Fall Away

“So biological fitness is the measure of reproductive success of an individual relative to the other individuals in a population. The fit individuals capture a relatively high amount of resources and energy from the ecosystem and efficiently convert these two into viable, fertile offspring,” Mrs. Lightner stated.

Jack could feel himself slowly slipping into a slumber as he watched the woman at the front of the room bounce around, exclaiming about biological fitness. It’s not that he didn’t like the class; in fact, biology was a pretty decent class for him, a class he actually slightly enjoyed. And the teacher was fairly nice and pretty damn hot with her blonde hair falling in her bright blue eyes. But Jack had gotten no sleep over the weekend, what with going through the hospital on Saturday and spending all of Sunday lounging about playing video games with Alex- which the soul was a complete cheater at. So it was no surprise that his eyes were slowly closing, his head falling forwards slightly before jerking back up as he tried to keep some semblance of awareness.

It seemed he didn’t need to though, because he felt a sharp jab in his side, jumping up in the chair and glaring at the source of the pain. Alex was crouching beside him, smirking, “Don’t fall asleep, you wouldn’t want to have a wet dream about me in class.” The cheeky bastard winked and Jack stifled a snort, trying not to draw attention to himself despite sitting in the third row of the classroom.

Alex then skipped over to the front of the classroom, lightly jabbing the teacher in her side while holding up a finger to his mouth miming for Jack to stay quiet.

Mrs. Lightner pressed a hand to her side, grimacing and mumbling an “ow.”

She started talking again when the pain subsided. “In some aquatic ecosystems that have been studied, the producers are below the primary consumers such as the small standing crop of phytoplankton (producers) which supports a larger standing crop of zooplankton because if there is a high rmax, the populations constantly grow exponentially.”

It was then that Jack noticed Alex standing beside her in front of the whole class, pretending to thrust into air, making sex faces. He bit his lip, miming a loud moan and a “Fuck Jack,” thrusting faster. Jack’s mouth dropped open and he stared at Alex in shock, feeling his mouth dry up. Alex simply smirked, placing a hand above his crotch and acting as if he was jerking himself off, running his hand up and down in the air, and making extremely vivid faces.

Jack was pretty sure his face was beet red when Alex decided he wanted to up the game. Mrs. Lightner was still talking, babbling about ecosystems while Alex carefully stood up on her desk, making sure not to make too much noise. Then he got onto his knees and started seductively taking his shirt off. When the shirt was off he threw it in the air behind him and Jack watched in shock as the shirt fell on the floor but nobody else saw it. His attention returned to Alex immediately though, preferring to look at his toned chest as opposed to questioning the shirt. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the distinct hip bones of the soul as he stared at his chest, memorizing every plane and curve. Alex caught him looking and winked, running his tongue along his teeth before starting to grind up in the air still on his knees, leaning back so he was resting most of his weight on his arms.
Jack could feel his pants tightening as he watched the boy thrust up into the air, this time moaning out loud and for a second he felt a shock before realizing nobody but him could hear those delicious sounds. And he was pretty damn happy that he was the only one who was lucky enough.

“What if we fucked on this table?” Alex moaned out, smiling like a Cheshire cat at the deer-in-the-headlights look on Jack’s face.

Alex’s moan was interrupted, however, by Mrs. Lightner calling out Jack’s name. Jack looked up at her in shock, realizing that she’d been calling his name a few times. “Y-yes?”

“Nice of you to return back to this world. Since you’re so keen on listening to my class, why don’t you be the first to present?” She asked, crossing her arms across her chest and Jack tried not to look at the way her boobs pushed up slightly.

“Present?” He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach and he realized that he’d forgotten he even had a presentation. Alex had gotten down from the table, his shirt back on, a guilty look on his face.

“Yes Jack, you remember don’t you? I assigned it three weeks ago. You had to present on a habitat that you found interesting and explain the energy flow.”

“I, uh, yeah, of course, I just forgot to bring the paper in. So I can’t present.”

She tutted, pressing a finger to her chin as she thought. “Well, I can give you the opportunity to present tomorrow”-

“We don’t have class tomorrow,” Jack interrupted, before blushing scarlet because here she was offering him an opportunity to fix his mistake and he was being rude.

“That’s right, so I guess you can present on Wednesday. But because it’s late I’m taking off 20 points. Sorry, but my late assignment policy stays the same, no matter what.” She turned to another student then. “Kasey, you’re up.”

The girl nodded, her blonde pigtails bouncing as she practically skipped to the front of the room and started speaking in her bubblegum pink voice. Fucking teacher’s pet.

