Southern Constellations

"Jaime!" I froze when I heard someone calling my name, earning an annoyed look from the kid who was walking behind me in the crowded hallway. "That is your name, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," I said, turning around to find one of Alex's friends staring at me. "You're...Jake, right?"

He snaked his way past a cluster of students so that he was directly in front of me. "It's Jake, but close enough."

"Fuck, sorry, I'm awful with names."

"Nah, it's cool," he replied, interlacing his fingers in front of him and loudly cracking his knuckles. "As long as you know I'm the one with the biggest dick, it doesn't really matter what you call me."

"Oh, uh, okay," I mumbled, looking down in hopes that he wouldn't notice me blushing.

"Anyways, Alex is looking for you," he said, hiking his backpack up higher on his shoulder. "C'mon, if I stand here any longer I think all the Axe in the air will suffocate me."

"You're got a point there," I replied, following him down the hall.

He stopped outside of a small door, grinning at me before twisting the knob and going inside. I caught the door from the half-assed effort to hold it open for me, slipping in behind him. I found myself in some sort of closet, the shelves on both of the walls stocked with...cleaning supplies?

"Are we in the janitor's closet?"

"Hell yeah we are," came a voice from deeper within the closet, which I recognized to be Alex's.

I followed Jack further into the dingy closet, which was only lit by a naked bulb that seemed to be in its last days. Alex and the two others that had been at the lunch table (shit, what were their names?) sat in the back corner, leaning up against the tight walls. Alex patted that ground next to him, and I slid off my bag to sit down, hugging my knees in towards my chest somewhat self-consciously. Even though they'd invited me here, I felt like an outsider intruding in their private space.

"We found this place a while ago," Alex explained, noticing my confused expression. "Best place to hide from the sea of idiots out there."

I was a little skeptical. "Don't other people come in here?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure even the janitor doesn't know this place exists," Alex said with a smirk. "We're the only ones."

"Well, we were the only ones," a dark-haired kid in the corner said coolly.

"Oh, c'mon Zack," Alex groaned. "Give him a break."

Zack rolled his eyes, turning away.

"Whatever," he muttered under his breath.

"Drama queen," Jack teased, earning him a high-five from Alex and a dirty look from Zack.

"Listen, if you don't want me to be here, I can leave," I offered, my face turning slightly red.

"Don't worry about it," Alex said, his permanent grin still on his face. "Zack just gets a little sentimental sometimes."

"I get it, I'm the same way," I said, trying to meet Zack's eyes as if to convince him that I wasn't trying to threaten their secret club or whatever this was.

His eyes remained averted from mine.

"Anyways," Alex said, trying to ease some of the tension that had seeped into the air. "Did you guys see who's back from school?"

With the smug look on his face and the way that he was wagging his eyebrows, it was clearly someone important.

The excited gasps from Jack and the short kid (Brian? Rian?) meant that they knew who it was.

"Jenna?" They both shouted together.

The smile on Alex's face was answer enough.

"Yesss!" They yelled, jumping up and high-fiving each other.

"Um, who?" I asked.

"Only the hottest girl in the entire school," Zack said with a lustful glimmer in his eyes.

"Definitely the top of the class," Jack added, cupping his front of his chest and starting to feel up his imaginary boobs.

I snickered along with the rest of them, trying not to let them in on how awkward I felt. I didn't want them to think I was weird or anything, but boobs weren't exactly my area of expertise.

"Damn, what I wouldn't give to out with her," Alex sighed wistfully, and I could swear I caught Alex shooting him a glare.

"Pfft, like you even have a chance," Jack snorted. "She's so far out of your league you'd need a freaking telescope to see her."

"You fuck!" Alex yelled, annoyed, reaching over to smack Jack but failing because he'd started to laugh.

I couldn't help it, I was laughing too. Honest-to-god laughter, spilling out from my lips. For a moment, the nearly constant pressure crushing my chest subsided. I felt happy. I felt...guilty.

I'd fucked things up for everyone, yet here I was laughing my ass off like nothing was wrong. How could I move on so quickly when everyone else had to deal with the consequences? How could I smile when I'd left Vic behind, left my dad to face the police alone?

I let the grin fall from my face, returning to my usual look of lock-jawed tension. It didn't exactly make me feel any better, but at least I knew that discomfort was actually something that I deserved.

