How to Fall in Love in Three Easy Steps

Chaper 9

The alarm went off at exactly 6:25, as it did every morning. Jack was still in his bed, his eyes wide open and red from staying up throughout the night. After he woke up at 1 in the morning, he had been unable to get back to sleep, due to the vivid sex dream he'd had about one of his close friends.

Jack flipped over and buried his head into his pillow. He was ashamed and disgusted at him, for Alex would probably beat the shit out of him if he knew. Those thoughts had never even crossed Jack's mind before, at least, nothing like he'd dreamed. He'd thought about kissing Alex and holding him close, but never anything sexual. It made him want to slap his hands over his ears and scream when he thought about doing sexual things with other guys. How could he have ever dreamed that?

He dragged himself out of bed, trying not to feel disgusted with himself.

"Where the fuck are you going?" Darryl groaned from his bed.

"Um, I'm going to get ready. Like every other morning."

"We have the field trip today, Jack. No class at all and we leave at 9:30. Go back to bed, you idiot."

Jack had forgotten all about that stupid field trip. It was to the planetarium and was supposedly just to give the students a break after the summer. Everyone hated the damn planetarium after being there so many times. The other students always talked shit about the place, like how it was in the middle of nowhere and was the cheapest setup they'd ever seen.

Ever since Jack was young, he'd loved the planetarium, with it's diagram of the night sky and description of the planets. Although the place itself was now somewhat juvenile to Jack, he still loved it. This was another reason why everyone hated this field trip; because it told them the same things they'd seen over and over since the sixth grade. Most of the students at the school had been attending since around sixth grade and had been on this trip one too many times. Even though the trip had to be acceptable for all ages, everyone was tired of it.

Jack collapsed back into bed and attempted to shut his eyes. He was physically exhausted but his thoughts were zooming around in his brain and he was panicking slightly. It was times like this he missed doing drugs, just so he could forget about his problems for a little while. After an hour, Jack gave up on going back to sleep and trudged out of his room. The halls were dead silent, like there was no one else around.

As Jack tiptoed to the bathroom, he passed by Alex's room, where the door was wide open. He tried not to look in, but he caught a glance of Alex in his boxers, pulling a t shirt over his head. And just like in Jack's dream, the boxers were black.

Every part of Jack felt white hot, like he was standing in the middle of a fire, just letting the flames lick his skin. He ran like hell to the bathroom, and he plunged his head under the icy cold shower. No matter what he did, he still burned and ached everywhere.

Eventually, he just sat under the stream of water and tried to make the pain go away. He wasn't sure of how long he'd been sitting in the shower, but he began to hear people walking around in the bathroom, so he pulled off his shirt and pants and grabbed a towel off to the side. After he wrapped the towel around himself, he walked out of the shower and over to the changing area. He pulled the curtain aside and sat down on the small wooden bench on the wall. His hands covered his eyes as he tried to regain the feeling in his limbs. It must've been an hour since he saw Alex, but he still felt the blush in his cheeks.

Quickly, he pulled on his clothes for the day and tried to dry his hair without it looking like absolute shit. It took him another ten minutes to leave his little bench and walk over to the main sinks. The counters were white granite, and a large mirror hung on the wall that the sinks were mounted on. Jack brushed his teeth and splashed more cold water on his cheeks, hoping to get the everlasting redness off of his face. His fingers were all pruney and probably would be for the rest of the day.