Fall Away

It was probably the closest Jack would ever get to doing hard drugs.

It was no secret that Jack enjoyed the occasional joint or two and he was no stranger to hangovers from extreme amounts of booze, but he had never once in his life tried hard drugs, nor did he plan on it. But as he felt Alex’s tongue slip and press against his, he figured it was the equivalent of injecting hot liquid into his veins. Each time Alex lightly sucked on his tongue, Jack felt his stomach burn up in flames, his head spinning. And fuck, Jack had kissed plenty of people: boys and girls, but no one had ever made him feel like this with a kiss.

Holy shit, he was making out with a ghost.

The thought made Jack’s stomach spin and he pushed Alex away, their mouths breaking apart sloppily, little strings of spit still stretching across the small space between their mouths. Jack’s hot and heavy breath mixed with Alex’s slightly less warm gasps, until the air was thick and tense.

“This is so wrong, shit, this is fucking wrong.” Jack muttered, looking anywhere but at Alex.

The soul hooked a finger under his chin, however, and turned Jack to face him. “Do you like it?”

“But you’re in a coma! I can’t be kissing your ghost; this is so fucked up.”

“Shut up for a second and answer me: did you like it?” Alex asked sternly, their eyes meeting.
Jack felt himself sinking in the dark brown irises, trying to read Alex through his eyes.

He looked down in shame. “I-I, yes.”

“That’s all that matters then.” Alex whispered, bringing their mouths together once again.

This time the kiss was less heated, a little less fuckingtouchmerightnow, but more careful, as if they were realizing how fragile the moment was.

Their lips pressed together softly, skin slipping together with just the slightest hint of stubble from Jack. Jack placed his hands on Alex’s waist, pulling him down onto the bed. The ghost complied and soon he was lying on his side on the plush mattress, Jack beside him, facing each other. Alex traced a finger from Jack’s hairline to his lips, trying to accept that it was really happening. As if reading his mind, Jack reassured Alex of the moment by leaning forward and cupping his chin and pressing another soft kiss to his lips. He went to pull away but Alex grabbed the back of his neck with one hand and held him closer. When Jack finally gasped for air, they both smiled at each other, and Jack rolled his eyes at the cheesiness of the situation. Alex nervously glanced down at his jeans before looking back at Jack and giving him a lopsided grin.

It was then that there was a loud crash and they jumped up.

“What the fuck was that?!” Alex screamed, clutching onto the nearest pillow.

Jack momentarily forgot his panic to turn to Alex and hit his arm. “Shut the fuck up, my parents are sleeping!”

“They can’t hear me, you dumb fuck!” Alex screamed. “Now save us.”

Jack didn’t bother telling Alex that it would be smarter for him to be the one doing the saving since his chances of being seen were slim to none. Instead he watched as Alex gripped tightly onto his arm, short nails leaving indents in Jack’s skin. He craned his neck trying to hear the source of the sound, only to hear distant shouting. Jack looked up from their little corner of the bed and examined the room, seeing the TV turned on, movie long forgotten but still playing. On screen Captain Jack Sparrow was running around shouting about rum while loud crashes and bangs resounded around him.

He started laughing then, little hiccupped giggles as he tried to stifle the laughter so his parents wouldn’t hear him.

“A-Alex, fuck, it was the movie.” He whispered, tugging on the pillow that the soul had used to cover his view of his surroundings.

Alex threw the pillow down, looking at the television screen and laughing loudly at the sheer absurdity of the situation. “We are such pussies, man.”

“Let’s finish the movie,” Jack mumbled, after nodding his agreement to Alex’s previous statement. He turned towards the screen, leaning against the headboard of his bed.

Alex immediately scooted his way over, trying (and failing) to nonchalantly cuddle up to Jack. He kept moving around trying to get comfortable, until finally Jack wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in, so Alex’s head was in the crook of his neck.

Twenty minutes later Jack felt Alex’s tongue lapping at the shell of his ear and heard a soft whisper of his name, to which he replied with a whispered question of what the fuck the ghost wanted from him.

“Let me take you out on a date.”

Jack turned to look at Alex then, taking in the nervous posture and the way his eyes kept glancing at Jack before hurriedly looking away. He considered the pros (hot date, possibly some good food, an interesting conversation, and maybe even some making out with the ghost) and the cons (he’s a ghost).

“How would you take me out?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow to accompany his query.

“Well, no one would see us. Please Jack, I only have a few months to live anyway.”

“When you say it like that!” Jack’s mouth fell open. “Did you just guilt trip me into saying yes?”

“Did it work?” Alex asked cheekily, smirking at the taller boy beside him.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” Jack muttered, sticking out his tongue in a very mature fashion.

They got back to watching the movie then, Alex tucked into Jack’s side, and Jack tracing
patterns on Alex’s side with his fingers. He made the mistake of turning to look at the soul and almost forgot the movie altogether when he realized Alex was lying with his eyes closed, clearly awake, but daydreaming. He looked at the soul, taking in his fluttering eyelashes and the way he wrinkled his nose slightly when thinking certain things. He looked so innocent, any and all traces of his sexual humor gone and replaced with soft contours and cheeks lightly dusted with pink. Jack couldn’t understand how he could be so beautiful when this wasn’t even the real him, and Jack vowed to see the human Alex to experience the real beauty.

It was hard for Jack: accepting that he found Alex attractive and really liked (loved) kissing him. Jack didn’t like the growing connection between him and Alex but it was as if the minute their lips pressed together, they were bound on some deeper emotional level. It fucking terrified Jack, because he didn’t like serious relationships, didn’t like the idea of love, especially not with a lost soul.

But mostly it terrified him that maybe Alex, maybe Clarissa, maybe they were all right when they sputtered out all the bullshit about soul mates and finding your other half, and how Jack was Alex’s only way back to his body.

Jack tried to ignore the thoughts, focusing on the positive (like the fact that he definitely gave Alex a ghost boner, which he would have to tease him about later, as well as inquiring about how it is compared to a real life boner). He turned back to the movie, seeing that it was almost over, and tried to pay attention, but the soft press of Alex against him made it hard for his eyes to stay open.

He was rudely awoken by Alex just minutes later when the boy pressed sloppy wet kisses to his cheek and whispered, “Jack, you have a text message.”

Jack opened his eyes and grabbed his phone from the nightstand, unlocking it.

Unknown number: I know your secret.