Actors (Chapter Eleven)
Title: Actors (Chapter Eleven)
Author: songs_and_words
beta: live_by_lyrics
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17... eventually
Summary: Welcome to the Interplanetary Student Exchange Buddy program.
Disclaimer: If I actually owned Alex and Jack... well, I wouldn't be writing this. Also story title belongs to All Time Low.
Author notes: First of all, thanks to Gess (live_by_lyrics) for being an amazing beta and correcting my grammar slip-ups and telling me when I'm being confusing. She's a brilliant writer, if you like my story I'm sure you'd love hers so go check them out here
Sorry I took forever with this update, my writers block was flaring something fierce for whatever reason. But thank you to ALLLL the comments I got on the last chapter, you guys make me smile. :) Let me know what you're thinking after this update!
Writing tumblr
masterpost
Jack practically fell into the classroom and stopped just inside the door, panting and wiping his hand across his forehead in an attempt to get the wet strands of hair stuck there to fall away. He'd laid down for a nap an hour before class and overslept, forcing him to run to the classroom from across campus.
“Mister Barakat, nice of you to join us,” Carson paused lecturing and smiled at him from the center of the circle of desks. “I just gave out the list of assigned pairs for your oral presentations.”
Jack caught his breath and walked over to take the piece of paper from Carson's out stretched hand. He muttered a 'thank you' then moved to sit in the nearest empty desk.
He scanned the rather short list- there were only about twelve students in the class total- and noticed that his assigned partner was Rian. He breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Okay, so now that you've got your assignment, go ahead and meet with your partner and start coming up with ideas,” Carson instructed. Jack grabbed his bag and stood up to close the short distance across the circle to where Rian was sitting and talking to a girl next to him. Jack slid into the desk next to him and coughed slightly to get his attention.
“Oh hey Jack. Who's your partner?” Rian asked and Jack furrowed his brow.
“Uh, you are,” he replied.
“What? No man, Katie's my partner,” Rian said, gesturing to the sheet of paper in Jack's hand and pointing to where his name was listed on the second line next to Katie's. Then he followed Jack's finger to where their names were listed side by side at the bottom. “Oh, looks like he mixed it up.”
“Hey, Mr. Carson,” Jack said, gesturing for the teacher to come over to where the three students were sitting. “Rian's listed on here twice. Does that mean all three of us should work together?”
“Hmm, that's strange,” Carson said, scanning the room quickly, and then raising his voice to the whole room. “Does anyone not have a partner?”
“I don't,” Alex's voice came from the corner. “My name isn't listed here.”
“Oh, there we go,” Carson said, turning back to the three students. “Jack, you know Alex from the buddy program, right? Why don't you work with him?”
The teacher walked away and Jack sighed, nodding goodbye to Rian and walking over to sit next to Alex. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't just a little nervous. He hadn't been around the alien since they'd agreed to 'start over.' What that meant exactly, Jack didn't know.
“Hi,” Jack tested.
“Hi,” Alex responded, tone neutral but Jack didn't miss the slight roll of his eyes.
“So, I sort of missed the details for this project since I was late,” Jack said, twirling his pen around in his hands. Alex sighed but sat up straighter and faced Jack slightly.
“We have to pick a neighboring nation and talk about the US's relations with them over the past twenty years,” Alex explained. He still maintained his flat tone but Jack figured it was worlds better than the snarl he'd grown accustomed to. “I already asked if I could do Zurconian-Earth relations since I obviously have a deep knowledge of the topic.”
“Oh, sounds good,” Jack said, biting his bottom lip.
“Do you have a particular time that you're free to work on this?” Alex asked. “It's technically going to require a few weeks of outside research, but we could probably get it figured out in an afternoon or two.”
“I'm free Thursday after class,” Jack said, and Alex nodded.
“Alright, we can go to my apartment after class. It'll probably be the most,” the alien paused and Jack thought he might be trying to swallow an insult of some sort, “comfortable place to work.”
“Hey, I'll have you know that my apartment is quite cozy,” Jack retorted.
“After having slept in your bed, I'm not sure I trust your judgement on that one,” Alex replied, standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder. Jack felt a red tint hit his cheeks as he remembered that night. “See you Thursday.”
