Build Me Up

The boy in Jack’s algebra 2 class is very clearly struggling. Jack watches him every day – he sits pressed right up against the wall and he angles his chair so he can rest his head up against it. Sometimes, Jack thinks he’s sleeping, but then he’ll run his fingers through his hair and stare aimlessly at what the teacher’s writing. Jack doesn’t know his name, but he feels bad for him. He obviously isn’t very good at math, judging from the way he would sigh heavily in despair and gently toss his test down on the desk when they got it back with a grade.

Occasionally, the teacher pulls him aside while the rest of the class works on their homework. Jack sits right in front of the teacher’s desk, so he can hear every word. They speak in hushed voices and the boy always has an excuse for why he’s doing so poorly. Most of the time, it doesn’t sound like a lie, though. It’s usually something desperately whispered, “I’m really trying to do my best right now, but I have a lot going on,” and Jack vaguely wonders if he has a mental illness, as the teacher will always answer, “I know, but it’s not enough.”

Jack sees the other boy staring at him sometimes, as well. He can feel his eyes on him. He never looks back, though. He has to pay attention to what the teacher is doing. He can’t let himself get distracted; he has to pass. He’s never failed a class before, and he wants to stay at the very top. At the moment, he’s the best in the class, and everyone knows it. The teacher reads off the highest test scores, and he’s always the one with the highest.

The other boy’s name has never been read.

~~~

Jack is sort of shocked when the boy approaches him. He looks nervous and ashamed, but Jack just gives him a soft smile and he can visibly see the tension leave the boy’s shoulders. “Hi,” he says, trying not to sound like he’s talking to a four-year-old. He can’t help it, though. “You’re in my algebra 2, right?”

“Y-Yeah,” the boy stammers, nodding quickly. “Um. I actually wanted to talk to you about that?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Oh. Sorry. I’m Alex. If you didn’t know.”

Jack doesn’t give an answer. He hums and nods and Alex sits across from him at his lunch table. Jack’s friends were being held back in the class that they all shared – all but Jack. “What’d you wanna talk to me about?” he asks.

“About algebra 2… Look, this is completely out of line and everything, but I’m four percent away from failing and I need to pass this time, otherwise I can’t graduate or I’ll have to take it over the summer. But anyway, you’re the best student in our class and I could really use some help, so I was wondering if you might be available to tutor me sometimes?”

Jack is hesitant. Mostly because he feels kind of lame around Alex – he’s a senior and has the whole “bad boy” look going on, and Jack is just a sophomore. However, Alex is giving him a pleading expression and he looks like he’s about to cry, and Jack can’t say no. Besides. Alex is sort of hot, with his studded leather jacket and tight black jeans and combat boots.

“I don’t know,” he admits, biting his lip. “I mean, I’m not that great of a teacher. I don’t know how I’d help.”

“Please? I’d even pay you,” Alex begs. “I mean, I don’t have much money, but I could give you… I don’t know, five or ten dollars whenever you came over. Or whatever you wanted. I just need some help catching up with what we’re doing. I’m, like, really behind.”

“You don’t have a sibling or anything that could help?”

“I’m an only child.”

Jack sighs, running his fingers through his hair and reluctantly nodding. “Yeah, all right. I’ll see what I can do, okay? I can’t promise you that I’ll be much help. Five dollars a visit would be fine.”

Alex nods, his fingers fumbling nervously. Jack wants to know why he’s so anxious about asking. “Don’t you have any friends?” he finally asks, and Jack laughs lightly.

“Yeah, but they all share a class before this and the whole class had to stay behind for some reason, so I’m alone for the lunch period. ‘S not a big deal. Why?”

“I was just wondering. I didn’t see anyone sitting with you.”

“Oh. Well. I do have friends. They’re just not here right now.”

Alex nods again and pushes his hair from his eyes. Jack isn’t sure how he’s not dating anyone – at least, not that he knew of. The older boy is fucking stunning, in Jack’s opinion, what with neatly organized, yet messy brownish hair and thin pink lips that are almost always being bitten. Dark eyelashes frame equally as dark eyes, and the deep brown almost clashes with the bright pink of his lips. Jack wants to be upset over how attractive he is.

“Do you want my number, or something?” he hears the boy ask, and he snaps out of his trance to nod quickly.

“Yeah, sure. Um, what days would work for you? Like, do you want to do this right after school?”

“No,” Alex answers immediately, so quickly that Jack is a little taken aback. “Um. Evening would be best. Tuesdays and Thursdays are nights that my dad goes out, so those would be the best time. Like, seven or later. He’s usually not back until eleven, but I don’t think I need four hours of studying.”

“Why can’t I come over while he’s home?”

Alex looks up at him from under his fringe, and he isn’t smiling, not even close. He’s giving Jack a look that tells him he shouldn’t have asked in the first place, and he says coldly, “It’s a long story.”

Jack doesn’t fight it. He just nods and says, “Okay. I’ll probably be able to come over around seven thirty. How long do you want to study for?”

Alex shrugs and pulls Jack’s phone from his hands, easily unlocking it, considering the younger boy doesn’t have a password. He enters in his number as he replies, “I dunno. Maybe an hour and a half? Two hours? That’s including breaks so that my head doesn’t explode.”

Jack smiles a little and takes his phone back. “So… If today’s Wednesday, do you want to start this tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure. Text me tonight and I can give you my address and everything.”

