Bad Guys

Jack was not a typical seventeen year old boy. He was unknowingly Baltimore's biggest heartthrob. Both boys and girls swoon over the skinny boy with the lonely eyes and the gentle smile. No one ever really knew why they fell for Jack, they just did. The dropped like flies. All it takes is a single bat of those long eyelashes and a sentence or two and they're hooked.

Today was Jack's first day at his new high school, Dulaney. To say that he dreaded it was quite the understatement. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before so his eyes were tired and his dark circles were much more prominent than usual. Nonetheless, he hauled himself out of his bed and got ready for the day. It never took him very long to get ready. All he had to do was pull on some clothes and run some styling gel through his hair and he was all ready to go. But, he couldn't forget his thick-rimmed black glasses of course; he was as blind as a bat without them.

He crept down the stairs as quietly as he could, out of fear of waking his parents. Bassam and Joyce Barakat liked to lie to themselves and pretend that they were good parents, that they were only so harsh to Jack because they loved him unconditionally; The bruises on Jack's body told him otherwise. No one knew of his parent's wrath, and he was very set on keeping it this way. As a matter of fact, that was the very reason why he had to switch schools. He came in with too many black eyes, too many sprained fingers or ankles. The school was beginning to catch on, and Bassam was no idiot. So that's why Jack was getting into his little black car and driving to a new school.

He turns up the radio and sets a cigarette in between his lips before lighting it and taking a long drag. What his parents don't know won't kill them, right? His heart was already dropped down into his stomach and his pulse was racing so fast he thought that he might faint. Jack loved school, he loved to learn. The only thing he didn't like was all of the other people and having to deal with constant criticism and bullying. There was no use trying online school either, the last thing he wanted was to spend all day with his parents. They said that online school was unnatural and for weirdos anyway. So Jack was stuck in public school.

Dulaney High was much larger than he thought it would be; a lot bigger in person than the picture on the website captured. He swallowed some of the spit in his mouth and put in a piece of gum before pulling his sweater sleeves over his hands and getting out of his car. His feet shuffled against the icy ground and he kept his balance the best he good; intent on not making a fool of himself on his first day.

When he entered the building, it wasn't very warm but it was very nice inside. He went into the office, stepping up to one of the desks shyly and forcing a smile.

"Hi, I'm a new student here and I was wondering if I could get my schedule?" He says meekly.

The receptionist smiles, almost sympathetically and asks for his name. He replies the best he can, stuttering out every other syllable and hoping she doesn't notice the shaking of his hands when he reaches out to grab the paper from her. Jack thanks her and leaves the office, staring down at his schedule and thanking a greater power that he had art class first.

There was nothing that Jack loved more than art. He didn't think that he was very good at it, but all of his previous art teachers would beg to differ. They all ask him the same question though. 'Why don't you use any color?' And Jack would only shrug, but inside he knows that he doesn't like color. Jack didn't like color because color was happy and bright. Jack only used blacks, grays and white because they were the only colors that he had ever gotten attached to. To Jack, everything was gray.

He stepped into the art room cautiously, he was about five minutes early for class so there was no one there, a perfect time to go and say hello to the teacher and explain that he really would prefer not to introduce himself to an entire classroom full of judgemental teenagers.

Jack walks up to the teachers desk, smiling at the red-haired woman sitting there. "Uh, hi. I'm, um, Jack Barakat and I'm new here?" It came out as more of a question and Jack wanted to punch himself in the face for acting like a fool for his first meeting with his art teacher.

"Yup, I was told that you'd be joining us today. I read through your file and I've placed you in the back corner," She smiles, pointing to the back table in the corner. "Just as the social worker at your old school said that you like to be seated." She says.

"Thank you," He says, not really sure what else to say. Most teachers don't even take the time to read files, let alone make accommodations for them.

"I'm Mrs. Warner and I want you to come and tell me if that seat is going to work out or not at the end of class, okay?" She asks. "I have two boys back at that table with you because this class is so large. They're troublemakers, but they're nice boys. I'm sure that they'll treat you very nicely, Jack."

"Alright, no problem." Jack lies, ignoring the knot forming inside of his stomach. "Thank you again." He says quietly, smiling before turning around and heading back to his new seat.

"You're welcome." Mrs. Warner says in response.