-
Jack walked a few paces behind Alex. He felt mildly out of place as he followed the prince through the crowd outside the international studies building. Doug trailed the pair just a few steps behind and Jack felt like they were some sort of parade. A very small, dumb parade. Half of Jack wanted to speed up slightly and fall into step next to Alex just to feign normalcy and have some sort of small talk. The other, and presently more dominant, half just went with the awkward silence. Jack concentrated on trying not to step on the back of the prince's heels and certainly not staring at how his butt moved with every step he took. Eventually the smallest, most awkward parade ever turned onto Main Street and out of the campus district.
“Wait,” Jack mumbled, causing Alex to toss him a look over his shoulder. “You don't live on campus?”
“No,” Alex responded curtly, “I don't.”
“Isn't that kind of annoying?” Jack asked, picturing how far Alex must have to walk just to get to and from class.
“Not really,” Alex said. “It's nice to walk around. At home, I barely get to walk anywhere.”
Jack just nodded in response, not sure what else he could say. After about ten more minutes of walking in silence, Alex turned up to enter a building and Jack glanced upwards with a gulp. Alex lived in the nicest building in town, easily.
“Well, are you going to stop gaping and come inside or shall I just leave you here?” Alex asked, and Jack's focus snapped back to the prince who was actually holding the door open and waiting for Jack to climb the half flight of stairs to enter.
“I'm coming,” Jack mumbled, blushing slightly from being caught awe-struck. When they reached Alex's unit, the prince walked straight in and dropped his bag by his desk then plopped down on the couch, letting his eyes slide shut. Jack stood awkwardly by the entrance, not sure what to do.
“You can sit down, you know,” Alex said from the couch. “I'm not going to zap you with a laser beam or anything.”
Jack wrung his hands out once and sat down gingerly next to Alex, smiling as he sunk into the soft cushion. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Alex sighed and stood up to grab his computer, mumbling something about how they might as well start working. When he resumed his position on the couch, Jack scooted a little closer so he could see the screen better. Alex seemingly ignored the younger boy and began to instead type into a blank word document when suddenly a video chat box popped up on his screen.
“Jack, I have to take this video chat.” Alex said quickly, eyes shining as he hit the “answer” button and the video screen got larger. There was a lot of shuffling and then a little voice sprung out.
“Alex!” Jack peeked at the screen to see who was speaking and saw a little girl sitting in front of the screen on the other side. She looked like a miniature, female version of the boy sitting on his left. She had the same caramel eyes and perfectly curly blonde hair that framed her face.
“Hey Clare bear,” Alex answered, tone foreign to Jack as it was soft and oozing with affection. “What are you doing calling me before school?”
“Cam said I could!” she exclaimed, and then suddenly a pair of arms reached into the screen and lifted the little girl from the chair.
“Hey 'Lex, what am I getting blamed for now?” The boy had climbed fully into the frame now, sitting down on the chair that Clare had previously been occupying and placing the little girl on his knee so she could still see her brother. Jack took in his appearance on the screen- his brown hair fell just short of his bright blue eyes, which were shining despite the pixelation.
“Hi Cam,” Alex replied, rolling his eyes when the other boy blew him a kiss.
“Don't seem so excited to see me. How's Earth?” he asked.
“Did you make any friends yet?” Clare piped up and Alex smiled.
“Of course I have honey,” he lied, biting his lip.
“What're they like?” she piped up, and Alex sighed. He knew Jack could hear everything he said and he didn't need the earthling to hold anything over his head.
“They're cool. A lot cooler than Cameron,” Alex said nonchalantly, making the little girl giggle.
“I made you something at school. Mommy said I could send it to you,” Clare exclaimed.
“Why don't you go get it so you can show Alex?” Cameron suggested, setting the little girl down on her feet so she could run out of the room.
“What time is it there?” Alex asked, squinting at the clock on his computer to try to figure out the time difference. “Isn't Clare supposed to be at school?”
Jack bit his lip and slowly moved to stand up off the couch. He felt like he was invading Alex's privacy. He didn't want to make this awkward for the older boy by eavesdropping on his personal conversation, so he walked to the bathroom and shut the door. He could still hear Alex's conversation from there but at least he wasn't physically in the room anymore.
“Nah, she has a late arrival today. Your mom asked me to come hang with her for a few hours ‘cause she missed you,” Cameron explained. “I'm getting saddled with all your big brother duties since you decided to hop the planet.”
“You love it,” Alex quipped.
“Of course I do,” Cameron agreed, and then adopted a more serious tone. “How are you really doing 'Lex? Don't bullshit me, I can tell you're not happy.”
