Inner Peace, Outer Chaos| Alex Rider+Tom Harris|

Eight: please, no.

Seeing as we took yesterday off, (by we I mean I had no say), Alex and I have to go in today. Gotta say, I hate school. Who doesn't?

Jack shakes us awake at six o'clock, shouting
'Rise and shine, lovebirds! SCHOOL!'
Of course this made me a blushing mess, but Alex was defying logic. He was still asleep.
'We're-we're not together,' I stammer out, and I'm only half lying. We haven't spoken about what we are to each other, I don't want to make him uncomfortable.
'Yeah, you wish, right?' Jack quips, and I'm pretty sure I'm a sickening shade of fuchsia. 'Get him up for me, will you?' she leaves the room.

I roll over, and prop myself up onto one of my elbows.
'Alex~' (A/N NOT LIKE THAT YOU PERVERTS) I say it in a sing-song voice, but he doesn't do anything to show that he's heard me.
'Alex, love, wake up,' I murmur, hoping that the pet name will entice him into consciousness. It does something, because he groans, and pulls me into him.
'Alex, this isn't what I meant.' I protest.
'Warm.' he says in retaliation.
'This is the complete opposite.'
'Warm.' he says it more aggressively this time.
'Get out of bed.' By now it's six fifteen.
'Make me!' I take this as an absolute challenge. Alex may be more muscular, but the boy is tiny. I roll him up in the quilt, pick him up bridal style, and carry him downstairs.

He's still asleep.

I get to the kitchen and place the Sleeping Beauty in his chair. Jack looks shocked.
'When I said get him up, I meant wake him up,'
'I tried. This is the next best thing.'
'How did you even carry him?'
'Have you seen him? He's pint-sized,'
'Oh hey Jack,' Alex pipes up. 'Wait, how the fuck did I get here?' He sounds rather alarmed.
'Tom carried you.'
'What? How?'
'I said the same thing. Apparently you're just small.'
'Though he be but little, he is fierce. Look at me, paraphrasing Shakespeare!'
'Yes, well done,' I say dryly.
'I'm small but I be knowing,'
'You don't be knowing what the top shelf looks like,' I giggle, and he tries to push me. Alas, he is still a burrito, so he falls out of his chair.
'Tom!'
'What?'
'Put me back!'
I lift him up and do as he says. He is astonished.
'Alright, that's enough, boys.' Jack intervenes. 'FOOD TIME!'

Jack puts the chocolate waffles on the table, and Alex and I thank her. Within minutes, the waffles have mysteriously disappeared.

'We better get ready for school, Alex.' I say as I get up from my chair and put my plate in the dishwasher. I take Alex's too. 'Am I carrying you again or can you walk?' I snigger.

'Thomas you dickhead, stop rubbing it in. I can walk!'
I'm always quite surprised about how lax Jack is on swearing. In my house, I can barely get away with 'heck'.

With great difficulty, Alex unravels himself from the quilt, and stagger-runs upstairs wearing it like a cape. The duvet is too heavy for his tiny frame. I shake my head, laughing a little, but follow him.

'I put your stuff in the bathroom!' he shouts from behind his closed door.
'Kay, thanks!' I reply.

After we're dressed, we grab our bags from the porch and dash out of the door. My bike is at my house, but Alex grabs his.

'Uhm, what are you planning on doing with that? Mine's at home.' I ask, scratching the back of my head as he put on his helmet.

'Watch,' he says simply, and that's all it takes to terrify me. I can see he has a spare helmet, and, dropping a quick kiss on my lips, he buckles it onto my head. A sudden starburst of confidence springs to me, and I grab the strap of his helmet and pull his lips to mine, kissing him softly. We break apart, and he's redder than the chrome bicycle beside him.

Both of us blush and stutter for about a minute. He gets on the bike, then snatches my elbows, gripping them firmly, and puts me so I'm balanced on the handlebars.

'This can't be safe!' I protest, but he just laughs, the embarrassment worn off.
'I'm sure you're right!'. And he sets off.
'Whoa-whumph-umph-AAAA!'. It's not a smooth ride.
'Calm down!' Alex calls from behind me. 'You'll be fine! You've got a helmet!'
'It needs to be a bulletproof bodysuit!'
'What's the worst that could happen?'
'Bad things, Alex. Very bad things!'
'Relaaax~'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'WHY!'
'Cause it's fun,'
'We are literally about to die.'
'Loosen up! We'll be fiiine.'
'That tone does not fill me with hope, babe,' My voice is rich with sarcasm as I reach the last word.
'Awwe, you called me babe!'
'EYES ON THE ROAD! EYES ON THE ROAD! SQUIRREL!'

He looked away from the road to reply to me, and in that time, a fucking squirrel magically materialised in the road. Alex swerved, and I nearly fell off.

'Close shave, huh!' he calls.
'Understatement of the year Alex!'
'Oh hey, look, we're here! And you're not dead, are you?'
'I could have been,'
'But you're not!'

I make a small noise of resentment as I jump off of the handlebars. I put my bag on my back and wait by the gate as Alex chains his bike. He finishes up, but pulls me into a secluded corner.

He brings me close to him, and kisses me, his arms wrapped around my waist. I kiss back, and put my hands either side of his collar. It amazes me that I can do this now, I can kiss him and he can kiss me, it used to seem like such a far away dream.

But there will always be that little bit of anxiety, that little part of me that refuses to trust anything. It whispers; What if it's all a lie? What if he wants you to think he loves you and then he'll break your heart?Maybe you're just an experiment, and he'll realise that he's actually straight? Things will never be the same. No. No, that's not true. Alex wouldn't do that. I can't forget how lovely he was yesterday. I was at rock bottom, and he pulled me right up!

He pulls away, and rests his head on my shoulder. I lay my head on top of his. I shut the thoughts that run wild in my head down.

'We don't have any classes together today,' he breathes.
'It's okay, I'll see you at lunch, and at break if you want!'
'Yeah, yeah 'course.'
It kinda looks like he's going back to the post-mission Alex, the quiet, shy boy. I don't want to bring it up, since i already know it's in anticipation of school. All I do is kiss his head and tell him to have a nice day, then go off in a separate direction.

~Time skip called Eliza brings you to break~
(say hi to Eliza, kids)

I'm on my way to the library: it's where I said I'd meet up with Alex.

The library has two doors, one at each end, and a spiral staircase in the corner (parallel to the first fire and next to the check-in desk). There's actually some space under there. There's bookcases along both walls, and on the left side, there is wheelie bookcases with tables in between. There's two wheelies in each row, with a little cube seat in between. The last cube seat is always occupied by the same girl, whose name is apparently Holly. (I learnt this last week when she got to top reader of the whole school. There were no surprises.)

I walk in through the second door, waving a small hello to Holly, who actually acknowledges me for once. She stands, a strange look in her eye and her book still finger-bookmarked in her hand. She opens her mouth and speaks.

'When he talks, listen and believe.' She sits back down, and reburies her head in her book.

I try to ask her what she means, but she seems impervious to the world around her. Strange.

I continue to make my way to the spot that Alex and I usually take, thenI see them. He's pinned up against a wall, and Sabina Pleasure's lips are on his. I don't see anything more through my tears. I don't want to see anything more.

I guess I was right all along, says the voice I should have listened to.