Outlines

Jack directed Alex towards his little red Honda civic which was parked in the student parking lot. He unlocked the door for Alex then walked to the other side to let himself in the vehicle.
Alex sat in the car comfortably, lying at his feet were millions of CD’s, he could tell that Jack liked to listen while he drove. Jack climbed into the seat beside Alex and started the engine of the car.
“Any preferred albums?” He asked nodding at the clattered mess of music at Alex’s feet.
“Hmmm” Alex pondered and began to ruffle through the albums. He pulled out Nimrod by Green Day and glanced toward Jack.
“Awesome.” Jack nodded, the English boy took the CD out of its case and put it in the player. Jack turned the volume up full blast and began to drive down the streets of Baltimore.
Alex’s head still hurt but he tried to focus on other things, he watched Jack drive silently. The taller boy had his left arm resting against the window and the other was holding onto the steering wheel. He mouthed the words to “Nice Guys Finish Last” and Alex laughed at the boy, Jack turned to him,
“What?!” He asked. Alex just smiled, not muttering a single word. Jack shrugged and continued on as he was before, driving and singing. They came to Thames street just a few moments later, Jack parked alongside the curb and the boys took a few moments to get out of the car.
“So what do you like to do here the best?” Jack asked Alex.
“I really like the record shop the most, but can we do that later? It’s always really loud there and…”
“Your head.” Jack lifted his hand and stroked the English boys head tenderly. Alex just looked up at him with wide eyes. Jack realized what he was doing and laughed, trying to ignore the sweet gesture he had just made towards the English boy. What was he doing? Jack could feel a warmth in his face, he knew that he was blushing, but why? He had never felt so happy around someone like he had when he was with Alex. He tried to ignore the feelings, shrugging them off and looking around the street, trying to think of something they could get up to.
“Would you like to go down to the pier?” He asked Alex. Thames street was placed right by a beautiful harbour. There were boats coming and going daily, and the pier was long and outstretched into the ocean.
“Sure,” Alex nodded happily as the boys made their way down the street.

They walked along the pier silently, side-by-side. The ocean breeze was calm along Alex’s skin, he loved the feeling of it. Something he could never find when he was back at home in Essex. When they reached the end of the pier Jack turned to him,
“What really upset you today?” He said calmly “I talked to Lisa before I went to see you and she said you had been speaking, and you got upset, Is that true Lex?”
Alex bit onto his lip, he didn’t know how to explain to Jack what they had been talking about, if he told Jack the truth, he might not want to be friends anymore.
“Jack…” Alex looked away from the boy and into the ocean. He rested his arms on the railing and sighed heavily. Jack moved himself closer to Alex and put his own hand on the smaller boys.
“Lex, you know, we’ve only known each other for a short time, but I feel like I can tell you anything, so you can tell me anything, you know that right?” Alex looked into Jack’s deep brown eyes, and took a deep breath.
“I used to have a best friend.” He started. “His name was Max. We had been friends since… since fourth year. Sorry, I mean fourth grade.” He looked at Jack with a small smirk. Jack stared at him listening and taking in the boys’ story. Alex continued. “Max was… well he was pretty amazing, always confident to who he was, never afraid of anything right? one of those people who were just… really true to themselves. I loved him to death.” Alex slowly took deep breaths, he hadn’t spoken about Max Helyer in years… after he left, Alex didn’t know what to do. It was difficult at times to even think about his best friend who had been missing for so long. Alex continued his story, trying to calm himself down and not be in the same state he was back in bio class with Lisa. He promised he would pull through this story, just one more time.
“In year 10, Max confessed to me something” Alex stammered on his words “He told me he was gay,” Alex lifted his eyes to Jack to see his reaction, Jack just stayed calm, not making much of a big deal of the matter, this was a good sign. Alex continued, “I had not a single problem with it because well…” Alex stammered and took a deep breath in, this was the part that he was fearing since the moment he had met the tall lanky boy.
“Well because I’m gay too.” Alex looked up at Jack who still showed no change of expression. Alex tried not to but he became frustrated, what did it take to get any emotion out of Jack!? He continued his story, “Of course there was no attraction between us, we were best friends.” Alex shrugged “Everything was normal between us… for a few months, but somehow, everyone at school found out, and people weren’t so… accepting as I had been.” Alex’s vision blurred but he refused to follow the flashbacks that continued to pull at him. He griped onto the railing in front of him, Jack could see that the English boy was struggling to tell this story. He put his arm around Alex and held him closer,
“it’s okay” He whispered. “You don’t have to keep going.” He felt Alex breathing in and out heavily.
“I want to tell you.” Alex said. “They… Jack. The kids at my school, they tormented him. They tormented him every single day, I begged them to stop, I tried everything I could.” Alex became angry with himself, remembering the horrible sad winter’s day.
“One day,” He sighed, wiping away the tears that suddenly fell from his eyes. “Max didn’t come to school.” His voice shook slightly “I went over to his house afterwards, to check on him.” Jack pulled Alex even closer in because he already had the slightest feeling on what had happened to the English boys best friend.
“He was gone Jack.” Alex said quietly. “He… took his own life.” Tears rushed down Alex’s face and he buried his head into Jack’s chest, crying silently to the boy. Jack held Alex in closer, a gesture that was new to the boy. Jack wasn’t used to being so caring towards others, Alex had been the first boy he had cared this much about. He gripped onto the boys shoulders and pulled him back.
“You’re not in Essex anymore Lex, You aren’t. You’re here now with me.” The boy had courage in his eyes, Alex blinked back tears and stared steadily at Jack. “I’m not going to let anybody hurt you.” He brought Alex in and held onto him for dear life, and it had felt like they were the only two people in all of Baltimore.