“I'm doing... fine Cameron. I just- I kind of fucked it up with making friends here. I didn't think that would matter much, but I'm lonely,” Alex admitted, ducking his head slightly and pausing before smirking back up at the computer screen. “But what I really should be worrying about is how you're handling my absence so well.”
“Oh, how could you not have made any friends with that humble attitude?” Cameron mocked, smiling at Alex through the screen.
“Normally making friends involves being nice to other people.”
“I know Cam,” Alex sighed, running a hand over his face. “I'm just not very good at that.”
“Probably ‘cause you're not a very good person,” Cameron joked, laughing when Alex's mouth fell open in offense.
“You're such a jerk,” Alex responded. “I hope you know that.”
“Takes one to know one babe,” Cameron winked. “Seriously just try to bite your tongue when you feel nasty comments coming on and see where it gets you. Maybe you'll trick some poor dope like me into actually wanting to be around you.”
There was a pause in the conversation then that left Jack wondering if the call had ended abruptly, but then he heard Clare's voice ring through the speakers again. She must be showing Alex whatever it is that she made him at school, he figured. After a few praising comments from Alex, Jack heard Cameron mention something about how Clare needed to actually get ready for school now and Alex said a few goodbyes to the pair. Jack sat in silence for a few moments before he decided the coast was probably clear for him to emerge from the bathroom. He flushed the toilet for good measure then stepped out of the small space, shocked to see Alex sitting on the couch with the video chat still open.
“Alex?” An older female popped into view and Jack assumed it must be the alien's mother. “Hi darling, I don't have much time, I just wanted to-” Jack took a step and nearly tripped over his own two feet, his Nike's making a loud squeaking noise against the tile. “Oh, that wasn't Doug, was it? Is there someone else at your apartment?”
“Uh, yeah, just one of my classmates,” Alex turned his head to look at Jack, eyes locking as he answered his mother.
“Oh, is it that Jack boy whom you're bringing to the gala in D.C.?” Alex froze at Mrs. Gaskarth's words, eyes fixed on Jack in poorly disguised horror. Jack swallowed a lump in his throat, not liking the connotations of her question. “Alex? Are you alright?”
Alex continued to stare at Jack, expression turning into a plea as he responded, “Yeah Mom, that's the one.”
“Well, put him onscreen then. I'd like to see this boy,” she responded and Alex motioned weakly for Jack to come into view of the camera. Jack realized the alien's discomfort and sighed, planting a smile on his face and stepping into the frame.
“Hi Mrs., uh, no, Queen Gaskarth,” he said, trying not to shake. “I'm Jack.”
“Hello Jack, we're so pleased to hear that you're able to accompany Alexander to the gala next week,” Mrs. Gaskarth leaned forward towards her computer screen, making Jack feel vulnerable under her stare.
“Yeah, it should be great,” Jack replied blindly, really disliking his lack of knowledge on the topic of conversation.
“Well, look at the time; I have an appointment to get to. Alex, dear, be safe, bring Doug with you places. Love you,” Mrs. Gaskarth waved at the camera before the video chat disconnected. Jack came around to sit down next to Alex, who was being silent and uncharacteristically sheepish by refusing to meet Jack's eyes.
“So, are you going to explain this gala in D.C. that I am supposedly accompanying you to?” Jack finally asked. Alex sighed and sat up a little straighter.
“The president asked me to come to a gala and my parents want me to bring an earthling as my d-guest,” Alex explained. “Don't worry, I had no intention of actually inviting you, I just gave my parents your name to shut them up about how I needed to find someone to come with me.”
“Oh, okay,” Jack replied, feeling a slight weight off his shoulders. “Good.”
“Yes, well, I figured it'd just make you look bad if you said you could come and then failed to show up, not me. As long as I'm there to uphold the name of the Zurconian people, it shouldn't matter,” Alex replied and Jack narrowed his eyes.
“Wait, so you're telling people that I'm 'attending' and then simply planning for me to be a no-show?” Jack asked. “You were never even going to give me the chance to accept the invitation?”
“Pretty much. I figured you'd just deny the invitation anyways, thought I'd save you the trouble,” Alex replied.
“Then why didn't you go pick someone else to bring?” Jack asked, tugging lightly on his own hair in frustration. Alex sat quietly for a moment before he answered.
“You're pretty much the only earthling who I halfway know,” he said and Jack sighed, unable to believe what he was about to say.
“Okay, when is this gala? How are we getting there? And what am I supposed to wear?”
