I'm Dying To Live (Rewriting)

Chapter 2

Alex's POV

I heard the front door open and my mom greeting Jack and making small talk, and I dragged on my clothes as fast as I could, rubbing at my hair vigorously with a towel, trying my best to stop it from dripping all over my back. I then slung my backpack over my shoulder and snatched up the math book, elastic bands and many bracelets that were sitting on the side and shoving them into the front pocket of my bag to sort out later. The elastic bands were purely to ward off the urges I got at school, as quick pain to try and clear my head when it got too stuffed with memories of Tom, and the bracelets were yet another gift off Jack to hide my old scars. I'd figured since then that my wrist wasn't the cleverest place to carry out my horrible habit, because I couldn't tolerate the questions that came with it. I couldn't just wave off the suggestions like most people. I usually broke down at the mention of them, because they certainly weren't anything to be proud of.

I descended down the stairs wearing my bravest face that Jack would of course see right through, waving lazily at him and dumping my bag on the floor next to the dining table, reaching to grab two apples from the fruit bowl. Jack usually missed out on breakfast and to be honest, I'd rather he didn't. He didn't eat much as it was, so missing out on breakfast was just causing more damage to him. I didn't want that.

I tossed one to him as he started walking towards me, and he caught it before enveloping me in a huge hug. He may have been a lanky bastard but he gave the best hugs ever and I happily melted into his embrace, leaning my head on his shoulder while he rocked us slowly. We'd given up on greetings ages ago, and so when we pulled back we merely smiled at each other.

"Hey dude, what happened to your face?"

He shrugged and mumbled something along the lines of play fighting with his cousin which I didn't buy. Instead I shot him a skeptical look and made a mental note to question later, as I didn't want to do it in the presence of my already stressed mother who was at that moment kissing Jack on the forehead and saying bye to him.

When mom let go of him he laughed at whatever she had said and as she waddled off towards the kitchen called "Thanks mom," before turning to me with a wide grin and pulling a big piece of rolled up paper out of his bag and pushing it along the table. I looked at it curiously but Jack just took my wrist softly in one hand and my bag in another, dragging me away. My mom rushed back to where we were standing, hurriedly hugging me and kissing me on the cheek while throwing me a quick "love you" which I thoughtlessly returned before turning my attention back to Jack.

"You can look later," he said, pausing to get my coat from the back of the front door and dragging me out into the cold. He was a hypocritical idiot, forcing me to wear my thick winter coat while he pranced about in the snow in nothing but his thin shirt and blazer. He always did it, but he'd never actually given me a strict answer as to why. I frowned at the thought. It was obvious I never thought about Jack enough, because even though we'd been best friends ever since he turned to me asking me if I liked blink 182 and gesturing towards my history book - which I'd doodled the blink bunny in the corner of - he was still full of mysteries to me; I don't even understand how he distinguished it as the blink bunny, as my art skills weren't exactly exceptional. But, that shouldn't be the case; I should know him inside out like he knew me. But of course it wasn't like that due to my terrible friendship skills.

I watched Jack skip along the curb, precariously close to the fast moving traffic, giggling to himself when I suddenly realised. "Hey Jack, where's Tay?"

He didn't look up; instead he stuck his tongue out languidly while he tried to walk across a white line painted onto the path. "I dunno, she never picked up this morning, I thought you would know."

I shook my head, pulling my phone from my pocket and instantly calling her up. She was number 2 on my speed dial, mainly because it was extremely rare that she missed a call. I listened to it ring out and bit my lip, noticing how she'd now either missed or ignored both mine and Jack's calls. There was something wrong there, because we both knew her and how she was practically glued to her phone on tumblr, twitter trying to keep up with kerrang's latest news or reading fanfiction like a little weirdo.