Just Because

Chapter 2: Liking Cars Isn't a Straight Thing

I leave the classroom as quickly as I can when Mrs. Warren lets us out. My black messenger bag smacks against my leg as I run down the stairs and try to get as far away as possible from Alex.

"Hey. Dipshit."

I don't stop when I hear that fucking voice calling me back.

"Daniels, get back here!"

I turn around to see Alex walking quickly towards me, throwing his black jacket on as he goes.

"What?" I snap. He grabs me by the sleeve of my neon green hoodie and starts to haul me towards the B Building. "You gonna beat me up for shoving you off the desks?"

"No. I was gonna offer you a ride."

What?

"No thanks. I'd rather not sit in a car, in a confined space, with a jerk like you," I reply, trying to get out of his grasp.

"Good thing I'm not a jerk, then," Alex says with a smirk.

"So if we're in an alternate universe where you're not a jerk, then can I replace Brett Hanson as lead singer of Zap Zap Fireworks?" I ask sarcastically, while Alex opens up his locker and pulls out a book that he shoves into his backpack.

"If that's what you want to think." He slams his locker and beckons for me to follow him. "Come on. I know you're too weak to walk home, and I'm sorry for all of that about Cam. That was crossing the line, even for me." He starts walking backwards in front of me, his hands splayed out in a "so, how about it?" gesture.

He then waves his hands at a silver Jaguar in the parking lot.

I think I start to drool. I'm still a guy, even if I'm gay. I'm allowed to drool over cool cars. And his car is almost as sexy as him.

"Let me make it up to you. I promise we'll be back to fighting tomorrow. But I figured that combined with all of my shit back there, walking home in this weather kind of would kill your poor little emo ass," Alex says, turning around and walking to the car.

It's really hard to keep myself from running and jumping into the car and smelling the leather seats, ooh. But I refuse to ride in a car with him! No!

Alex doesn't even notice that I'm not following him until he turns around again to see me, standing frozen on the sidewalk with my hands gripping the strap of my messenger bag and my eyes wide and staring at the car. Ooh, Jaguar...Yum. Alex in a Jaguar is even better. And then Alex and me in a Jaguar...Nrgh. My brain is orgasming right now.

I can't give in!

"You coming? Or would you rather walk home in the rain?"

He waves his hands at the small raindrops falling in scattered places.

"It's just drizzling," I point out.

The sky opens up and dumps water onto us.

Fuck you, nature!

I mentally shake my fist at the sky.

I cross my arms and scowl at Alex. He grins cheekily at me. "You sure you wanna walk? Come on, this is a once-in-a-lifetime, be-treated-nicely-by-me offer."

"Why are you being nice?" I finally ask, curiosity gnawing at me.

Alex sighs and taps his fingers impatiently on the side mirror of the car.

"I told you. I crossed the line. Think of this as my apology." He glances away and clenches his jaw before muttering, "We were getting along today, anyway. And besides...I don't want things to be that personal."

I don't know what things he doesn't want to be personal, but whatever. I don't trust him at all, and I highly doubt that he's actually offering me a ride home out of kindness. But this car is so nice, I doubt he'd crash it on purpose and get me killed.

I glare at him and then stalk over to the passenger side of the car, wanting terribly to fling to door open but afraid at the same time of hurting the car. I gingerly get into the vehicle and cross my arms, staring straight ahead when Alex gets into the driver's seat.

"Careful of the upholstery," Alex warns, starting up the car. Oooh. The engine is so quiet compared to my crappy old Jetta.

"I'm not going to hurt your car," I snap. "Why would you offer me a ride if you were afraid of me messing it up?"

Alex shrugs. "I tell everyone to be careful. You're not special."

He practically spat that last word at me. Nice.

"So I take it you've never fucked anyone in your car?" I ask, smirking a little.

Alex rolls his eyes and turns down the main street that my street is off of. "Nah. I wouldn't hurt my baby like that." He pats the dashboard lovingly.

"How the fuck do you afford this thing?"

