Stonathan ❤️

16

NOT MINE!!

all credits go to theweakestthing on ao3

Jonathan was sat beside the phone, he felt mighty pathetic sitting there while people passed by and glanced at him on their way in and out of the dormitory. Waiting on someone else always made Jonathan nervous, anxious, he'd been let down a whole lot for varying reasons that wildly differed in validity, those times had scarred and hardened him to the point where he found it difficult to trust people.

He did trust Steve though, the other might have been a little slow on the emotional uptake but Steve always found a way make it up to people when he messed up, it was one of the things that Jonathan really admired about Steve. It was still hard for him to believe that other would call him every Thursday night, he could think of so many better things to do than call him.

The phone rang and startled Jonathan from his thoughts, that heavy tone sent his heart into a flurry. He fumbled with the receiver before he was able to properly hold it to his ear, he almost hit himself with it in the commotion.

"Hello," Jonathan said, he hoped that he didn't sound desperate or pathetically hopeful.

"Hey is Jenifer there?" A voice he didn't recognise asked, Jonathan frowned at the deep grey plastic of the telephone.

"This is the boys dorm at NYU, I think you've the wrong number," Jonathan replied despondently and set the receiver back down.

Jonathan wasn't exactly the patient type, sure he was more patient than Nancy or Steve, but the two of them were exceptionally impatient where Jonathan was just regular impatient. He tapped his fingers against the wood of the desk that sat besides the telephone. People came and went but Jonathan stayed, sat motionless at that desk waiting for the call. He didn't wait all that long, he figured that an hour was a reasonable time to stop waiting, he gave the telephone one last glance before went down the hall and up the stairs back to his dorm room.

Despite the fact that it was a Thursday, his roommate was thankfully not around, they had a steady girlfriend and spent a lot of time not sleeping in their dorm. He dropped down onto his bed and pressed his face into the pillow. There were any number of reasons that Steve wouldn't have been able to call him, a study session that ran late, Steve overslept, Steve was called in for a shift to cover a sick colleague, any number of random accidents and emergencies, maybe the phone line was down? There were two thoughts that permeated and circled his mind though, either Steve was in a horrible accident or Steve had completely forgotten about him.

Jonathan could call Steve, but Steve was a part of a frat and if the frats at Jonathan's college were anything to go by he didn't want to have to talk to any of those people, just the thought of it made his stomach churn. He'd have to wait until either he got a letter from Steve or the next Thursday and hope that Steve actually called him that time. Jonathan figured that he should write a letter in the morning, if something seriously bad had happened to Steve then either Nancy or his mother would find a way to contact him.

He didn't cry, Jonathan wasn't much of a crier and he didn't really have all the facts, instead he fell asleep on top of the covers with all his clothes still on with an empty feeling sinking in his gut as he held back tears. He felt stupid, he kept running through all the reasonable things that could have happened. He felt so pathetic, fragile in the way his father had accused him of being, all those yelled insults that felt worse than the fists against his child's frame.

Jonathan was used to being alone, was used to feeling lonely but that didn't make it any easier. He'd spent days feeling totally alone and helpless in the short years before Will's birth where both of his parents worked to make ends meet. That was when his love of music had started, he felt less alone with someone else's voice and music filling the house. Other kids had never much liked him, sure he'd been able to hold friendships during elementary school but that was when kids were actually encouraged to be friends, after that they'd avoided Jonathan like the plague.