~~~

The next night, Jack finds himself on Alex’s doorstep. It’s an apartment, really, and it definitely isn’t the nicest place – there’re homeless people on the streets and the buildings are all run-down, not to mention that there’s a large chunk taken out of the wood on Alex’s apartment door.

When Alex finally opens the door, Jack gives him a soft smile before Alex opens the door wider, allowing him to step inside. The inside of the apartment isn’t any better than the rest of the building; there’s shitty furniture and piles of clutter all over. It smells like weed and alcohol, but Alex doesn’t look drunk or high, so Jack assumes that the smoke from the drug has settled in the furniture and that the alcohol has been spilled at some point.

The worst part, perhaps, is that Alex just looks so sad. All the time, Jack has noticed. He hasn’t ever seen the older boy genuinely smile, he doesn’t think. At the moment, the elder looks ashamed, his eyes on his feet as he mumbles, “Sorry about the mess. I didn’t really have time to clean.”

“It’s fine,” Jack says quickly. “Not a big deal.”

“Um. Do you want to just. Do this on the couch?”

“Whatever you want.”

Alex nods and says something about getting his textbook, telling Jack to make himself comfortable. After a moment, he returns with a binder and his textbook, sitting a few inches away from the younger boy on the couch and pushing various newspapers off of the coffee table. Jack can’t help but notice the abundance of beer bottles.

The whole room is dimly lit, and Jack isn’t sure if their only source of light is from the dying lamp across the room or if it’s just the only one turned on. Hesitantly, he asks, “U-Um, Alex, is there any more lighting in here?”

“No,” the elder answers shortly. “Well, there is, but we can’t turn it on because it’d raise the electric bill and money’s really tight right now. So we can’t. Sorry.”

“Oh. Okay. You don’t have to pay me if you don’t have-,”

“Jack, it’s fine,” Alex snaps, sending a quick glare towards the taller boy. “I’m not going to make you waste your gas to come all the way over to this shitty apartment so you can teach me fuckin’ algebra and then not pay you. That’s rude.”

Jack doesn’t say anything for a moment. Finally, he mumbles, “Okay,” and then, a little louder, “So what chapter did you get lost in?”

Alex seems to have dropped the whole money subject as he grabs his binder, flipping through the tests that they’ve gotten back throughout the year. Jack catches sight of a few grades – all around fifty to sixty-five percent. He can’t help but feel bad for him.

“Around chapter two,” Alex says after a second, glancing at the grade of the very first test they’d taken and comparing it to the next one. The first one has an 86% scribbled at the top, whereas the next one has a 67%. “I don’t understand… well, anything, really.”