"My parents have very well-paying jobs," he says simply, smirking at me. "Something that you're probably not familiar with."

I turn my head away from him and face the window. "You can make fun of me all you want, but don't talk shit about my parents. Even if my dad is a dick."

There's silence from the other side of the car. I watch the raindrops run down the sides of the windows, racing each other with the wind on their side. I've always liked watching raindrops slide down windows. There's something peaceful about seeing the rain but not being in it.

Alex turns suddenly, but the car handles so well I barely feel the lurch. I glance up to see us pass the green house that's on the corner of my street.

Wait. How the hell does he know where I live?

I don't want to know.

He lurches to a stop in front of my house, putting the car in park.

"Uh, thanks for the ride?" I question, opening the car door and climbing out. I nearly fall flat on my face when I catch my foot on the seat. Oops.

"You're welcome."

We stare at each other for a moment. I'm not quite sure why.

"Uh." I clear my throat. "I'll, um, see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. And you're coming to my house after school. To work on the project," he adds.

"Um, okay."

I am so coherent.

"See ya later, ugly shit." He gives me a toothpaste commercial smile and starts up the car again to drive away.

"Love you too, darling!" I call after him when he starts to pull away from the curb. I know he hears me, because the window's open.

He takes one hand off the steering wheel for a split second so that he can flip me off.

Oh, he's such a sweetheart.

I turn around to see my little sister Megan sitting on the porch, smiling evilly at me. Uh-oh. I trudge towards her, my hair plastered against my forehead with the rain.

"Hey, Megs," I greet, sticking out a hand to pull her up. We walk inside and I go to the pantry to get ingredients for cookies.

"Hi. Who was that?" she asks innocently.

"No one," I say with a shrug, measuring out some sugar and butter to cream for the base of my amazing chocolate chip cookies.

"If you don't tell me, I'm gonna tell mom that you got a ride home from a stranger," she says in a taunting voice. Wow. What a completely empty threat.

I set the butter and sugar to get mixed in our electric mixer and face Megan with my arms crossed. "His name's Alex."

"Gee, that's a lot of useful information," Megan says sarcastically. "I mean, who is he?"

I sigh heavily and add some flour to my sugar and butter concoction. "Alex Barton," I say, just to piss her off.

"I don't care about his— wait. Barton? Is he Chloe's brother?" she asks. She's distracted easily.

"Uh. Yeah. Why- Oh yeah! She babysits for you, huh?" I realize.

Megan scowls. "Yeah. She babysits. I hate having a babysitter."

"Well, for overnight stuff...Mom doesn't want to leave you alone. You should appreciate that she actually cares about you." I shrug and toss a little more flour into the soon-to-be cookie dough. Letting the mixer run, I go to the refrigerator and get eggs.

"Whatever. So what's the deal with him?" Megan prods. She freezes momentarily, and then smirks at me. "Is he your boyfriend?"

I drop one of the eggs. The yolk and white splatter across the kitchen floor. "Shit," I mutter, going to grab a wet towel to wipe it up. "Thanks a lot, Megs."

"No problemo," she says. "So is he?"

Yeah, my whole family knows that I'm gay. None of them really have a problem with it, except my dad, but he's a jackass anyway. Megan has a scar from when he shoved her against the side of a cabinet for getting a D on a test.

He's gotten over his abuse, luckily.

I haven't.

Megan, however, still loves him. Stupid little kid.

Back to the matter at hand.

"No, Megs," I say quietly, mopping up the egg in disgust. Egg is nasty. "Alex hates me. And I hate him just as much."

Megan hops down from the counter and grabs a paper towel to help me with my mess. "Then why did he give you a ride home?"

"Because he totally crossed the line today during detention and he knows it, the asshole," I reply, and when I think about it, that's true. Alex said it himself that he knew he went too far when he talked about Cam.

Maybe he has a soul after all- even if he doesn't have a heart.

"Oh. So what happened to your face?" Megan asks.

I put the remaining ingredients into the mixer and let them spin. "Alex beat me up. Again. You should know that by now."

