Thursday, September 23
“What?” I looked at Alex. Did he really just ask me that? “Why are you asking me a stupid question? I'm not your girlfriend, and I'm not going to let you mess around with me.” Alex seemed a little hurt, but we went back to work. I pointed at the circled ones, helping him understand them better. After explaining his homework so he understood it, we both started working in silence. Our pencils moved across the paper as we worked on math.
When Alex’s pencil stopped moving, I glanced at him. My eyes widened as I felt an unfamiliar warmth on my lips. Realizing Alex was kissing me, I shoved him away and stood up. Covering my mouth with the back of my hand, I was at a loss for words. Alex just stared at him, trying to find the words that could make up for an apology. Instead of waiting to hear it, I closed my binder and grabbed my bag, rushing out of the classroom.
“What’s up, Paul?” Jack asked, answering his phone. I didn’t say anything at first, still shocked from what Alex did. By now I was almost at the large gym in the back of the school. The gym lobby doors had glass panels showcased the back parking lot. I paused for a moment, letting Jack listen to my panting. “Paul? What’s wrong?” Of course Jack would notice something was wrong.
“Are you free now?” I asked.
“What?” A short pause and then a sigh. “Fine. My parents have been asking me when will you be coming over anyway. Are you still at school?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m outside the gym.”
“I’ll be there in a minute. I just got out of a meeting with my counselor.”
I hung up and sighed, leaning against the door. I heard a whistle and glanced over at Field 1 and saw the football team running through a drill. The door next to me was pushed open and Jack slung his arm over my shoulder. He was taller than me by five inches, but rarely stood upright at school. His backpack hung over his other arm, and he gave me a cheeky grin.
“How’ve you been?” he asked. “Is Ms. Thompson giving you your meals?”
“Yeah yeah,” I said, pushing his arm off me. “Can we go now?” Jack nodded, and we headed towards his car. It was an older car that had a long history of repairs. It ran smooth enough for Jack to get to and from places around town.
“So?” he asked as he headed down the road. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
I covered my mouth remembering the thought. “Nothing happened.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Jack’s voice was stern, making me hesitate some more. If Jack wanted to, he could easily pick a fight with Alex.
“Kiss,” I muttered very quietly. “He kissed me.”
“What!?” Jack’s head shot to the side to look at my face. We were at a stoplight that was red, thank God. “He kissed you!? But why!?”
“I don’t know!” I shouted back. “We were just working on our own homework when he all of a sudden leaned towards me and kissed me!”
“That bastard,” Jack growled, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “I’m gonna kill him. He’s going to regret laying eyes on you.”
“You’re not my Dad,” I rolled my eyes. “And you shouldn’t get suspended when you’re top school is Pratt.”
“You’re probably right,” Jack sighed, releasing his tight grip. “But if he thinks for a second you’ll ever like him, he’d better think again.”
“Yeah you’re right,” I said. Jack pulled into his driveway, parking the car. He and I got out of the car and headed to the door.
“I’m home!” Jack called, walking through the door.
“Hi, honey,” Mrs. Calaway said from the dining room table. She looked up from her work, gasping after seeing me. “Oh Paul, I haven’t seen you in forever! How have you been? You should come by more often. Oh! I have a conference call in a few minutes. Sorry, boys, but I’ll be working until later tonight. Help yourself to anything you want, Paul.” Mrs. Calaway hurried over to the dining room table, grabbing her laptop and walking out of the room.
“As talkative as ever,” I said, making Jack smile. “She hasn’t changed at all.”
“I know,” he sighed, rubbing his head. “Anyways, you have some explaining to do.” I flinched, but we went up to his room. The navy walls were plastered with paintings and drawings, all of them made by Jack. His excuse was he didn’t have anywhere else to put them.
“That one is new,” he said when I saw me looking at one. It seemed to be a portrait of someone. “I finished it during Study a few days ago. Does it look good?”
“Yeah,” I said, tilting my head. “It does.” My eyes widened as I recognized the person in the portrait. It was Jack’s older brother who died about a year ago. I knew it was still a sensitive topic for him, so I didn’t say anything.
