Being Jackson.

10.

Jackson.

"Come on Weis, time to go." I coax my dog into getting up, two weeks of minimum running and he had gotten lazy. "I'm leaving you, lazy poodle." I try again and that got his attention, with the leash on I made my way downstairs and out the door without making too much noise, I had decided to go on my morning runs like before then meet Wyatt later at the gym or in the park if he was fast enough to catch up with me.

"Well good morning gentle sir." Ryder exclaims leaning on one of the few trees scattered in front of our house. "Are you stalking me again Ryder?" I demanded and I could've sworn there was the barest hint of a blush on his face. "What if I am, you can't do anything about it." He challenged and I scoffed. "A restraining order is my first thought." I sassily replied.

I could see his body tense up but he pretended otherwise as he leaned down and brushed his fingers through Weis's fur. "I missed you too Weis, I missed you so much." He and my dog got along famously now, which wasn't really that surprising, Weis was an attention whore. "Okay, I'm not sticking around for this love fest." I spoke up taking off on my run with a gentle jog.

Not long after Ryder and Weis were beside me running. "So where were you hiding this whole time?" Ryder asks and I ignore him, with a boost to my speed I ran faster leaving him surprised but he yet again caught up. "You can't run away from me sweet cheeks." He says running besides me and I roll my eyes.

This was the same boy who didn't have the balls to stand up for me, taunted and insulted me more than a few times, now I was his sweetcheeks, he needed to get a cat scan or something because there was definitely something wrong with him. "Jack, at least tell me why you hid, I thought we had a connection, weird at best but still a connection." He pleaded and I groaned just wanting the morning peace to wash over me.

"Ryder, men have patience and tact, garnished with a dash of charming smooth subtlety, you my guy, have none of those right now, figure yourself out before you even attempt whatever this is, you're still with Pete right;" I had finally spoken up and he nodded yes to my question. "Start there." I finish and he nods as we both continue the run through the park silently.

I knew I hadn't been rude to Ryder but he needed to hear the truth and understand that I wasn't going to entertain him whilst he was a ball of desperate anxious energy, tolerating him was possible because I had grown accustomed to his incessant presence in the past few weeks.

As he was Ryder was a puppy without direction or training, he didn't know what he wanted and his lack of acknowledgement to sensitive topics that weren't his own was a catalyst to everything going the way it did in his relationship and my life. "Hey guys!" Wyatt happily waves at us when we reach the square and he jumps to hug me even though I was trying to get my breathing under control.

"Hi Wyatt." I mumbled. "Hey sugar baby, is this idiot bothering you?" Wyatt hisses glaring at Ryder who is perplexed at Wyatt's behaviour and I just chuckle, only Darcy had gotten used to Wyatt acting like my self proclaimed bodyguard. "Who are you calling idiot?" Ryder grumbled glaring at Wyatt too, the two of them were already sizing each other up.

"As cute as this dick measuring contest is, why is there even animosity between you two, you barely know each other except for when you're training." I interjected pointing out an obvious fact. "Yeah you're on the lacrosse team." Ryder acknowledged as I put my fists on the ground and began my push-ups. "My birthday is in a week Jack, I don't want excuses from you." Wyatt completely ignoring Ryder was beside me doing his own regiment.

"We have a thing that weekend Jack, remember." Ryder suddenly spoke and I narrowed my eyes on him. "We do?" I asked. "Yeah we do, but we can do it earlier, thursday night." He insisted and I wondered what exactly he was up to, I had never agreed to anything with him, as far as we were both concerned, he was supposed to be sorting out his life, though I was intrigued, what was he up to.