How to Fall in Love in Three Easy Steps

Chapter 2

The sound of an alarm made Jack spring up out of bed. His panic disentegrated as his roomate Darryl rolled over and groaned, slapping his alarm off. Slowly, Darryl rolled out of bed, almost falling onto the floor. Darryl's long, shaggy brown mop covered his eyes as his short, stout frame waddled over to his dresser.

"What? You've never heard an alarm clock before?" Darryl said while looking at Jack's shocked face.

"Nah, man, just caught me off guard."

Jack frantically got his stuff together and got dressed quickly, so he could get to the bathroom first. The bathrooms were down the hall and almost always full. Darryl had informed Jack that the only good time to go was at around 6:30, when most kids were still sleeping. Jack walked down the hallway as quietly as he could, careful not to wake the cranky teenagers.

When he got to the bathroom, he learned that Darryl was right. There was almost no one in the bathrooms at this hour. The only person Jack could hear was someone taking a shower, which meant he was almost completely alone. After using the bathroom and fixing his hair, Jack was brushing his teeth when the shower stopped running.

The curtain was pulled aside and Alex walked out, a towel hanging low around his waist. Jack glanced up in the mirror to see Alex's wet, dripping torso and felt something weird in his stomach, almost like a fluttering. He diverted his eyes back to the sink and mentally slapped himself.

"God," he thought, "I must be really sick."

Jack rinsed his mouth out with water just in time for Alex to spot him.

"Hey, Jack!" he chirped, way too happy for this early in the morning.

"Hey," Jack mumbled.

Jack looked in the mirror, noticing there were dark circles under his eyes. His hair was slightly frizzy, something that always happened after he woke up. A small piece of toothpaste was in the corner of his mouth. Suddenly Jack was noticing every single insecurity all at once, and was struggling to fix them on the spot. What was going on with him? Why was he getting so nervous? It was only ALEX. Another guy, an aquaintance, someone he barely knew.

"Hope you didn't take that shit yesterday personally. Darryl told Shaun to lay off you," Alex announced, while pulling a shirt over his head.

Jack spun around, noticing Alex was fully dressed. Did that mean he had been naked in front of Jack a minute ago? Chills ran up Jack's spine, another symptom of his so-called illness.

"That's cool, I guess."

"Sweet. Um, hey, Jack?"

Jack looked up at Alex, who was gesturing to Jack's hair. Jack looked back questioningly for a few seconds before Alex sighed and plucked something off of Jack's head.

"You had some fuzz in your hair."

"Oh," Jack uttered, his cheeks feeling hot.

"See you around then?"

Jack nodded and Alex smiled at him, then walked out the door. As soon as he walked out the door, Jack turned the sink's cold water on full blast and splashed his face repeatedly until he couldn't feel his cheeks. He felt absolutely ill and wanted to go back to bed right this second. Something was obviously wrong with him; why else would he be getting all these weird feelings in his stomach? Whatever was wrong with him, he was going to find out.

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By third period English, Jack was wiped. His first class had been calculus, and while everybody else took quick, scratchy notes, Jack looked on, dazed by the speed of the teacher. Second period was physics, a class that Jack didn't even want anything to do with. Halfway through it, he had zoned out until the teacher was actually screaming at him to pay attention.

So far, this school year had blowed.

Jack slunk down in his seat, his head tucked in to his sweatshirt. All around him, people deposited their books onto their desks and mingled. A stack of books was dropped onto Jack's desk, causing him to jump.

"What the f-"

"Hi, Jack."

Jack knew that Alex was standing right in front of him, but Jack was really not ready to look up at him. Every time that god damn kid was around, everything felt weird. For that reason only, Jack hated him. He hated Alex for making his stomach and chest hurt, even if it was related to Jack's illness, whatever it was. But it was only when Alex was around that he felt his worst, so Alex must have been doing some weird voodoo shit to him.

"Hey," Jack grumbled.

Alex plopped down in the seat next to Jack, grabbing his books off of Jack's desk. Alex's hand brushed against Jack's own, causing Jack's stomach to twist up even more.

"God dammit."

"So, how's your first day been so far?"

At first, Jack wasn't sure if it was him Alex was talking to. The question seemed sort of far away and muffled, like he was in a different realm completely. Jack was snapped back into reality by shrugging slightly and muttering, "Okay."

"Well, you're lucky you got Mr. Cormac. He's a great teacher."

"Great," Jack snapped.

Alex got the memo quickly and turned away from Jack, appearing slightly hurt. Mr. Cormac walked into the room and it silenced almost immediately.

"It may be the second day of school, but that does not mean it's time to dilly dally. So today, we're starting a project." A loud, collective groan left the mouths of the aggravated students.

"Oh come on, guys. You're seniors! Next year, this stuff will be so juvenile to you that you'll laugh. Now I've paired you all up randomly, and you may only switch if you ask me first."

He began rambling down the list, some students groaning, while others cheered. Jack was partnered with some girl who almost immediately asked Jack if he didn't mind switching. Of course, he didn't.

And that's how Jack ended up with Alex as his partner. The prompt for the project was to create a storyboard for the book To Kill a Mockingbird, a book Jack had read in ninth grade. It was obviously just a warm-up project, but Jack was hopelessly lost.

"Did you ever read the book?" Alex questioned, seeing Jack's expression.

"Well, yeah, in ninth grade."

"Do you remember the gist of it?"

"I'm not really sure."

"Well it's all about the flaws in our society and how good and evil coexist in our world."

Alex then started going off on a tangent, rambling on a bout the book's themes, symbols and how it had been one of his favorite books for a long time. Jack smiled as he watched Alex become passionate about this. Honestly, it was extremely cute to Jack.

"DID I JUST THINK THAT ALEX WAS CUTE?" Jack thought frantically. It must have just been a fleeting thought, the kind of thoughts that everyone has but doesn't really believe it.

As Jack battled his own mind, Alex grinned and apologized.

"Sorry. I just really love this book."

"That's ok," Jack stated, smiling a little and feeling his cheeks warm. All these strange feelings of electricity and tingling were infiltrating Jack's body, and it was starting to frighten him.

"Sorry i was rude before," Jack mumbled, suddenly feeling awful.

"It's okay," Alex said without looking up from his paper, " I knew you didn't mean it.'

"Sometimes I can be really crabby."

"Yeah, well so is everyone, in their own way. It's a natural, human thing. In a way, it's good you are crabby sometimes. Everyone needs to let it all out. Also, it proves to me you're actually a human," Alex explained with a chuckle, "You don't need to feel bad."

And with those words, Jack's heart melted.