“So back to the matter at hand. Alex White kissed you.” I plopped down on his bed, and he sat on his rolling desk chair. He rested his arms on the top and stared at me. “I mean, do you know how many girls would’ve wanted to be in your place? Like, every girl in school would’ve wanted to be in your position.”
“I know,” I started, “and I’d be glad to switch places with them.”
“Are you sure?” Jack asked. I looked at him and he just rolled his eyes. “I can read you like an open book, Paul. And right now, your blushing face isn’t fooling anyone.” My face got hotter, and I just looked away. “I rest my case.”
“Fine. Whatever. He’s just an annoying classmate that I have to tutor.”
Just then my phone buzzed, making me jump.
“‘I’m sorry,’” Jack started, staring at the message from Alex. “‘I made a mistake and hope u can forgive me.’ Awwwwww. He really likes you.”
“Seriously, Jack. Stop.”
That evening I had dinner with Jack’s family, and his parents amused me with some embarrassing stories of Jack, most of which I experienced first hand. He just told them to stop, and I just laughed. After dinner, we went back up to his room to do our homework. Jack was working on his college essays while I worked on Chemistry. We were having a quiz tomorrow on our memorization of the Periodic Table. I memorized only 2/3s of it, and was losing my mind.
“That’s it!” I threw my papers in the air, putting my head down on Jack’s desk. “I can’t do it anymore! It’s not gonna happen!”
“Hey, hey, hey. Calm down.” Jack got off his bed and came over to look at my work. “Sorry I can’t help you, but I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.”
“I have the test tomorrow, and I have to work on my essays as well. I still have my Gov, Mandarin, and Spanish homework!!”
“Calm down. I’m sure I can help with your Spanish and Gov homework, but I’m not taking Mandarin. You’ll be fine. You’re always fine.”
“But I seriously can’t do this,” I sighed at looked at my phone. No new messages.
“Do you want to ask Alex for help?” Jack asked, reading my mind.
“No!” I sat up. “I don’t need help from him.”
“Isn’t he good at it, though?”
I stayed quiet for a moment. Since I never actually worked on Chemistry with Alex, I didn’t know how well he was at it. I picked up my phone and went to text Alex. The message from before popped up at the bottom, and I stared for a couple moments.
“Oh give me this!” Jack took my phone from my hand and pressed the FaceTime button. He gave the phone back to me, and I watched the line ringing. I looked at him and waved my hand holding my phone. He just shrugged and pointed at the screen. I saw it was connecting and then Alex’s face popped up.
“What’s up?” he asked. “I never would’ve thought you’d call me. Ever.”
“Well I just wanted to know if you can help me study for the Chem quiz tomorrow.”
“On the Periodic Table? Sure. I’ve already memorized it.” I sighed with relief. “Let me just get my stuff out of my bag.” He moved out of frame, and I saw his room was a bit messy. I looked up to see Jack walking out of his room with clothes under his arm.
“Be nice, alright?” he said before closing his door.
Before I could say anything, Alex moved back into frame. “Let’s start from the beginning.”
For a while, Alex helped me memorize the Periodic Table. He had this weird thing for memorizing and remembering unimportant details. I guess it affected his regular memory, though.
“Thanks again for helping,” I said, sighing and putting my stuff away. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “See you.” He hung up, and I shut my phone off. Jack was sitting on his bed, and got out a blow up mattress for me.
“You done?” He asked, taking his earbuds out.
“Only with Chemistry,” I said. “Now I have to do my Gov, Spanish and Mandarin homework.”
“We don’t have Spanish tomorrow, and your Gov homework isn’t due until next week. Just focus on the languages. But first, why don’t you go shower.” I nodded, going over to Jack’s bureau and opening the bottom drawer. Inside were a few of my shirts and pants from the last time I was over Jacks’. I usually had them here in case of emergencies like today. Of course, I had a spot for Jack’s clothes too.
After taking a quick shower, I went back into Jack’s room and saw he was asleep. His computer was still on his lap, and his earbuds in his ears. I carefully removed them so he could sleep better.
“So much for helping me,” I muttered, going over to his desk and sitting down to do my Spanish homework.
Comments (8)
See all