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JAKE ──────────── ' leather jacket '
— JAKE HAD THOUGHT FOR A moment that maybe he would never see the white walls covered in decorative vines or the painfully blank furniture that made up his girlfriend's room, but here he was, sitting on the end of her bed as she examined her outfit in front of her mirror.
"Do you like this outfit? I think I might change it."
Jake looked over to her, his eyes checking over all the different elements of her current appearance; a flattering forest green miniskirt, a fitted black turtle neck, and his leather jacket that she had borrowed. Cute.
Wait a minute.
Jake didn't own a leather jacket. He never had, and he wasn't sure he ever would. But by the way the thin coat settled just above her mid-thigh and sat on her shoulder's looking five sizes too big, he could tell it wasn't hers. Every piece of apparel that his girlfriend owned was fitted to hug her skin, and that jacket did the exact opposite.
"Is that a new coat?"
Her attention flicked over to glance at him through the mirror before quickly becoming fixated on her outfit once again. The action had happened so swiftly that Jake had almost missed it, but he didn't. He saw the panic in her eyes, and knew immediately what the answer truly was; "Yeah, a guy I met gave it to me. I'll return it the next time I meet him."
But of course, she'd never say that.
"Well, do you like the outfit?"
"Yeah, I like it."
She nodded— muttering something under her breath that was far too inaudible for Jake to pick up— before reaching over to her desk for her necklace.
"Are you alright, babe?" She questioned. Jake knew it was a surface level question, one that she didn't want the true answer to. As if she was a cashier merely asking a customer how they were even though both individuals knew perfectly well that the shopper would say they were fine even if they weren't.
So, despite feeling like flowers were spontaneously growing in the depths of his abdomen, sucking away all the life he had left in him to nourish themselves, Jake smiled warmly at her and nodded his head enthusiastically, "Yeah, I'm good. Don't worry, Luna."
‿‿‿‿
For some reason, walking away from his girlfriend's residence made him feel far more joyous than walking to it. His feet felt a little lighter as he slowly made his way down her street once again. It still felt like dumbbells had been tied to his heart, but the familiar sight of the low hanging hydro poles and unkept grass that constituted the four-way intersection relieved some of the weight.
