You've Become What I Hate, Sold Yourself For A Bit Of Fame: Chapter Twenty-Four
Summary: Alex has just moved for the last of many times to Dulaney High school. He has decided that this is the year and school that he will try and become "popular" but if that happened would it be a bad thing? And will finding a new friend, that may think of him as more, also affect it?....
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, sadly. Title goes to Bite My Tongue-You Me At Six, Cut goes to Gossip-You Me At Six
A/N: At the End
Masterpost
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jack rubbed his eyes and yawned as he walked into school on Monday. He was really tired and didn't want to deal with school at the moment. He'd rather just go home and crawl back into bed for the rest of the day.
He had stayed up for pretty much half the night before because just when he had gone to bed he'd remembered an essay that was due the next day and realised he hadn't even started it. He'd reluctantly got out of bed and grabbed his notes, paper, and pencils. Usually he'd just blow it off and make some excuse, but he really couldn't afford to fail this essay because it would bring his already lower-than-normal history grade down.
Once again he cursed Alex and his stupid popularity because the blonde was really good at History and Jack could usually convince him to write his papers for him.
The Lebanese boy was so tired that morning that he didn't even notice the insanely awkward gathering at his locker.
As per usual, Josh and Matt were there. But today someone else seemed to be taking a bit longer to get things out of his own locker and it looking like he was waiting for somebody as well.
Matt and Josh seemed to be trying to act like things were normal, like Alex standing at his locker waiting to speak to Jack was an everyday thing. And it would have been. A few weeks ago. Now, it was just strange and abnormal.
If the boy that everyone was waiting for had been more aware he would have sensed that things were especially awkward between Josh and Alex. This too was weird because they were both popular meaning that even if they didn't like each other they got along. But they did like each other anyway so they should have been fine.
Matt was doing his best to try and ease the awkwardness but whenever he attempted to make conversation with anyone, especially Alex, the blonde shot him a look similar to that of a dog having his bone taken away.
Needless to say, when the Lebanese boy showed up, everyone looked a bit relieved. Josh and Matt were happy because they knew that he'd ignore Alex and the added factor making everything weird would be gone. The blonde boy was just happy to see Jack.
Jack was a walking zombie and when he arrived he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He yawned again and nodded to Josh and Matt acknowledging their presence and then said good morning to the blonde at his right.
He slowly began putting books in and taking things out of his locker not bothering to speak because he was tired and couldn't care less if anyone spoke or not. Matt soon left, being told by some guy named Dan that some girl was looking for him and he better leave before she saw him because she apparently thought they were together now. Matt quickly thanked Dan and said bye to the small gathering at Jack's locker, he was actually kind of relieved to have an excuse for leaving and he shot Josh an apologetic look before walking off with Dan.
Jack yawned for the third time that morning and continued with what he was doing. He was searching through his backpack at the moment trying to find his fucking essay that he'd spent all night writing. He was kind of freaking out because he really needed that thing.
He vaguely notice the blue-eyed boy on his left shuffling around restlessly and glanced over for a second. Josh kept opened and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure if he should. His eyes kept darting from Jack to the blonde behind him and he looked like he was in pain.
The Lebanese boy shrugged and went back to raiding his backpack. How the fuck can something be this full? He then realised that, wait a second, Alex was standing at his locker. He usually didn't show up this early. He quickly glanced over to his right this time and saw the blonde, he raised an eyebrow slightly but again just shrugged and continued his search.
When he found it and was just about to do a dance of joy and celebrate Josh finally spoke up, “I-um. I'll see you later, Jack. All right? I-I have to, uh....do...something...” He mumbled awkwardly and then shot another glance at Alex not really bothering to disguise the fact that he was leaving because of the blonde’s presence.
Jack just waved at him as he left and started to put his bag into his locker. He heard a slight cough next to him that was meant to get Jack's attention. The Lebanese boy turned to his right and raised an eyebrow again. It had only just clicked in his mind when he looked at Alex that this wasn't an everyday thing any more, the blonde being at his locker, waiting for Jack at his locker. This hadn't happened in while.
