A/N: Well, I'm glad that you guys liked the last chapter. I hope you like this one just as much. R&R. Enjoy!

Chapter Fourteen

In Which Jack Goes to an Art Show (Sort of)

"Okay, so...this one is yours?" Jack asked Jamie as they walked around the auditorium lobby.

Currently, all of the art classes were show casing the students' completed works so far. They were all clustered depending on which class the student was in; all of the Art One works were together; all of the Art Two; and so on and so forth. The sand art and sculptures were on tables while a few of the larger 3D Art Class pieces took up space on the floor. Most of the 3D pieces were pretty cool, like the one that was made entirely of plastic soda bottles and wire that formed a life-sized model of the artist, but a few were kind of freaky and weird, like the all too realistic looking eyeball. Some of the paintings were very nice and beautiful, with unique color schemes and patterns. A lot of the Art One projects sucked ass and Jack knew that most of the students had signed up for the class for an 'easy A'. Morons.

"Yep, that's mine!" Jamie said proudly. They both looked up at Jamie's 3D Art work. It was a circle of all the different colored Vitamin Water bottles. It was simple, and that was why Jack was unsure if it was actually Jamie's or not, but it was bad ass and totally freaking awesome.

"I like it! It's simple, but colorful, and who in their right mind doesn't like at least one flavor of Vitamin Water?" Jack said, beaming at his best friend. Jamie practically squirmed with pleasure and his face glowed with happiness.

"I know, right?! I'm so glad you like it. I wasn't sure if anyone would because it really isn't that creative and all," Jamie admitted, looking like a little boy on Christmas Day.

"But how would think to use Vitamin Water bottles of all things? If that's not creative, then I dunno what is," Jack told him, his blue eyes bright and excited.

"Hey! Let's go check out Aster's stuff. I know he submitted a lot of stuff," Jamie said, pulling Jack over to the Art Three section of the lobby.

The students taking Art Three had their own big, tall, black poster boards that they tacked and hung their art projects on. They stood in the middle of the lobby and there were about four or five of them, all with three sides and all that featured a different artist. Aster's was the one closest to the cafeteria doors and that was the one that Jamie and Jack headed over to. Other teens were walking around, looking at the works of art and talking amongst themselves, some of them laughing and mocking the pieces while others were in awe. Most of the teachers stood off to the side and talked to one another while the students looked around the displays.

Jack and Jamie had arrived in the lobby with their Chemistry teacher. Thanks to the art show that the art teachers, Mrs. Hershey, Ms. Mueller, and Mr. Drier, had set up, all of the classes were allowed to wander around and look at the art work during forth period. A bunch of classes were grouped together to visit the galleries at specified time; right now, it was Jack and Jamie's time.

They came to a halt in front of Aster's wall of art and Jack gasped at what he saw. Yes, he had known before hand, way before hand, that his boyfriend was the best artist in the school. Whenever he was bored in class, he would doodle little pictures in his note book. Jack watched him do it all of the time in Algebra Two. But his doodles were nothing compared to the paintings Aster had done for the show.

The one at the top was of a bridge with a red roof and autumn colored trees. It was so detailed and serene that Jack felt as though he had actually been there at some point in his life. The two below that one were different: one was of a cluster of planets and stars with shades of dark blues and purples and greens while the other was of fruit (what was it with all of the projects full of fruit anyway? Jack would never understand it). There were eight paintings in all on the poster board, and as Jack's eyes wandered down, his heart started beating fast and his breath caught in his throat.

Aster had painted Jack's profile; it looked almost as though he were looking into a mirror. Except that he knew he wasn't because, obviously, there wasn't a mirror there. And the him in the painting was facing sideways, as though he were looking at something interesting to the right. The one beside it was one of Jack's blue eyes and there were snowflakes, each a different pattern, in his pupil. His boyfriend had managed to successfully capture how blue Jack's eyes were. Thinking about how much time and detail Aster put into the paintings made Jack's cheeks turn red, but he smiled despite himself. Another one was of the top of Jack's head from his eyes up that had his white hair morphing into a really snowy blizzard. That one had to be Jack's favorite because he loved snow and it was just so cool that Aster had done something so unique and breathtaking.

