AS THE STORY GOES

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It was Sunday morning and Justin found himself both excited and apprehensive for brunch with Marisol and Jimmy. He and Jon actually had most of the day planned with Marisol and her family—they had been looking forward to it since Marisol group texted them on Wednesday with the invitation.

"Help me, Jus." Jon pouted as he stomped into his brother's room.

"What's wrong?" Justin frowned despite his amusement at his baby brother's face.

"My hair!" Jon exhaled loudly.

Justin finished tying his own sneakers before standing up to look down on Jon's head. He knew exactly the problem because their hair was one of the few features they shared. Justin saw how Jon's curls weren't clumping and he also saw that Jon tried to fix it with too much product. Justin wouldn't classify he or his brother as overly concerned with their appearance, but that wasn't to say that they didn't care at all. People treated you differently depending on your appearance, so Justin always put in a little effort.

"Take your shirt off," Justin instructed as they walked back into the bathroom.

"I'll get gel on my shirt." Jon was borderline whining.

Justin was patient with Jon—he was typically calm in most situations. "You put a towel or t-shirt over your head and slide your shirt overtop. I do this when I do my hair before I put my shirt on."

Jon did as he was told, carefully hanging his clean sweater over the towel bar. Justin had Jon kneel over the tub as Justin used the detachable spray nozzle to rinse the gel from his brother's hair before running a little conditioner through and rinsing one more time. Justin used his own t-shirt that was hanging on the back of the door to squeeze the water from Jon's hair gently. He had learned everything about doing his own hair from YouTube—he quietly learned everything about the world through YouTube. Justin spent endless hours in the early morning of so many days just searching up questions and binging on answers.

"This time of year, I put a little bit of oil in my hair before the gel," Justin said as he picked up the bottle of jojoba oil on the counter.

"I use this on my face," Jon commented as if Justin wasn't the one who had told him to do so.

"Just, like, this much—" Justin showed Jon, taking Jon's hand and putting a small amount in his palm. "Smooth it in like the gel—start smoothing out your curls and then put the gel in. They should stick together better now. Don't take forever, though. We have to leave really soon."

"Thanks." Jon was back to himself that quickly.

"Anytime," Justin said with a nod as he left Jon in the bathroom. Jon only needed two minutes and they were in the car, still on time to meet Marisol and Jimmy in Cherry Hill at Trappixx—a Jamaican restaurant he and Jon had frequented fairly regularly, but never knew the name of until Marisol texted it.

"Hi guys!" Marisol waved to Justin and Jon as they stepped into the small restaurant they had all to themselves for the moment. Justin couldn't help but laugh to see that Jimmy already had several different plates of appetizers in front of him.

"Sorry," Jimmy said through a bite of food. "I got started a little early."

"I make him eat well most of the time," Marisol offered the explanation as she stood and gave Justin and then Jon a quick hug.

"After a month of kale and asparagus, can you imagine what a beef patty tastes like?" Jimmy held out the plate of patties for them and Jon wasted no time helping himself.

"You know what?" Jon took hold of the table conversation immediately and Justin was quite surprised.

"What's up?" Jimmy laughed at him.