Jack almost groans. They were in chapter six already. He doesn’t even know where to begin. Nonetheless, he flips his own book open to the right page and glances over it, trying to figure out the best way to explain it.

~~~

For the first few weeks of tutoring sessions, Alex is quiet and closed off and won’t let the conversation stray too far from math for too long. Jack never asks where his dad is, let alone his mother. There aren’t any family photos on surfaces. The only thing that occupies the tabletops and ledges are piles of mail and beer bottles. Jack vaguely wonders if Alex has ever gotten drunk before, but then determines that it’s a stupid question – of course Alex has gotten drunk before. He’d be stupid not to take advantage of the beer, and he’s a teenage boy.

He’s gotten a couple of smiles out of the older boy, even if they aren’t totally real. Still, it makes him feel good about himself. Alex seems to keep things strictly math, which Jack hadn’t exactly been expecting. He keeps waiting for the older boy to shove him down on the couch and ride him instead of actually study. He doesn’t even know if Alex is gay, for that matter.

At the moment, Jack is talking about integers versus real numbers, and he isn’t quite sure if Alex is completely listening, but he doesn’t have the courage to ask him. Alex is slightly intimidating, but not because he’s frightening – he’s just so closed off, and Jack isn’t sure how to act around him.

“Does that make sense?” Jack asks, glancing over at Alex, who’s staring right back at him, but his eyes aren’t focused. “Alex?”

“What?” The elder jumps a little, but he doesn’t look away. “Yeah, yeah, I just…”

Before Jack could process what he’s doing, the older boy cupping his hand around the back of Jack’s neck and leaning in, pressing their lips together gently, and that is definitely not the kind of kiss that Jack would expect from someone like Alex.

He tenses up for a split second before he kisses back, his fingers moving up to curl around Alex’s wrist lightly. He hasn’t kissed many people before, he’s only made out with one, but something about that way Alex kisses him makes him feel a lot more experienced than he is.

The elder’s lips are soft and smooth, working slowly against Jack’s and sending wave after wave of butterflies through his stomach and down to his fingers and toes. Jack isn’t sure what he thought Alex would taste like – alcohol, maybe. But he tastes like fruit gum, and Jack is totally okay with it.

It isn’t too long, only about three seconds, before Alex is pulling away and Jack is dropping his hand back to his lap. He watches as Alex’s eyes flutter open, and then the older boy is grinning, actually grinning, and blushing, and Jack swears his heart skips a beat.

“Sorry,” Alex whispers, but he’s still smiling and his teeth are soon pressing into his lower lip, and Jack wants to kiss him again.

“It’s okay,” Jack says, and he expects Alex to look away, but he doesn’t. So he looks away first, glancing down at his lap and playing with his fingers, coughing awkwardly. “Um. Yeah. Do you-,”

“I didn’t just take your first kiss, right?” Alex interrupts, his eyes wide and nervous. Jack wants to tell him how cute he is.

But he just laughs lightly and shakes his head. “No, of course not. I wouldn’t have kissed back if it was.”

Alex looks incredibly relieved, a little breath of air leaving his lips as he smiles again. “What time is it?” he asks, and Jack grabs his phone, pressing the power button.

“Uh, nine-thirty.”

“Oh. Wow. I didn’t think it’d been that long. Aren’t your parents worried about you?”

“Not really. I mean, my mom always drops me off, so I don’t have any other way to get somewhere else. She knows I’m here if it’s a night that we study.”

Alex raises one eyebrow, idly playing with his pencil in his fingers. “I can drive you home sometimes, you know,” he offers shyly. “I have my license and I can legally drive other people. I mean, it’d have to be before ten, just in case my dad comes home early, but I’m sure your mother isn’t thrilled about driving you over a few times a week.”

Jack shrugs. “I don’t think she minds. I don’t think she’d like it if I was in the car with some boy she’s never met before. Besides, doesn’t your dad have the car when he’s gone?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. Is your mom protective of you?”

“A little, I guess, but she was pretty skeptical when she pulled up in front of the building.”

Alex sighs heavily and nods, running his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, well, rightfully so. I can’t say this is the best part of town, really.”

Jack bites his lip for a moment, then asks hesitantly, “… Why exactly do you live here? I mean, this is the last place I’d expect to see someone like you living.”

Alex’s shoulders tense and he straightens his back, looking back at the textbook before asking in a flat tone, “Could you explain integers and real numbers again? I’m just not getting it.”

~~~

At school the next day, Jack can’t help but be surprised when Alex gives him a soft smile in the hallway. They’ve never interacted outside of Alex’s apartment, but Jack has sort of assumed that the older boy has a tiny crush on him, if kissing is any indication of it.