The other two weren't of Jack, but they were still amazing. One was of a curious looking rabbit amidst a field of flowers giving bloom to brightly painted colored Easter eggs. Rolling his eyes, Jack laughed and grinned at the painting. It was so like Aster, whose favorite holiday was Easter, to do something like that. Aster had painted a self portrait of himself for the last one, but in shades of various greens and while his expression was one composed of horror. Although it wasn't meant to be funny, Jack couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey, Jamie," he said, elbowing his best friend. "Look." Jack pointed to Aster's portrait. Jamie saw it and they shared a look before they both started laughing that complete and totally idiots.

"Oh my God! That's…that's…," Jamie started to say, but he stopped mid way because he was laughing too hard.

"I know!" Jack said, nodding and laughing. A few of the other kids sent curious looks their way, but Jack and Jamie paid them no mind. They were too busy laughing.

"Oh man, my sides are starting to hurt," Jamie said as he began to calm down. He wiped a few tears from his eyes and shared a grin with Jack, who was trying very hard to stop laughing. He managed to contain himself and only let out the occasional chuckle after another minute or two.

"Yeah, I know. Aside from the weird, nauseated expression of terror, it's pretty good. Actually, they're all pretty good," Jack said.

"I told ya that Aster was the best in the school. I think he's even going to go to college for art. But I'm not sure. He told me that way, way back, y'know?" Jamie told him.

"Now that you brought it up, I don't even know what he wants to go to college for," Jack admitted, feeling a bit guilty for never having asked his boyfriend about it before hand.

"Well, do you?" Jamie asked him, genuinely curious.

"Not really, no," Jack answered him with a shrug of his shoulders. "I always thought that I'd follow in my dad's footsteps and take over the family business. I mean, yeah, I'd have to go to college to take business classes and all that, but I never gave any real thought about it."

"What does your dad do, anyway? You've mentioned his business before, but you never said what exactly it was about," Jamie told him.

"He runs his own toy company. It's actually pretty awesome," Jack told him.

"Oh, wow! That's, like, so cool!" Jamie gushed, his eyes lighting up.

"Isn't it though?" Jack shared a smile with the brunette. "His company also published children's books. A few of the stories have cover art like this." He pointed to Aster's Easter painting.

"Maybe Aster will do illustrations for books and stuff," Jamie pondered out loud. "It's not like he doesn't have the talent for it."

"Oh, yes. Because having someone paint you after only dating them for a little while isn't creepy at all," came Pitch's voice from behind them.

Jack and Jamie both jumped and turned to see that the taller teen was standing behind them. His yellow eyes were all but boring holes into Aster's paintings of Jack, but when he felt their gazes on him, he turned his attention to them. For a second, a very brief second, Jack thought he saw anger in those eyes, but it was gone almost as soon as he had seen it. But Jack knew what he saw and it confused him. He figured that he should be used to being confused, but he wasn't and he sure as hell wasn't in the mood to let Pitch ruin what Aster had done.

"That's rich, coming from someone who's creepy themselves," Jack retorted, his blue eyes narrowed slightly.

"And yet, you didn't deny that it was creepy," Pitch shot back.

"Of course it's not creepy. It's sweet and totally romantic of Aster, especially considering that it must've taken him a long time to do those paintings," Jack responded.

"Whatever," Pitch grumbled before he turned and headed towards the hallway that would lead him past the vending machines outside of the cafeteria and towards the library and the school lobby.

Jack sighed inwardly. It seemed that with every step he took in regards to Pitch, he always took two steps back. He was frustrated by it and he hated the fact that Pitch wasn't making things any easier by being a stubborn jerk. Sending a conflicted look Jamie's way, Jack shook his head and began to follow after Pitch.