The dark haired boy was a bit taken aback. When he spoke his voice was tinged with surprise, “Uh, h-hey Alex. What's up?”
Jack was kind of nervous as well as being surprised, his mind kept going back to when they were making out and Jack prayed that he wasn't blushing.
He figured he probably wasn't though because Alex just looked up at him from under his hair with a small sheepish smile, “Um, nothing. I just uh, wanted to say hi. You know.”
The dark haired boy furrowed his eyebrows, “Oh, well...hi then.”
Alex bit his lip, “Yeah....hi...” He finished lamely.
Jack stood there awkwardly as both of them stopped talking. Just as he was about to leave it at that and walk away Alex finally spoke, his head snapped up and he finally met Jack's eyes. His seemed frantic and needy and his voice was the same, “Do you remember the time that you came to my window at three in the morning and you took me to that field and the moon was full and really big and the sky was really beautiful and it was cold, but not too cold, the prefect amount of cold, and we went under the blankets and didn't really even talk much, and we just lay there for the rest of the night and then we fell asleep?”
Jack's eyes widened in surprise, he had no idea where that came from all of a sudden, “Um...” He thought about it. Yes, of course he remembered that night. That was the night that he realised that he was in love with Alex. That was the real reason that Jack wanted to be with the blonde. Even if he couldn’t tell him he loved him, he just wanted to be close to him. He'd been unable to sleep because he couldn't stop thinking about him.
He couldn't tell Alex this though, “Of course, Lexy.” He practically whispered.
The older boy didn't respond, he just stared Jack straight in the eyes and just looked at him. For the first time Jack couldn’t read those large caramel orbs, they were completely closed off. At the same time looked strangely vulnerable. After what felt like an hour, but was probably only a minute or two, the blonde nodded slightly and then mumbled, “I'll see you later.” and walked off to his next class.
Jack just stood there. He had no idea what had just happened or why Alex was acting so weird. He wondered why he'd asked about that night in the field so desperately and like he had to know that Jack remembered, had to know that it had happened. He bit his lip in thought then shook his head to clear it and decided to ignore it, he wasn't going to get caught up thinking about the blonde again, he'd told Josh and Matt that he'd lay off, and he would.
Yawning again he shuffled off to his History class, once again mentally celebrating the fact that he'd found his essay.
~
The dark haired English boy walked through the crowded hallways alone and silent. His ears were wide open and he was carefully listening to every conversation, every random shout, every hushed whisper.
He was keeping a look out for some indication that it hadn't stopped. He trusted Alex, he really did. It's just....he wanted to be absolutely sure. At the slightest sign that he heard about the blonde's continued use he would have to tell Jack.
He sighed, he had been doing this all day between classes and he hadn't heard anything yet. He felt a little guilty, maybe he should believe Alex. The older boy had looked guilty and really hadn't wanted Jack to know and he'd known that Josh would tell him, so maybe he'd stopped.
Josh shook his head, this was stupid. He thought about it for a moment and decided he would stop his random patrols looking for a sign. He stopped walking in a straight line and went toward the “popular” group. He hadn't really hung out with them in a while which was not a good thing if he wanted to stay popular. Honestly, he really couldn't care less about whether he stayed popular or not. But, Hayley was popular and according to the stupid high school popularity laws, if he wanted to continue dating her then he needed to be popular as well.
He walked over to the big group of people that looked disinterested in everything around them and said hi to random people. He walked over to this boy with really long hair who most people referred to as “the dude” but Josh just called by his first name.
“Hey Chris, how's it going?” He said, knowing he didn't really sound interested because he wasn’t, but didn't really care because that's how popular people sound most of the time.
Chris looked up at Josh and nodded in acknowledgement. “Hi Josh. Oh, you know, things are going pretty good. You go to Kellin's party the other day?”
Josh rolled his eyes in his head, of course the conversation would go straight to the most recent party, it's not like these people had any real substance. “Yeah, it was good.”