He sees a hint of a blush on Alex’s cheeks when he smiles, but Jack doesn’t have a chance to smile back before Alex is already past him. At first, he wonders if maybe the elder had been smiling at someone behind him, but he does it again in algebra 2 – a brief, shy smile from across the room. That time, Jack has time to return it.

~~~

Their next tutoring session isn’t awkward, like Jack had expected it to be. There isn’t much room on the couch due to piles of mail that Alex says he can’t move, so they have to sit a little closer than usual. Jack wonders a few times if Alex is using the mail as an excuse to be closer.

“There’s a test tomorrow,” Jack states. “Do you want to study for that or work on chapter five some more?”

Alex shrugs, biting the end of his pen as he gazes down at the textbook. Jack is admiring the elder’s long eyelashes instead of the pages. “It doesn’t matter,” Alex finally says, taking the pen away in favor of biting his lip for a second, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. “I guess we could do a little bit of both?”

Jack nods at that, looking back at the book. “Yeah, okay.”

For the rest of their time together, they keep to the topic of math. Jack is actually disappointed; he’d been hoping for a make-out session at some point. He’s okay with the way Alex’s small thigh is pressed up against his, though.

At nine thirty, Jack gets a text from his mother saying that she’s on her way to come get him and that she’ll be waiting outside. Alex manages to find five dollars to pay Jack with, despite how many times the younger boy insists that it isn’t necessary. Alex is a gentleman, though, and refuses to let Jack leave without his payment.

“I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” Alex says softly as they stand across from each other at the door. Alex looks upset to see him go, but Jack doesn’t want to say anything about it.

“Yeah,” he agrees, pushing his hair from his eyes. He doesn’t leave, though – instead, he leans in and wraps his arms around Alex’s waist, bringing him in for a hug. The older boy tenses up just a bit, but a second later, his arms are winding around Jack’s neck to hug back tightly.

Alex is a good hugger, Jack notices. He doesn’t have a problem with being pressed up close against Jack’s chest; in fact, he seems to appreciate it. He clings a little tighter than Jack had expected, but he’s okay with it.

When they break apart, Alex is blushing and smiling a little bit, and Jack’s heart skips a beat. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jack tells him, and Alex nods quickly, looking away and biting his lip.

~~~

The next week, Alex goes to Jack’s house to study. He claims that his dad is out of town for a few days, so he won’t be able to find out. Jack doesn’t ask why it would be a problem in the first place, but he’s more than excited to finally have Alex over. He hopes he’s not allergic to cats.

They go to Jack’s room when they get there. Alex is almost silent, and Jack can tell that he’s nervous by the way he pulls his sweatshirt sleeves over his hands and looks around with wide, innocent eyes. They sit on the bed together, textbooks and notebooks spread out around them.

“Your mom is nice,” Alex finally says abruptly, and Jack raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “I know.”

“It’s nice of her to let me come over.”

Jack frowns a little. “I have friends over all the time. She’s totally fine with it. You’re welcome to stay for dinner, if you want. I dunno what we’re having, but if your dad is gone, then you probably won’t be going home to dinner.”

“Your mom lets you have people over?”

“I – Yeah, why wouldn’t she?”

Alex hesitates, then shrugs slightly and pushes his hair from his eyes. “No reason. What’s your sexuality, again? I don’t think you ever told me.”

“I’m gay. And before you ask, yes, my family knows.”

“Oh,” was all the elder says. “You’re lucky.”

“That my family knows?”

“No, that – never mind. It’s not a big deal. Forget about it. Can we study now?”

Jack hesitates, but nods a little, looking at the textbook as his cat shoves her way into the room. Alex looks at her immediately and perks up a bit, asking excitedly, “You have a cat?”

“Uh huh,” Jack hums, but Alex seems much more enthusiastic about the cat than he is. “Her name’s Pepsi.”

“Pepsi? Like the drink?”

“Yeah. My mom named her; she said the brown on her was the color of Pepsi. We just call her Pep or Peppy or Peps, though. She’ll want to cuddle with you, just so you know.”

Alex looks overjoyed as the cat sniffs him before curling up in his lap and beginning to purr. “Hi, baby,” he coos, rubbing behind her ears and grinning. “Oh, you’re so pretty, aren’t you?”

Jack can’t help but smile; Alex is adorable with cats. “She likes you,” he states, reaching over and rub his cat’s side, paying no attention to the fact that his hand is right by Alex’s crotch. “She usually sits by people’s thighs, not in their lap.”

“She does?”

“Mhm.”

Alex keeps grinning, his eyes lit up. Jack thinks it’s nice to see him loosen up a little. “We should study,” he suggests lightly, and Alex nods, glancing at the book as he pets Pepsi. “What don’t you understand?”

They study up until dinnertime, a few breaks in between (which result in Alex playing around with the cat while Jack watches. He hopes the elder can’t see hearts in place of his eyes). They eat homemade pizza, and Alex looks like he’s never been more satisfied with any meal.

Afterwards, they go back up to Jack’s room. Alex curls up in a little ball on top of the covers, the cat snuggled up against his stomach. Jack sits on his phone in silence, their studying all but abandoned. Occasionally, Jack glances up at the older boy, watches him idly pet the cat and stare off into space. He doesn’t want to bother him.

