Voices • Jack Avery

5 • He's Cute I Guess

Alex's Point of View

I was sitting at home when London barged through the front door. "Hey bitch!" she exclaimed, not even knocking as she entered. She walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch next to me.

"Please, make yourself at home" I said sarcastically. I then rolled my eyes playfully and London simply grinned back. It was nice being able to hang out just the two of us again. We both loved Jackson like a brother, but there were some things you could only talk about with another girl.

It had been a long time since London and I speant time together alone aside from when we were working on songs. "Yesterday was fun" London said absentmindedly. I mumbled some form of agreement, too engrossed by my instagram feed.

"You're always looking through instagram" London teased. I could hear the smirk playing on her lips. I looked up and raised my eyebrows at her before returning to my phone.

"You know I like to be active with our fans" I simply stated. It was true, I knew how happy it made our fans if we simply liked a post or commented something. I wanted to make them happy as a thank you for letting us do what we do.

"Sometimes, you're a little too active." I rolled my eyes once more at my best friend, knowing she was just messing with me. As I scrolled through my tagged pictures, something caught my eye. A lot of the pictures were of Jack and I in the fountain. I guess a lot of people reposted what everyone else had on their stories.

I began liking some of them and leaving comments, but one thing stood out to me more than others. "Hey London?" I said, still staring intently at my phone. She mumbled some form of response as an acknowledgement, now engrossed by her phone too.

"What's a Jalex?" I asked, my eyebrows now furrowed in confusion. The word seemed to keep appearing in the captions of these pictures yet I had no clue what it was. Maybe it was a Why Don't We thing?

"What?" London abruptly asked, her head snapping towards me. If I wasn't so curious as to what a Jalex was, I probably would have burst out laughing at her reaction. "Look" I simply said, showing her my phone.

London took the phone off of me and began to scroll through all of the pictures. The more she scrolled, the bigger the smile on her face grew. Was she getting something I wasn't?

Apparently she noticed the look of confusion on my face as she looked up. "Alex, do you know what shipping is?" she questioned. I could hear the playfulness in her tone and I had no idea where on earth this was going.

"I don't live under a rock, London. Of course I know what shipping is" I stated, rolling my eyes at her for the billionth time today. Maybe I was just slow, but I still didn't see where she was going with this.

"Well, Jalex is a new ship in the fandom" London said matter-of-factly while tossing me back my phone. I looked at her in confusion once more, still not fully understanding, before looking back at my phone screen. That's when it clicked.

Jalex was in the caption of all the pictures of Jack and I from the day before. Jalex was a new ship in the fandom. Jalex was Jack and I. Our fandoms shipped us.

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped to the floor the second realisation struck. "Shit" I breathed, in a slight state of shock. London chuckled at my ignorance and returned to her own phone.

"Took you long enough" she mumbled, still smiling to myself. My mind instantly began to race with possibilities. What if Jack hated me because of this? What if he thought I wanted to start these rumours? I didn't want to loose their friendship, especially not Jack's. He had been so kind to me yesterday.

London looked up at me and her face instantly dropped to a scowl. "I know that look, Alex. Stop it. Right now" she scolded, knowing I was overthinking every little detail, as I usually did.

I sighed and fell back further into the cushions. "But what if Jack hates me now?" I asked, needing the reassurance. London glanced at me, turned off her phone and sat up straight to face me.

"It's not your fault a few fans started a ship. He won't hate you" she explained. I nodded but I couldn't help but worry about all of the other possibilities. What if Jackson thought it was true? He gets so overprotective; he'd probably kill Jack. What if the fans began to hate me thinking I was using Jack?

"Alex, trust me. Nothing bad will happen. At least they shipped you with someone good looking" London shrugged. I looked at her questioningly. I hadn't realised she thought he was good looking.

"What? Come on, you can't tell me you don't agree. Especially since I know you're a sucker for curls" London taunted, wiggling her eyebrows. That was true; curls were my weakness. I had never really thought about Jack that way, but now that I was forced to, I could admit he was good looking.

"I mean, he's cute I guess" I eventually answered, trying to play it off and hide my blush. However, London noticed it easily and merely smirked at me. I punched her lightly in the arm before a shrill noise erupted in the room.

I groaned, reaching for my phone to answer it. London had faster reflexes than me though, and she grabbed my phone, answering it before I could. "Hey, it's actually London. It is, I stole her phone. How did you even get her number? Bam Bam? Ohhh, okay. What'd you need anyway? Our? You guys live together? Huh, cool. Yeah sure, we'll be there. Bye."

London hung up the phone and threw it on the couch and I still had no idea who she was talking to. "Who was it?" I asked. "Daniel. We're going to the Why Don't We House tomorrow" London stated, a smile growing on her face.

I looked at my best friend, slightly amused. The Why Don't We House? Really? "They all live together?" I started laughing at this slightly. I didn't realise bands actually lived together sometimes. As much as I loved my band, I would probably die if they lived with me all the time.

"Yup. So be ready. It's gonna be one hell of a day."