You Could Be My Compass

Jack’s idea involved pushing all the tables and chairs out of the middle of the library and taking the super-soft cushions off the chairs. Alex watched in confusion and amusement as he arranged all the cushions on the floor, lining them up perfectly. “Can I borrow your keys for a sec?” he asked sweetly. Alex tossed him the keys without a second thought, still not having a clue what he was planning.

He returned with the fleece blanket from the trunk. “I’m not questioning why you have this in there—”

“Picnic with Jack Skellington over spring break. Never got around to taking it back inside,” Alex said truthfully. It wasn’t a lazy or forgetful mistake, either. He got home that day to find that Jack the Ripper had been mysteriously let out of the house (meaning one of his parents got attacked and was punishing him) and was sitting on the porch. He had to go around the house and in through the back door to avoid the beast and left the blanket in the car because, really, every second wasted was a second that he could’ve spent sprinting inside.

Jack looked relieved, like he’d been expecting a different answer. “Awesome. Well, anyways, it’s not gonna be as comfy as your bed or anything, but it’ll do, right?”

And then Alex realized what he was suggesting. He tackled him to the makeshift bed, attacking his face with kisses. “I love you so much, Jack, oh my god.”

Laughing, Jack said, “I love you too. Your mood improved.”

“Because I have, like, the best boyfriend ever!” Alex explained, knowing immediately that he sounded like such a girl and not caring in the slightest.

“Boyfriend, huh?” Jack teased.

Alex rolled off of him, laying on his side. “Well, yeah. Boyfriend seems to describe you pretty well, don’t you think?”

“Definitely,” Jack agreed, a smile spreading across his face as he rolled over, also on his side, facing Alex and noticing the huge smile on his face. “What?”

“What what?” Alex asked.

“What’s with the smile? You look like the cat that swallowed the canary.”

“Loving the expression,” Alex laughed. “I was just thinking, it’s kind of perfect, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“You and me.” And then he added for clarification, “You were my first friend, first kiss, first boyfriend. I dunno, it’s just…” He stopped babbling at the look on Jack’s face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“’Cause you’re fucking adorable.” He kissed Alex’s nose.

Alex rolled his eyes, trying not to blush. And failing in that endeavor. “Like you can talk.”

They were quiet for a minute, just—to put it in a cheesy way—getting lost in each other’s eyes before Jack broke the spell. “Aaaaalex,” he whined, pushing his shoulder gently. “Tell me a story.”

“Aww, does the princess want a bedtime story?”

“Shut up!” He shoved his shoulder again. “But yeah. I do.”

“Okay. I have the funniest story ever. But if you ever breathe a word of this to anybody, it will be the last thing you ever do. I’ve never told anybody this. Currently, the only ones that know about it are me and Zack.”

“If you’ve never told anyone, then how does Zack know?”

“He’s the main character.” Alex hadn’t even begun the tale and he was already about to bust into laughter just at the memory. “So you know the blink-182 song Fuck A Dog, right?”

“Who doesn’t?” Jack grinned. If that was how the story started, he couldn’t even imagine where it was headed.

“Well this one time, I was staying the night at Zack’s. I got out of the shower and I heard that song blasting from his room. Before I go on, I want you to know that his door was not locked. It wasn’t even closed all the way, god fucking damn it. It. Was. Not. My. Fault. I mean, a door’s ajar, you take it as the okay to go in.”

“Lex, while I’m sure this rant has some psychological significance that needs to be revisited later, just get on with the story.”

He rolled his eyes again, this time at himself. He didn’t mean to go off on that tangent. “Right. Anyways. So I just walked in his room. And there he was. Naked. On his bed. Jacking off to Fuck A Dog.”

Jack blinked a couple times. “No. No way. Nuh-uh. You made that up!”

Alex shook his head. “Nope.”

He could tell he wasn’t kidding, weird as this story sounded. “So what happened next?” Jack asked, laughing.

“Well, I stepped backwards and closed my eyes tried to act like I hadn’t just walked in on that, but I hit the wall. Zack heard and he jumped up and he’s just fucking standing there, not grabbing any clothes or anything, and we end up making eye contact—like, who the fuck makes eye contact after something like that? So we’re staring at each other for, like, thirty seconds, and the song started over. He reached over and turned it off and finally he said, ‘Bet you’ll never listen to that song the same way again!’ and he still hadn’t put on his clothes.” Alex was laughing now too, and once he started, he couldn’t stop.

“Oh my god,” Jack gasped, struggling to breathe between the laughter. “That is the best thing ever. How are you two even still friends after that?”

“That experience brought us so much closer together. You never really know a guy till you know what kind of music he listens to during his most intimate moments.” He tried to control his giggling, but couldn’t. “Then there was another silence and he said, ‘I mean, Travis Barker is totally bangable, right?’ I just…oh my god.”

They were laughing so hard, they were both in tears. “I will never,” Jack choked out. “Look at him without thinking about that.”

“Hey!” Alex smacked his arm playfully. “You’re not allowed to think about Zack naked. Rule number one of our relationship.”

“But you’ve already seen him naked!” Jack pointed out.

“But I try not to think about it.”

“Well, rule number two of our relationship is that you can’t see Zack naked again.”

“I suppose I can agree to that. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight.”

Jack pushed him, and he fell on his back. Soon enough, they were laughing hysterically, wrestling and turning into a mess of limbs. Alex ended up on top of Jack and pinned him down, planting kisses on his jaw down to his neck, dragging the skin between his teeth.

Jack pulled at Alex’s shirt and Alex removed his lips, giving an approving nod to the small purple mark on Jack’s neck. “What do you want, Jacky?” he asked, his voice teasing. Jack tugged on the material with more force. “Use words.”

“Just take your goddamn shirt off!”

“If you insist.” He sat up, legs on either side of Jack, and pulled the shirt off quickly, tossing it to the side carelessly before leaning back down. “Better?”

Jack ran his hands down Alex’s chest, making him shiver at the contact. “Much.”

They continued like that, making out on the floor, and Jack’s shirt was soon lost as well. But then the interruption they’d become far too used to came along.

Alex’s phone started ringing.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” Jack exploded.

Alex shot him a ‘be quiet’ look but turned his phone off without checking to see who was calling him. He crawled back to Jack and grinned. “Where were we?”