Under a Paper Moon

Jack sat in his fourth block study hall. He was feeling pretty good, considering today was Friday, and he had all his easy classes today. Global, English, earth science, study hall, and then he gets to go home. Yeah, and the fact his little table partner looked like he wasn't going to be showing up today. You see, Jack may of had a study hall, but it just so happened to be a silent study hall where the teacher actually made you work on things. The teacher; Mr. Worsnop, assigned them table partners with whom he felt you would work the best with. Basically, it was like class, but you didn't get any grades in it.

Jack was happy though, he didn't exactly like his partner. It was known that Jacks partner was friends with everyone, and he'd talk to just about anybody. Except Jack. Jack would always try to talk to him about stuff other than schoolwork and the kid just looked at him with wide eyes, and a scared expression on his face. Okay, yeah, that sounds like a mean reason not to like a person, but Jack was a talkative person, he needed someone he could just talk to, and the kid talked to everyone except him! When the bell rung, Jack let out a relieved sigh, his partner hadn't showed up at all. With that, he pulled out his English homework and started writing.

Halfway through the third question about a weird poem, Jack heard the door open and Mr. Worsnop huff.

"Ah, Gaskarth didn't decide to skip after all." Worsnop chuckled, his words a bit slurred together from his English accent.

"I wouldn't miss your study hall for the world, Dsnop." Jack could hear a sarcastic remark. Oh, no. Jacks partner was here, he was just late.

"I told you not to call me that." Alex saw his teacher roll his eyes. "Go sit down." He was instructed after Mr. Worsnop looked over his pass, and deemed it acceptable.

Alex was a little reluctant to go to his seat. He knew for a fact his seat partner didn't like him. Would you like a kid who just stared at you like you killed his family every time you talked to him? Alex sighed as he sat down, pulling his chair as far away as the kid as the table would allow him. Jack saw Ale'x feeble attempts to scoot away from him and was annoyed. Jack showered, he put on deodorant, and he was always nice to the kid. What was so bad about him?

"I'm not going to bite, or whatever." Jack tried to say in joking tone, but it instead came out mumbled and pissed.

"I hope not." Alex said with a bit of an airy chuckle. He turned and smiled at Jack because, fuck, he just said something to Jack and he didn't stammer or blush. Without a second thought Jack grinned and grabbed Alex's chair, bringing him to the center of the table and closer to Jack. Alex's eyes blew wide at the sudden movement, and he almost fell of his chair.
"Thanks for the warning." He muttered in distaste, bringing his hand up to push his fringe out of his eyes.

Jack just just smiling and looked at the boy. He found that Alex had some attractive features, but that didn't change the fact that Jack still didn't like him. Alex had light brown hair, almost blonde. Unlike Jack's, Alex's hair was a bit more tamed. Giving it that bedhead look. His brown eyes always seemed so doe like to Jack, considering they were always staring at him in fear. To be honest, Jack had never seen Alex fully smile like he just did. He always seemed to smirk, or frown. Jack's eyes traveled lower to see that Alex was wearing a plain gray v-neck, and tight black skinny jeans. He lifted his eyes back up to see Alex checking Jack out too.
Alex saw Jack staring at him and blushed. Jack was in a fair amount of Alex's classes last year, and in middle school, and he was always attractive. He got better looking each year. His black hair stuck up in almost every direction, but he did that on purpose. While Alex had bedhead hair, Jack had post sex hair. And yeah, that was hot. Jacks eyes were brown like Alex's. Except to Alex, brown eyes actually worked on Jack, he had a very puppy dog like presence. There was never a time Jack wasn't smiling, well except when he was with Alex. His eyes looked down to see Jack's legs clad in black skinny jeans, a tad bit looser than his own, and he was wearing a black Baltimore Ravens hoodie.

"Dude, I love your hoodie." Alex practically bounced out of his seat.

"Thanks, it's always nice to see a fellow Ravens fan." Jack laughed at how excited Alex got over his hoodie.

"I wanted a jersey, but my parents are making me wait until Christmas."

"I feel your pain, bro."

And that's how the rest of their study hall went, talking about the Ravens and the Orioles, their favorite players, favorite games, least favorite teams, and so on. Well, more like Jack talking at the other boy, and Alex throwing in a 'yeah' and 'uh huh' every now and then. Somehow they got on the subject of music, and Alex and Jack have a lot more in common then either boy would like to say. After study hall ended, Alex smiling and waving bye to Jack, both boys set off for their buses.

*

Jack was laying in his bed, flipping through the channels on his T.V, trying to find something to entertain him. He settled on Comedy Central, hoping South Park would be playing.

"Ugh, nothing is on at 2 am." Jack groaned, throwing his head back in boredom.
He could be hanging out with his best friends, except Rian's family decided to take a weekend vacation, and Zach was busy at his dads house. Sure, Jack had other friends he talked to during school, but that's all they were. School friends, people to make sure Jack wasn't alone during school, they were definitely not outside of school material. He considered picking his laptop off the floor, and finding Alex on Facebook, considering the boy was even on it. But, Jack shook his head, with a roll of his eyes at himself. Sure, him and Alex talked all study hall, and on paper they were perfect best friends. In real life though, it was so difficult. Who even knew if Alex would talk to Jack again? Correction, who knew if Alex would talk to him about anything other than school work again?

Jack let all thoughts of Alex slip away as the South Park theme song started playing, and he was laughing along to the show.

*
Alex was snuggled up in his bed, the comforter wrapped around him like a blanket cocoon. He couldn't stop grinning. He had talked to Jack. Jack talked to him. He knew Jack still didn't like him, but hell, the boy could dream right? Jack was one of the cutest guys in his grade, Alex was up there too, but Jack. Jack didn't like Alex, but Alex was allowed to have a school boy crush, right? That's all it would be, a school boy crush.

Right?