I'm Happy if You're Happy with Yourself

"Why hello, Mr. Gaskarth. So happy you decided to join us again," was Mr. Flyzik's snide remark as Alex walked back into his history classroom.

Alex ignored his douchebag of a teacher with something along the lines of "shut the fuck up" muttered under his breath. He couldn't wait until he graduated; he wouldn't have to see anyone from this school ever again, and he especially wouldn't have to see Mr. fucking Flyzik. Alex was currently a junior so he had just one more year left. He could look at this two different ways: he only has one more year left after this one, or he still has one more year left of torture and suffering. He tried looking at it positively, but his mind got the better of him, and he ended up zoning out again thinking of how miserable he'll be for the rest of this year and next.

The bell rang about 20 minutes after Alex returned to class, although to him it seemed like only 5 minutes. He hadn't paid attention to anything Mr. Flyzik said, and frankly, he did not care at all. He'd fail whether he listened or not, so why bother?

Alex sighed, picking up his books and then putting them in his backpack. He slowly got up and walked out of the classroom, taking his time. He had literature next. Another boring class that he could care less about. At least his teacher was nice, and pretty if he might add. Yes, Alex is gay, but having someone who's relatively young and attractive for a teacher beats having an ugly old man any day. Wouldn't you agree?

Finally making his way out of his most hated classroom, Alex was stopped as he walked out the door by a tap on his shoulder. Oh great, Alex thought, it's probably Mr. Flyzik wanting to yell at me for taking too long in the bathroom. Sorry Matthew, was busy carving my skin. My apologies.

"Hey," came the voice from the person who seemed to have tapped Alex on the shoulder. The voice. The fucking voice of Jack Barakat, yet again.

What the fuck did he want now? Alex wondered if he just wanted to make fun of him. He probably did; that's what any other dickhead popular kid would do. Hell, maybe Jack would even hit Alex. Alex didn't know what would happen, and to be quite honest he didn't really want to find out. He thought he might not be able to take it if Jack did start making fun of him. He'd probably break down and cry like a fucking baby. I'm just that much of a fucking looser, he thought to himself.

"Um, hello?" came Jack's voice as he, yet again, interrupted Alex's thoughts.

Alex finally turned to face Jack. He tried to mask his emotions, but inside he was horrified. What was Jack going to do? Or say, for that matter. Alex figured he had to at least say something; he was just standing there looking at Jack. He might think he was staring at him again.

"What do you want?" Alex asked, mustering up all his courage.

Jack sighed. "I wanted to talk to you,"he said. Alex hated hearing those words. They always made him nervous, no matter the topic to be discussed. He knew he'd probably have to explain why he was staring at Jack, but he told him he just zoned out, so what was there to talk about?

"A-about what?" Alex asked. It took everything in him not to break down. He hated talking to people he didn't know. He especially hated talking about things personal to him, like his zoning out.

Jack could tell Alex was nervous. His stutter was a pretty good giveaway. He almost felt bad for the poor kid. All he wanted to know was why he was staring. "Hey, look, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, dude," Jack said, trying to calm him down. "You're Alex right? Well, I'm Jack." Jack figured maybe introducing himself would make Alex more comfortable.

"I know who you are," Alex mumbled. He just wanted to get this conversation over with. He might as well start cooperating, or it may never end. He could tell that Jack was trying to make him feel better, and he guessed that he could tell he was nervous. Maybe this popular Jack guy wasn't that bad after all. He didn't seem like he was going to hurt Alex, at least.

"Well, alright," Jack replied. He sighed; he had a feeling Alex would be a little difficult. Jack had suddenly realized that the two both had classes to go to, seeing as one just ended. He had a free next, though, so he didn't exactly have to go. He wondered what Alex had, because he wanted to keep talking to him.