"You've never mentioned who specifically does it. You just ask me to help you cover up the bruises before Dad gets home," Megan replies. "Want me to help you with those?"

I hold up a finger, gesturing for her to wait a moment while I go to the hall bathroom and check the status of my face in the mirror. I'm not badly bruised; my delicate cheekbones and not-strong jaw are kind of purple, but that's about it. I shrug and then return to the kitchen.

"I'm good. I'll say that I fell down if anyone asks," I tell Megan, who nods and watches while I make cookies out of the shapeless dough.

"Can I have some dough?" she asks sweetly. I roll my eyes and scoop some out on a spoon, handing it to her to lick.

"Parker? Megan?"

I look up when Mom walks into the kitchen, balancing three bags of groceries precariously in her arms so that I can't really see her face. All I see is the brown hair that matches Megan's. Hopefully her blue eyes that match mine can actually see out from behind the bags so she doesn't fall flat on her face.

"Hey, Mom," I say, grabbing two bags from her. "Megan. Unload," I instruct. Megan sighs and starts to unload one bag, while I put away things from the other.

"How was school?" Mom asks kindly.

"Fine," I answer, shrugging. I'm a liiiiiar!

"Suckish," Megan replies. "Tony put clay in my hair. They had to take me to the science safety showers to get rinse it out."

"Aww, sweetie, I'm sorry," Mom says regretfully, like it's her fault. Ha.

"Maybe he likes you," I tease. It's so fun to taunt little girls and tell them that lie that 'boys are only mean because they like you'. Such utter bullshit.

"Eww, gross," Megan complains. "He's just heartless."

"Well, speaking of heartless men, when's Dad gonna be home?" I ask idly, tossing some pecans into the pantry.

"He's on a business trip, remember?" Mom reminds me, giving me a pointed stare that clearly is supposed to tell me to improve my bad attitude towards my dad. Oh well.

"Ohhh yeah," I realize. "Score."

Mom gives me a reproving look, but then just shakes her head and sighs, walking out of the room and muttering about a shower.

"...There's a party in your bedroom, all night long. There's a lot of talk about you..."

My ringtone blares through the room, and I quickly take the phone out. I don't recognize the number, but I answer it anyway.

"Yo," I say.

"Um, this is Parker, right?" a voice says uncertainly.

I know that voice...

"Yep. Who's this?"

"Alex."

WHAT THE FUCK DOES HE WANT AND HOW DID HE GET MY NUMBER?!

I stop my inner yell-fest and instead calmly say, "Oh. Uh, how did you get my number?"

"I have everyone's number, Dipshit, even yours." He clears his throat, and I hear someone say something to him. His muffled voice- he must be holding the phone away from his mouth- says, "Sorry, Mom." He returns to normal, unmuffled voice status and says, "Uh, are you taking U.S. history?"

"What the hell?" I blurt without thinking.

"I found a U.S. history textbook in my car. I'm assuming it's yours, because no one else that's been in my car is in that class," Alex explains, ignoring my outburst.

I feel myself blush a little, and then I mumble, "Oh. Yeah. That's probably mine."

"Do you want me to come and drop it off for you? I could, if you need it. Or I could give it to you tomorrow," he offers. Alex is scary when he's polite and friendly and helpful.

"Uh, yeah. I need it for some outlines I have to do...," I say. "Do you mind dropping it off?"

"Nah. I'll just turn around and bring it back."

"Cool. Thanks a bunch."

"Shut up." He hangs up without waiting for a reply. I sigh and slide into a kitchen chair, opening up my phone and starting up Tetris.

"Who was that, honey?" Mom asks, putting away the last of the groceries. "And shouldn't you be doing homework?"

"I left my history book in someone's car," I say absently. "He's gonna drop it off. Then I can start my homework."

Mom rolls her eyes and sighs in exasperation. Sheesh. It'll take a few minutes longer than normal for me to start my homework. So what? Gah.

Not two minutes later, the doorbell rings. I hear my mom start to walk over to open the door, so I run over, cut her off, and beat her to it.

