God, I'm Sick of Sleeping Alone

Alex had always been the social butterfly his parents wished he would be. Once comfortable, he could talk for years at a time without a breath of air in-between. When he met his now best friend, Jack, things just clicked. As cliche as it sounded, the two were inseparable. They were fast friends and if Alex wasn't at Jack's house, Jack was at his. They did everything normal friends do: played video games, ate shitty food, and watched movies. If it weren't for the elongated little-more-than brush of the arm or letting their knees touch while they were sitting on Jack's bedroom floor doing math homework, they wouldn't be any different than any other best friends.
Both the boys' parents knew what the looks behind their eyes meant before either boy did. When Alex, after two years, finally realized that his feelings for his friend were more than they should've been, he did a lot more than worry. He freaked out. A fucking lot. He kept to himself and when he wasn't inside he was moody and short-tempered. The only friend he managed to keep through it was Jack, and by the end of his tenth grade year Alex only left his bedroom to eat and go to the bathroom. The mixture of not only being gay but also having feelings for someone he believed he definitely shouldn't was overwhelming. Between Jack and well, himself, he decided that it was time for an intervention. Alex said he was fine, but he obviously wasn't. Jack couldn't not do something. He didn't know what the brunette was thinking but he did know that he liked him more than someone should ever like a friend, and he wasn't going to let that person waste away in their bedroom alone.

And what better way to break the newly formed ice than to go camping?
Well, Alex could definitely think of a few.

"Jesus christ, I fucking hate bugs."
Jack snickered at Alex's whines from behind him.
"C'mon, Lex. Don't be a baby, they're just mosquitoes."
Alex scoffed, finally making his way to the other boy's side.
"Just mosquitoes? Are you kidding me? At this rate I won't have any blood left by the time the weekend's over."
His sneakers scuffed against the rocks as they climbed up towards the campsite.
"Hey, you're the one that agreed to come. You're not allowed to complain." Jack stated, pulling Alex up by the hand and onto solid ground.
"Yeah," the brunette spread his arms out in an attempt to balance himself and not fall back down the steep mountain side they'd just hiked.
"I'm not really sure why I did that."
Jack smirked.
"To spend more time with me, of course! Ya' know, I'm just so hot that you couldn't resist."
Alex's face burned bright red. He glared at his best friend who was admittadly a little too easy to like.
"Shut up."
Because he really was right in saying that you must mean a whole freaking lot to Alex Gaskarth for him to (somewhat) willingly leave the safety of his wifi connection for you. Jack felt like the embodiment of Kevin McCallister; getting Alex to not only leave the house but go camping was some kind of Christmas miracle. It definitely wasn't easy - a whole week of arguing about it proved that - but Alex was here with him in the end and that's all that really mattered.
"Someone's in denial."
Sure, maybe Jack was pushing his luck a little with his best friend being moody in general anyways, but Alex was just so easy to annoy.
Alex rolled his eyes, throwing the bag of camping supplies at the boy standing next to him.
"Go set up the damn tent."

"Where should we set this thing up?" Jack pointed to the area of land in front of him. "I was just gonna put it right here, whattya' think?"
Alex shrugged, scratching at the small pinkish dots that were slowly starting to cover his body. He swatted away a mosquito off his neck, preventing another one.
"With all these godforsaken bugs, I'd suggest the car."
Jack scoffed while he pulled out the mallet and nails to start constructing.
"What? That's not even camping, dude. We're roughin' it! Now come help me set up this tent, it's being retarded."
Alex had to stifle a laugh, seeing Jack wrapped in the blue and green cloth.
"Jack, from the looks of it I don't think you know how to rough it any more than I do."
The raven-haired boy twisted in the mess, kicking his legs out in a feeble attempt to break free.
"Shut the hell up and help me." He grumbled, eyebrows knitted together. Alex had to say: he looked pretty cute like that. In fact, he kinda didn't really want to help him out just for the sake of being able to see that look on his face for a little while longer.
It ended quickly, though, when the boy yelled at him again and shoved him back into reality.
"Alex! Stop staring and get this off me, oh my god."
Alex's cheeks tinted pink at being caught looking but untangled him all the same.
"I think maybe it'd be better if you set this up." He muttered, taking Alex's hand and standing up. He kicked the mangled tent over towards the other boy, who laughed.
"Yeah, I thought as much."

Jack sat by the makeshift campfire which was, to put it a little lightly, complete shit. Gray ash caked the ground around it as the barely lit flames crackled in front of him. He could see Alex slaving over that hell-sent piece of camping equipment. Honestly if it weren't for how adorable the brunette looked with this tongue sticking out in concentration like that, he'd just give in to staying in the car. That multi-colored plastic nightmare wasn't worth his or Alex's time but wow his ass looked nice in those jeans. Jack just didn't have the heart, or courtesy, to tell him to stop trying.
The sky was darkening at a fast rate and it seemed like Alex had finally gotten the small shelter to stand right when a gust of wind sent it collapsing once more.
"Jack," he sighed. "This isn't working at all."
The other boy came over the assess the damage, and yep - this was definitely not going to be happening. The sun was almost all the way down and Alex looked up at him expectantly from his spot in the grass.
"What should we do?"
Jack scratched the back of his neck.
"Uh.. I guess we could just sleep in the car like you said - But I want you to know it's only because we can't get the tent up. It still isn't camping which means that we're inevitably coming back and trying this again."
Alex scowled at the thought of camping not only once, but twice, but laughed anyways. He was just glad to have gotten his way.
"Whatever you say."

