Verboten

“Morning, class,” Jack greeted as members of other forms streamed in. He had three people in his form who were in his History class, and the other twenty-one students were scattered throughout the year group. He had studiously ignored Alex that morning, even though he was in both his form group and first class, aware that if he glanced over at the boy he wouldn’t be able to keep his affection from showing clearly on his face.

Alex, on the other hand, thought Jack was now upset or disappointed with him. He couldn’t imagine what for, but his anxiety was in overdrive. His stomach was made of coils of snakes and his head was pounding from a nervous headache that had begun already. He felt hurt.

Jack waited for the last of the class to stream in and kicked the door shut gently with the tip of his foot, and then pulled a whiteboard pen out of his trousers pocket. He quickly scrawled the date and title on the board, before turning round to the class and checking that everyone was there. It was a full house today – he would fill in the register a little later. His eyes flickered over Alex quickly and he registered the upset on his student’s face, and felt a similar pang of upset in his chest.

He swallowed it quickly and carried on with his lesson. “So, today – the My Lai Massacre. Very interesting, you’ll need to focus in the second half of the lesson – but I thought we’d start with a short video which explains that basics.” The class cheered happily – they always loved videos. In actual fact, he had been planning to do the video in the second half of the lesson, but the look of Alex’s face was breaking his heart.

He slid the DVD into the player and waited for it to load up, and then switched on the overhead projector that it was connected to. He spent a few minutes setting it up, letting the class chat amongst themselves while he did so. He flipped up his laptop and typed in his password.

As the film started up, he shushed the class and asked them to watch the film please, and then quickly marked the register as full. He checked that the class – the majority at least – were paying attention to the film, and grabbed the lesson plan for today to check over it.

He only had three lessons to deliver that day out of a possible six, giving him a lot of time to do marking and more lesson planning. That was ideal – seeing how upset Alex was, he wanted to speak to him after school and maybe spend some time with him, and if he managed to get all of his work out of the way, he’d have much more time to waste with his boyfriend.

He marked as quickly as he could, getting through about thirty pieces of homework from his Year Sevens before the film began to draw to an end. When it did, he flipped the last book shut and switched the overhead projector to the computer monitor, to where he had a PowerPoint ready. A groan rose up from the crowd but Jack ignored it and proceeded with his lesson anyway. He caught sight of Alex a few more times but always turned away hurriedly, before he could make too much eye contact.

~~~~~

It was the end of the lesson, and as the bell rang all of the students scrambled to leave quickly. Jack opened the door and walked back to his desk on the opposite side of his room. On the way, he dropped a hastily scribbled note on Alex’s desk. Looking back over his shoulder, he saw Alex open it, his eyes widen, and then drop it into his pocket.

Jack hoped that Alex would do as he had asked and come back at the end of the day to see him.

~~~~~

The bell rang again. The end of the school day was here. Jack packed away the books he had just marked, neatly into the drawers in his desk, and waited impatiently for Alex to arrive. He supposed he would have to allow him a few minutes to get from whichever class he just had, but Jack was starting to worry that Alex wasn’t coming.

When five minutes had passed, Jack was considering giving up all together. He had now stacked all of his textbooks in the cupboard, straightened all of the desks, tidied his own desk and shrugged his jacket on. Hs heart leapt every time he saw a student stroll past the doors nonchalantly, but it was never Alex. He would know him even if it was just the small glance that he got through the miniscule glass pane in the door.

Another five minutes later, and Jack was about to abandon all hope, when the door swung open and his heart jumped in his chest. Alex walked in, closing the door behind him and walked towards him with his head down. “Alex, baby,” Jack said softly, immediately hugging the younger boy. Alex stiffened before he relaxed again, finally wrapping his arms back around Jack’s back.

“Let me explain, baby,” Jack murmured, kissing the top of Alex’s head. It was risky to do this in a classroom, but most of the students and teachers would have left the grounds by now, and he doubted anyone would see them together. He released Alex and indicated the chair at his desk.
Alex sat down in it hesitantly, and Jack crouched down in front of him, resting his hands on Alex’s knees. “I have to be so, so careful at school,” he began. “Every time I look at you, my heart explodes with affection, and I get this stupid smile and I can barely resist grabbing you, shoving you against a wall and making out with you.” Alex blushed but smiled a little. “So I have to restrain myself here – at school – by not looking at you or talking to you, because otherwise how much I love you will be obvious.”

Alex sniffed, which Jack had learnt by now was more of a nervous reflex more than anything else. Then he spoke. “I understand…I didn’t before, so I was upset. But now I’m not.”

Jack smiled soppily. “Good.” He sprang to his feet and kissed Alex, hot and hard. He left the boy flustered and grabbed his hand quickly. “Want to come back to mine?”

Alex nodded, grinning shyly and biting his lip. “I’d love to,” he murmured. “What would we do?”

Jack considered as he pulled Alex from his classroom and locked the door behind them. “Well, we can watch films or TV, read, do work…actually, scrap that…eat, anything you like.”

“Could we…” Alex shook his head. “Never mind.”

“No, say it,” Jack pressed. “I want to make you happy, baby.”

“Could we…like…make out and stuff?” Alex’s voice trembled.

“Definitely,” Jack grinned. “Have you ever been given a blowjob, Alex?”

“Of course not,” Alex said. “I’ve never had a partner before.”

“You don’t have to be in a relationship to have sex,” Jack pointed out, and received a light swat on the arm.

“I’m not a slut,” Alex said huffily, though Jack could tell he was doing it light-heartedly. “And I’m not old yet.”

“Oh, and I am?” Jack teased, unlocking his car and slipping into the driver’s seat. He waited for Alex to slide into the passenger seat before he started up the engine.

“Well, no…just older than me.”

“True enough,” Jack acquiesced, speeding through the familiar drive to his home. He wanted to get back as soon as he could, so as to spend as much time with Alex as was humanely possible. There were a few moments of comfortable silence, and then –

“Why were you asking about blowjobs anyway?” Alex asked quietly, staring out of the window. Jack grinned at how cute and innocent his boyfriend was.

“I just wanted to know if you’d ever received one,” Jack shrugged, shifting gears.

“Yeah, but why? I mean, why do you want to know?”

“I wanted to know how spectacular I’m going to have to be.”

“Why?” The tips of Alex’s ears were bright red. He wasn’t used to discussing matters like this.

“Well, your first blowjob can’t shitty, can it?” Jack grinned mischievously at Alex, already planning out what he was going to do in his head.

“No…I suppose it can’t.” A small smile reached the corners of Alex’s mouth.