𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙊𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙇𝙁 | Marcus White

The Inbetween

Days until return: 73

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah of course." Ushering Jonah through your front door and into your apartment, you pulled his bags in for him, not questioning why they were there at the moment and more concerned with his clearly teary eyes. "What's going on, J? Is everything okay?"

Jonah practically threw himself onto your couch, head buried into one of your pillows, his arms wrapped tightly around it. Jonah let out a loud sign into the material as you locked your door and pushed his bags out of the way. Settling yourself next to him, you nudged his head so that it would rest on your lap, tilting his head so that his teary-eyed gaze couldn't avoid your stern one.

"What's going on? Talk to me."

Jonah ran a hand over his face, eyes red and raw and nothing changing as he attempted to rub away his distress. "That's all I could salvage from my apartment." He muttered, hand still covering half of his face.

Holding his chin and forehead between your hands, you held eye contact with him, silently encouraging the brunette to speak his mind as you ran your fingers through his hair. "It got entirely flattened by the tornado and all I have is three bags of stuff to show for it. And I'm out of work for the next few months while they rebuild the store and I have no where to live and no means of surviving and I kissed Amy and my entire life is falling apart In front of me peach."

"You kissed Amy?" You gasped, quickly shaking you head and saving the juicer of the news to be dealt with later. "I mean, let's take this one thing at a time, J. Okay?"

Jonah only grunted at your encouragement, throwing his head into the couch cushions and letting out another groan. "I'll go make us some coffee." Patting him on the back, you stood from the cramped couch and made your way into the adjoined kitchen.

Clicking the kettle onto boil, you pulled two mugs out of your cupboard as well as taking the lid of the coffee jar off. Spooning two big scoopfuls of coffee into each mug, you left them aside, waiting for the water to boil.

Already, too much had happened in the past 48 hours, and Jonah showing up on your doorstep in such a state definitely wasn't the best addition. However, he was one of your closest friends, you'd do anything for him, even if it meant uprooting your quiet evening in with Gerald. Jonah kissing Amy was one thing, but the poor boy clearly had greater matters on his plate then that at the moment. Since he'd moved to St Louis, Jonah had built himself from the ground up, unlike others within the store he didn't have family close by that he could fall back on after such a tragedy. He had you, however.

"You want to move in?" You asked as you moved back towards the couch, this time with two steaming cups of coffee in hand. Jonah jumped upright at the question, chocked words slipping past his lips at he tried to come to an answer. "You don't have to, it was just an offer. I'm not going to put you out on the street. I've been there, I'm not letting the same happen to you."

"Y/n, I can't ask that of you."

Taking a sip of your coffee, you slowly handed Jonah's out to him, keeping a firm grip on the mug until his fingers slipped past yours and held it tightly in own hands.

"Your not asking me, I'm offering you." You emphasised, reaching your hand out to his arm and rubbing up and down slowly. "You don't have to make a decision right this second, but at least think about it."

Silence followed as the two of you took slow sips of your drinks, careful not to gulp down the liquid as to not burn the inside of your mouths. Some rerun of a sitcom buzzed in the background, you'd thoughtlessly put it on while you got used to the quiet and stillness of the return to your apartment, but now you and Jonah had become engrossed in the show as you avoided discussing the matters at hand. Soon enough your mugs had been emptied and disregarded on the makeshift coffee table in-front of you.