Oranges

Kissing.

Jack never really got the idea of how shoving your tongue into your loving one’s mouth is supposed to mean affection.

But here he was, staring at the couple next to him eating each other’s faces (or at least that’s what it looks like?) while he was eating a sandwich. The girl was sitting on the boy’s lap while he was holding her waist firmly. “Go fuck yourself, you weirdo!” The girl yelled when she found out Jack had been staring all this time, grabbing her confused boyfriend’s hand and going somewhere else.

‘Great. Now I’ll be the creep that stares at people making out’
-
Jack stills wonder why his mom can’t go pick him up after school, he wouldn’t have to use his old bike, but he knows if he ask her she’d be saying the same thing over again. “It’s high school now, it’s not gonna be easy”.

He knew it wasn’t gonna be easy, still, he didn’t know it’d be this difficult.

‘Maybe I should get a girlfriend, or friends, or a new damn bike, or just a-‘ Bam. Everything goes black.

Last thing Jack knows, he’s awakened in an unknown bed by a deep yet gentle melody. The first he sees once he opens his eyelids is an already eaten orange. He turns to his left, and sees a hand on what it looks like to be strings, playing the melody that woke him up.

‘Where am I?’ He asks to himself. Noticing that there’s a bag of ice on his forehead, he thinks this couldn’t be right.

Then, he sees a combination of things that get those thoughts out of his head. A cute boy with gorgeous light golden brown hair, big mesmerizing brown eyes and tiny lips, playing the cello. Jack seems to recognize him, somehow, that face looks familiar. He must be a guy from school; he believes he’d seen girls drool over him. Jack would, at least.

The boy doesn’t answer to any of Jack doubts; the only thing that came out of his lips was “Your bike is broken”.

Jack stays still, a confused expression across his face.

“Are you feeling alright?” The boy asks gently.

Jack just nods.

“You want me to call a doctor or your mom?”

He shakes his head.

“Sorry if I disturbed you, my stupid sister is watching TV, so I came here to practice” The boy says, putting the cello on its case. “You go to Landchester too?”

He nods.

“You’re not a senior, are you?

And then he shakes his head, again.

So before the boy starts to deem about if whether or not Jack is only capable of nodding and shaking his head, he decides to ask more than yes or no questions.

“What is your name?”

“Jack” He answers, his voice sounding raspy and hoarse.

“I’m Alex” The boy – now Alex – replies with a comely smirk. “You hungry?”

Jack doesn’t say anything, but a coyly smile from him is a yes to Alex.

Alex hands him a dish with oranges slices on it while already chewing one.

“Oh no, thanks. Oranges and braces just don’t get along” Jack said while pointing to his teeth.

Alex smiles. Aside the fact that it’s the longest phrase Jack has ever spoken since he’s been here; it just means more oranges for him.

A loud “Shut up!” comes from a young girl’s mouth. She’s watching a love story, Jack notices. He can’t help but stare at the screen showing man and a woman kissing each other passionately.

‘God, they’re everywhere’ Jack thinks to himself.

“Shut up!” Alex yells, imitating his sister’s girly screams, getting Jack out of his thoughts. He grabs the orange shell, holds up a finger to his lips and throws it at her. They both laugh, receiving a deathly stare from her.

“Piss off!” She screams, not taking away her eyes off the screen. Jack stars staring again, not capable of looking somewhere else.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here” Alex says, walking towards the door. Before looking a little bit more, Jack follows him.
-
“So, you have any girlfriends?” Alex asks.

‘Fuck’ Jack thought. “No, I don’t. What about you?”

“Yeah, man. I’ve got three” Alex says, laughing. Jack feels weird, he wasn’t expecting him to say no. But…still. Feels weird.

“Bullshit. No one’s got three girlfriends at once”

“Seriously. One lives around here, one’s from the school, and the other lives in Catonsville”

Jack decides not to say anything, not like he wanted to.

“You wanna swing?” Alex says, pointing at some old swings nearby.

Jack nodded, picking a red one.

“And how many girls you’ve kissed?”

