Jealous Hearts Will Leave Us All In Ruins

Alex dreaded starting a new school, but he knew it would be better for him. He needed to leave his last school, and he knew he had to. He knew he made the right choice when he met Jack the first day of school. He was finally getting into the right crowd.

He was especially nervous about going to the Barakat residence, because he didn't know much about Jack or his sister, but he let the nerves rest by their own.

The night before Alex's first day at Dulaney, his parents knocked on his bedroom door. Alex was sitting on his bed with a bag of chips and a two liter bottle of Mountain Dew.

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU KILL ME?!" Alex shouted into the headset. "I WAS ON YOUR FUCKING TEAM!" he screamed as he threw the headset, throwing the Xbox controller onto the ground. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" he shouted, forgetting to lower his voice.

His mother pushed open the door, his father following behind her. "Alexander, lower your voice. The neighbors can hear," his mother said, picking up some of the boy's dirty clothes from the ground to make a pathway to his bed.

"Sorry," he mumbled, pushing the bag of chips onto the opposite side of the bed, scooting over so his parents could sit.

"Are you excited to start school tomorrow?" his father asked, his British accent heavy.

"Is any kid excited to start school?" Alex scowled.

"Hunny, it's going to be good for you. You'll get a clean slate at this school. Even your therapist said this would be good for you," his mother said, her hand resting on the boy's arm.

"I hate her, all she cares about is getting a session in every week so she can make money," Alex said, shrugging his mother's touch off as he crossed his arms.

"She wouldn't be a therapist if she didn't care," his father said, standing next to the full size bed.

"I fucking hate going there! You guys don't see, it doesn't help. Nothing's going to help," he shot a dirty look to his parents. "It makes me realize all of the fucking problems there is, things I didn't even realize. The only reason I go there is because you two force me. You're trying to help, but it isn't working!"

His mother tried to reach over to give him a hug but Alex shook his head.

"Alex, please. We're trying," his mother said with a frown on her lips.

"I was doing fine until you guys had to take away the only thing that made me feel better," Alex scoffed, rolling onto his side to avoid looking at his parents.

The room was soon filled with the boom of his father's voice. "YOU THINK DRUGS ARE THE ANSWER, ALEXANDER? WE'RE HURTING TOO, STOP BEING SO BLOODY SELFISH!"

Alex closed his eyes, trying to keep the tears in. He heard his parents exit the room, and the slam of his bedroom door.

"Peter, pl-" "THAT BOY NEEDS TO LEAR-" "Shouting at him isn't the right ans-" "HE WON'T GET IT THROUGH HIS MIND, ISOBEL!" "I know hun, I kn-" "and you! Stop trying to make everything peachy."

Alex fell asleep to listening to his parents arguing and tears filling his eyes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Hey! What did your parents say about you coming over?" Jack asked as he walked with me to the main lobby to leave.

"Uhh.." he paused. fuck, he forgot to ask his parents, and he was told constantly that he had to come home after school unless given permission by a teacher or his parents met whoever Alex would be seeing outside of school. "Yeah, they said it was cool."

"Sweet!" Jack screeched. "You can meet all of my friends, and you've already met Mar," he said as Marina walked up to the two of them.

"Hey," Alex said with a sincere smile, making Marina smile and return the greeting. "I drove to school today, if you guys want to drive to your place?"

"Yeah!" Jack said, and the three of them walked out to the school parking lot.

While they were walking, Alex texted his mom. "hey, im going to a friends house to hang out. theyre good kids, i promise. ill be home for dinner!"

They walked up to a red 2003 Honda Civic, and Alex got out his keys to unlock it. They all piled in, and within 5 minutes, the three of them were at the Barakat house. Alex was surprised how modern their home looked, since he lived in a Victorian house that was built two hundred years ago.

"Dude, your house is sick! Mine's so old," he said as they walked to the front door.

"Yeah, our dad built it with his brothers when we were babies," Marina replied as Jack unlocked the door, the twins dumping their backpacks on the floor.

"Alex, do you play any instruments?" Jack asked as he picked up an acoustic guitar that he got for his 15th birthday. It was in pretty good shape for it being a year old.

Alex watched Marina walk towards the stairs, a little disappointed that she wouldn't be hanging out with them, and then he looked to the skunk haired boy. "Uhmm, I used to play guitar, but I stopped."

Jack started to tune the guitar. "Why'd ya stop? "

"Just no time, I guess," he responded, sitting next to Jack on the couch. "Are your parents home?"

"Nah, they're at work. They trust us home alone and stuff," he said, but then the two of them looked over as a group of guys from their school walked in. Alex noticed a few of them, there was one kid in his science class and he saw the others in the hallways. "Guys, this is Alex! Alex, this is Rian, Zack, and Matt. Rian plays the drums, Zack is like, fucking God at bass, and Matt plays guitar."

They all said hey in unison, and the five of them walked down to the basement. Alex was amazed at the small studio they had in the basement, along with a recording system set in the back of the room. The four friends started to play the instruments all around the room, and Alex watched in amazement at how good they were. They started to play Rollercoaster by blink-182, Matt and Zack doing vocals. Alex sang along as he watched.

Once the song ended, Matt looked over at Alex. "Hey, wanna join us? We're playing some New Found Glory next!"

Alex got up to join the four, and he picked up a guitar. After playing song after song, Alex finally felt like he had real friends.