Home is a Four Letter Word

chapter four

Mid-March

"Well boys," Jake smacked the envelope down on the cafeteria table, startling Aaron from his seat. "Looks like I'm not gonna be a lawyer."

"Good, you'd've sucked anyways." Aaron smiled through a messy bite of leftover meatball sub.

"Yeah," Hunter added in, tapping his shoulder with the back of his hand. "If you were my lawyer I'd just take the maximum sentence and call it a day before you got somethin' else added to my charges."

"That's not how that works, Hunter."

Jake sat down next to him, stopping himself from audibly sighing at their stupidity.

"Who even wants to go to law school anyways? Heard it's a pain in the ass." His best friend mumbled.

"People who like making money." Jake answered.

"And have a brain," Hunter added. "Lucky for us, you don't."

"Whatever." Aaron waved his hand inconsequentially. "College's stupid anyways, what's the point? I'd take my job over sittin' at a desk for the rest of my life any day."

"That's 'cuz that's your only option." He picked at him. "Who the hell wants to spend fifty years mowing grass, Aaron?"

"Oh, come on. Jake'll realize college is stupid and come back to do it with me, won't you buddy?"

Aaron directed Jake to answer, but he had tuned it out moments before, caught in a trance across the room. At the entrance of the lunch room, where students filtered in from fifth period to find their unassigned-assigned seats, Connor was smiling at someone just behind the door. Kaylee MacMillan came out to join him, grabbing her best friend's arm as she beamed with a smile that Jake envied for no apparent reason. When they walked, they stumbled over each other, laughing over something unbeknownst to the rest of the room, but Jake couldn't stop the flutter in his chest when he saw Connor's face. It lit up with an entertained smile that turned his face red and sent his head back rolling. He was obviously halfway through his laughter, but through the roar of a hundred other students, Jake couldn't hear it. He could only imagine what Kaylee could have said to get such a reaction out of him.

Jake hadn't realized that the boys followed his gaze until Hunter finally spoke.

"You think she's only friends with him because he's the only guy that don't wanna bang her?"

Jake's face grimaced as Aaron turned to him with an open-mouthed smile. The truth was, he was probably right. Kaylee wasn't a cheerleader, nor an athlete of any kind, but she demanded respect and she always got it. She was popular for her wit alone—every student in the class wanted to team up with her for group work, and every boy that crossed her wished they never tried catcalling her in the first place. She was a force to be reckoned with, and McKenna's role model for a variety of reasons that Jake fully understood. He had spent the past four years neck and neck with her academically, something she probably viewed as a friendly rivalry whereas Jake saw it as just another stepping stone. She wasn't willing to go gently into that good night, but Jake just wished the night would consume him whole.

"You should ask her to prom." Hunter suggested, but Jake knew the tone was mocking when aimed at Aaron.

"Me?" Aaron pointed to himself. "Hell no. She'd turn me down in a heartbeat."

"Probably have queerdo do it for her."

Jake wanted so badly to smack Hunter on the back of the head and tell him to 'shut the fuck up,' but he settled for keeping his lips sealed before he said something he would come to regret. He tried to keep his expression attentive, seemingly interested so that his friends couldn't tell how his heart sped up when the word left Hunter's mouth, or how badly he wanted to slip away with some bullshit excuse so he wouldn't have to listen to all the things they said when no one else was listening.