Girl Meets Closet

Chapter 22: Girl Meets Texas (Redux) Part 3

------Jason’s POV------

I opened my eyes as birds began to chirp through the open window. It was warm enough that I could leave the window open, only the screen between me and the outdoors. Just another difference between New York and Texas, though I couldn’t imagine actually living outside the Big Apple. It’s where I’d met all my friends, and especially my boyfriend.

My heart fluttered in my chest and I couldn’t help but smile. Lucas: my boyfriend. Nothing had ever sounded so right to me. When I’d first met the Texan hunk, never in my wildest dreams had I imagined kissing him under the stars, let alone in a completely different state.

After the kiss, we’d talked and decided that we were going to keep our relationship quiet, just for the next little bit. We would come out to our friends all at once when we got home. I was going to introduce Lucas to my mom, and while we were here he would come out to his dad and Pappy Joe today.

He wasn’t sure if he was ready to, but he was going to nonetheless. I admired his bravery and courage. I don’t know if I could have if I was in his position.

But the last few days had been bliss. It was hard to keep things from Zay and Vanessa, but luckily we’d been so busy traveling around Austin that they hadn’t seemed to notice. Plus, they were so caught up with making out that they hadn’t seemed to pay too much attention to us.

Austin was beautiful. We’d gone to several parks, a children’s museum, a pool (where I’d done my best to not drool over my boyfriend’s abs) and spent a day just looking around various stores and stuff.

But my favorite place was the Umlauf Sculpture Garden Lucas surprised me with yesterday. After telling him about why I loved the monument in Christopher Park (because it gave me hope for a future with someone I loved), he’d taken me to see some other statues. I don’t know why I had been so obsessed with them, but I’d been enchanted. We could’ve spent hours pretending to be them, running around, and seeing everything we could.

But all good things must come to an end, and so today we headed back to New York, just in time for school to start up after break.

After quickly getting out of bed and ready for the day, I headed into the kitchen, where surprisingly everyone but Lucas’s dad was waiting for me. “Morning?”

“Morning, Jason,” Pappy Joe said, smiling at me.

“How long have y’all been awake?”

“Since the rooster crowed,” he responded.

I was flabbergasted. Did anybody actually ever wake up to that? 

Seeing my expression, Zay laughed. “It’s a Friar thing. Since they’ve gotta tend the horses, chickens, and other livestock, they get up early enough to get it done, otherwise they’d miss work and school.”

“Wow, Lucas, I didn’t know you had such a big farm.” I turned to the man in question, who was staring at me with a dopey grin on his face. I blushed a little bit, before turning back to Zay, who now was staring at me with narrowed eyes.

“Yeah, it’s been a big blessing to me,” Lucas said.

“Alright, spill the beans, you two,” Zay commanded. “Y’all have been acting funny since the bonfire. What’s going on?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I’d’ve thought you’d been too busy making out with Vanessa to notice anything.”

He turned a bright red. “Don’t turn this back on me, Vanessa and I are in love. Long distance relationships are hard. Of course I’m going to make the most of our time together. But I ask again, what is up with you?”