I Swear, I'm Not Stalking You.

Jack on the other hand, knew exactly what he was going to wear to the party; and he was going to look great. He had it all planned out, he was going to spend his fair share of time in the shower, and take his time getting ready.

He hadn’t been at school because his brother Joe was in town, and their mother insisted that they spend the day together; which meant Jack wasn’t going to school. They didn’t really do much though; it just consisted of going to some fancy place to eat lunch. It wasn’t very eventful.

But alas, here we find Jack just getting into the shower. He had discarded his clothing and stepped under the alarmingly hot water, and just standing there. He let the water run over his body, not attempting to move. He was letting the water relax his muscles and open his pores. He did eventually move though, to pick up the shampoo. He squeezed a generous amount onto his hands before putting it into his hair and lathering it up. He softly hummed a song that had been stuck in his head all day, and then rinsed out the soap from his hair. He repeated this with the conditioner after.

Before he moved onto cleaning his body, he washed his face with a cheap face wash his mother bought his from the convenient store. It was cheap, but it worked wonders on Jack.

Soon, he was all washed and ready to get out of the shower. But he lingered a little longer, thinking about the new kid, Alex. The kid had Jack interested. Not interested sexually, but interested in a way
Jack couldn’t explain. Okay; and maybe a little sexually as well.

Jack didn’t really care who he date, male or female. If he found someone attractive, then he was attracted. You could describe him as bisexual, but Jack didn’t really care. If he liked someone, he liked them. That’s it.

But the Alex boy, he had Jack’s eye. And finding out that Alex was gay, that made Jack happy – knowing that he had a chance.

His skin was already turning red from the almost boiling water, and that’s when the boy decided to get out. He shut off the water and pulled his towel around the lower half of his body. He tucked in the end, so he could freely walk around without it falling off.

Like a dog, Jack shook his head side to side to get rid of excess water and then just let it fall across his face.

He exited the bathroom and returned to his room, immediately going to his phone to put on some music. He pressed shuffle, and smiled when Welcome to Paradise by Green Day came on. Bopping his head to the beat, he went over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of boxer briefs. He pulled them on, and then discarded the towel.

Next to go on were a pair of his tightest jeans that had rips in the knees. They were simply and black, but that only meant he could were any shirt with them and it would look fine. He pulled out his favourite shirt, it was a white shirt but it had Kevin McCallister on the front, the Home Alone kid. Once that was on, the song had changed. He checked the time, seeing that he only had a few more minutes before Rian was picking him up.

He returned back to the bathroom with now dry hair, and was ready to style it. He picked up a bottle of hair gel and squeezed the smallest amount onto his hand and started on the messy mop of hair. By the time he was done with it, he had his usual messy frohawk. And just to be safe, he applied some extra hair spray up there.

Jack heard his phone beeping, the song had stopped and that only meant that Zack was already at his house and waiting. He quickly ran back to his room, pulling on his leather jacket and picked up his shoes; figuring he could put them on in the car.

He yelled a good bye to his mother and was replied with something that sounded like ‘be safe’. He ran out the door and climbed into the back seat of the car with both Rian and Cass in the front seats.

--

Zack had already picked Alex up, and was then on his way to Jack’s house. Alex was informed that they’d be picking up Jack as well when he got in the car. Alex didn’t really care, he was just nervous because this was his first official high school party. No, nervous wasn’t the right word. He was
freaking out.

They had stopped at a few red lights, but were soon at Vic and Mike’s house. Zack pulled into his drive way but didn’t get out.

“Are you okay?” Zack asked, looking over at Alex who looked terrified.

Alex jumped out of his thoughts and turned to Zack, who had quite the smirk on his lips. “What should I expect at this party?” He asked, not sure. Zack thought for a moment, not sure how to explain it.

“Well, it’s not going to be like the stereotypical high school party you see in movies. It’s literally just the people we sit with at lunch plus a few other people.” Well, that made Alex a lot less nervous. He expected a full blown party with hundreds of people. But to narrow that large number down to about
twenty made Alex’s night a lot better.

