Alone With Your Smile [Jalex AU]

Jack

                Jack couldn’t quite put his finger on why he was so excited to spend lunch with Alex. He tried telling himself that is was because he had finally found someone to talk about music with –something he found to be a lot harder than it should be– but he knew that wasn’t it. He loved talking about music, yeah, but not enough to get him as excited as he was. Really, he was just intrigued by Alex, and found himself wanting to know every little detail about his life. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to ask him about it; his assignments for class would tell Jack everything he wanted to know. Their first assignment was, of course, to write about their lives. It was a standard first assignment for writing classes, but Jack really was looking forward to learning more about Alex. He told himself it was just because he wanted to be close with his students, wanted them to know they could come to him. It made him feel less creepy. A timid knock on the door broke him from his thoughts.

“Come in!” He called, too lazy to actually get up from his desk to answer it. Alex stepped in a few moments later, a bag of chips in one hand and a soda in the other. “Just pull over my stool.”

                He did just that, setting his food down on a nearby desk. He picked up the stool and placed it beside Jack’s desk, just a mere few inches away from Jack. After the stool was in its place, he went back and fetched his food, then sat down.

“I brought a soda for you, too. I didn’t know what you like, though, so I just got Mountain Dew.” He said as he pulled the bright green drink from his backpack.

“That’s fine.” Jack gave a small smile, suddenly feeling very awkward. Maybe asking him to come to lunch was too weird. Jack figured he should be spending this time with his friends, not his teacher who is strangely fascination with him –not that he knew about the fascination part. He took the soda from Alex and tentatively took a sip. They were silent for a few moments after that, and to say it was awkward would have to be the understatement of the century. It was downright uncomfortable.

“Since I wasn’t actually paying attention earlier, do you mind telling me what the assignment was? I tried asking Rian, but he just laughed and told me to pay attention next time. He’s such a dick.” Alex finally broke the unbearable silence, something Jack was thankful for. He feared they were going to spend the entire lunch period in an awkward silence.

“I shouldn’t tell you because you weren’t paying attention, but  I suppose I can let it pass this one time. You’re just supposed to write a paragraph or two about something you can’t live without. It’s really just one of those stupid assignments that lets me know a little more about everyone.” Chances are, Jack wouldn’t really read all of the papers, because, though it makes him sound like an asshole, he probably couldn’t care less that Tammy couldn’t live without her hairspray and Jimmy couldn’t live without his phone. He would read the papers of the students he was genuinely curious about, then scan over the rest of them. Most likely, everyone would get an A.

“I would never be able to be a teacher.” Alex stated.

“Why not?”

“It seems like it’s a terrible job. Wait, no, sorry, that sounds bad. What I mean is that you have to wake up every morning and deal with a bunch of asshole students, then grade those asshole’s papers and somehow not be biased. If I was a teacher, I would give an F to every student that pissed me off. What made you want to do this?”

“Admittedly, this wasn’t my first career choice. You’re going to laugh and call me stupid, but all I ever really wanted to be was a rock star. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but ever since I was young, I’ve loved music. I wanted to be able to play music for a living and tour the world and make people happy with my music. All of my high school guidance counselors made it very clear that that  was nothing but a stupid pipe dream, so I kind of just gave up and decided to become a teacher. I don’t know why I chose this, but having summers off probably had something to do with it.”