There are people you meet along your journey through life that change the trajectory of where you are headed. Jacob Andrews was one of those people for Alex Yates.
Jacob had only just broken up with his girlfriend of several months, Kelly, the day before. She absolutely lost her mind, taking leave of her senses. After breaking up with her, Jacob had asked Alex to be his boyfriend.
Though the boys' relationship was only just made official, they had been spending time together for the better part of three weeks. For Alex, there was hope for the future for the first time since he'd lost his mother. Alex felt like he was a brand new person.
It was a slow and gradual process but Alex was coming into his own as a young man after spending the entirety of high school rejecting himself before he could be rejected by his peers. Alex was bullied heavily in middle school after having many friends in elementary school. This made Alex believe something had to be wrong with him. That was until Jacob, the star quarterback and popular boy with model-looks, took an interest in him. Beyond the attention, Alex was receiving consistent affection for the first time since his mother died.
Last night, he'd met Jacob's own mom for the first time and had been relieved to find she was a delightful person. She was gorgeous, funny, smart and sweet, much like her son and she appeared to be genuine. If Jacob by himself was a scene-stealer then he and his mother together were absolute show-stoppers.
She'd picked up almost immediately that her son had a different kind of feelings for the much smaller boy. Of course, it did help that she'd stumbled upon their first make out session as an official couple. She didn't say a word at first, just welcomed Alex graciously to her home. She chatted with the boys while cooking before they had dinner with Jacob's father as well.
It wasn't until Jacob was taking Alex home after they'd had a steamy hook-up in Jacob's bedroom after dinner that she spoke to the boys about her suspicions. She spotted the hickey that Jacob had carelessly given Alex and, far from being angry, she wanted to make sure the boys didn't get themselves outed before they were ready. She showed Alex how to cover the hickey with a little makeup and gave him one of Jacob's old hoodies that could hide it completely out of sight.
She had also told him he could call her mom instead of Mrs. Andrews if Alex was uncomfortable calling her Fran. There was a part of him that was hesitant to do so, worried it could be disrespectful to his own mother's memory. But the gesture was no less meaningful. There was something about this night that had been truly healing for him.
Jacob also felt some of the stess he had been under lifted off of his chest. At least he knew now his mother wouldn't abandon him. And if his mother wouldn't, he knew his father couldn't because she wouldn't allow it.
If both boys had felt like the most difficult part of their relationship was behind them, it became painfully clear the next day at school that the struggle was only beginning.
Jacob's ex-girlfriend was on a rampage, spreading rumors about Jacob. No, none of the rumors were about Jacob being gay. But there were a couple rather nasty rumors about him.
She had told her circle of cheerleaders that Jacob had been abusive in private, which was blatantly a lie. She also told people he'd cheated on her and contracted gonorrhea and that was ultimately what ended their relationship.
In all honesty, the second rumor didn't really bother Jacob but the first one really upset him. He would never put his hands on a girl (or Alex for that matter). Despite how he portrayed himself, he really was a softie at heart. It was an attack on Jacob's character that threatened his reputation as a kind person and that was upsetting to him.
It was her way of getting revenge, but also an attempt to ensure Jacob remained single until graduation. She figured she could kill two birds with one stone. However, if she thought girls would be turned off, she was sadly mistaken. That much was clear at lunch.
Alex assumed his usual spot alone in a far corner. He looked over to the popular table where Jacob was always surrounded by his friends but today, their table included several new faces. Several girls had joined the table in place of Kelly and her friends.
As Alex watched, he couldn't help but notice Jacob was laughing and, if Alex didn't know any better, flirting with the girls. It didn't matter to Alex if he wasn't, it was the principle. He felt Jacob should respect his feelings enough to at least keep them at arms length.
Most of Jacob's exes loved the fact he was so desired by others but Alex wasn't like that. While there was something to be said about having a boy that everybody wanted, Alex preferred for people to leave his man alone.
Jacob might be the obviously jealous and possessive one but Alex was just as much so as well. He was just more passive but, as he sat there, he felt his blood pressure rise as one girl who seemed to be the most aggressive put her grubby little hands on Jacob. To Jacob's credit, he shrugged her off and pulled away but in Alex's mind, she shouldn't have felt comfortable enough to do that.