At about ten o’clock, Jack says his name softly, touching the elder’s shin. Alex hums, opening his eyes and glancing sleepily at Jack, yawning cutely into his hand. “It’s almost ten,” Jack whispers. “We should probably drive you home; it’s a school night.”

Alex nods, sitting up slowly and ruffling his hair with his fingers. Jack tries to think that it isn’t the hottest thing he’s seen in a long time, even though it totally is. He also tries to ignore the butterflies that swarm in his stomach at the sight.

When they get to the elder’s apartment building, Alex thanks Jack’s mother for dinner and the ride and allowing him to come over in the first place, and tells Jack that he’ll pay him tomorrow at school before getting out of the car and running inside the complex.

“He’s sweet,” Joyce states. Jack is watching Alex’s apartment window to see when the light came on, and when it does, he tells his mother that they could go.

“Yeah, he is,” he agrees. “Quiet, though.”

“What’s his family like?”

Jack frowns as they stop at a red light. “I don’t know. His dad is always out and he’s never mentioned his mother. He doesn’t like to talk about family, I don’t think. I’ve tried bringing it up a few times and he always changes the subject back to math.”

“Do you like him?”

He doesn’t answer for a moment, thinking about how he felt when Alex had kissed him, when they’d hugged. “I don’t know,” he repeats. “I don’t know anything about him. He seems so sad all the time. I don’t even think he has any friends. I think I’m as close as he’s gotten to a friend in a long time.”

“You should try to get closer with him.”

“I have tried.”

~~~

Alex is a little bit sick when they next get together to study. The heater is broken and it’s the end of November, which meant that it’s freezing. Almost everyone is sick. Thankfully, Jack brings over a tea for himself, but he gives it to Alex since the older boy is cold and doesn't have anything warm to make himself.

However, it only takes ten minutes for Alex to finish the tea, and then he’s cold again. Jack feels bad for him, the way he’s curled in on himself on the other side of the couch, the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Jack is a bit chilly in his short sleeved shirt, but he’ll live.

“Come here,” he finally says, and Alex gives him a confused look.

“What?”

“Come here,” he repeats, patting the spot right next to his thigh.

Alex still looks confused, but he sits up slowly and scoots over, his thigh pressed up against Jack’s. The younger boy wraps one arm around Alex’s shoulders, rubbing his upper arm soothingly. “What’re you doing?” the elder asks, but he doesn’t make any move to go back to his original spot.

“You’re freezing,” Jack states. “This was the least I could do.”

“You already gave me your tea. You’ve done enough.”

“I can’t sit over here and watch you shiver under your blanket. It’s fine. This is nice.”

Alex hesitates for a moment before saying softly, “Yeah, this is nice.”

They study a little more, but Jack can’t keep his eyes off how nice Alex’s fingers are. He does his best not to think about where exactly he’d like to see them, but he hasn’t jerked off in four days and he isn’t able to stop thinking about sex, even though he’s never done anything like that. Alex’s fingers are long and slim, and Jack has known for a long time that he has nice hands. He has nice everything.

His fingers tremble just slightly when he pauses his writing. Jack isn’t sure if it’s being he’s cold or if he’s nervous or if it’s just a disorder of some sort. He doesn’t want to ask. He tries his best to explain the chapter without grabbing Alex’s hand and just holding it for a while.

“You’re gonna get sick,” Alex eventually says, but Jack just shrugs as the older boy tucks his feet to the side of himself. “You really don’t have to keep me warm, Jack. You’re going to get sick.”

“I’ll probably get sick whether we cuddle or not. Everyone’s sick right now. The difference is that your heater is broken, so you’re especially cold. It’s fine with me, really.”

“If you’re sure…”

~~~

Alex’s legs are resting over Jack’s thighs. It’s Tuesday, which means that they’re settled in on Alex’s couch with their textbooks and notebooks. Jack can’t manage to keep his eyes off the older boy – his hair is tousled more than usual from the pillows he’s leaning against, making it look like he’s just had really great sex, and he’s wearing a blue plaid button down shirt with skinny jeans that make his legs look fantastic. Jack chooses not to think about how good his ass looks.

His mood isn’t any different, however. He’s still quiet and closed off and Jack wants to cuddle with him again, but he isn’t sure how to initiate it. He’s trying to explain what they’re learning at the moment without getting so caught up in the way Alex’s lips look that he stops talking.

“Do you get it now?” he asks after a long while, glancing over at the older boy to find him frowning at the page. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Alex says quickly. “I just don’t understand how you got your answer, that’s all.”

“Where’d you get lost?”

