All Your Hate

"Fucking watch where you're going, bitch," Alex snapped, shoving the taller and, consequently, lankier boy away.

"Shut the hell up, Gaskarth," Jack growled in response as he spun on his heel to face the shorter male. "We all know it was your god damn, overweight fat-ass that was taking up the entire fucking hallway."

"Say that to my face, fag!" Alex challenged, squaring his shoulders and stepping forward. With their chests almost touching, Jack could only roll his eyes.

"Right, I forgot that sometimes you speak out of your ass," he retorted. "It's kinda hard to remember which one I'm talking to sometimes. But I guess your ass is better looking than your stupid fucking face."

With that, Alex was reaching up to push Jack away as roughly as possible, a sneer pulling at his lips. "You're fucking disgusting."

"Is that all you got, pretty boy?" Jack mocked as he shoved Alex right on back.

Before long, there was an entire crowd of kids surrounding them. They were all used to the Gaskarth-Barakat fights, which were anywhere between a weekly and bi-weekly matter (during good months, at least), but the outcomes often varied. They'd just gotten into the habit of making bets.

There were the ones who always picked either Jack or Alex, of course, and those used to be the kids who joined in as well: their friends. After being threatened with a month of detention as well as no more admission into any of the games held after school, they'd all called it quits. No one said they couldn't bet, though. Sure, it was illegal, but what the teachers didn't know also didn't hurt them.

It was no more than ten minutes into the fight that Jack had ended up with a busted lip, Alex with a decorative black eye. The fists had begun to fly only moments prior, and it was at about that time that the closest teacher to the scuffle was able to break through the crowd, an oxymoron of a man named Mr. Small. It seemed like he was always the first to get to the fights, but everyone on campus had pretty much come to the same conclusion: he’d simply started following Alex and Jack around after their third fight had begun, and it’s not like he could’ve just stopped at any point.

However, everything only seemed to escalate impossibly further between the two fuming teens as Mr. Small stood between them, one hand on either of their chests to keep them at bay from each other.

“Pussy ass bitch!” Alex screamed, always being the more vulgar of the two.

“What the fuck are you gonna do about it, Gaskarth? Gonna push me again? You’re fucking pathetic!” Jack shouted in response, just as the dean appeared. She was a smaller woman—much smaller, in fact—but she was at least twice as intimidating as Mr. Small.

“Both of you, my office now!” she cried over the ruckus of the numerous cheers as well as the boys still trying to reach each other through the thick figure blocking their way. That only lasted a few moments, though, and as soon as everyone noticed Ms. Brown, it got quiet. Jack and Alex looked like deer caught in headlights as everyone else in the hall dispersed. When the hall was finally as close to empty as it could be, all Ms. Brown had to do was point in the direction to her office, and the boys began their usual walk of shame.

“I just don’t understand it,” Ms. Brown started as she paced around in front of the two seated boys, who no longer seemed to have any problem with each other. “You’re both such intelligent, sweet boys, but putting you two together is like putting a cat in water!”

Even Alex didn’t make a comment about how Jack would be the pussy—getting wet because of him.

“If it weren’t for your test scores, you both would’ve been expelled long ago. You realize this, don’t you? The school would lose nearly a fifth of its funding if we lost your scores. But at this point, I don’t think it’s worth it. You both get one more chance to show me that you’re able to get along, and after that… I’ll have to officially expel you.”

When neither boy said anything in objection or agreement, Ms. Brown sighed.

“I don’t want to have to do that, but it’s my only option. Starting now, though, you’re both suspended. Before I came to get you, I had Mrs. Trujillo call your parents to not only let them know what’s happened, but to come and get you as well. We don’t need another scuffle out in the parking lot, do we?”

“No, ma’am,” both teens muttered in near-perfect unison, like that of a practiced routine—which, in all fairness, it pretty much was.

“Glad that we’re all in agreement,” she said with another sigh, moving to sit at her desk in hopes of calming her still skyrocketing blood pressure.

------

It was about six hours later that Alex was at home and sprawled across his bed. He had an ice-pack covering his eye and his shirt had been long since discarded onto the disaster area he likes to call his bedroom floor. He was alone, seeing as how his parents had decided to go out for the night, and he was grounded for getting suspended yet again, so it’s not like he could go out anywhere.

Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, however, there was a knock on the front door downstairs. Alex knew who it was without having to even think about it, and after everything that’d happened, he was fucking excited. All of the tiredness his body had managed to gather in his boredom disappeared, and he was dropping the ice-pack to hop up from his bed and sprint down the stairs, grin stretching his lips in a way that looked almost painful.

When he had eventually reached the door, he took a moment to compose himself before wrenching it open and throwing himself at the person on the other side.

“Hi, baby,” he mumbled, squeezing Jack close as the younger returned the gesture.

“Hey, babe,” Jack greeted, voice sounding tired yet still fairly happy. He leaned away as Alex pushed himself forward on his toes for a kiss, though, and Alex was confused at first, even a little hurt, until he remembered—well… saw—the split lip he’d been the cause of.

