trophy eyes (prologue&chapter one!)
I've finally decided to x-post this from my mibba.
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prologue.
Jack throws himself into the music block bathrooms, breathing hard. He’s just narrowly escaped the wrath of Jonathan Cook and his army of school bullies. He shuffles into one of the cubicles and sits down on the lid of the toilet.
His life stinks.
He spends every day trying to avoid the senior assholes that are intent on making his life miserable. When he gets a free minute to himself, he’s usually trying to beat level three on Call Of Duty or attempting to learn the guitar for the newest Blink 182 song. And when he’s not doing that, he’s just trying to be a normal kid.
He gets comfortable in the bathroom cubicle; he’s skipping next period so he knows Jonathan and his cronies are out of the way.
He knows Andrew will probably be looking for him in the English block right about now, probably with that new exchange student kid.
Andrew’s his best friend, and has been for as long as Jack can remember. He doesn’t honestly think he’d be able to pull through a school day without Andrew by his side.
Then there’s Zack. Ordinarily, Zack would’ve stood up to Jonathan and company for Jack, but since Zack is away on the student exchange program and has been replaced by some weedy Welsh kid, that’s out of the question.
Said weedy Welsh kid goes by the name of Aled. Jack doesn’t really know much about him, except that Andrew was given the wonderful reward of looking after him while he’s here.
Jack is shaken from his thoughts as the bathroom door flies open.
“Stop being such a pussy and just do it, Gaskarth.”
Jack knows that voice; John O’Callaghan, pushy senior who deals drugs to all the addicts in the school.
“I don’t know, John.”
“Oh come on, Alex. Everyone’s doing it. It makes you feel better.”
By now, Jack has managed to place the other voice as Alex Gaskarth’s. Jack always had him down as a good kid; he can’t say he remembers him ever being in serious trouble at school. Well, he’s never been in such serious trouble it’s been gossiped about for weeks on end.
“Alright. Fine. But so help me, John-Oh, if my mom finds out, I’ll destroy you.”
*
Joe, Jack’s elder brother, knows something’s up when Alex stumbles into class fifteen minutes late. Alex isn’t one to intentionally show up late.
Joe catches sight of Alex’s eyes as the boy takes a seat beside him and his huge, almost frightening dilated pupils, with only a tiny strip of honey iris framing them, give everything away.
Alex Gaskarth’s doing drugs.
--------------------
Joe and the other seniors see Alex deteriorate over a period of two weeks. It’s not a pretty sight.
one: deteriorating.
By the end of the two weeks, Alex was a wreck.
Joe and Jack arrive at school one morning and take a detour behind the math block to their respective homerooms.
Behind the math block, they find Alex and a senior girl clearly out of it, eyes wide and stupid smiles spread across their faces. Joe and Jack watch, in shock, as Alex pulls the girl on top of him and immediately starts kissing her. The two boys are close enough to see the needles lying used on the grass and the belt still fastened tight around Alex’s left arm.
*
Jack sees the two of them later, and Alex has clearly come down from his first high and is at the peak of his second. He’s with Hayley again, and neither of them seem to be paying any attention to the uproar that’s taking place just a few meters down the corridor. No, they’re too busy sucking face to notice.
Said uproar is being caused by a senior girl - her name’s gone from Jack’s brain, but he’s sure Joe or May’s mentioned her before - and John O’Callaghan.
Something about the boy has clearly upset the girl, as she’s screaming at him like her life depends on it.
“Listen to me, O’Callaghan!” She yells. She’s several inches shorter than the boy, and she’s not exactly the scariest looking individual, she’s too much of a prep for that.
John looks at her, a bored expression gracing his features.
“What did you do to him?” She screams. It hits Jack who this girl is; Victoria. He thinks she was Alex’s friend, and Joe constantly complained about how she’d fallen with the wrong crowd.
“I didn’t do anything. The drugs did.” John spits, looking down on the smartly-dressed girl.
“I’m not stupid, I know he got them from you!”
Before John has time to respond, one of the football team appears and drags Victoria away before John got chance to destroy her.
The crowd disperses as quickly as it formed, and Jack is left standing in a nearly deserted corridor, save for the jock and Victoria, and Alex and Hayley. The latter two hadn’t even noticed anything had changed, unsurprisingly.
The jock, Jack realizes, is Rian Dawson. The newest addition to the football team, Jack knows he’s not as much of an ass as the other members of the team. He actually has feelings under the pads and face paint.
Jack’s quietly observing him trying to calm a now hysterical Victoria when Andrew pounces on him, Aled running behind him, panting.
“What’d I miss?” Andrew asks, looking around at the empty corridor.
“Victoria flying into a rage at John about Alex, Rian stepping in and saving the day, and those two not even noticing.” Jack nods in the direction of Alex and Hayley on the opposite wall.
The blonde girl is pressed closer to Alex than Jack first thought possible, and Alex’s hands are trailing over her hips repeatedly.