Alex cut his lunch even shorter than usual and spent the majority of the period in the library before classes resumed.
**********
Alex hadn't been to another football game since the first one he went to, being weary about going again. He'd had an extremely unpleasant encounter with a former bully that he refused to think about too much. Jacob had convinced him to go to this game though. He promised Savanna and Dustin, his cousin and her boyfriend, wouldn't leave him alone again and so Alex reluctantly agreed.
Alex dressed up as he had the previous time, in a pair of nice jeans and the hoodie he'd gotten Jacob's mom. He knew he'd wear the hoodie even after the hickey had disappeared. He waited on the front porch until Savanna pulled up to pick him up.
"Hey hon, how have you been?" she asked him as he clambered into the car. It was obvious to Alex she felt incredibly guilty over what had happened to him.
"I've been good, how are you?" he replied.
"I've been great! I'm so sorry what happened last time, it's going to be different this time I promise."
Before long, she and Alex were chatting like a couple of old friends. They got along great and they had each other cracking up. This Alex was so much different than even the Alex from just a couple weeks before. His confidence had obviously improved as had his comfortability talking with (some of) his peers.
He'd started to chat more in class with other students, though he hadn't pursued any friendships yet. He was just pushing himself to put himself out there more. The way Jacob was going out of his comfort zone with Alex, Alex was going out of his comfort zone (thanks to Jacob) in his social life and both boys were seeing some positive results from doing so.
This time, Dustin had arrived first instead of coming just before the game started. Dustin was waiting in the parking lot to walk them both to the stands. It wouldn't be as rowdy a crowd and game except for the stakes for Washington High tonight. Even still, Savanna and Dustin knew that if something happened to Alex, Jacob would go postal.
Even though they said nothing, Savanna could tell there was something different about Jacob's relationship with Alex. And now that Jacob was randomly "single" just a couple weeks after she started hearing about Alex, she knew where there was smoke there was fire.
"Hey bud, you doing alright?" Dustin asked after kissing Savanna.
They got to their seats and began looking around in the crowd, talking about different people they saw.
"Yep, there's Aunt Fran up there in the parents section with the fancy "country club" parents," she said.
Alex looked up and sure enough, there was Mrs. Andrews talking to 3 other women and their husband's. They were about 4 rows up and to the right. They all looked captivated by her, paying close attention to whatever she was saying which was apparently really funny.
"Why don't we go sit with her?" Alex asked.
"Because for one, my mother and father are one of those couples up there and two, it's social suicide to sit in the parents section! Better to sit in the rival section," she said as if that was a given.
"Oh, right...but she's really cool!"
"Yeah, shes awesome but other kids don't know that. She's just another parent. And my parents are as insufferable as they come. They are so judgemental. My mom is the sister of Jake's dad," she told Alex, answering his next question. Neither of them looked anything like Mrs. Andrews from a distance so he figured as much.
When the teams came onto the field, Jacob was out front with the other captains and already searching the stands for people he knew. Alex couldn't help but feel his heart flutter. Jacob looked so cute with the eye black under his eyes, holding his helmet by the facemask. Jacob's hair was done perfectly which Alex thought was funny considering it would be ruined by the end of the first quarter.
His eyes found Alex's first and he waved over to them. Then he found his mother and kissed his hand before raising it to her.
This made Alex think about Kelly. He'd waved to her the last time. It wasn't hard to find her, she was with the cheerleaders in the front of the bleachers. She was staring daggers at Jacob. Alex laughed.
"You see that too? She's so salty, I'm so glad he dumped her. If it wasn't for the fact I want to be able to come to the playoff games, I'd go drag that bitch by the hair all through these stands for what she said about Jake," she said, looking dead serious.
"Babe chill, you're 18 now...you don't need those charges," Dustin said but he joined Alex in laughing.
"So what, I got a family of attorneys on retainer and every judge in the county goes to the same social events they go to!" She said defiantly.
"Yeah but I don't think even OJs lawyers could get you out of an aggravated assault that was witnessed by, what, a couple thousand people?" Alex said, making both Dustin and Savanna laugh.
"Fair point, it'd still almost be worth it though."