-
A/N: COMMENTS? What do you guys think of Alex's character now? :)
Author: songs_and_words
beta: live_by_lyrics
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17... eventually
Summary: Welcome to the Interplanetary Student Exchange Buddy program.
Disclaimer: If I actually owned Alex and Jack... well, I wouldn't be writing this. Also story title belongs to All Time Low.
Author notes: First of all, thanks to Gess (live_by_lyrics) for being an amazing beta and correcting my grammar slip-ups and telling me when I'm being confusing. She's a brilliant writer, if you like my story I'm sure you'd love hers so go check them out here
Sorry I took forever with this update, my writers block was flaring something fierce for whatever reason. But thank you to ALLLL the comments I got on the last chapter, you guys make me smile. :) Let me know what you're thinking after this update!
Writing tumblr
masterpost
Jack practically fell into the classroom and stopped just inside the door, panting and wiping his hand across his forehead in an attempt to get the wet strands of hair stuck there to fall away. He'd laid down for a nap an hour before class and overslept, forcing him to run to the classroom from across campus.
“Mister Barakat, nice of you to join us,” Carson paused lecturing and smiled at him from the center of the circle of desks. “I just gave out the list of assigned pairs for your oral presentations.”
Jack caught his breath and walked over to take the piece of paper from Carson's out stretched hand. He muttered a 'thank you' then moved to sit in the nearest empty desk.
He scanned the rather short list- there were only about twelve students in the class total- and noticed that his assigned partner was Rian. He breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Okay, so now that you've got your assignment, go ahead and meet with your partner and start coming up with ideas,” Carson instructed. Jack grabbed his bag and stood up to close the short distance across the circle to where Rian was sitting and talking to a girl next to him. Jack slid into the desk next to him and coughed slightly to get his attention.
“Oh hey Jack. Who's your partner?” Rian asked and Jack furrowed his brow.
“Uh, you are,” he replied.
“What? No man, Katie's my partner,” Rian said, gesturing to the sheet of paper in Jack's hand and pointing to where his name was listed on the second line next to Katie's. Then he followed Jack's finger to where their names were listed side by side at the bottom. “Oh, looks like he mixed it up.”
“Hey, Mr. Carson,” Jack said, gesturing for the teacher to come over to where the three students were sitting. “Rian's listed on here twice. Does that mean all three of us should work together?”
“Hmm, that's strange,” Carson said, scanning the room quickly, and then raising his voice to the whole room. “Does anyone not have a partner?”
“I don't,” Alex's voice came from the corner. “My name isn't listed here.”
“Oh, there we go,” Carson said, turning back to the three students. “Jack, you know Alex from the buddy program, right? Why don't you work with him?”
The teacher walked away and Jack sighed, nodding goodbye to Rian and walking over to sit next to Alex. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't just a little nervous. He hadn't been around the alien since they'd agreed to 'start over.' What that meant exactly, Jack didn't know.
“Hi,” Jack tested.
“Hi,” Alex responded, tone neutral but Jack didn't miss the slight roll of his eyes.
“So, I sort of missed the details for this project since I was late,” Jack said, twirling his pen around in his hands. Alex sighed but sat up straighter and faced Jack slightly.
“We have to pick a neighboring nation and talk about the US's relations with them over the past twenty years,” Alex explained. He still maintained his flat tone but Jack figured it was worlds better than the snarl he'd grown accustomed to. “I already asked if I could do Zurconian-Earth relations since I obviously have a deep knowledge of the topic.”
“Oh, sounds good,” Jack said, biting his bottom lip.
“Do you have a particular time that you're free to work on this?” Alex asked. “It's technically going to require a few weeks of outside research, but we could probably get it figured out in an afternoon or two.”
“I'm free Thursday after class,” Jack said, and Alex nodded.
“Alright, we can go to my apartment after class. It'll probably be the most,” the alien paused and Jack thought he might be trying to swallow an insult of some sort, “comfortable place to work.”
“Hey, I'll have you know that my apartment is quite cozy,” Jack retorted.
“After having slept in your bed, I'm not sure I trust your judgement on that one,” Alex replied, standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder. Jack felt a red tint hit his cheeks as he remembered that night. “See you Thursday.”
