Redesign Me, State of the Art (Jalex)

In The Car, I Just Can't Wait

Jack's POV

I ended up driving around for a long time.

The nurse had deemed Alex and I too sick to stay in school, but well enough to drive ourselves home. But instead of actually going home like I was supposed to, I was mindlessly driving.

I couldn't stop thinking about the boy.... errr, I mean Alex. Not just the anti-mind reading thing, but just him in general. The only thing I really did know about him was that his name was Alex.

But really, who was this kid, what was he doing showing up mid semester, and -most importantly- why can't I hear what he's thinking?

There were a million possibilities racing through my mind. The first one obviously being that he was an FBI agent here to kidnap me and take me to some secret government facility to run tests and figure out what makes me tick. But I mean, he did look a little too young to be an FBI agent. And that also kind of seems more like something that happens in movies and not in real life. Plus I haven't told anyone about my secret, or done anything significant with it so I'm not sure how they'd know about it. So I guess that theory was pretty jank.

Nevertheless, I couldn't figure out what it was about him. Why I was so drawn toward him. Maybe it was because I wasn't able to see how he thought of me instantly.

That was another scary thing to think about. I've always known how every one else perceived me. I've never once been in the dark to other's emotions and opinions. I'm not really sure how to handle it. Honestly, I don't know how normal people do it. I would constantly be on edge, assuming that every thought was a judgment made against me, or a rude remark the person was too polite to say. Now at least I'm always able to know if that's actually the case or not.

Well, almost always I guess.

And ok, there are some redeeming qualities about him that don't make me doubt my existence and the way I've lived all my life. Like maybe he is incredibly cute, and maybe his hair is the perfect color and style and length and maybe when we were sitting in the nurse's office for the brief moments he had his headphones in I heard him playing Blink-182 and maybe.... maybe this could work. Maybe this is what I need. Maybe this is the relationship I've been waiting for! Now I was starting to sound crazy. 

I decided on that note that I'd done enough driving and introspective thinking for the day and turned in the direction of my house. As I was going down the street I noticed someone walking along the sidewalk. I slowed down when I realized that I knew who it was.

Alex.

I stared at him for a while, just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, and that it was indeed the brown haired boy from the nurse's office. Because I mean really, what were the odds? 

He was walking along with a rhythmic pattern and I could see him mouthing words to himself. He was making large hand gestures and bobbing his head back and forth while dancing and spinning to what I assumed was the music pouring into his ears from his headphones. I almost didn't want to disturb him because he looked like he was having so much fun bee-bopping along to the music as he walked. But it kind of looked like a storm was approaching. I could see the trees blowing outside as their leaves crashed to the ground around them. In Baltimore, the weather could get bad pretty fast, and I didn't want Alex to be stuck in the rain. He didn't seem to mind the cold though.

As I got closer to him, I slowed my car down. As he danced, he did a little spin that caused his body to now be turned fully in my direction. He jumped sky high when he noticed there was car with somebody in it right behind him. Seeing as I was trailing pretty creepily, when he looked over his shoulder again in my direction, his gaze was weary. He was probably freaked out and thought that I was an old man coming to try and kidnap him and turn him into some weird sex slave, or at least, that's what I would've been thinking. He had stopped dancing and started to speed up, so I decided to stick my head out the window to let him know who I was.