Jack pouted the rest of the day and Alex avoided him, hiding from him in fear of Jack lashing out on him. Jack, on the other hand, did not understand why Alex was hiding. But he was too pissed at his life to try to talk to him.

---

It was the end of the school day when Jack practically ran out of the building, getting into his car and slamming the door closed, his hands shaking slightly. The whole day was a load of shit, every hour something new happening to dampen his mood.

There was a knock on his car window and he jumped slightly, looking over and seeing Rian, before rolling down the window.

“Sup dude?” He asked, running a hand across his face, exhaustion seeping into every muscle.

“You wanna hang out? Zack and I are going to stuff our faces with pizza and energy drinks.” Rian offered.

Jack contemplated it for a minute before shaking his head. “Nah man, I need to get home and work on a project that was due today.” He shrugged apologetically.

Rian simply smiled and nodded. “Dude, we’ve all been there. We do need to hang though, you’ve been a stranger bro, we miss you.”

Jack felt his stomach clench because he’d completely neglected his friends, completely neglected everything. But it’s not as if he could explain to everyone that “Yeah, I’m actually trying to save this kid’s life and I can’t fall in love with him unless I spend time with him, and even then the chances are slim.” That wouldn’t go very well.

Jack looked down guiltily before swallowing down the confession and looking up to Rian who was still smiling in obliviousness. “Of course man, sorry my mom’s been crazy and my dad is, well, my dad.”

Rian snorted, shaking his head in laughter. “Your parents rock, shut up.”

“Yeah but you don’t live with them!” Jack defended.

“Whatever Baragay. Go home and enjoy your perfect family dinner! I’ll text you later.” Rian stated, waving and giving him a dumb smile, crossing his eyes and scrunching up his eyebrows.

Jack laughed at his friend mocking him and started the car, driving over near Rian across the parking lot and yelling, “Careful I’ll run over you.”

Rian simply flipped him off, laughing earnestly and making his way to his own car. Jack smiled, pulling off the student parking lot into the street. His friends always made him feel better.

---

When he stomped into his room, he’d been expecting many things but a bouquet of daisies on his bed was not on that list. Yet as Jack walked closer he saw that there was in fact a bouquet of what seemed to be at least two dozen daisies on his bed, their soft aroma filling the air and the white and yellow colors making him smile immediately. He felt sappy as fuck as he picked up the daisies and pressed his face into them, cherishing the scent. Jack Barakat was not one for flowers, but dammit he couldn’t help the cheesy smile as he stared at the beautiful petals.

He felt two hands on his shoulders and froze until he heard the soft whisper of “hi” from Alex.
He immediately relaxed, and started blushing when Alex promptly began to massage his shoulders, pressing his thumbs into the knots.

Jack let out a tiny gasp, before mumbling, “Why the flowers?”

“How do you know they’re from me?” Jack could picture Alex standing with his eyebrow raised.

“Touché Gaskarth.”

The boy giggled, turning Jack so that they were facing the mirror, the soul standing behind Jack, his hands still on the taller boys back. He stepped onto his tip-toes and rested his chin on Jack’s shoulder as they both watched their reflections.

“I, um, I felt bad cause if it weren’t for me you’d have done your project instead of running around finding my friends.” He muttered and Jack watched as he slowly lowered his gaze, avoiding direct eye contact.

“You know, your kissing was the real distraction.” Jack provided.

“Well then I guess I’m not sorry, I’ll be distracting you more often,” Alex whispered into his ear before lightly dragging his fingers down Jack’s arms and linking both of their hands together.

Jack blushed and tried to change the topic, “So how’d you get flowers and not stray over 50 feet from me? In fact, how’d you manage to stay invisible and the flowers not get seen?”

“Oh silly Jacky, a great magician never reveals his secrets.” Alex stated matter-of-factly pressing a kiss to Jack’s neck. “We’re cute together,” He whispered seconds later.

Jack looked into the mirror focusing on them together and he had to admit Alex was true. Alex was slightly shorter, his head fitting perfectly in the crook between Jack’s head and shoulder. Their bodies seemed to fit well, pressed together softly as Alex leant on Jack. Even their fingers intertwined well and their eyes both had mischievous sparks.

“Yeah, cause I’m a hot piece of ass.” Jack smirked.

“More like, anyone would like nice next to you cause you’re hideous.” Alex stuck his tongue out.

“Hey! You’re gonna pay for that Gaskarth.” Jack shouted, pushing the soul onto his bed, thankful that his parents were still at work.

“Oh yeah? How am I gonna pay you?” Alex asked, eyes shining with humor.

Jack pretended to think for a moment before climbing on top of Alex. “In kisses.”