The Boy by the Window.

"Do you mind" Jack grabbed Alex's wrist. "Not touching" He looked at him in the eyes. "That" He pointed at the object Alex had in his hands before Jack walked into his room.

"When did you see Blink? It's been ages since they last came here" Alex rolled his eyes and put down the signed CD back on his desk. He walked around the small room; everything was extremely neat and it made him want to puke all over Jack's pilled books, textbooks and papers.

"I didn't, one of my friends got it signed for me" He took the signed CD in his hand and placed it back at the top of the wardrobe where Alex must have had found it. When he turned around, Alex was already lying on his spotless bed, which now looked like a mess.

"Why the hell didn't you go? If your friend went you could have gone too" He said matter of factually.

"I had to study for an exam. He failed anyway so I guess going wouldn't have been a great idea" He shrugged his shoulders and sat on his chair, mentally slapped himself for what he just said knowing that Alex would have something to say about it.

"Really? You can always resit an exam. You can't miss the opportunity to see Blink live" He narrowed his eyes sending a death glare to the younger.

"Well, I wasn't allowed to go anyway" Alex gaped at him.

"And you don't even have posters or anything on your walls!" He looked at the younger as if he were crazy.

"I'm not allowed to have them, okay? My mum says they would distract me from working" Jack rolled his eyes. He was starting to regret letting Alex come up to his room already.

"Holy shit" Alex laid on the bed. "You must have the shittiest life out there" He said placing his hands underneath his head.

"Gee, thanks" Jack chose to sat on his desk chair.

"Do you have anything that doesn't contain pus or animal fluids and hormones?" Alex asked casually and Jack grimaced. He had never though of food that way.

"Yeah, yeah. Can we start though? I don't have all day" Jack rolled his eyes and sat next to Alex on his bed.

"Once you bring me something to eat. I'm hungry"

"You just had breakfast"

"So? Still hungry. Come on" Alex patted him on the shoulder to get him moving and went back to contemplating Jack's blank walls and wondering how the hell this kid lived in such a small world.

-

"Is it really that easy?" Jack furrowed his eyebrows, feeling stupid after figuring out how easy things really were when Alex explained everything to him. They were now both laid on top of Jack's bed with notes and papers in front of them.

"Yep" Alex said and started searching for his pack of cigarettes. "Damn. I forgot my cigs at home"

"I could ask my mum if she could give you one" Jack chuckled.

"Hey, it's not a bad idea" Alex pointed at him and nodded with a satisfied look in his face. "But nah, that'd be quite awkward. I'd rather go home and get mine, it's late anyway" He shrugged.

"Late? It's like 7PM. You go to sleep at like 4AM every night" Jack rolled his eyes and rolled onto his back.

"Oh really? And how do you know that? You fucking stalker" Alex laughed and rolled onto his back as well.

"Hey, I don't stalk you" He glared at him. "It's just that I see you keep your light on when I accidentally wake up around that time"

"Yeah, sure" Alex said.

-

Alex went home shortly after discussing whether Jack was a stalker or not. He ended up agreeing with the younger because he was getting sick of hearing his annoying voice, but he shrugged it off and left saying he had to be home by dinner. Truth to be told, he usually made his own food so there was nothing ready for him when he got home, but he felt more comfortable in his messy room and his loud parents.

Every family had their struggles, and Alex's had a financial one. His mum worked as a babysitter and his dad was still looking for a job after being fired from his last position when they replaced him for a machine. Alex, at the time, didn't understand a thing about their economical situation, but something on his parents' faces told him he needed to drop out of school and get a job to make them happy again. Even with Alex's salary, they would still struggle to pay for all their taxes and every day life expenses. Alex didn't know that the Gaskarth's owed more than a meal to the Barakats but he was soon going to find out how they managed to carry on without the help of anyone else.

"Alex, come down!" His dad shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

"Coming!" Alex sighed and got up from bed where he was laid. "What?" He asked annoyed.

"Don't speak like that" His dad threatened and gestured for him to join his mum at the table. He didn't look all too happy to have this chat. "We need to tell you something" He finally said when he sat down as well.

"What is it?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows thinking of the worst scenario possible. His mum shook her head and said that she didn't know what this all was about.

"I just wanted to tell you guys that I've found a job" He announced and his wife jumped to crush him in a hug. Alex let out a relieved breath he didn't know he was holding and congratulated him.

"Oh, that's wonderful! We can finally repay the Barakats, right?" She looked at his husband with such enthusiasm that Alex had to take a few breaths before asking what they were talking about. "I guess we can tell you about it now that everything's going to be okay. Once your father got fired, we talked to the Barakats and they offered to lend us some money until he found a new one" She explained as her husband held her by her side.

"Are you serious? You've kept this from me all this time?" Alex narrowed his eyebrows, so many things coming and going through his mind.

"Why are you so angry, Alex? We didn't want to worry you with our issues-"

"They are my issues too!"

"You already work your ass off at work and we didn't want you to feel bad about it or many you feel like what you were doing wasn't enough. We feel awful about it but we can now fix it, okay? Everything's going back to normal" His father reassured, trying to calm his son down.

"I was the one who chose to get a job, I wasn't forced to do it and I wouldn't have been an asshole to Jack if I knew we owed them money" Alex explained, feeling awful about being so mean and rude to Jack all this time for no reason when he should have been grateful for his family.

"You've been mean to Jack? Why? I know you don't get along together but 'an asshole'?" His mum asked, confused.

"Oh my god. I just don't like him, okay? But if I knew we owed them money I'd been nicer to him. Gosh, I feel so stupid. I'm going to my room. THANK YOU" Alex stormed upstairs and closed the door behind him. He looked through the window in case Jack was still there and got in bed when he saw no one in the other room.

He thought the best would be to talk to the younger and apologize for his behavior so he sent him a message that read 'We need to talk. Reply and come over when you see this?'. He didn't think he'd ever get a response back so quickly.