“In England, they’d never get away with this much without being thrown in detention for physical contact.” Aled comments, glancing at the two of them before looking back at Jack and Andrew.
“This isn’t England.” Jack replies bluntly. Aled raises his hands in surrender.
“Okay, I know. Jesus Christ!” He replies, his voice quickly turning to a mumble.
Andrew looks from the Welsh boy to the American and then back again a few times.
“Could you both just get along?” He asks. Aled leans up against the locker behind him, his shirt riding up and getting caught on his ridiculous Welsh flag belt buckle.
Jack looks at him, stuffs his hands in the pockets of his two-sizes-too-big board shorts, and sighs.
“No.” They say in unison. Andrew’s blue-gray eyes widen in shock.
“That was weird.”
Jack and Aled shrug. Andrew shakes his head, pushes between them and unlocks his bright orange locker. He removes two layers of pointless items before actually finding the History books he needs.
“Andrew, you keep gym shorts in your locker?” Jack asks, a mild look of disgust on his face. Andrew looks at him and frowns.
“What? No!”
“Then what are these?” Aled asks, holding a pair of blue shorts out to the elder American.
“Oh good God.”
The late bell rings before Andrew can justify the shorts. Aled throws them at him, then quickly flings open his locker two down from Andrew’s and pulls out his books with ease.
Jack laughs at them, opening the locker beside Andrew’s and getting out the same books as the other two.
*
Joe hates Spanish class.
Today, he hates it even more. It’s Thursday; assignment day.
Today, Mr Smith has given them a paired speaking task. He’s already picked the pairs. Joe is praying for one of the more intelligent members of the class, not a total uneducated idiot.
“Joe Barakat, Alex Gaskarth, you’ll be partnered together.”
Joe sighs audibly, and looks across at the other boy. He’s asleep on his desk, snoring quietly.
He doesn’t even wake at the end of lesson bell. Joe kneels down at his desk and sighs again.
“Trust me to get the lazy drug addict.” He pokes Alex a few times, and after that has no effect, he pushes him off the chair.
Alex looks up from his sprawled position on the floor with heavy-lidded honey eyes.
“We’re partnered together for this stupid assignment.”
“Why’d you throw me off the chair?” Alex asks, still dazed. Joe sighs raggedly, clearly irritated already.
“You were asleep. Anyway, my house, this Saturday, 2pm.” Joe commands, turning away and leaving.
He mumbles to himself as he returns to his locker.
“Stupid Gaskarth. Why me?”
--------
prologue.
Jack throws himself into the music block bathrooms, breathing hard. He’s just narrowly escaped the wrath of Jonathan Cook and his army of school bullies. He shuffles into one of the cubicles and sits down on the lid of the toilet.
His life stinks.
He spends every day trying to avoid the senior assholes that are intent on making his life miserable. When he gets a free minute to himself, he’s usually trying to beat level three on Call Of Duty or attempting to learn the guitar for the newest Blink 182 song. And when he’s not doing that, he’s just trying to be a normal kid.
He gets comfortable in the bathroom cubicle; he’s skipping next period so he knows Jonathan and his cronies are out of the way.
He knows Andrew will probably be looking for him in the English block right about now, probably with that new exchange student kid.
Andrew’s his best friend, and has been for as long as Jack can remember. He doesn’t honestly think he’d be able to pull through a school day without Andrew by his side.
Then there’s Zack. Ordinarily, Zack would’ve stood up to Jonathan and company for Jack, but since Zack is away on the student exchange program and has been replaced by some weedy Welsh kid, that’s out of the question.
Said weedy Welsh kid goes by the name of Aled. Jack doesn’t really know much about him, except that Andrew was given the wonderful reward of looking after him while he’s here.
Jack is shaken from his thoughts as the bathroom door flies open.
“Stop being such a pussy and just do it, Gaskarth.”
Jack knows that voice; John O’Callaghan, pushy senior who deals drugs to all the addicts in the school.
“I don’t know, John.”
“Oh come on, Alex. Everyone’s doing it. It makes you feel better.”
By now, Jack has managed to place the other voice as Alex Gaskarth’s. Jack always had him down as a good kid; he can’t say he remembers him ever being in serious trouble at school. Well, he’s never been in such serious trouble it’s been gossiped about for weeks on end.
“Alright. Fine. But so help me, John-Oh, if my mom finds out, I’ll destroy you.”
*
Joe, Jack’s elder brother, knows something’s up when Alex stumbles into class fifteen minutes late. Alex isn’t one to intentionally show up late.
Joe catches sight of Alex’s eyes as the boy takes a seat beside him and his huge, almost frightening dilated pupils, with only a tiny strip of honey iris framing them, give everything away.
Alex Gaskarth’s doing drugs.
--------------------
Joe and the other seniors see Alex deteriorate over a period of two weeks. It’s not a pretty sight.
one: deteriorating.