Somewhere between the campsite and the parking lot things went wrong. The sky was completely dark by then and with nothing but the light of their phones to guide them, following the path was seemingly impossible. It was after accidentally circling the same patch of trees more than twenty times and Alex whispering about his fear of the dark in Jack's ear for the 500th time that the black-haired boy decided that he was done. He found a nice tree to lean against and plopped down, bringing Alex with him.
"What are we doing?" The brunette whispered, clinging to his side.
"Sitting."
His reply was short, simple, and didn't really give Alex any real answers but he seemed to be satisfied as he didn't say anything else for quite a number of minutes. They sat in silence for awhile before Jack felt the other shift next to him.
"Okay, it's so cold my ass is numb and there's dirt in my shoes. I'm sure the car is right around here, we should go look again."
Jack whined, not wanting to get back up yet.
"Why can't we just stay here?"
Alex stood up and brushed himself off.
"You did not seriously just ask me that. Fuck no, come on."
He pulled Jack up by the hand and led him through the forest, the boy trailing behind him. Jack's hand was sweaty in his friend's grip and he wasn't sure why but he felt like this whole situation was so strangely intimate. This wasn't the first time he'd felt nervous around his best friend, or held his hand for that matter, but this felt different. The black and blonde haired boy felt like if anything were to happen between them in the history of their friendship, it'd be on a night like tonight.

Jack was in for a very interesting weekend, to say the least.

Alex's heart bounced against the confines of his ribcage. Between holding the other's hand and the lack of light, saying he felt vulnerable would be an understatement. To Jack? No. To his own urges? Hell yeah. You're a teenage boy walking around in the forest with the person you've liked for the past five years. Resisting temptation is a hard feat, and Alex could tell you all about that.
The brunette's mind was clouded with what if's and wishful thinking, feet stumbling over rocks and things as he walked. Alex had never been the most coordinated kid he knew, and this was a prime example. He had no real idea where he was going or where the car was but as long as he could hold Jack's hand, then who cares?

Jack pulled his hand away, wiping it on his jeans before fitting it back into Alex's. It all happened so fast that reacting in time would've been impossible. One second Alex is glancing back at the boy behind him, distracted by clammy hands, and the next second he's tumbling over an overgrown tree root. His body hit the dirt, hand pulling Jack with him. A hoarse laugh escaped Alex's lips.
"Jesus... Guess I should start watching where I'm going."
Jack's laughing with him and all of his nerves are gone in an instant. He's just having fun and being with someone he likes to be around. There's no problem with that. There's no problem with wanting Alex or thinking that maybe the other boy might just want him back. And maybe it was because of how late it was or Jack's small epiphany or maybe just because of how nice Alex looked when he was smiling - laughing - for once, but either way it happened and there's not a second of it that either of them regretted. Jack was so fucking tired of seeing that look in the other boy's eyes all the time and when he heard his parents talking about them like, "When are they going to get together already? They've been looking at each other like that for years." he was just wondering how he never noticed until a few weeks ago. That he never noticed how much he liked the brown-haired boy lying next to him. And Jack guessed that he didn't really care how what ended up happening happened, because when he chose to lean close and press his lips to the other's, Alex pressed back. And that's all he really cared about.
The raven-haired boy lowered his hand to pull the other close by the hip, the brunette's fist knotted in his hair. Alex hadn't ever felt anything like what he was feeling at that moment. He pushed his tongue against Jack's mouth, and everything was going so well. From the lingered touches in eighth grade to this, maybe he was just oblivious, but he never thought that his best friend of five years had ever thought of him the way he wanted him to. He was touching him and he wasn't running away. The boy Alex had secretly been in love with since the first words they'd spoken to each other, wasn't running away and Alex didn't feel very cold anymore.
The kiss was slow and deliberate, and Jack really didn't want to fuck this up. He fucked up the tent and fucked up Alex's emotions and generally just didn't do things right. For the most part, he was okay with that. Everyone messes up sometimes, and Jack knew that he was human. But this? He refused to let this go wrong. So when Alex hiked his leg around Jack's waist, he didn't let his nerves get the best of him. He didn't shrink back into his shell because he knew he wanted it and he knew Alex wanted it just as much. He wanted his best friend to be okay again, and he was determined to make sure that after the night is through he would be. And by the way Alex was nipping at his bottom lip, he might have wanted to finally be okay too.