Alex holds out my history textbook. I take it from him quickly and say, "Thanks. See you tomorrow. Bye."

Before I can start to close the door, though, Mom stops me. "Parker, don't be rude," she reprimands me. She opens the door wide again and smiles at Alex. "Hi. You know, you look familiar, but I can't place a name. I'm Parker's mother, by the way."

Alex smiles briefly at her. "I'm Alex Barton. Um, my sister babysits for Megan. And I'm in Parker's lit class."

"Oh, goodness. You do look exactly like Chloe, come to think of it," Mom exclaims.

"Poor girl," I mutter.

Alex rolls his eyes at me. "Yeah, you're welcome for driving all the way over here to drop off your textbook so you don't fail Mr. Jenkins' class."

I stare nervously at him and gulp. "Um, thanks."

Alex looks stonily back at me. "You're welcome."

"Do you want to come inside, Alex? Wait out the rain?" Mom offers, gesturing to the inside of our pathetically shabby house.

Alex takes a look inside and shakes his head. I feel my face flame up, because I know he's probably mentally taunting me for my crappy home life.

"No, thanks," Alex replies. "I've got my car. Besides, it's not raining too hard." He gestures to the Jaguar, and my mom's eyes widen in surprise. Luckily, she has enough tact not to comment on how rich his family must be.

"Okay. Well, hopefully we'll see you around," Mom says cheerfully.

"I'd count on it. Parker and I are working on a project together."

I grumble to myself about stupid teachers. Alex sneers at me with a look that clearly says that I'm not the only one who's unhappy about us getting paired up.

"Bye, Alex," I interrupt before anyone can say anything else.

"Bye, Parker," he says cheerfully, waving at me. My mom waves and turns to walk into the kitchen again. When I'm sure she's not looking, I flip Alex off. Again. He does the same. It's like our secret handshake.

"See ya, Dipshit."

"Whatever."

I slam the door.

"He was nice," Mom says, smiling at me. It's almost a smirk, actually.

I sigh and sit down at the kitchen table, slamming my head against the wood. "Don't, Mom."

"How do you know what I was going to say?" she demands, hands on her hips.

I lean up and raise an eyebrow. "Because whenever I talk to a guy, you always ask me the same questions- if he's gay, if I like him, or if we're going out. And the answers to those three questions are no, no, and NO. Besides, even if I did like him, he's way out of my league. And he hates my guts. So shut up before you even think about saying anything." I get up from the table and shove the chair roughly back into its place.

"I don't know, Parker," Mom calls after me when I make a beeline for the hallway. "He seems to have you in quite the tizzy."

"I don't like him, Mom!" I shout, slamming my bedroom door.

"Your words are dripping with denial, honey," she yells back, her voice muffled by the door separating us.

I let out an incoherent, annoyed scream and then turn on my stereo. "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that."

"That's not the only thing you're pretending," Mom replies happily.

Oh, Mother.

A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews last chapter :D This story is already, like, setting itself up to be twice as popular as TBGD. 25 reviews on the first chapter is more than I had on any chapter in TBGD. So...yay! Thank you so much! Keep it up :D

Haha. No idea what the fuck I was trying to achieve with this chapter. Still trying to make Alex have a confusing personality, definitely. He can't decide whether to be nice or to hate Parker.

Characterization of Mrs. Daniels, maybe? I love her.

I saw Whatever Works over the weekend. Okay. Woody Allen makes the fucking WEIRDEST movies EVER. I swear, it was a movie about a pedophile who's insane and thinks he's better than everyone and then marries this dumbshit of a girl who's the biggest piece of white trash ever. She literally does not understand that she can't become an Asian prostitute. What the fuck. I was like, kill me. Now. The only good part was when the uber-religious dad met a gay guy and then was like, omfg. I am so closeted. And then they got together.

Unless you like weeeeeird-ass movies, don't see it.

However, saw Harry Potter again. Not to mention the pincers.

View and review!

-Ryette