-
Jack walked a few paces behind Alex. He felt mildly out of place as he followed the prince through the crowd outside the international studies building. Doug trailed the pair just a few steps behind and Jack felt like they were some sort of parade. A very small, dumb parade. Half of Jack wanted to speed up slightly and fall into step next to Alex just to feign normalcy and have some sort of small talk. The other, and presently more dominant, half just went with the awkward silence. Jack concentrated on trying not to step on the back of the prince's heels and certainly not staring at how his butt moved with every step he took. Eventually the smallest, most awkward parade ever turned onto Main Street and out of the campus district.
“Wait,” Jack mumbled, causing Alex to toss him a look over his shoulder. “You don't live on campus?”
“No,” Alex responded curtly, “I don't.”
“Isn't that kind of annoying?” Jack asked, picturing how far Alex must have to walk just to get to and from class.
“Not really,” Alex said. “It's nice to walk around. At home, I barely get to walk anywhere.”
Jack just nodded in response, not sure what else he could say. After about ten more minutes of walking in silence, Alex turned up to enter a building and Jack glanced upwards with a gulp. Alex lived in the nicest building in town, easily.
“Well, are you going to stop gaping and come inside or shall I just leave you here?” Alex asked, and Jack's focus snapped back to the prince who was actually holding the door open and waiting for Jack to climb the half flight of stairs to enter.
“I'm coming,” Jack mumbled, blushing slightly from being caught awe-struck. When they reached Alex's unit, the prince walked straight in and dropped his bag by his desk then plopped down on the couch, letting his eyes slide shut. Jack stood awkwardly by the entrance, not sure what to do.
“You can sit down, you know,” Alex said from the couch. “I'm not going to zap you with a laser beam or anything.”
Jack wrung his hands out once and sat down gingerly next to Alex, smiling as he sunk into the soft cushion. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Alex sighed and stood up to grab his computer, mumbling something about how they might as well start working. When he resumed his position on the couch, Jack scooted a little closer so he could see the screen better. Alex seemingly ignored the younger boy and began to instead type into a blank word document when suddenly a video chat box popped up on his screen.
“Jack, I have to take this video chat.” Alex said quickly, eyes shining as he hit the “answer” button and the video screen got larger. There was a lot of shuffling and then a little voice sprung out.
“Alex!” Jack peeked at the screen to see who was speaking and saw a little girl sitting in front of the screen on the other side. She looked like a miniature, female version of the boy sitting on his left. She had the same caramel eyes and perfectly curly blonde hair that framed her face.
“Hey Clare bear,” Alex answered, tone foreign to Jack as it was soft and oozing with affection. “What are you doing calling me before school?”
“Cam said I could!” she exclaimed, and then suddenly a pair of arms reached into the screen and lifted the little girl from the chair.
“Hey 'Lex, what am I getting blamed for now?” The boy had climbed fully into the frame now, sitting down on the chair that Clare had previously been occupying and placing the little girl on his knee so she could still see her brother. Jack took in his appearance on the screen- his brown hair fell just short of his bright blue eyes, which were shining despite the pixelation.
“Hi Cam,” Alex replied, rolling his eyes when the other boy blew him a kiss.
“Don't seem so excited to see me. How's Earth?” he asked.
“Did you make any friends yet?” Clare piped up and Alex smiled.
“Of course I have honey,” he lied, biting his lip.
“What're they like?” she piped up, and Alex sighed. He knew Jack could hear everything he said and he didn't need the earthling to hold anything over his head.
“They're cool. A lot cooler than Cameron,” Alex said nonchalantly, making the little girl giggle.
“I made you something at school. Mommy said I could send it to you,” Clare exclaimed.
“Why don't you go get it so you can show Alex?” Cameron suggested, setting the little girl down on her feet so she could run out of the room.
“What time is it there?” Alex asked, squinting at the clock on his computer to try to figure out the time difference. “Isn't Clare supposed to be at school?”
Jack bit his lip and slowly moved to stand up off the couch. He felt like he was invading Alex's privacy. He didn't want to make this awkward for the older boy by eavesdropping on his personal conversation, so he walked to the bathroom and shut the door. He could still hear Alex's conversation from there but at least he wasn't physically in the room anymore.
“Nah, she has a late arrival today. Your mom asked me to come hang with her for a few hours ‘cause she missed you,” Cameron explained. “I'm getting saddled with all your big brother duties since you decided to hop the planet.”
“You love it,” Alex quipped.
“Of course I do,” Cameron agreed, and then adopted a more serious tone. “How are you really doing 'Lex? Don't bullshit me, I can tell you're not happy.”