‘Ugh, what? He keeps asking this stuff, is this all what seniors talk about?’ He thinks to himself.

“I reckon have kissed about 26 girls, maybe more” Alex said, keeping the conversation regardless of Jack’s lack of response. “Started this too early, I was just in fourth grade”

Jack nodded, glancing at his lips, licking his own.

“So, what about you?”

Jack gulped, looking down. “Not that many”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Any?”

Then, Jack looked away. It’s not that Alex is annoying, or he bothers him. It’s just a little bit too uncomfortable to talk with someone who’s had this much experience. Jack doesn’t blame him though, if he had his face, he would've too.

“Oh my god, you never been kissed before?” Alex says with astonishment.

Jack glances at the ground, then at him, looking a bit upset.

“I didn’t mean to sound mockingly. Don’t worry, it’s gonna happen. Sooner or later it will happen, you’ll be fine, even my sister’s been kissed, not such a big deal”

Jack nodded, not sure what to tell him.

They stayed in silence a couple of minutes, until Alex couldn’t keep his mouth quiet. He never can.

“Have you ever gone down the path?

Jack shook his head no, and Alex grabbed his hand, leading him down the street. No big deal, right? Jack could handl-

‘Shitwhathe’sholdingmyhandfuckfuckwe’reholdinghandswhatdoidoi’msweatingshitgod’

They walk a little bit longer until Alex decides a spot to sit, and let go Jack’s hand. ‘Nooooooo’.

“So, um, you bring any girls here?” Jack asked, something inside him didn’t really wanted to know, but he was curious.

“Yeah, sometimes”

“And, what exactly do you do? Like, how far have you gotten?” Jack asked, curiousness, again.

Alex chuckled. “You really never have kissed anyone…”

Jack looked down, a hurt expression overrun his face.

“Fuck! Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that!” Alex said, now feeling guilty.

“Ugh, it’s never gonna happen with these things on” Jack said, pointing at his teeth.

“Hmm, let me see” Jack smiled, big enough for him to see his braces. Alex chuckled, and brought one finger to touch them. Jack noticed Alex gone quiet and was staring at him. It made him self-conscious, but he was unable to look away once their eyes had met.

Alex started leaning, eye half-lidded, tilting his head to the right. ‘Wait, I know that face. People always pull that face when they’re about to ki-'

And that was it. Alex lips crashed into his. At first he didn’t know what to do, eyes wide open in surprise. But Alex’s lips felt so good, warm, soft. He started relaxing, closing his eyes, letting his tongue move in sync with Alex’s. ‘Oh, now I know why people make such a big deal about this’.

They pulled apart, lips still wet. Of all the things Jack could’ve said, something beautifully cliché and romantic or something cheesy but cute or even stay silent and go for round 2. But no, the only words 4 that Jack could pronounce were:

“You taste like oranges”.

And ran away. Now that he thinks about it, he never thought that’s what he’d be doing after his first kiss. Running away. From what? Nobody knows. From love, maybe.

“Wait up, Jack!” Alex yelled, trying to reach Jack. Jack stopped when they were on his house, turning to face him, but he didn’t dare to. “Are you going home?” Alex said, trying to sound steady.

Jack didn’t answer; he kept on looking at the ground.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone” Jack nodded, now looking at him. Alex sighed, unsure of how to handle this. “I never really had a girlfriend” Jack kept looking at his eyes, his lips, not saying a word. “I never even ki-” Yeah, Alex couldn’t finish that sentence.

Jack nodded, and picked his broken bike. “Thanks for looking after me” and walked away.

Alex doesn’t even try to follow him; all he could do was whisper a “same to you”.

-

They haven’t spoken to each other, probably never will. He watches him from a safe distance whenever he can. Sometimes they share glances, and if he’s lucky, they stumble into the hallway. Jack was right, though. He is one of those guys that make girls go crazy. He knows, because he’s been hanging out with some of them. Not exactly hanging out, just sitting near them.

“Oh my god, he’s so cute. Imagine what his lips taste like!” One of the girls say, the others laughing.

But every day at lunch, he brings an orange. Just so he could taste, one more time.