Wet Dreams Are the Best Dreams

“Are you sure you’re not going? I mean, there’s two weeks left and I’m pretty sure it’s not sold out. You could probably still get a ticket.” Hayley put down her tray on an empty table in the far end of the cafeteria, Alex followed her lead.
“Mom’s still angry with me.” Alex pulled out his chair with a squeak. Hayley winced.
“Well that sucks.” They both sat down to eat their lunch.
Alex poked a soggy fry with his fork. He didn’t like the whole secret thing. He didn’t like keeping something like this from Hayley and he absolutely hated lying to her. He sighed and looked up from his plate. Hayley raised an eyebrow at him. Alex shook his head and moved his gaze to the cafeteria walls. He remembered how they had looked when he and Jack were there. He remembered the empty, white frames. He was a bit curious about if they meant something, and what it could be.
“What are you thinking about?” Hayley asked while stuffing a pathetic excuse of a fry into her mouth.
“Nothing”
Hayley shook her head and swallowed down the sad potato. “I know that look Alex. Something’s bothering you.”
Alex sighed again. “I just- It’s nothing okay? Nothing important.”
Hayley shrugged and moved her food around a bit. “It seems important to you, since you’re moping about it. And if it’s important to you, it’s important to me.”
The guilt was eating Alex from the inside out. Hayley never lied to Alex, Hayley was an amazing friend. Alex had been lying to Hayley for months, Alex was a lousy friend. She made him feel even worse by saying things like what she was saying to him at the lunch table. Why did she have to be so caring? At the moment all Alex wanted was for her to do something equally as shitty as what he was doing, so he didn’t have to feel so guilty.
“Okay, if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t make you. Just know that I’m always here, no matter what.” Hayley put her hand on his.
Alex pulled back his hand and hid it in his slightly too long sleeves. “I know.”
Hayley looked at him with a concern that made Alex hate his life.
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When they finished their lunch, Alex skipped school. He couldn’t be bothered with spending the rest of the day in class. He faked a fever and started walking back home. When he reached his house he ran upstairs to his room and threw himself on the bed. He laid with his head pressed into a pillow for a few minutes before he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. He went to contacts and pressed the one named “Mexican.” His call was picked up after two signals.
“Hello?”
“I hate my life.”
Vic laughed. “What happened?”
Alex turned around and stared at the empty space on his wall were a Jack poster used to hang.
“I had lunch with Hayley.”
“And?”
Alex sighed. “I’m a horrible person.”
He gave Vic a rundown of his and Hayley’s conversation. Vic stayed silent for a few seconds and Alex could almost hear him think.
“Why don’t you just tell her the truth? Yeah, okay, she’ll probably freak out about you lying to her but once she’s done that she’ll get ecstatic because, god dammit Alex, you’re dating Jack Barakat.”
“It’s not that simple and you know it.”
“Maybe, maybe not. I gotta go now Alex. Unlike some of us, I actually care about my grades.”
“Oh, shut up.”
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“I heard you’re not going to the All Time Low concert. I feel like that is something you should have told me before I spent twenty pounds on buying tickets for you. Can you even sell them this close to the concert?”
Alex shifted his attention from the mash potatoes to his mother’s annoyed eyes.
“I am going.”
“But I talked to Hayley’s parents just this morning and they said she was going alone.”
Alex cleared his throat and stared down at his plate. “I’m not going with her.”
His mother raised her eyebrows at him. “Then who are you going with? Can’t you invite Hayley with you? It’s not nice making her go on her own.”
“It’s complicated, okay?”
They were silent for a few seconds before his mother gasped dramatically and put a hand over her mouth. “You’re going with a boy, aren’t you?”
Alex blushed. “No.”
She put down her hand again and grinned at him. “Yes you are! What’s his name? Tell me everything!”
Alex tried to avoid meeting his mother’s eyes. “Jack. His name is Jack. Can we please talk about something else now?”
She smiled sweetly at him. “Did you hear about the fire over at the chicken farm? It was awful. I heard more than 30 000 chickens died.”
___________________
“How was your day?” Jack slid down next to him on the floor against the empty cafeteria wall.
“Shitty, yours?”
Jack shrugged. “It was okay.”
They stayed silent a few moments before Jack sighed and got to his feet. He started walking around the cafeteria. Alex stood up and went after him.
“What do you think they’re for?”
Jack hummed and picked up one of the frames, carefully weighing it in his hands. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re like reflecting a part of one of us. You’re a virgin right? Maybe the empty white frames stand for your innocent lack of sex.” He turned around and looked at Alex, who was blushing so hard he was afraid his face would burst from all the blood gathered there, and winked. “Maybe they’re telling me to sex you up.”
Alex buried his face in his hands. “Oh my god, Jack.”
“That’s the spirit.” Jack put down the frame on the shelf again. He took a few steps towards Alex and chuckled. He removed Alex hands from his face and intertwined their fingers.
“Don’t hide your face. You’re adorable when you blush.”
Alex looked up at him through his tangled bangs. “Stop being so sweet, I’ll get diabetes.”
Jack smiled and pressed their foreheads together. He closed his eyes. Alex wanted to do the same, close his eyes and just breathe in the moment. But he was too mesmerized by Jack’s thick, black eyelashes. He watched how they cast shadows down Jack’s cheekbones and he realized that he wanted to count them all. He wanted to see how they looked in the winter, covered in tiny snowflakes. He wanted them to give him butterfly kisses on his neck early Monday mornings. He wanted to know how they looked after Bambi died, if they were dry and coldhearted or wet and filled with emotion.
“What are you thinking about?” Jack opened his eyes and studied him.
“You.”
Jack gave him a lopsided grin and closed the gap between their faces with a kiss. Alex felt Jack’s eyelashes against his own and he realized that maybe, someday, he would know all of those things.