Never Let Me Go

Alex didn't bother with the snooze button on his cell phone alarm the next morning. Instead, he hopped out of bed the second it went off. He put on a gray t-shirt, threw his favorite long sleeved plaid shirt over it, and shoved his legs into some skinny jeans. He grabbed his song notebook from his bedside table and ran into the kitchen.

"You're in a good mood this morning," Alex's mom said. She raised an eyebrow as she watched him bound around the room.

He shrugged as he poured cereal into a bowl and added milk to it. He felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, a real one, at the thought of hanging out with someone who loved music as much as he did.

"Is it because of a girl?" His mom smiled.

Alex almost choked on his cereal.

His mom laughed. "Whoever she is, tell her thank you for me. Anyway, I'm going to bed. Be good today."

"O-Okay."

She laughed again, left the kitchen, and he heard her go into her room and shut the door.

But what if it's a guy who's making me feel this way, mom? Would you still be so happy about it? Alex thought, stabbing the bottom of the cereal bowl with his spoon. He turned his concentration to the clock, seeing that he had a half hour before he had to be at school, and figured he'd better get going. He got up, put his empty cereal bowl in the sink, grabbed his book bag and walked out the door.

#

As Alex's economics teacher droned on about supply and demand, he shot a glance at the clock and noticed that they only had five minutes before lunch. He sighed, relieved, and looked over to where Jack sat. Alex had been surprised when he'd walked in and found his new friend sitting close to the window. Jack chose that moment to stop paying attention to their teacher and met Alex's eyes. He smiled and Alex smiled back. He felt his face get hot, knew he was blushing, and looked away. The bell rang and Alex crammed his textbooks back into his book bag. He walked out of the classroom and leaned against the wall outside.

"Hey," Jack said, joining him.

"Hey yourself. So I brought one of my song notebooks," Alex said.

"Awesome. Let me get my guitar."

Alex followed him to the school's music room. Jack lifted a black guitar case from behind a drum set in the back of the room and set it down on the floor. He sat down next to the guitar, took it out of its case and gestured for Alex to come sit next to him. He did and dug the yellow song notebook out of his book bag. He flipped to a page that had a song titled "Coffee Shop Soundtrack." He looked over at Jack, who started strumming.

He counted to himself to make sure he kept in time and started singing. "Should I write myself out of the history books and mark a place in time for every chance you took? Don't get me wrong, I know you've got your life in place. I've yet to take the hint. Someday I'm sure I'll get the picture, stop waiting up..."

The two of them finished the song a few minutes later and Alex noticed that Jack's eyes had gone wide again.

"Dude. And those lyrics, wow. You know, me and some friends of mine usually play together after school. You should join us."

Alex didn't know what to say. This kid actually thought he was good? And he wanted him to join his band? Like a friend? An actual friend that would actually hang out with him outside of class?

"...Or not?" Jack said.

He snapped back into reality at Jack's voice. He saw the mix of fear and hope on his face and realized he must have forgotten to respond.

"Oh! Sorry... I spaced out on you, didn't I?"

He saw him relax after he said that.

"And the band thing sounds cool. After school, you said?"

Jack smiled so big Alex wondered if it hurt his face to stretch that much.

"Cool stuff. Have any other songs?"

"Yeah, one of the first ones I ever wrote, actually," he said.

He flipped to a song called "Circles." They got about halfway through it before the bell rang. Jack shot an irritated glance at the clock, opened his guitar case, and laid the guitar in it. He snapped the case shut and stood up.

"I'd love to hear more of your songs. We usually practice here, so if you want, come by after school?" He placed the guitar case back behind the drum set and walked toward the door.

"Yeah, that sounds cool. I might just do that," Alex said.

He put the notebook back in his book bag and zipped it up. He followed Jack out of the music room and found himself smiling again. It's just impossible to be sad around this kid, isn't it? Alex thought. Maybe I will stop by the music room after the last bell.