“Mmm, yeah. You do, uh,” he wiped under his nose subtly, “right?”
The blue-eye boy raised an eyebrow, this was the time to actually pay attention to the conversation. “No. But I've been thinking about it.” Josh carefully lied.
“Ah, yeah? Well you should definitely think about it more man. Kellin and his guys have the best stuff.”
Josh nodded looking impressed, but not completely convinced, “Is that so? I don't know though man. Who else is into it at the moment?”
Chris thought about it, it looked like it really pained him to do, clearly thinking was a skill he hadn't quite mastered yet. “Um, you know, loads of people....Dan, Zack, James, Alex, Ben, Jesse, Vic, Kellin, Mike, I think more, I don't know.”
Josh had to keep his face controlled even though he really wanted to freak out and rush to Jack. Chris had said Alex. There was only one Alex around. He had to find out if he was still doing it now though, maybe Chris had just meant before. He didn't necessarily mean the blonde had done it at Kellin's party. Alex clearly hadn't done any drugs when Josh had spoken to him, so if Chris said yes then it meant Alex had done it after Josh's confrontation.
“They all did it at the party then?” He asked sounded interested but not as interested as he really was.
“Yeah, yeah. They were all there that night when we were doing it.”
Josh's lips pursed and he felt really tired all of a sudden, just completely drained. “Okay, yeah, well I'll think about it. I have to go man. See you later.”
The blue-eyed boy didn't even wait for the other boy's reply before he was rushing off in the direction of his car. He ran into Hayley along the way and told her that he couldn't hang out that night because he was feeling quite ill, which was true.
He finally found his car and got in. He sat in the driver's seat and stared out the window for a minute or two. Then he rested his head on the steering wheel and let out a large breath.
What was he going to do now?
xxxxxx
A/N: This chapter is finally up! Sorry that I'm a day or two late, it's just I was flying all day Friday and then I was really tired yesterday because jet lag is a raging bitch on her period. But the chapter is finally written and now all is well. Please comment with your thoughts because I shall love you forever!
Ps. For Baltimore is perfect. Adsjhfbhj I can't wait to see ATL in November! :D
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, sadly. Title goes to Bite My Tongue-You Me At Six, Cut goes to Gossip-You Me At Six
A/N: At the End
Masterpost
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jack rubbed his eyes and yawned as he walked into school on Monday. He was really tired and didn't want to deal with school at the moment. He'd rather just go home and crawl back into bed for the rest of the day.
He had stayed up for pretty much half the night before because just when he had gone to bed he'd remembered an essay that was due the next day and realised he hadn't even started it. He'd reluctantly got out of bed and grabbed his notes, paper, and pencils. Usually he'd just blow it off and make some excuse, but he really couldn't afford to fail this essay because it would bring his already lower-than-normal history grade down.
Once again he cursed Alex and his stupid popularity because the blonde was really good at History and Jack could usually convince him to write his papers for him.
The Lebanese boy was so tired that morning that he didn't even notice the insanely awkward gathering at his locker.
As per usual, Josh and Matt were there. But today someone else seemed to be taking a bit longer to get things out of his own locker and it looking like he was waiting for somebody as well.
Matt and Josh seemed to be trying to act like things were normal, like Alex standing at his locker waiting to speak to Jack was an everyday thing. And it would have been. A few weeks ago. Now, it was just strange and abnormal.
If the boy that everyone was waiting for had been more aware he would have sensed that things were especially awkward between Josh and Alex. This too was weird because they were both popular meaning that even if they didn't like each other they got along. But they did like each other anyway so they should have been fine.
Matt was doing his best to try and ease the awkwardness but whenever he attempted to make conversation with anyone, especially Alex, the blonde shot him a look similar to that of a dog having his bone taken away.
Needless to say, when the Lebanese boy showed up, everyone looked a bit relieved. Josh and Matt were happy because they knew that he'd ignore Alex and the added factor making everything weird would be gone. The blonde boy was just happy to see Jack.
