Stonathan ❤️

94

NOT MINE!!

all credits go to SteveTheHouseWife on ao3

Chapter 5:

Steve doesn't come by on Friday.

He doesn't come by on the weekend, he doesn't come into the dark room on Monday morning, telling Jonathan how much he's missed this (whatever 'this' was, at this point), he doesn't look at or talk to Jonathan at all throughout the entire day.

Jonathan spends lunch alone again, for the first time in a while, and doesn't even see Steve in the cafeteria at all for the next five days.

Steve passes him in the hall, but their eyes never meet and he doesn't bother looking Jonathan's way like he would before - like he'd catch Jonathan's eye and nudge his head to tell him to walk off with him. He doesn't do anything like that anymore.

It was always Steve that came to him.

Jonathan realizes after a few days, because he considers going to Steve to ask what's wrong, what he did, what he said. But he realizes that he's never gone to Steve. And he could go to him in the hall but he's worried it would cause a scene. And he could hang around school and try and catch him after practice, but Jonathan's scared of what he might say, or that he won't be alone.

Instead he'd probably be with his team and, since he's the captain, they're loyal to him. It might not be the smartest thing to do. Honestly, Steve probably wasn't the smartest person to get involved with in the first place, there's a reason Jonathan's hept his distance.

And now here he is, way in over his head, but unable to not try and think of an alternative.

Jonathan doesn't know any other way to see Steve, other than to go to his house uninvited and hope for the best. He knows that Steve is a captain or co-captain or something on the swim team, and has some other things he does after school each day, but Jonathan doesn't know enough to look.

The more he thinks about going to talk to Steve, the less he wants to actually do it, and the more it hurts not to; and the less he understands why.

It's not like they were friends, it's not like they were really close.

Steve was paying him for blow jobs, that's all it was. That's all he meant to Steve, so maybe he didn't like hearing what Jonathan said, but maybe he agreed.

Maybe he's done. With Jonathan.

As much as it hurts to, Jonathan tries to bury down what he's feeling and move on. It feels wrong to leave it like it is, but it feels just as wrong to try and force something between them when he barely even knows Steve. When they barely know each other.

It doesn't stop him from feeling the band around his chest tighten whenever Steve walks into the one class they share. It doesn't stop him from looking around the cafeteria, waiting, expecting to see Steve, but never even catching a glimpse of him. It doesn't stop Jonathan from feeling like he's suddenly got too much free time on his hands and no idea what to do with it.

It doesn't stop him from missing Steve.

Jonathan puts off confrontation as long as he can, which would probably have been forever if he didn't realize how low funds were getting again. He doesn't realize it until he comes home from school one day to find that the electricity's been turned off, and his mom's sitting on the couch, pouring over bills and paperwork with a pen in her hand.

"It's okay, I'll get it back on," she tries to assure him, not even looking up from the pile of papers, "I just wasn't home to stop that asshole from cutting the line this time."