We're Getting There

Chapter 8

Jaxon was sitting in assembly feeling immensely guilty for reacting so badly to Alex the night before. He felt terrible for basically placing a target on Liam all because he couldn't control his stupid emotions. Jaxon leaned forward in his chair to look down the row. Liam, who was about five seats down, caught his eye and gave a small smile along with his signature blush. Jaxon couldn't bring himself to smile back. Instead, he sat back in his chair and opted to glare briefly at the back of Alex's head instead. Wringing his hands, he turned his attention to his shoes. To his left, Jenna nudged him.

"Stop fidgeting," she hissed. "I'm trying to concentrate."

Jaxon muttered an apology and glanced down the row. Liam was looking at him again. He was sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes in an attempt to make Jaxon crack a smile. It worked. Jaxon mirrored his expression and they went back and forth until Liam snorted and a teacher told them to stop.

"...Congratulations to the Year 9 football team for getting silver medals at the borough tournament," the headteacher said.

Jaxon clapped along with everyone else as he looked back and forth between Alex and Liam. He felt sure that one of them was going to spontaneously combust (preferably Alex) as stupid as that sounded, yesterday had given him a bad feeling. He bit his thumb nail. In front of him Alex turned around.

"You okay, Jax?" He asked. Oh, how Jaxon wished he could just punch him. Instead he nodded shortly, averting his eyes.

An agonising fifteen minutes later, the assembly was over. Jaxon was still feeling a bit anxious even after having tried, in vain, to rationalise it away. Tapping his foot restlessly, he scanned the crowd of students wondering how he'd managed to lose Liam so quickly. As he left out of the auditorium doors he finally caught up to Liam and Sammy.

"Liam, I need to tell you something," Jaxon said catching up to Sammy and Liam. He didn't know what he was going to say or why it felt so urgent, but he felt he had to give some sort of warning. "Alex is-"

"Jax!" Alex said, popping out from seemingly nowhere. "You're ignoring me. I said I'm sorry."

Jaxon took hold of Liam's wrist. "I'm trying to talk to Liam."

He tried to walk away but Alex grabbed him by his shoulder. "I heard you and Millie talking about..." he lowered his voice. "The knife."

Jaxon felt Liam tense next to him. Thankfully he didn't ask any questions. Sammy did however.

"Um... mind telling us what's going on?" he said, grabbing hold of Liam's other sleeve.

Only then did Alex seem to notice the others were there. "Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt. Has he... told you? Oh no. Did I say something I shouldn't have?" His eyes flicked worriedly to Jaxon.

"You seem to be doing that a lot." Sammy murmured, perceptive as ever.

"Should we leave you guys alone?" Liam asked.

"No! No. Ignore him." Jaxon said, trying desperately to keep his cool.

"Ignoring your problems never solved them and you never wear long sleeved shirts." Alex said, pointing out Jaxon's choice of clothing.

"And I never would if someone hadn't hidden all my short sleeves!"

"I thought you'd appreciate it, what with..." he gestured to Jaxon's arm.

Liam shuffled his feet. "I don't like what you're implying," he said under his breath.

Jaxon was seething. "You know, it's really fun watching you lie but we have a lesson to go to."