I Painted A Picture (Jalex)

Live And Let Live

The next day, Jack got to homeroom before me.

We sat through the morning announcements, Mrs. Purdy took roll, and I remembered how Ashley hadn't been paying attention in math class the day before. Did Mrs. Purdy know her son had a habit of hiding his earbuds under his hair during school?

Why do I care so much about Ashley Purdy?

As soon as Mrs. Purdy finished roll, Jack turned to me. "We need to talk."

I opened my mouth to reply, but he cut me off. "Not here. Privately. Can we meet right after school gets out?"

I shook my head. "I take the bus."

He nodded, understandingly. "Ah. Well, what do you usually do after school?"

"I do my homework as my house with Rian. You met Rian, right?"

He smiled. "Yeah. He's nice. What time does he usually leave your house?"

"About four-thirty."

"Well," he thought for a moment, "I could come to your house and stay a bit longer than Rian. If that's okay with you, of course."

"Yeah, it's fine. My mom gets home around six at the earliest."

He grinned. "Great. I'll ride the bus with you."

"You know where the bus stop is, right?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

He turned to get out his homework, then said, "Wait."

"What?"

"I just thought of something."

"Yes?"

"Will Rian be alright with me coming over?"

I didn't hesitate. "He'll be fine with it."

He got his homework out of his backpack. "Sweet. I'll be there." He noticed me looking at his work, and smirked. "I didn't finish my science. I was a bit...preoccupied."

"Ah." I got out the book we were supposed to read for English and killed time until the bell rang.

First period passed by in a blur. I wasn't paying attention; never do, to be honest, at least in that class. I was too busy thinking about Jack. We need to talk...I knew what he wanted to talk about, but why? Why did he want to spend time with me, after what had happened?

Second period passed in pretty much the same fashion.

Everyone tiptoed around me in third period. Mr. Sargent wouldn't call on me, the class was dead silent, and if anyone did talk, it was after a hurried glance at me and in a hushed voice. It got annoying real fast.

Jack and I walked to lunch together. I usually sat with Vic and Kellin and Rian and some of my other friends, and from what Rian had told me the day before, Jack had started sitting there too.
As we approached the table, my friend Andy noticed us and waved. "Hey, 'Lex". He then dropped his voice an octave and grunted, "Hey, Jack."

Jack laughed. I smiled a bit nervously. "What?"

Andy smirked. "You weren't there. So, yesterday, I got to the table and Jack was already there, and I said, 'Hey,' and Jack just stared at me like 'whaaaaaat?' And I was like, 'What are you looking at?' and he goes, 'Oh! Sorry! Just...the voice does not match the face,' and I was like, 'Yeah, I get that a lot,' and he just kind of dies of embarrassment, and whatever. I thought it was funny."

"You do have the whole 'deep manly sexy voice' thing going on there," I said, instantly regretting using the word 'sexy'. Andy didn't seem to mind, though.

Jack and I sat down next to each other, but we had nothing good to really talk about, at least until Vic brought up theatre.

"I'm playing a lead role in that frickin' play," Vic boasted. "Ask Jack."

Rian rolled his eyes. "Bruh, that's all you've been talking about since you were cast. Let's hear Jack's take on it."

"Oh, what?" Jack stuttered. "Okay, anyway, Vic's playing...you know the hot guy, Lucas? Vic's playing his father. He has to do this slightly lame romantic duet with this one bitch, Cara."

"Well, your character isn't much better," Vic pointed out. "You're playing the frickin' brother! You get a whole musical number about incest BDSM!"

The entire table burst out laughing, including me and Jack, who was trying to calm down enough to defend himself. "It...it's not...well, actually, I guess that's what it is," he sputtered, his sides heaving. Which just made the whole table laugh harder.

This dude was going to be at my house until after four-thirty in the afternoon.

I couldn't fucking wait.