Home is a Four Letter Word

chapter thirty-six

Early June

The rain came eight days later on a Friday afternoon—a torrential downpour that lasted hours as the rain pattered unbothered on everything that laid in its pitiful path. For a moment, everything was cool and breezy. The storm winds felt like a blessing, and when the chilled rain touched Jake's skin, he almost felt a shiver run down his spine. This was the only kind of summer weather he looked forward to. The days where he didn't know if he would lose power, or if the yard would flood, or perhaps if the roads would be clear enough to drive were such an awaited relief from the same in and outs every day had brought him so far this summer.

And to think he got to spend it with Connor was almost surreal. It was the kind of day he could live in forever. In Jake's mind, everything was perfect.

Connor was sitting on the kitchen counter reading the ingredients from a box of muffin mix out loud to Jake, but he wasn't paying attention. He was too busy staring out of the window over the sink next to him, watching the way the rain from the gutter overflowed down onto an old flower pot that hadn't been used for a while judging off of the barren soil that filled it half way. As he watched it drip, he couldn't help but wonder how long it would take before the water filled up the other half of the pot and started to pour over the rotting deck railing that it sat on.

"See, I think we might have everything but the egg and the milk." Connor flipped over the box in his hand to show Jake.

"You don't have milk?" Jake finally zoned back into the conversation, turning his head back to Connor.

"Not usually. I hate it, and my mom doesn't care too much."

"Don't let Kenna hear you say that. Her new crush is the dude showing dairy cows at fair this year." Jake mumbled as he took the box from his hands, trying to see if they could make it work.

Yeah, there's no way we can make muffins when the only two ingredients we need, we don't have.

"Connor..." Jake dropped the box down to his side dramatically as Connor was twisted around reaching into the back of the cabinet beside him.

"Hm?" He sorted through other boxes, unbothered.

"This expired in March..."

"Eh–"

"Two years ago."

"Oh." His shoulders dropped. "Yeah, we'll throw that away."

"Yeah, no shit." Jake tossed it on the counter.

A breeze came in through the window they had both decided to leave open to listen to the rain and made Jake shiver right in front of it. This was the one time so far this summer where Jake could actually recall feeling cold. It was nice. He pulled the green flannel he had snatched from Connor's closet closer to his body and moved closer in to where Connor was sitting instead.

"Well... I guess I should've listened when my mom asked me for a grocery list before she left yesterday."

Connor inspected a can of who-knows-what while looking defeated. He squinted and then pulled a grimace before sliding it back up onto the shelf.

"Um, yeah. Sometimes that's useful..." Jake tried to hide his smile while he watched the faces Connor was making.

"Yeah, you know... sometimes." Connor shrugged, the sleeves of Jake's sweatshirt from their first 'date' falling down from his shoulders.

Jake had completely forgotten about it until Connor opened the door in it earlier. He had never asked for it back, but he didn't even want it back. Connor got more use out of it than he ever did anyways. Out of an intrusive thought to be as annoying as possible, Jake felt the odd urge to pull down the string of the sweatshirt's hood, and so when he did, the right side ended up all the way in Connor's lap.