I jumped in surprise as I heard the monotone bell start to beep for the start of class, the sound about ten times louder than usual as it bounced off the small walls in the closet. I pulled myself to my feet using the edge of the shelf, picking up my backpack from where it rested on the floor. If I left now, I could probably make it to class before the final bell and not look like an idiot again.

The rest of them followed suit, standing up with groans and yawns. Alex slid past me towards the door, peeking his head out before shouting back that the coast was clear.

"You really don't want anyone to find out about that place, huh?" I asked somewhat sarcastically as I walked by Alex to first period.

"Excuse me for wanting to keep our orgies a secret," he replied as he bounded up the stairs to the second floor with me close behind him, a small smile on my face.

We made it to class with time to spare; the teacher wasn't even in the room yet. As I went to my desk in the back to put my stuff down, I noticed that the rest of the room was clustered around a desk near the windows.

"What the hell?" I muttered to Alex, my eyes flicking over to the mass of people.

"I told you," he replied as he practically skipped over to join them. "Jenna's back in school."

Shaking my head slightly, I followed him over to the other side of the room. I had to admit, I was curious to see the girl that everyone was freaking out about. I mean, really, how hot could she be?

I took back that judgement the second that I saw her. I may not have been into girls, but even I knew that she was gorgeous. Her blonde hair was cut short so that it barely touched her shirt, which was clearly straining against her chest. She hopped off of the desk she was sitting on top of as the teacher yelled for the class to take their seats, her boobs bouncing pretty obviously. I swear every guy in the room simultaneously popped a boner.

Rolling my eyes, I walked back over to my seat in the back. Seriously, how desperate were they? Everyone was still ogling her from their desks, and they were pretty conspicuous about it, too. I doubted I'd ever stared at someone so outwardly. Well...except for Vic.

But that was different, wasn't it? It wasn't creepy to look at someone when you were in a relationship, right? Although, to be honest, I'd kinda been staring at him since the day we'd met. Really, though, he was attractive. Everything about him seemed to align in the most perfect of ways. Oh, if only he could see it. His eyes shined so brightly, it was easy to get lost in them. His lips, warm on mine, like a drug with an unbeatable addiction. His strong, bulky arms, hugging me, holding me, pinning me to the bed as his hand wrapped around my--

"Whoa, Jaime, calm down there."

"Huh?" I asked, glancing up at Alex.

He raised his eyebrows, his eyes flicking down towards my lap.

"Oh, fuck," I mumbled, blushing as I realized how tight my pants were becoming.

"Don't worry, Jenna has that effect on everyone," he said.

"Yeah, I'm sure she does," I replied, shifting in my seat.

I considered telling him that it wasn't because of Jenna, that it wasn't because of any girl at all. But at the same time, what if he was homophobic? Things hadn't exactly gone so well the last time someone had found out, and I really didn't need a repeat of that.

"I'll introduce you two after class," he offered, and all I could do was nod.

And so, after fifty minutes of mind-numbing class and subtly fixing my, erm, "issue" under my desk, Alex kept his word and practically dragged my across the room to meet Jenna. She looked annoyed when she saw Alex (I couldn't blame her; his eyes were glued to her chest), but perked up when she saw me. She batted her long eyelashes, her brown eyes slowly trailing down my body as I nervously fidgeted with my hands. This was weird; this was really weird.

"Jenna, this is Jaime," Alex said with a sweeping hand gesture that ended up hitting me in the chest. "He just moved here."

"How funny, I just moved back," she said, doing a little wave with her fingers. "Nice to meet you."

Was that supposed to be attractive or something? I wasn't sure.

I smiled in return, trying to pretend that this wasn't ridiculously awkward.

"Also," Alex cut in, noticing the silence. "He's got the hots for you."

"Alex," I hissed, elbowing him. What the fuck was he doing?

"Oh does he now?" Jenna asked coyly, tucking her hair behind her ear. "A little ambitious, don'tcha think?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean--"

"Don't be," she cut in. "It's cute."

With that, she slipped past us and out of the room, leaving Alex to stare at her ass while I pretended that I was interested.

"I think she likes you," he said, both excitedly and mockingly at the same time.

"Yeah, whatever," I sighed, picking up my stuff and heading towards the door.

"You know you love it," he teased from behind me.

Yeah, pretending to be straight while two thousand miles away from the person I was actually in a relationship with. What was there not to love?