"Hey, uh, what class do you have now?" Jack asked. Alex hesitated a bit before telling Jack that he had literature next. Jack groaned mentally. He really wanted to see what was up with this kid. Maybe it would just have to wait, but he couldn't exactly talk to him after school. For one, he had football practice, and two, it'd just cause problems. Jack wasn't one to really care about his reputation and popularity, but if he was seen with Alex, let alone talking to him and being nice, he'd surely get made fun of, too. He knew what some of the other popular kids, or the bullies, did to Alex. Hell, they boasted about it during lunch, and he didn't want to end up like them. Jack felt so bad for Alex, though. Since Jack was all for gays, he didn't see why it was a problem that Alex was gay. His best friends Vic and Kellin were, so why did no one hate them? Maybe it was because they were friends with Jack from the start, and people were kind of forced to accept them if they wanted to be friends with Jack, which everyone did.

"Um...," Alex began. He didn't want to go to literature, and he didn't want to talk to Jack, but he figured that was probably better than sitting in a boring classroom reading some boring book he could care less about. Jack gave Alex a questioning look, silently asking him to continue talking.

"I don't exactly like Literature. Maybe w-we could skip it, you know, if you wanted t-to and weren't b-busy now," Alex said. He just wanted to cry as he finished talking. He felt so uncomfortable talking to new people; he couldn't help but stutter, and he couldn't help but feel like Jack was silently judging him for it.

Jack smiled. Little did Alex know, he wasn't judging him at all. If anything, he thought Alex's nervousness was kind of cute. Wait, Jack is straight. Whatever, a straight guy can thing a gay boy is cute, right?

"I have a free right now, so I don't have to show up. I'm down for skipping if you are," Jack said to Alex. Alex responded with a small smile. Jack figured he didn't like to talk much. Well, he'll have to do some talking sooner or later.

Alex wasn't sure where he and Jack would go. Where could they go where they wouldn't get caught?

"Come on, let's go before we get caught," Jack said, taking Alex's wrist and pulling him along the now deserted hallway, not really giving Alex a chance to say anything else.

"W-where are we going?" Alex asked, still quite nervous. He felt uncomfortable being led by a stranger to a place that he didn't know about. Jack just looked over his shoulder and gave Alex a smile as he continued to pull him along the hallway.

"Shh! You'll see. We're almost there," Jack replied. His answer definitely did not make Alex feel any better, but at least he didn't have to go to literature. That was a plus, right? Well, not really. He hated socializing almost as much a class.

Alex didn't answer Jack. He just let him tug him along to wherever they were going once he realized there was no way out of this. When they came to the end of the long hallway, they reached a stairwell which they ended up going down. They were on the first floor already, so Alex had never been down these stairs. He hoped Jack had and knew where they were going.

Once down the stairs, the two were met with another long hallway, but it was dimly lit with not as many rooms. Alex figured this is where they stored things and had the boiler and whatnot. Jack finally stopped once outside a room with a closed door. He didn't let go of Alex's arm until he had opened the door and pulled him in, closing the door behind him.

The room seemed to be an old classroom, but one could tell that it hadn't been used in quite a while. Every piece of furniture had a layer of dust on top of it and there were a few noticeable cobwebs in the corner of the room. It looked like a classroom from a freaking horror movie.

Alex's anxiety rose once the door was closed. He was in a scary room he'd never been in, with the door closed, and with a stranger. What if this Jack guy was going to beat him up? Or have his way with him and force him to be a sex slave, or worse, kill him?!

Once Jack dropped Alex's arm, Alex began to back up, suddenly fearing for his life. Jack just gave a small chuckle. "Look, dude. I'm not going to hurt you; there's nothing to be afraid of. I just wanted to talk to you and this is the only place I know of to go where no one would see us," Jack said, trying to calm Alex down. He felt bad for the poor kid; he looked absolutely horrified.

Alex just gave Jack a nervous smile, not wanting to talk at the moment, but he knew he'd have to soon. Jack gave him a questioning look, and Alex knew that soon meant now, and he was going to have to talk about what happened in history. He wondered why Jack was making such a big deal out of this. All he did was unknowingly stare at him; he didn't see what the problem was and why he had to come all the way down here and talk about it.

Jack cleared his throat, gaining Alex's attention. "So? Start talking," he finally said when Alex failed to speak up.