Smile On His Lips and Cuts On His Hips (Jalex)

Twenty Nine - Completely Useless

Humming to the music blaring in my ears, I slumped down the main hall, ambling towards my locker with my hands curled through the fabric of the inside of my hoodie pockets. Exposing them to the snapping March air for the five minute walk from my intentionally sweltering car to bearable hall had managed to have my fingertips going numb, tingling with static once being reintroduced to heat.

My eyes moved from one peer to another, taking in the cheerily gossiping groups, already exhausted kids chugging down coffee like imperative IV fluid, and obnoxiously noisy crews who congregated in doorways and seemingly purposefully made everyone else’s Monday even more despicable. I’d stopped being considerate enough of others to bother pulling out my ear buds and completely participate in the world when I got to school, instead sucking in my musical drug for as long as I could manage in order to hopefully store up enough songs internally to survive the day. Well, with minimal mental damage, that is, since getting through seven hours at Dulaney with none was, as I’d recently learned, basically impossible.

Reaching my locker, I started to twist the lock, flicking in my combination before someone jolted into my arm and caused my fingers to fumble and spin an extra rotation in the wrong direction, irreparably fucking up the attempt to open it. Turning to discover my assaulter, I got grabbed, familiar giggle and excited voice flowing in under the notes I was listening to.

Blinking, I caught strands of caramel and platinum hair blocking my vision as I grinned and curled an arm around Alex – who had already plastered himself to my chest – once figuring out what was going on. I tugged on the wire protruding from my pocket, usually unwanted ability to hear my surroundings restored as I stepped back enough to display the buds dangling from my hand in a silent proclamation that I hadn’t heard what Alex had said, giving my boyfriend a confused look and half smile.

Alex grinned widely at me, teeth shining under the fluorescent lights as he practically sang, “Good morning!”

Not bothering to return the pointless formality, I cocked my head to the side, trying to figure out what had Alex so upbeat and jittery at the very beginning of the school week. Last time I’d checked, he hated suffering through  these damaging buildings as much as I did, and also knew that he didn’t need to present the fake bubbly Alex to me. Rolling my shoulders in a lame attempt to get my backpack straps resting more comfortably on them, I questioned, “What are you so excited about?”

His brushstroke eyes blew open, lids practically totally peeled away from the whites. Alex’s smile only expanded, lips tugging back further as he exclaimed with evident surprise, “Holy crap!”

Still hopelessly confused and increasingly rattled, I allowed myself to be pulled out into the biting weather when the boy grabbed my wrist and ran off towards the exit, asking as we rushed past preparing students, “Can I at least get my stuff for class?”

“That’s not important,” Alex dismissed, bustling me up against the scratchy wall of the building’s exterior, having nearly ran me into the pole between the double doors in his haste to get us outside.

It was quiet out there, at least, no one having any rational reason to be in the space between the gym and other assorted classes, only empty plastic picnic tables dotting the littered area. Alex didn’t seem concerned by the freezing wind that was surely tearing through his thin shirt – long sleeved, white and brown stripes, totally adorable – instead wiggling his phone out of the pocket of his skinny jeans and ignoring the perplexedness that I was positively radiating.

Deciding that I should probably satisfy the boy and give in to whatever was happening, I wrapped the thin wires connected to my cell up neatly, tucking it away and focusing attentively on Alex, who appeared to be scrolling through iTunes on his phone. I glanced around when the opening notes to some random song started to ring out, only a group of assumed Freshman nerds within hearing distance, too engrossed in their hurried memorizations of pi to notice Alex smiling smugly at me while I continued to frown in baffled confusion and scramble through my memories to place the music he’d so pressingly insisted that I hear.