After he sat down, the bell rings, indicating that it was time to head to first hour. Students slowly filed in, one after another, shuffling their feet.

Then, two boys came into the classroom, talking and laughing with each other like this was the best day of their lives. Mrs. Warner quickly calls them over to her desk and murmurs a few words to them before sending them back over to Jack's table. His hands start to shake again.

"Hey, you're the new student, right?" One of them says, pulling out a stool and sitting down. "Mrs. Warner's been talkin' about you for days." He continues. His skin is tan, much tanner than Jack's, despite Jack being Lebanese. He's got a tangled mess of bright red hair hidden under a black backwards facing SnapBack.

"All good things, hopefully." Jack utters out, folding his hands together, praying that they stop shaking soon.

"Of course they were good things," The other boy says. Jack's hands stop shaking. "Teacher's don't get paid to talk shit, bud." This boy is a little bit paler than Jack. His hair is blue and messy, but there's a certain kind of order to it, as it all falls the same way. He's wearing a sweater much similar to Jack's. "Oh," The boy says suddenly. "I'm Alex, and this is my best friend Josh."

"Pleasure to meet you both," Jack says politely. "My name is Jack Barakat."

"Pleasure's all mine." Alex says jokingly, giving Jack a wink and a shockingly white smile.

"I think the pleasure is pretty evenly split between the both of us." Josh points out, flashing a dopey smile at his friend.

Meanwhile, Jack's cheeks are blushing bright red and his stomach is practically flooding with butterflies. Both of these boys were very attractive to Jack, and both of them were very nice, just as Mrs. Warner had said.

"So, what are we doing this hour?" Jack asks quietly, his folded hands still resting on the table top.

"Anything we want," Josh explains. "It's an independent drawing project so you can do anything you'd like."

Jack nods to show that he understands and grabs a piece of paper from the stack in the center of the table. He takes out his pencil and taps it against the paper anxiously, curious of what to sketch.

Alex, on the other hand, was absolutely smitten. He had never met a boy like Jack in his entire life. He was teetering on the line between gay, bisexual and straight but Jack came along and practically sucker punched him into the gay side of things. He'd never seen anything like Jack. He quickly became obsessed with him.

He watched patiently as Jack chewed on the inside of his lip, still tapping his pencil eraser on the paper, thinking of what to draw. Alex could practically see Jack get the idea of what to draw before he even put the pencil to the paper. Jack runs the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip just as smoothly as he glides the pencil across the paper and Alex is pretty sure that he may just faint.

Jack has settled on drawing some flowers, maybe filling them in with black pointillism dots. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to him. He begins sketching out his daisies, completely unaware of Alex's eyes that are practically glued to his face. By the time Alex finally looks down, Jack's already drawn three stunning, intricate flowers in a span of three minutes. He's very focused on his drawing.

"Wow, you take a lot of art classes, Jack?" Alex asks, marveling at the beautiful design laid out on the paper in front of him.

Jack shakes his head and looks up. "Just at school." He says gently. "Why do you ask?"

"You have incredible talent." Alex says bluntly, smiling at the boy across from him.

Jack's cheeks heat up and blush again, and he hopes that Alex didn't notice, even though he definitely did. "Oh, um, thank you." He says shyly, quickly going back to his artwork to hide his blush. His heart was beating a million beats a second inside of his chest. Alex thought that he was a good artist. He was content with himself, with his work. He was glad that others liked it.

Not much else was said at the table that morning, Jack too shy and embarrassed to utter anything other than a few syllables, Alex too smitten to do anything but admire Jack, and Josh too busy on his own artwork to pay attention to what the other two were up to. So when the bell rings, Josh and Alex stand up, both of them flashing him beautiful, pearly white smiles.

"Catch you later, Jack." Josh says easily, waving and heading toward the door. But Alex lingers behind for a moment, simply watching as Jack gathers his things.

"What class do you have next hour?" Alex asks. His heart was practically in his throat. Was he being too forward? Was he scaring the poor kid? Fuck, he was already shaky enough as it was, he doesn't need me intruding into his life and fucking up his shit.

"Um," Jack trails off, thinking and absentmindedly playing with the overly long sleeves of his sweater. "I'm pretty sure I have Creative Writing."

"No shit," Alex says happily. "Me too. Can I walk you?"

"Uh...of course." Jack stutters out, putting his backpack on. "Yeah, that sounds great."