"I gotta go and see what's up with him," Jack told him.

"Why? He's a dick," Jamie said.

"Because we're presenting our project in Our Near Neighbor tomorrow and I'd rather it not be tense and awkward as hell," Jack replied.

It wasn't necessarily a lie – they were presenting their project tomorrow and he didn't want it to be any worse than it already was going to be – but it wasn't the entire truth either. He still hadn't told Jamie every detail about his sort of conversation with Pitch. Jack was going to though; he definitely was going to because he'd need someone to talk to who wasn't Aster because he needed someone to see how kind of pig headed both Aster and Pitch were. But when he was going to was…well, he hadn't figured that part out yet. All he knew was that he'd talk to Jamie and soon. He'd talked to Sandy or Tooth about it, but Sandy never said anything and Jack would have to constantly ask him yes or no questions to get anywhere and Tooth talked. A lot. Like, almost too much some times, and he didn't want that to happen. Not with something like this.

"But Aster's coming this way!" Jamie called after him. Jack turned and saw that, indeed, his boyfriend was walking over to Jamie and his artwork. Sending Aster a reassuring smile and wave, Jack turned to the brunette and mouthed keep him busy before he turned and stalked after Pitch.

Jack caught up with him by the vending machines which were, for once, devoid of any students. He smacked Pitch's arm to get his attention and he glared up into the other's yellow eyes when he whirled around.

"What?!" Pitch snarled at him, obviously angry.

"You're pissed," Jack stated simply, folding his arms over his chest and quirking an eyebrow.

"So what?" Pitch asked, his eyes narrowed as he stared down at the white haired teen.

"Why?" Jack asked him.

"It's none of your business, Frost," Pitch said.

"Bullshit. It is my business because Aster is my boyfriend. Now spill," Jack demanded.

"And if I don't?" Pitch sneered at him.

"Two hits," Jack said. A slightly puzzled look crossed Pitch's face.

"Two hits?" he asked.

"Two hits. I hit you and you hit the floor. And don't think I haven't done it before. I've taken on guys bigger and fatter than you. Besides, we're kinda, sorta, not really friends, so who else are you gonna tell? Now spill," Jack demanded again.

Pitch sighed heavily and turned to look at the wall. "It's just… I wish someone would do that sort of thing for me."

"Do what?" Jack asked, uncrossing his arms and looking a bit puzzled himself.

"Paint me. Aster never did that, not for me anyway. And it would be nice if…if someone would do that for me at some point," Pitch admitted softly and reluctantly. Jack had to admit that he felt bad for the guy. He just looked so forlorn and sad…

"Well, maybe you'd be able to get a boyfriend if, oh, y'know, you stopped acting like a creepy weirdo," Jack said, trying to be helpful.

"Why thank you, Jack, but I've already thought of that," Pitch said sarcastically. Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Stop being an ass. Seriously, if you want to find somebody to be with, then start being nicer and less of a creep. You're not unattractive; I'm sure you'd be able to get a date," Jack told him sincerely.

After a minute of not responding, Pitch turned to look at him. "You really believe that?" he asked, looking and sounding like a lost, little boy.

"Of course I do. But dude, you gotta stop with the creepiness. It doesn't help you," Jack said.

"Who knew that I'd be taking advice from a pipsqueak," Pitch barked out, humorless laughter tainting his words.

"This 'pipsqueak' can still kick your ass. Besides, I don't see anyone else standing here, offering you advice," Jack added.

"True…true… Perhaps…" Pitch said. He trailed off and shook his head before he turned and walked into the cafeteria.

Jack stared after him, but he didn't follow him inside. There was no way he'd do that. Rolling his eyes at how stupid this entire situation was, Jack turned and made his way back to the galleries in the auditorium lobby. Right now, he wanted to be with his boyfriend and his friends and that was exactly what he was going to do.