Actors

Actors - Jalex

Chapter seven – Alex POV

The boy who stood right before my eyes was indeed the one and only Jack. Let me tell you I had no idea that he'd be here, and by the looks of it, neither did he. The pure look of shock that took over his features was a priceless image to see.

Jack's eyes looked straight into mine and I swear I saw happiness in them. His brown eyes never left mine as he walked towards me.

Because I was the new kid and no one new me well enough to sit next to me, I mean they said hello and said their own introductions, I was a little shy but everyone was just nice. Just give them time, a voice said inside my head.

Jack took his stop next to me and gave me his infamous smirk. I was still contemplating on whether I should start a conversation but since the room was at dead silent, I decided, better not.

Earlier I was given a sheet of paper by the teacher to read and then we would have a partner to figure god knows what – Jack, seemingly would be my partner so the work would be up to him, I mean us…whatever.
I turned my paper over and scribbled a note. At my other school I don’t think I ever would’ve have dared to do this, I didn’t have friends but also because I was never the type.

After actually mustering up the non-existent courage, I was able to write down one simple statement.

"I see you're still following me around, Jacky" I passed my paper over to Jack, the most un-obvious way possible.

He didn't take long to reply because he passed a note to me, in an as equally un-obvious manner.

"What do you mean 'following you'? Last I checked I wasn't the new kid, Lexy." His messy handwriting spelled out. I could basically picture his cocky smile and laughing manner.

I blushed at his use of my nickname it was cute and I hadn’t heard it before.

"Jack...if I see you passing notes again, you'll see me after class" our teacher muttered, hardly giving a fuck.

"Loverboy" someone called out from behind us in a sing-a-song way.

Jack seemed to blush and kept his head down even though I had already seen him. I had never seen Jack like that before, maybe it was just a group thing, like when you have a private joke or something. Laughter erupted from the back.

He rolled his eyes and wrote on my paper for the last time.

"Talk to you after class, xo"

I kept reading and reading over the page over and over again until the bell went off, signalizing the end of class. I was quite happy we didn’t do shit. The teacher wasn’t doing her job properly, but who was I to complain, work, I didn’t need it.

***

When class ended I wasn't sure what to do with myself.
Jack was the first to leave, and he in fact, didn’t speak to me after class. Feeling slightly disappointed, I shuffled to my locker yet again, just too waste time and because I had nothing else to do anyway.

I saw Jack walk out of the toilets and look at my way, his face not showing the same glint it showed normally whenever I saw him, he looked straight through me then scratched him arm that was covered in a hoddie sleave, I guess he zoned out a lot.

I had more classes after but, still I didn't know what to do with myself. I went into my classes, told the teacher I was new and sat towards the back. Jack wasn't in any of my other classes for that day which was a bummer. I was told he was good at the subjects and had more advanced classes. I was unintentionally jealous and cursed myself for being so fucking dumb.

My mood was up and down. I was nervous because of school, happy because of school, sad because of school. School was a moody bitch and made me feel like one too.

I did get to meet Rian, who was one of Jack's close friends, Jack did mention him when we went to the coffee shop that one time and it was nice to put a name to a face.

Rian seemed to smirk when I mentioned his name, saying I had already met Jack and called out something about finding 'the Loverboy' everyone laughed so I assumed it was that private joke again.

I saw Josh a couple of times and we chatted. He was friends with Jack but they had different close friends, if that makes sense. They were similar in some ways but different in others.

Josh made sure I was comfortable with everything and said Loverboy would be in my music class, with was tomorrow, I thanked dear Joshua and got on with my day.

The Loverboy comment floated through my head, even though it was a private joke, it sure was a big one.

Some people have big groups of friends who are similar to themselves and that's good but I could never do that. I needed people who I could be close to, but also we could have our differences. Things wouldn't get boring and repetitive. Was it so bad I saw a future with all of us?

Most of the day dragged on and I honestly didn't get a time where I could just speak to Jack. I hated being new as much as any other person. A whole another side of me appeared though, what if I wasn’t good enough for him? What if he was embarrassed with my whole appearance he didn’t want to be seen with me? All that thinking nearly brought another wave of anxiety; I was able to calm it down though, not like with what happened earlier.

People came up to me, I mean it was weird. They asked me things and introduced themselves in a polite fashion. My new pack of 'friends' said it was normal for because not many new people came, ever. They also said that it would die down, which I couldn't wait for.

So I ended up in history, semi-paying attention to whatever topic we were starting, thinking about my day and how well it went - other than the two mini-freak-outs I had at the start and the one in the middle of the day, things could've been worse.

The people I met today were so friendly and nice, what I would've expected anyway from them. They looked like the people that wouldn't be up in your face, judging you at first glance.

I suppose things could be gone better at lunch. I just followed the group. They invited me and I didn't want to be rude. I was hoping that Jack could've invited me to hang with him, but I saw a small boy with eyeliner and a taller one walk away with Jack.

I asked about it and Zack gave me a sympathetic look, he seemed to recognize me from the bus stop, I hadn’t changed much but my face wasn’t caked in blood. Jack friends (he was also friendly with these guys but he hung around with them more often) said that he had been spending a lot of time with his new friend Frank. They had hit off this year and been hanging out every odd day.

It didn’t seem to bother me; I guess Jack could spend time with whoever he wanted; Zack and Rian on the other hand seemed a little uncomfortable about it.

In all honesty it wasn’t my business and Jack could spend time with whoever he wanted

***

When class ended I found my locker, Zack was there, at his own locker with two really scary looking guys. Zack already was really fit and I wouldn’t want to mess with him but the guys with him were scary, really scary. I went and undid my lock.

“Who’s that little fag?” one of the guys questions, oh-not-so-loudly.

Zack looked from him to me, debating whether to stick up for me or not. Then it clicked. I remembered that Zack was on the football team, and I still had His/Jack’s jumper…I’d give that back soon.

“He’s Jack’s friend” Zack murmured.

The guys around laughed.

“Of course he’s with that fag”. Both of the boys continued to laugh. Zack just stood there, not sticking up or anything.

As I collected my things and shut my locker, my hair hung around my eyes, so I could see much, I felt a sharp pain hit my jaw. I fell to the ground and whimpered. I felt a bruise already forming.

“You’ll be getting a lot more of this, Later Gayskarth”. They all, including Zack walked off. I looked up and Zack looked like he wasn’t sure what to do. Our eyes locked and I felt betrayed, of course that would’ve happened to me. Only me.

I coughed out blood and my lip was split. Was Josh really, only in the end, going to backstab me? What about Jack, even though I had only spoken to him three times, I was starting to feel a little paranoid. I knew things wouldn’t get better. Only worse.

***

I walked, more like ran home. When I actually got there I made sure into checking that no one was in sight when I walked in and raced my way up to the bathroom. The hit I got wasn’t bad, it would probably get worse in the night, I thought. It would be an easy lie, I walked into a door. That would be completely believable knowing how clumsy I was.

Turning the shower on, I thought about my day and it had such an awful turn to it. It was like finding a snake in a field of daffodils and also Zack wasn’t who he was cracked up to be.

In the past I would’ve given my mom a recount on things that would’ve happened. Hell, I was a mommy’s boy but I just told her things. She was an easy person to tell things to. But she also wasn’t. She was way too protective and made a big deal out of things that didn’t need to be.

I kept this “accident” to myself and dreaded the next day coming, knowing that today I got off easy.