Walls

He woke up screaming.

"Jack? Jack what the fuck are you okay??" Alex grabbed onto the younger boy tightly, concern painted across his face. Jack woke up drenched in sweat, his voice hoarse, but still managing to scream. It was only when they locked eyes that Jack's screams paused.

"Alex. Alex shit are you real? You are. Fuck." Jack panted, tears brimming in his eyes.

"Of course I'm real, Jack I don't understand, what's going on?" They were both sat up in bed, Alex holding onto Jack's sweaty palms, completely unaware of what terrifying events had just unfolded in Jack's unconscious mind.

"Holyfuckingshit. You're okay, Your mum didn't die of cancer, and your dad didn't die in a car crash, right?" Jack's eyes were wide, and he was fucking praying that Alex past was nowhere near as traumatic as his head had made it out to be.

"..No? My parents live in Essex in the same house they have done for like 20 years, and as far as I'm aware neither have cancer.." Alex had no idea where Jack was pulling these events from. A bad dream maybe? A bad dream about someone else's parents?

"Thank fuck." And he kissed him, so hard it kind of hurt a bit, but Alex kissed him back, because it felt good to be needed in one's time of distress. And distress was putting it lightly. "I love you. I love you so much. Truly, honestly, with every bone and the darkest corners of my fucking soul, I love you. Never ever leave me, please Alex, promise me. Promise me." Jack admitted, the words came spewing from his mouth.

"I love you too, Jacky. I wont, I swear." Alex smiled gently at the other. "Do you want to talk about your dream?" He asked tentatively.

"No. Never, ever. I don't even want to think about it ever again. I never want to dream again, it was that bad. And so detailed, I feel like Donnie fucking Darko, minus the creepy ass rabbit- this was scarier I shit you not. All I want to do is repeatedly tell you how goddamn much I love you, Alex Gaskarth, because I really, really do." Jack ran his hands up and down Alex's body, Alex who was smiling so much at the fact that Jack Barakat loved him, and was purely obsessed with that fact. Yes, he was a little concerned about the dream, but a dream is nothing compared to this wonderful reality.

"I love you too, equally as much and probably more." Alex confirmed.

"Well I think that's a debate for another day, right now I just want to kiss you until we run out of air, and then a little longer." Jack grinned, and attached their lips together.

When they woke up a few hours later, it was a Monday, and it was the day of their music performance. Jack was glad to have returned to a world where the biggest dramas he had to face were regarding teenage crushes, and the biggest worry he had was whether or not his group would get a good grade for the project, which technically didn't even count a a worry, because he knew that their creation was pretty much ear-gasmic, and that was being modest.

"Alright, Jack Barakat, you're first on the register, so let's here your group!" The teacher called out. Alex and Jack, who'd been holding hands in secret all morning, had to finally let go as they briefly set up for their performance.

"This is called- 'Keep The Change, You Filthy Animal' by uh, We Are the All Time In Crowd." Alex introduced, cringing at the awkwardly indecisive so-called band name.

"We know the group name is lame and pathetic, blame Tay and Jordan for that- if it wasn't for them we'd be All Time Low. But yeah, anyway. Here we go." Jack detailed, and then he burst into the introductory guitar riff, with Jordan doubling, Rian on drums and Zach on bass. Alex and Tay sung in perfect harmony, and alternated the phrases, improvising who sung which bit and when.

The song came to an end with a few solo notes from Jack's damn fine Les Paul guitar, and the class erupted into a round of applause and cheers. Alex had never felt more proud of himself, he'd just sung in front of 30+ people without having a nervous breakdown, and they'd actually liked it!

The group recieved an A+ on the project, only a few marks off an A* because the teacher thought the guitar settings were a little too unclean for that type of song, what she meant by that noone quite knew, but they gladly accepted the A+ with no complaints.

When class finished, other students congratulated Jack, Tay, Jordan, Zach and Rian on the performance, and several even introduced themselves to Alex.

"Hey, Alex right? Your voice is immense dude!"
"I'm Grieco, well, Alex Grieco but people call me Grieco haha, anyway I just wanted to tell you that that song was like, quality. You guys should actually form a band! I'd totally be a techie for you. Like I'm a drummer but I don't have the balls to perform, but damn I'd love to work with a band."
"Congrats on the voice, man!"
"Hiyaaa, I'm Holly. You're sooooooooo good!"
etc, etc, etc.

Jack and Alex returned to their room hastily after the final lesson finished, with a mutually agreed, yet never spoken aloud, plan to free Alex of his virginity.

Jack was careful, slow, but lustful. Alex was uncomfortable at the initial intrusion, but, as promised, it got much better pretty quickly. They finished just as the dinner bell rung, exhausted, but hungry- and hungry definitely had control over that one, so the two threw on some clothes, and headed down to the dining hall to meet their friends.

"You two on hand holding basis now?!" Jordan joked.

"Yeah, uh, we're pretty fucking official, I'd say." Jack answered, as he went to sit down across from his lover. He smirked to himself as he saw Alex wince as he sat down. The group were alright about it, it hadn't really come as a shock to any of them, they'd all noticed the closeness between the two, and of course like they all said at the beginning, Jack was either messing with the kid, or totally in love with him, and even Jack wasn't cruel enough to mess with someone for this long.

"That is so not fair Jack. You get to have so much fucking sex." Rian stated, being mock-frustrated with the situation. Inside he was seriously happy for Jack, a steady relationship would do him good.

"Why, who's he fucked recently?" Tay tilted her head sideways, and looked at the boys for an answer.

"That uh, Jenna Mc-whatever girl, like a week and a bit ago." Jordan answered, continuing to tuck into the meal in front of him. Jack and Alex looked at one another with wide eyes, and then at Tay, who looked like she was pretty much blinking back tears.

Nothing like teenage drama, eh?

EPILOGUE:

As all slightly unrealistic Jalex fanfictions in which the author wishes not to make the audience want to tear all their internal organs out turn out- Jack and Alex stayed together, because really, who else would be able to cope with this intensity of hysteria on such a constant basis? They needed each other, like they always did. They starting gigging with Zach and Rian, under the name of All Time Low, and before they knew it they were in their early 20s and headlinging Warped Tour, and then Alex was 26 and Jack was 25, and they were engaged. They married once their 2014 US tour ended, in their home town of Baltimore- where else?! They adopted a set of twins just under a year later, but by no means did that mean they planned to stop their music career- oh hell no. How they coped with the pressure of creating new material, band practise, each other, the children- and everything else, the rest of the band never knew, but they did it, and it made them happy.

Tay and Jordan began their own band, with a few other friends from different high schools, and named it We Are The In Crowd, and Jenna, well, believe it or not, she met a bunch of Australian guys on her gap year, and she totally transformed from being a bit of a high-school slut, to a genuinely nice and respectable person, and damn she could write a song. Tay and Jenna have been secretly dating for the past year or so, but you can't tell anyone.