Oh," Alex says, a tiny smile starting to take form on his lips (which Jack can't help but notice he would really, really like to be kissing again). "Okay. I kind of like you too."

"Good." Jack smiles, biting his bottom lip. "Great."

There's a beat, where they're just sort of smiling at each other, and Jack is (of course) the one to break the silence. "So, if you don't mind, I'd really like to kiss you again." Jack says, and Alex rolls his eyes and pulls Jack to him by his hips.