“I don’t know. I zoned out for a little while, so probably whenever you were talking about squaring and whatever.”

Jack nods, looking at his notebook to find where he’d squared something. He watches Alex as he re-explains it, seeing the elder’s eyebrows slowly unfurrow and his confusion melt away. After a second, he frowns again and sits up, his chest an inch from pressing against Jack’s shoulder. The younger boy does his best to refrain from wrapping an arm around Alex’s waist. “So once you add all this together, then you’d divide this by that and that’s your answer?”

“Yeah. This is all review from algebra one, but that was, like, forever ago, so I’m not surprised that you don’t remember it. As long as you get the hang of it again, you should be good for the rest of the chapter.”

“Okay.”

Alex closes his notebook swiftly and sets it on the table, and before Jack can ask what he’s doing, say that they’re not done studying, Alex’s hand is on the side of his neck and the older boy is kissing him.

It’s different this time; Alex doesn’t seem to have any intention of pulling away soon. Jack kisses back eagerly, hesitantly setting his hand on the small of Alex’s back. It’s slow and languid and sweet, and Jack’s pretty sure that it’s a thousand times better than the last one.

Alex’s fingers are tangled in the hair at the base of Jack’s neck, but the younger boy is definitely okay with it. Having Alex’s hands on him at all is a blessing in the first place, and it’s even better that the elder is nearly sitting in his lap.

He can’t help but be surprised when Alex starts tugging him down as he lays on his back, scooting over just a bit so that Jack can settle to his side and hover over him. The older boy’s fingers push up further into Jack’s hair, sending chills down Jack’s spine. One of the younger’s hands sits on Alex’s waist, the other supporting himself on his elbow.

Alex’s tongue swipes across Jack’s lower lip, leaving the younger boy with no choice but to open his mouth and lick back against Alex’s tongue. Not that he really has a problem with it. Alex tastes like sweet mint gum, and Jack is pretty sure that he’s never kissed anyone who’s so good at making out. Then again, it’s only his second make-out session, and, okay, maybe he’s a little worried that Alex won’t think he’s good at kissing.

However, his worries are completely erased when Alex pulls away panting slightly, his cheeks a perfect shade of red as he says with a giggle, “We should make out more often,” and Jack just laughs against his lips and nods and kisses him again.

He doesn’t know how long they make out for. Long enough for him to kiss and suck his way down Alex’s neck and nip at his collarbone before the older boy is insisting that he can’t make a mark and pulling him back up to his lips. It stays slow, romantic, almost sad, but it feels so good. After a long while, Alex pulls away completely, his lips slightly swollen and definitely redder than they had been. Jack thinks it’s hot.

“We should stop,” he breathes out, laughing quietly as he blushes again. “I don’t want t – things could get awkward if we went further.”

Jack knows what he was talking about. He’s not sure how he’d handle it if Alex was hard beneath him. He doesn’t know if he’s totally ready to give anyone a handjob. “Okay,” he agrees. “What time is it?”

Alex reaches over to the coffee table and grabs his phone, opening it up to glance at the screen. “Only nine thirty,” he states, setting his phone back on the table. “I can take you home tonight, if you want.”

“Do you have a car?”

“Yeah, one of my dad’s friends picked him up this time.”

Jack nods, pushing himself back into his upright position from before to text his mom. “You’re a good kisser,” Alex informs, his teeth biting into his lower lip. Jack laughs a little, putting his phone back on the table and lying back down next to Alex.

“You too.”

“I meant it when I said we should make out more often.”

“I know. I meant it when I nodded.”

Alex smiles and presses their lips together swiftly before turning over on his side and grabbing Jack’s hand, pulling his arm around his waist. “Are we going to study?” Jack asks, and Alex shakes his head.

“No, I just want to lie here for a while.”

Jack isn’t sure what to say to that. Mostly because he’s pretty sure that Alex could use a little more work on the chapter, but spooning with him definitely beat math. “Okay,” he whispers against the elder’s shoulder, pulling him a little closer.

It’s quiet, save for Alex’s consistent breathing, the cars passing on the street below, the rain on the window, and the hum of the heater. Jack can’t stop thinking about how nice it is to cuddle with someone, how nice it is to have his arm around the waist of a cute boy. And Alex’s hair smells good, like eucalyptus and mint.

In the dim light and the white noise, Jack nuzzles his nose further into the elder’s neck and sighs, closing his eyes and praying that maybe they have more time than they think before Alex’s dad gets home, more time for just the two of them to sit in tranquility and share the quiet.