***This is the last chapter of the story for awhile but I will definitely be coming back to finish it. I love Jacob and Alex's story but I want to do their story justice. I have other stories I'd like to explore in the meantime.***
A tall, blonde girl was sat in her car before school started on one Autumn Monday morning. Several scenes kept flashing through her mind repeatedly, incensing her. First, she was laying in bed and going through someone else's cell phone messages. Next, she was standing in a parking lot, screaming at a very handsome, tall boy.
Then she was walking up the sidewalk in her well-to-do neighborhood with a heavy box of the handsome boys possessions until she got close to her destination. She dropped the box in shock, causing a noisy thump, as she looked up the driveway to see that boy kissing the outline of what certainly looked like another boy.
And finally, she was sitting alone in the bleachers after a football game, gazing up at a beautiful 40-something year old woman speaking to three young people before setting off together.
Kelly Chamberlain wasn't a dumb girl. She might play ditzy for the benefit of boys but she was intelligent and observant. When she had noticed her (now ex) boyfriend Jacob pull back, she'd snooped through his phone as he used the bathroom.
To her mild surprise, she noticed he was talking to the cute quiet kid named Alex that always seemed to be alone and had no real friends at school. She knew they were partners on a new project but the conversations were really not about that. They looked like messages between close friends, with some hints of what could almost be considered flirting. She asked him if everything was okay and he'd said yes. But something in his face told her he wasn't being truthful.
And when Jacob had broken up with her in the parking lot at school, she had her suspicions. She had almost asked him flat out about Alex in her rage but she managed to stay composed just enough to hold on to that potential trump card. Kelly wasn't angry and hot-headed, she was vengeful and spiteful like the classic high school mean girl archetype she was.
But until that night after the breakup, she only had suspicions. She'd went home and immediately gathered up the various things Jacob had left at her house across the many months they had dated and boxed them.
When she knew Jacob had to be home from football practice, she picked up the heavy box full of clothes, a couple books and other miscellaneous items and set off down the neighborhood to return them to him in person.
She got the shock of her life and the confirmation she desired when, just as she came to the end of the tree line by Jacob's house, she saw Jacob in his car with somebody else. They were kissing and, even though she couldn't see the person's face, she saw their outline and hair.
It was definitely Alex. She had dropped the box in surprise and quickly hid back behind the trees. The boys never even looked her way thankfully, or they would have seen the box even if they didn't see Kelly.
She grabbed the box and tossed it in disgust into the woods as she stormed back through the affluent neighborhood to her own house. Her mind was already working hard, trying to figure out how best to punish the two boys.
Simply spreading a rumor about it wouldn't suffice. She needed some way to prove everything she had seen. She settled for spreading a couple unrelated rumors first. That would get at least a few people to start questioning if Jacob really was the person he portrayed himself as. Sure, he might not have an std and he definitely never hit Kelly but he was definitely a cheater and definitely a disingenuous liar. At least, he was to Kelly.
It killed her to see Jacob become the hero at the next night's football game. Hearing the crowd chant "Jake the Great" was nearly unbearable.
"HA, more like Jake the snake! No! Jake the gay!" she thought angrily.
She'd still been unable to formulate how to prove he and Alex were gay together and the fact everybody thought Jake was amazing ate at her.
And when the man who'd been recruiting Jacob spoke with him, his coaches and his mother, she knew he was getting what he wanted more than anything in the last year. She could tell by the way he skipped off the field like a fairy. In all reality, Jacob looked far from feminine in his excitement but it made her feel better to disparage him.
When she saw Jacob's mom leave the game with Alex, she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt she was right. It was time to get even. People might not believe her if she told people Jacob was gay, but they would if she told them the quiet boy was. There were already rumors circulating about Alex, that he'd been gay bashed. And it had been none other than Jacob that had put a stop to it.
At the time, she had just believed he was being kind to the kid like he was to everybody. It always annoyed her what a nice guy Jacob was. Being incredibly conceited, egotistical and hateful, she always believed he was just fake and couldn't fathom the possibility that he was actually a genuinely nice person despite all the popularity and success he had. In her mind, to be beautiful and come from a rich family made you royalty and justified anyone's narcissism.
She had her plan. First, she'd spread the word throughout the school. The rumor would be that Alex is gay and had been crushing on Jacob ever since their project. That would be good enough to plant seeds of doubt into some people about Jacob as well. There were a couple of her fellow cheerleaders that were sure to tell EVERYBODY once they had gossip like that to share. That would keep her name far enough away from the rumor that people wouldn't question it too much.
But that wasn't good enough for her. All those things would do is make school difficult for them. She needed to do better than that...and as she walked into school, the idea struck her.
**********
Alex Yates had just arrived to school on a Monday morning, after the usual smelly bus ride. He felt more happy and more confident than ever. The previous four days with his boyfriend Jacob were undoubtedly the best of his life.
He really wasn't paying attention as he walked through the hallway and as a result, he walked straight into someone. It was Thomas Johnson, an openly gay student in the school.
"Oh, my bad Thomas! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," he apologized, smiling.
"All good Alex, how have you been?" Thomas asked.
"Pretty good, I can't complain. Well, I could complain about this math test first thing on a Monday morning...but I won't," Alex said conversationally as they both headed to their first period pre-calculus class. Thomas laughed.
"I think you just did," he observed.
They continued chatting until they got to class and took their seats. Alex seemed to be more relaxed than ever. It'd been a gradual development over the previous month or so, but he'd started to come into his own as a young man. His confidence was at an all-time high and it showed.
At lunch, Thomas waved Alex over to his table where he sat with his fellow drama club seniors. Alex hesitated before going to sit with them. He caught Jacob's eye across the lunch room and at first was concerned. Jacob was an incredibly jealous and protective young man. But he just smiled at Alex. Truth was, Jacob trusted Alex and wanted him to have his own friends.
Alex's choice of lunch table wasn't only noticed by Jacob. Kelly was watching with her cheerleader friends. Alex was known for being a timid boy and she couldn't help but want to make him uncomfortable. She got up and strolled across the room over to where Alex and the drama geeks were seated.
"Hey, your name is Alex isn't it?" she asked, tapping Alex on the shoulder as she did.
Alex spun around quickly and immediately felt his pulse quicken. Thomas and his friends glared at the notorious mean girl. She was a couple inches taller than Alex and with Alex seated, she towered over him.
"Uh, yeah?" Alex responded, bewildered and somewhat concerned.
Jacob had noticed the scene unfolding and felt both anger and a slight panic bubbling in his stomach. He knew this could only be something negative, even if it wasn't his worst fear. He stared daggers in her back, losing track of the conversation around him.