Jack was a walking zombie and when he arrived he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He yawned again and nodded to Josh and Matt acknowledging their presence and then said good morning to the blonde at his right.
He slowly began putting books in and taking things out of his locker not bothering to speak because he was tired and couldn't care less if anyone spoke or not. Matt soon left, being told by some guy named Dan that some girl was looking for him and he better leave before she saw him because she apparently thought they were together now. Matt quickly thanked Dan and said bye to the small gathering at Jack's locker, he was actually kind of relieved to have an excuse for leaving and he shot Josh an apologetic look before walking off with Dan.
Jack yawned for the third time that morning and continued with what he was doing. He was searching through his backpack at the moment trying to find his fucking essay that he'd spent all night writing. He was kind of freaking out because he really needed that thing.
He vaguely notice the blue-eyed boy on his left shuffling around restlessly and glanced over for a second. Josh kept opened and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure if he should. His eyes kept darting from Jack to the blonde behind him and he looked like he was in pain.
The Lebanese boy shrugged and went back to raiding his backpack. How the fuck can something be this full? He then realised that, wait a second, Alex was standing at his locker. He usually didn't show up this early. He quickly glanced over to his right this time and saw the blonde, he raised an eyebrow slightly but again just shrugged and continued his search.
When he found it and was just about to do a dance of joy and celebrate Josh finally spoke up, “I-um. I'll see you later, Jack. All right? I-I have to, uh....do...something...” He mumbled awkwardly and then shot another glance at Alex not really bothering to disguise the fact that he was leaving because of the blonde’s presence.
Jack just waved at him as he left and started to put his bag into his locker. He heard a slight cough next to him that was meant to get Jack's attention. The Lebanese boy turned to his right and raised an eyebrow again. It had only just clicked in his mind when he looked at Alex that this wasn't an everyday thing any more, the blonde being at his locker, waiting for Jack at his locker. This hadn't happened in while.
The dark haired boy was a bit taken aback. When he spoke his voice was tinged with surprise, “Uh, h-hey Alex. What's up?”
Jack was kind of nervous as well as being surprised, his mind kept going back to when they were making out and Jack prayed that he wasn't blushing.
He figured he probably wasn't though because Alex just looked up at him from under his hair with a small sheepish smile, “Um, nothing. I just uh, wanted to say hi. You know.”
The dark haired boy furrowed his eyebrows, “Oh, well...hi then.”
Alex bit his lip, “Yeah....hi...” He finished lamely.
Jack stood there awkwardly as both of them stopped talking. Just as he was about to leave it at that and walk away Alex finally spoke, his head snapped up and he finally met Jack's eyes. His seemed frantic and needy and his voice was the same, “Do you remember the time that you came to my window at three in the morning and you took me to that field and the moon was full and really big and the sky was really beautiful and it was cold, but not too cold, the prefect amount of cold, and we went under the blankets and didn't really even talk much, and we just lay there for the rest of the night and then we fell asleep?”
Jack's eyes widened in surprise, he had no idea where that came from all of a sudden, “Um...” He thought about it. Yes, of course he remembered that night. That was the night that he realised that he was in love with Alex. That was the real reason that Jack wanted to be with the blonde. Even if he couldn’t tell him he loved him, he just wanted to be close to him. He'd been unable to sleep because he couldn't stop thinking about him.
He couldn't tell Alex this though, “Of course, Lexy.” He practically whispered.
The older boy didn't respond, he just stared Jack straight in the eyes and just looked at him. For the first time Jack couldn’t read those large caramel orbs, they were completely closed off. At the same time looked strangely vulnerable. After what felt like an hour, but was probably only a minute or two, the blonde nodded slightly and then mumbled, “I'll see you later.” and walked off to his next class.
Jack just stood there. He had no idea what had just happened or why Alex was acting so weird. He wondered why he'd asked about that night in the field so desperately and like he had to know that Jack remembered, had to know that it had happened. He bit his lip in thought then shook his head to clear it and decided to ignore it, he wasn't going to get caught up thinking about the blonde again, he'd told Josh and Matt that he'd lay off, and he would.