“I'm doing... fine Cameron. I just- I kind of fucked it up with making friends here. I didn't think that would matter much, but I'm lonely,” Alex admitted, ducking his head slightly and pausing before smirking back up at the computer screen. “But what I really should be worrying about is how you're handling my absence so well.”
“Oh, how could you not have made any friends with that humble attitude?” Cameron mocked, smiling at Alex through the screen.
“Normally making friends involves being nice to other people.”
“I know Cam,” Alex sighed, running a hand over his face. “I'm just not very good at that.”
“Probably ‘cause you're not a very good person,” Cameron joked, laughing when Alex's mouth fell open in offense.
“You're such a jerk,” Alex responded. “I hope you know that.”
“Takes one to know one babe,” Cameron winked. “Seriously just try to bite your tongue when you feel nasty comments coming on and see where it gets you. Maybe you'll trick some poor dope like me into actually wanting to be around you.”
There was a pause in the conversation then that left Jack wondering if the call had ended abruptly, but then he heard Clare's voice ring through the speakers again. She must be showing Alex whatever it is that she made him at school, he figured. After a few praising comments from Alex, Jack heard Cameron mention something about how Clare needed to actually get ready for school now and Alex said a few goodbyes to the pair. Jack sat in silence for a few moments before he decided the coast was probably clear for him to emerge from the bathroom. He flushed the toilet for good measure then stepped out of the small space, shocked to see Alex sitting on the couch with the video chat still open.
“Alex?” An older female popped into view and Jack assumed it must be the alien's mother. “Hi darling, I don't have much time, I just wanted to-” Jack took a step and nearly tripped over his own two feet, his Nike's making a loud squeaking noise against the tile. “Oh, that wasn't Doug, was it? Is there someone else at your apartment?”
“Uh, yeah, just one of my classmates,” Alex turned his head to look at Jack, eyes locking as he answered his mother.
“Oh, is it that Jack boy whom you're bringing to the gala in D.C.?” Alex froze at Mrs. Gaskarth's words, eyes fixed on Jack in poorly disguised horror. Jack swallowed a lump in his throat, not liking the connotations of her question. “Alex? Are you alright?”
Alex continued to stare at Jack, expression turning into a plea as he responded, “Yeah Mom, that's the one.”
“Well, put him onscreen then. I'd like to see this boy,” she responded and Alex motioned weakly for Jack to come into view of the camera. Jack realized the alien's discomfort and sighed, planting a smile on his face and stepping into the frame.
“Hi Mrs., uh, no, Queen Gaskarth,” he said, trying not to shake. “I'm Jack.”
“Hello Jack, we're so pleased to hear that you're able to accompany Alexander to the gala next week,” Mrs. Gaskarth leaned forward towards her computer screen, making Jack feel vulnerable under her stare.
“Yeah, it should be great,” Jack replied blindly, really disliking his lack of knowledge on the topic of conversation.
“Well, look at the time; I have an appointment to get to. Alex, dear, be safe, bring Doug with you places. Love you,” Mrs. Gaskarth waved at the camera before the video chat disconnected. Jack came around to sit down next to Alex, who was being silent and uncharacteristically sheepish by refusing to meet Jack's eyes.
“So, are you going to explain this gala in D.C. that I am supposedly accompanying you to?” Jack finally asked. Alex sighed and sat up a little straighter.
“The president asked me to come to a gala and my parents want me to bring an earthling as my d-guest,” Alex explained. “Don't worry, I had no intention of actually inviting you, I just gave my parents your name to shut them up about how I needed to find someone to come with me.”
“Oh, okay,” Jack replied, feeling a slight weight off his shoulders. “Good.”
“Yes, well, I figured it'd just make you look bad if you said you could come and then failed to show up, not me. As long as I'm there to uphold the name of the Zurconian people, it shouldn't matter,” Alex replied and Jack narrowed his eyes.
“Wait, so you're telling people that I'm 'attending' and then simply planning for me to be a no-show?” Jack asked. “You were never even going to give me the chance to accept the invitation?”
“Pretty much. I figured you'd just deny the invitation anyways, thought I'd save you the trouble,” Alex replied.
“Then why didn't you go pick someone else to bring?” Jack asked, tugging lightly on his own hair in frustration. Alex sat quietly for a moment before he answered.
“You're pretty much the only earthling who I halfway know,” he said and Jack sighed, unable to believe what he was about to say.
“Okay, when is this gala? How are we getting there? And what am I supposed to wear?”
-
A/N: COMMENTS? What do you guys think of Alex's character now? :)