“Come inside,” he ushered, pulling from Jack’s grip to bring him into the house and then the kitchen after the front door had been closed and locked behind them. Grabbing a new ice-pack and wrapping it in a washcloth, he handed it over to his boyfriend, frowning as Jack flinched and hissed from the initial sting. “I’m really sorry, baby,” he whispered, teeth pressing into his bottom lip. “I didn’t… I don’t… I’m so fucking sorry.”

“It’s fine, Lexy,” Jack assured, but there was still that look. Alex knew what was coming next, to be completely honest; it happened every single time they got into a ‘fight.’ Sure enough, Alex didn’t even have time to open his mouth before Jack was continuing. “I just wish we didn’t have to do it anymore… I don’t care about how people see us… I don’t wanna keep pretending that we hate each other. I wanna be able to hold your hand and kiss you; I don’t wanna have to shove you around whenever I see you…”

“I know, baby,” Alex murmured, stepping forward to fold his arms around Jack’s slim body. “I know. But we can’t ju—”

“Yes, we can,” Jack stressed, gently pushing Alex away enough to look down into the slighter boy’s face. “All I need is you—and to not be expelled. I don’t care about what they all think.” He reached his right hand up then, gently running his fingers along the bruised flesh of Alex’s upper cheek, immediately retracting his hand as Alex flinched. “I don’t wanna keep hurting you like this. Who cares if it’s weird that we go from ‘hating’ each other’s guts one day to being in love the next?”

In reality, they’d only been dating for a few months, and the words ‘in love’ kind of caught Alex off-guard. He didn’t hate Jack like he used to, far from it, but… No, he knew he loved Jack, but he just didn’t feel like he was quite ready to say it, or any variation of it, yet. Nevertheless, he nodded a little numbly. Hooking his hands around the taller’s neck, Alex brought him down so that their foreheads were touching. Allowing his eyes to slip closed, he nodded again.

“Okay,” he agreed quietly, having to clench his eyes shut a little tighter so he wouldn’t lose his nerve. Who knew how people would react? Not only were he and Jack actually both gay, but they’d gotten into numerous screaming matches and fist fights all while dating just to keep up a tough appearance that had stopped being even remotely genuine after their tenth detention together (where they both kind of realized, ‘hey, we’re, like, meant for each other’). “I don’t wanna pretend anymore either… I wanna show people that you’re mine.”

“Yeah?” the younger boy inquired, tone hopeful.

Alex was hesitant to confirm his words, but he soon found himself breathing out a soft, “Yeah,” in response anyway. After that, the silence enveloped them, their arms wrapped around each other’s bodies and injuries long forgotten.

------

By the time the next Monday had rolled around, Alex was feeling… Well, his confidence had steadily increased over the course of the suspension, what with the fact that Jack had constantly been there to reassure him, but as he walked onto the school campus, having agreed to meet Jack by the younger boy’s locker… He didn't think he could do it anymore.

The walk appeared to go by much too quickly for his liking, and he could see Jack gathering his books from all the way at the other end of the hall. It seemed like everyone else noticed that Alex had set his eyes on Jack because before he could even take two steps towards his boyfriend, kids had already started to whisper and watch on with widened eyes.

Alex couldn't hear what they were saying, but he figured they were making bets as per usual. He could just imagine it, one girl saying that “Gaskarth totally has Barakat; Barakat doesn't even know he’s there,” while another boy would shake his head in disagreement, arguing, “Barakat’s quicker. Gaskarth’ll probably just end up jumping into the locker or something.”

The steps were counted in his head to block out the hushed murmuring of their peers around them, the unmistakable presence of Mr. Small behind him and ready to intervene if he needed to for whatever reason.

Jack looked up when Alex was really no more than five steps away, and the smile he sent to his older boyfriend had Alex all but melting into a puddle on the dirty tile beneath his feet. With a smile back, he was hurriedly closing the gap between them and pushing Jack a little too forcefully into the locker beside the younger’s own. The murmuring seemed to get louder, as did Mr. Small’s footsteps, but then both boys were leaning in for a kiss.

Time seemed to stop for a moment as nothing was said or done around them. Then, however, there was a muttered, “Fucking finally,” from one of their classmates before a few other people voiced their overall acceptance of the situation.

And, really, that wasn't anything like what Alex had been expecting. Like, at all. He didn't necessarily expect riots or something of the sort, but he just… he didn't think everyone would be so okay with it.

“So, hey,” he said as they pulled apart, noses brushing gently and foreheads leaning together. He knew people were still staring, were probably taking pictures and videos, but he could only focus on the boy still in his arms and pressed against him.

“Hey,” Jack greeted, laughing a little before ducking in for another small kiss.

“I love you,” Alex blurt, eyes widening with the realization of what he’d said. He hadn't meant to, he really hadn't, and holy shit, he just fucked up so bad. Jack’ll probably want to take a bre—

“I love you, too, you fucking idiot.”