By the end of the two weeks, Alex was a wreck.
Joe and Jack arrive at school one morning and take a detour behind the math block to their respective homerooms.
Behind the math block, they find Alex and a senior girl clearly out of it, eyes wide and stupid smiles spread across their faces. Joe and Jack watch, in shock, as Alex pulls the girl on top of him and immediately starts kissing her. The two boys are close enough to see the needles lying used on the grass and the belt still fastened tight around Alex’s left arm.
*
Jack sees the two of them later, and Alex has clearly come down from his first high and is at the peak of his second. He’s with Hayley again, and neither of them seem to be paying any attention to the uproar that’s taking place just a few meters down the corridor. No, they’re too busy sucking face to notice.
Said uproar is being caused by a senior girl - her name’s gone from Jack’s brain, but he’s sure Joe or May’s mentioned her before - and John O’Callaghan.
Something about the boy has clearly upset the girl, as she’s screaming at him like her life depends on it.
“Listen to me, O’Callaghan!” She yells. She’s several inches shorter than the boy, and she’s not exactly the scariest looking individual, she’s too much of a prep for that.
John looks at her, a bored expression gracing his features.
“What did you do to him?” She screams. It hits Jack who this girl is; Victoria. He thinks she was Alex’s friend, and Joe constantly complained about how she’d fallen with the wrong crowd.
“I didn’t do anything. The drugs did.” John spits, looking down on the smartly-dressed girl.
“I’m not stupid, I know he got them from you!”
Before John has time to respond, one of the football team appears and drags Victoria away before John got chance to destroy her.
The crowd disperses as quickly as it formed, and Jack is left standing in a nearly deserted corridor, save for the jock and Victoria, and Alex and Hayley. The latter two hadn’t even noticed anything had changed, unsurprisingly.
The jock, Jack realizes, is Rian Dawson. The newest addition to the football team, Jack knows he’s not as much of an ass as the other members of the team. He actually has feelings under the pads and face paint.
Jack’s quietly observing him trying to calm a now hysterical Victoria when Andrew pounces on him, Aled running behind him, panting.
“What’d I miss?” Andrew asks, looking around at the empty corridor.
“Victoria flying into a rage at John about Alex, Rian stepping in and saving the day, and those two not even noticing.” Jack nods in the direction of Alex and Hayley on the opposite wall.
The blonde girl is pressed closer to Alex than Jack first thought possible, and Alex’s hands are trailing over her hips repeatedly.
“In England, they’d never get away with this much without being thrown in detention for physical contact.” Aled comments, glancing at the two of them before looking back at Jack and Andrew.
“This isn’t England.” Jack replies bluntly. Aled raises his hands in surrender.
“Okay, I know. Jesus Christ!” He replies, his voice quickly turning to a mumble.
Andrew looks from the Welsh boy to the American and then back again a few times.
“Could you both just get along?” He asks. Aled leans up against the locker behind him, his shirt riding up and getting caught on his ridiculous Welsh flag belt buckle.
Jack looks at him, stuffs his hands in the pockets of his two-sizes-too-big board shorts, and sighs.
“No.” They say in unison. Andrew’s blue-gray eyes widen in shock.
“That was weird.”
Jack and Aled shrug. Andrew shakes his head, pushes between them and unlocks his bright orange locker. He removes two layers of pointless items before actually finding the History books he needs.
“Andrew, you keep gym shorts in your locker?” Jack asks, a mild look of disgust on his face. Andrew looks at him and frowns.
“What? No!”
“Then what are these?” Aled asks, holding a pair of blue shorts out to the elder American.
“Oh good God.”
The late bell rings before Andrew can justify the shorts. Aled throws them at him, then quickly flings open his locker two down from Andrew’s and pulls out his books with ease.
Jack laughs at them, opening the locker beside Andrew’s and getting out the same books as the other two.
*
Joe hates Spanish class.
Today, he hates it even more. It’s Thursday; assignment day.
Today, Mr Smith has given them a paired speaking task. He’s already picked the pairs. Joe is praying for one of the more intelligent members of the class, not a total uneducated idiot.
“Joe Barakat, Alex Gaskarth, you’ll be partnered together.”
Joe sighs audibly, and looks across at the other boy. He’s asleep on his desk, snoring quietly.
He doesn’t even wake at the end of lesson bell. Joe kneels down at his desk and sighs again.
“Trust me to get the lazy drug addict.” He pokes Alex a few times, and after that has no effect, he pushes him off the chair.
Alex looks up from his sprawled position on the floor with heavy-lidded honey eyes.
“We’re partnered together for this stupid assignment.”
“Why’d you throw me off the chair?” Alex asks, still dazed. Joe sighs raggedly, clearly irritated already.
“You were asleep. Anyway, my house, this Saturday, 2pm.” Joe commands, turning away and leaving.
He mumbles to himself as he returns to his locker.
“Stupid Gaskarth. Why me?”