The boys stood silently for a moment just gazing out into the ocean.
“Thanks Jack.” Alex said, “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone quite like you.” Jack laughed and nodded at the boy.
“You’re the best Lex.” He smiled “You really are.” Jack couldn’t help but notice the feeling of warmth that he obtained whenever Alex was near, he tried to shrug it off but it was like something he had never felt before.
“Can we visit Rian now?” Alex suggested, “I want a warm drink and he said we could visit.” Jack nodded and the two made their way down the pier and up the street, finding themselves in the Starbucks on the corner of South Broadway.
“Jaaackkk!” A voice from behind the counter called out, as the boys walked in. it was Rian. He was wearing the classic green Starbucks apron overtop of a black T-shirt. “Aleeexx!” He chimed as well. Alex felt happy that he was included in the greeting. The two boys made their way up to the counter, it wasn’t very busy for a Tuesday afternoon. Just a few people from around town were inside the small shop.
“What can I get you?” Rian smiled at the boys.
“Caramel frappe, extra caramel” Jack nodded.
“And for yourself?” Rian asked Alex.
“Oh uhh, peppermint mocha.” He said shyly. Rian smiled once more and wrote down the boys names on their cups.
“It’s on me” He said, “only because this is Alex’s first time at my workplace though!” He laughed and walked away to make the drinks. The two boys found themselves a comfy couch to sit on in the corner. Jack sighed heavily and smiled at the boy who sat across from him. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment, should he tell him? Alex had already told Jack so many secrets, he deserved to know his own. It’s not like it would scare him, they were the same, Alex and Jack, but what if Alex didn’t react the way Jack wanted him to? What if Alex just wanted to remain friends. Jack was so confused.

He knew that he liked Alex. He had liked Alex the second he saw him standing confused in the hallway, looking for their history class. He had liked him when they talked about England, and he adored him when they shared their love for music, and he couldn’t get enough of the way he acted when he was teaching him about American Football. He sighed heavily to himself.
“What are you thinking about?” Alex grinned at the boy. Jack blushed but tried not to show it, he just laughed and smiled,
“Want to do something Friday night?” He asked the boy.
“What kind of something?” Alex smiled.
“Well I was thinking….” At that exact moment Rian interrupted,
“I have one Caramel Frap extra caramel!” He called from behind the counter.
“Hold that thought.” Jack grinned and waltzed up to the counter, grabbing his own drink and then Alex’s when Rian had called for him. “Thanks man.” Jack smiled,
“Anytime bro!” Rian nodded before getting back to work. Jack sighed heavily and stared at his drink for a few moments, he was so nervous to tell Alex what he wanted to tell him, but at the same time he knew that it would be perfect. They could be perfect. If only he could find a way to tell Alex…

He walked back to the boy and sat beside him on the couch. “As I was saying,” He sighed heavily, “Come over Friday night?”
Alex nodded “Sure thing” Jack nodded and took a sip of his drink, slowly watching Alex do the same.
“What about that party that… Matt was talking about?” Alex asked, he was unsure whether to call him ‘Flyzik’ like the rest of Jack’s friends, so he just decided to call him by his proper name.
“Oh yeah, you want to go?” Jack asked the English boy. Alex pondered it for a few moments,
“I think it might be okay.” He said, smiling shyly “I don’t know many people so maybe I’ll meet someone new?” He laughed. Jack felt a pang of jealousy; he didn’t want Alex to meet anyone that would draw Alex’s attention away from himself. He sighed,
“I suppose that could be alright. Yeah, we can go together if that’s alright with you.”
“Who else would I want to go with?” Alex laughed. The two boys carried out the rest of the day chatting and drinking Starbucks, they ventured along Thames street and Alex had forgotten all about his troubled past, that was something Jack was good at, helping Alex forget all about the bad, because Jack, was nothing but good.