Yawning again he shuffled off to his History class, once again mentally celebrating the fact that he'd found his essay.
~
The dark haired English boy walked through the crowded hallways alone and silent. His ears were wide open and he was carefully listening to every conversation, every random shout, every hushed whisper.
He was keeping a look out for some indication that it hadn't stopped. He trusted Alex, he really did. It's just....he wanted to be absolutely sure. At the slightest sign that he heard about the blonde's continued use he would have to tell Jack.
He sighed, he had been doing this all day between classes and he hadn't heard anything yet. He felt a little guilty, maybe he should believe Alex. The older boy had looked guilty and really hadn't wanted Jack to know and he'd known that Josh would tell him, so maybe he'd stopped.
Josh shook his head, this was stupid. He thought about it for a moment and decided he would stop his random patrols looking for a sign. He stopped walking in a straight line and went toward the “popular” group. He hadn't really hung out with them in a while which was not a good thing if he wanted to stay popular. Honestly, he really couldn't care less about whether he stayed popular or not. But, Hayley was popular and according to the stupid high school popularity laws, if he wanted to continue dating her then he needed to be popular as well.
He walked over to the big group of people that looked disinterested in everything around them and said hi to random people. He walked over to this boy with really long hair who most people referred to as “the dude” but Josh just called by his first name.
“Hey Chris, how's it going?” He said, knowing he didn't really sound interested because he wasn’t, but didn't really care because that's how popular people sound most of the time.
Chris looked up at Josh and nodded in acknowledgement. “Hi Josh. Oh, you know, things are going pretty good. You go to Kellin's party the other day?”
Josh rolled his eyes in his head, of course the conversation would go straight to the most recent party, it's not like these people had any real substance. “Yeah, it was good.”
“Mmm, yeah. You do, uh,” he wiped under his nose subtly, “right?”
The blue-eye boy raised an eyebrow, this was the time to actually pay attention to the conversation. “No. But I've been thinking about it.” Josh carefully lied.
“Ah, yeah? Well you should definitely think about it more man. Kellin and his guys have the best stuff.”
Josh nodded looking impressed, but not completely convinced, “Is that so? I don't know though man. Who else is into it at the moment?”
Chris thought about it, it looked like it really pained him to do, clearly thinking was a skill he hadn't quite mastered yet. “Um, you know, loads of people....Dan, Zack, James, Alex, Ben, Jesse, Vic, Kellin, Mike, I think more, I don't know.”
Josh had to keep his face controlled even though he really wanted to freak out and rush to Jack. Chris had said Alex. There was only one Alex around. He had to find out if he was still doing it now though, maybe Chris had just meant before. He didn't necessarily mean the blonde had done it at Kellin's party. Alex clearly hadn't done any drugs when Josh had spoken to him, so if Chris said yes then it meant Alex had done it after Josh's confrontation.
“They all did it at the party then?” He asked sounded interested but not as interested as he really was.
“Yeah, yeah. They were all there that night when we were doing it.”
Josh's lips pursed and he felt really tired all of a sudden, just completely drained. “Okay, yeah, well I'll think about it. I have to go man. See you later.”
The blue-eyed boy didn't even wait for the other boy's reply before he was rushing off in the direction of his car. He ran into Hayley along the way and told her that he couldn't hang out that night because he was feeling quite ill, which was true.
He finally found his car and got in. He sat in the driver's seat and stared out the window for a minute or two. Then he rested his head on the steering wheel and let out a large breath.
What was he going to do now?
xxxxxx
A/N: This chapter is finally up! Sorry that I'm a day or two late, it's just I was flying all day Friday and then I was really tired yesterday because jet lag is a raging bitch on her period. But the chapter is finally written and now all is well. Please comment with your thoughts because I shall love you forever!
Ps. For Baltimore is perfect. Adsjhfbhj I can't wait to see ATL in November! :D