They both got out of the car at that point, and Alex noticed that there were already a fair few cars there. Should he have gotten something to contribute to the party? He should have brought some sort
of alco-

“Oi Alex, help me with this would you?” Zack asked, opening the boot of his car. Alex walked around to see two boxes of beer. Ah, well that solved his predicament. Alex obliged and did a quick jog to help the other with the beer. With one box in hands, and the other in Zack’s, they made their way to the front door. As they got closer, the faint pounding of music and bass could be heard. It wasn’t loud enough to annoy the neighbours, but it was loud enough to be heard from all around the house.

Zack put the beer on his right shoulder and knocked with his left hand. A few moments later, there was a small man opening the door. “Ayyyy! Zack and Alex! Nice of you to join us, considering you’re-“ Vic checked his watch for the time before continuing, “like half an hour late; like always.”

Zack laughed, but Alex wasn’t sure and kind of just let out a huff of air with a smile. “Now, it’s a good thing you brought beer. I don’t know how you got it, but hey, we’re grateful. Now, come in.” Vic moved out of the way and let the two boys in. The moment Alex walked in; the air seemed to get thicker. He was pretty sure he could smell some weed, but he couldn’t be sure.

He followed Vic and Zack to the kitchen and both he and Zack put down the boxes. Alex was handed a beer from the fridge, and opened it quickly. He knew he wasn’t going to get drunk, but he was going for a buzz.

Soon, the three boys seemed to go their different ways. Like Zack had said, their friends were there; but there was around thirty more people that Alex had never seen before. Everyone seemed to know each other though, and Alex had a guy come up to him at one point and stated “Ay! You’re that new kid” with slurred words and walked away. Alex wasn’t completely sure on what the guy said so he just laughed and nodded. It got him through things every time.

It wasn’t long before Alex’s aimless wondering got him somewhere, as he was now sitting with Austin and Jenna on an itchy, off yellow coloured couch. They were playing 21 questions, “Alex, worst hair cut you ever had?” Jenna asked, nudging him with her shoulder.

Alex scoffed, “Like every single on until I turned sixteen.”

“Aren’t you seventeen?” Austin asked, slightly confused.

“Yeah. I had this hair cut where it was kind of like a bowl cut except it swished to the side and it was blond and brown and it looked terrible.” He laughed, feeling the buzz of the three beers he already had consumed.

This caused both of them to laugh, Jenna a little more because she was on her fifth beer, roughly. The night had been going well, and sitting with Austin and Jenna, Alex had learnt a lot more about them. He learnt that Jenna was born in Australia, but moved to America when she was fourteen, and that explained her slight accent. And he learnt that Austin wants to be a professional base ball player.

His thoughts were pushed aside when he went to take a sip of his beer, when he realised it was empty. With a slight sigh, he stood up. “Beer run. Anyone else want one?” He asked the two, and received a nod from Jenna but a shake of the head from Austin. Alex nodded, and made his way to the kitchen.

For his first official high school party, it wasn’t what he expected. He expected people to be running around everywhere, breaking things and throwing stuff. But here, it seemed that everyone was respectable about their surroundings and were literally, just chilling around. Alex liked it, it was fun.
Alex was about to walk into the kitchen door way, when he bumped into a torso.

“Alex, always bumping into me. What am I going to do with you?” A voice chuckled. Alex looked up and smiled when he saw Jack, a smile on his face as well.

“Oh, you love it. It’s the only contact you get.”The shorter smirked.

“Well then, if we’re playing like that-“ Jack’s arms were suddenly around Alex’s like he was giving him a bear hug, but Jack leant forward so Alex was bending incredibly far back.

“Ah- No! Stop!” Alex tried to get out of the boy’s grip, but alas, it didn’t work. But, he did go for Jack’s sides with the little arm movement he could get. Alex’s fingers tickled at Jack’s side and Jack instantly let go of the boy, causing Alex to fall straight to the ground. Alex let out a groan, but he was smiling.

Jack burst into a fit of laughter, “Ah ha, I’m sor-“ laughing was all Jack could do. Alex got up slowly, then punched Jack in the arm. Jack’s laughter subsided as he rubbed his shoulder. “Ow, what was that for?”

“Yeah, I wonder.” Alex chuckled.

“Hey, you wanna get something to eat? I’m hungry and they don’t have any food here.”