On A Night Like This

Chapter Seventeen

-Dylan-

With Thanksgiving and the road closure coming up, today was the day he and Jayce were leaving the cabin. As much as he was looking forward to having Jayce with him for the holiday, he was sad to leave his home in the mountains and was dreading his return to town. Most of the people who lived there knew who he was by now, but as had been the case his entire life, they all kept their distance. 

He could handle the loneliness and being excluded, but the stares he got every time he ventured out to the grocery store or anywhere else in town still bothered him. He wished he could cover up the scar on his face, but no amount of effort would make him smaller and less visible. He was always going to stand out, and not in a good way.

For now, he chose to push those thoughts aside and focus on his gift to Jayce. Two days ago, he'd finished the red scarf he'd been knitting. He wanted Jayce to have it as a thank you for his friendship and because he knew red was Jayce's favorite color. The scarf would look good on him.

"I'm all packed," Jayce said. "Not that I had much stuff in the first place. Is there anything I can put in my pack that you need to take with you?"

He shook his head. Even if there was, he didn't want Jayce to carry too much weight. It was going to be his first long snowshoe and he didn't want Jayce to struggle.

"I have something for you," he told him. He retrieved the scarf from the wooden chest underneath the bed and wrapped it gently around Jayce's neck. "This will keep you warm on our way back."

"It's so soft," Jayce said, running his fingers along the scarf. "And it looks good. Are you sure you don't want to wear it? You spent months on this."

"I'm sure. I want you to keep it."

Jayce smiled. "Really? No one has ever made anything for me before." He reached up and kissed Dylan. "Thank you. I love it," he murmured.

Dylan gave him a brief smile back, then turned to get the snowshoes out and hide the tears that had sprung up in his eyes. He needed to focus on making sure everything was set to leave the cabin for the winter and that they were prepared for their journey back to the road. He also hoped getting everything in order would distract him from thinking about leaving here with Jayce and knowing Jayce would never be in this cabin again. While he knew things had to change, he wished they could stay the same.

Jayce was going to go back to his life in Seattle, and Dylan would only be a distant memory, part of a mishap in Jayce's life. He wished he could hold onto Jayce and keep him forever. Just the two of them in the cabin, spending days walking through the forest and nights in front of the fire exploring each other's bodies.

Jayce was the only person who had ever looked past his hulking frame and the scar on his face. The only person who had ever touched him, ever wanted him. Now that he knew what it was like to be desired, he didn't know how to go back to the endless loneliness that plagued his life. He didn't know how to go back to a world without Jayce.

He wanted to ask Jayce to stay, but he knew he never would.

-Jayce-

He was cold. At first the snowshoeing had been hard work since they had to navigate around obstacles, including over rocks, and he was sweating after just a few minutes. It was more complex than the snowshoe walks Dylan had taken him on around the cabin.

But now that they'd found a more clear path and weren't working as hard, the cold was starting to seep in. He pulled the soft scarf tighter around his face, trying to cover everything below his eyes, but what he really wanted was a way to warm up his feet. The snow was deep, and even though the snowshoes were keeping him on top of it, snow still made its way in between the bindings of the snowshoes and his boots and encased the front half of his boots. His toes were cold, and he tried to wiggle them inside his boots to keep blood flowing.