Rusty and Jack have been friends since they were little kids, becoming closer as each year passes. But this year is different. Rusty starts to feel strange around Jack, tingly, embarrassed, nervous, flustered. All year, he wonders if Jack feels the...
The sun starts to rise, and the bright light awakens Rusty. He sits up and rubs his eyes, looking around the room. The house is quiet, there's nothing but the sound of birds and a few cars driving by. He looks at his phone charging on the nightstand, it's 7:08am. He notices Jack is still fast asleep. Rusty blushes a little, he isn't quite sure why.
He gets up and quietly walks into the kitchen, trying not to wake Jack up. He was the first one up, so he decided to make everyone breakfast. His mum has already gone to work, and he notices that there is a box of waffles on the counter. He assumes his mum put them there for breakfast for everyone. "Hopefully, I don't burn these too..." Rusty thinks to himself. He sets eight waffles into the oven. Two for everyone.
He turns the oven on and sits down at the table, waiting for the waffles to be ready. He scrolls through TickDog to pass the time. Mid-video, He hears someone walk into the kitchen. It's Jack. "Good morning Rusty! What's in the oven?" Jack asks, sniffing the air. "Good morning, Jack. I'm making waffles. How'd you sleep?" Rusty asks him. "I slept pretty good, I guess" Jack answers. He sits down next to Rusty at the table. "Oh I HAVE to tell you about this dream I had last night!" Rusty says energetically.
A couple of minutes later, he gets up to check on the waffles. He opens up the oven and takes a peak inside. He starts to smile. "I didn't burn them this time!" He shouts proudly. He sets two waffles on each plate and puts them on the table. "Dusty! Digger! Come eat breakfast!" He yells across the house while setting Jack's plate on the table. Jack is already starting to dig into his meal. Digger and Dusty sleepily walk into the kitchen, they looked like zombies. "Good morning, you two!" Jack cheers. Digger and Dusty sit down at the table and eat their breakfast.
Jack and Rusty have already finished. "Are you excited about school tomorrow?" Jack asks curiously. "I'm a little nervous..." Rusty replied. Jack places his hand over Rusty's. Rusty starts to blush, He gets a tingly feeling in the pit of his stomach. A tingly feeling he's felt before, he was firmilair with the feeling ever since last year, he's only felt it with Jack a couple times, but this time it felt stronger. "Were in this together. You're gonna do great" Jack says comfortingly. "Thanks, Jack" Rusty said with a big smile.
He takes his hand off Rusty's, gets up, and carefully places his plate into the sink. Digger's phone buzzes, and he looks down at it. Dusty is curious, so she looks to see what he's looking at. "Who are you texting?" Dusty asks. "Oh, uh, no one! You're so nosy, Dusty!" He starts to blush. He gets up and storms into his room, and slams the door. Digger had some anger issues, but nothing too serious. Rusty and Jack look at each other with concerned expressions. "Something is obviously wrong with him" Rusty whispers. "Should we go check on him?" Jack asks calmly. "I don't think he wants anybody to bother him, so maybe not" Rusty replied. Rusty and Jack head into the living room. And start watching the TV.
The front door opens up. It's Rusty's Mum. She sets her bag on the kitchen table and walks into the living room. "Hey Rusty! Hi Dusty, Hello Jack!" She happily says. "Hey, Mum," Dusty and Rusty say respond. "Hello, Mrs. Kelpie!" Jack says politely. "Where's Digger?" Mrs. Kelpie asks. "He ran into his room!" Dusty answers. "Yeah, he's acting kinda strange" Rusty adds. "I'll go talk to him" Rusty's Mum says sternly. She walks to his room and knocks on the door. "Hey Digger" she opens it up. No one is in the room. She starts to worry. She then notices a green sticky note on his dresser.
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"He didn't tell me he was going out?" She sees that's his window is wide open. "He must've snuck out" She says with a worried but angry expression. She walks back into the living room. "Did you talk to him?" Rusty asks, concerned. "He snuck out...to see Tiny" She says angirly. She storms into the kitchen.
After a couple of hours, Rusty asks something. "H-Hey Jack, do you uh wanna go on a walk with me?" Rusty kindly asks. "Sure, Rusty!" Jack smiles at him. "Hey, Mum, me and Jack are gonna go for a walk" Rusty explains as they both head towards the front door. "Alright, just be back by lunch" Jack and Rusty step out into the warm air. Jack stares up at the clouds. "It's a nice ssy today" Rusty says calmly. Jack smiles. "Do you think we're gonna be in the same class tomorrow...?" Rusty asks. "I hope so. Nothing is fun without you.." Jack responded. Rusty blushes a little, so he looks the other way. They walk for a while until they reach the park.
They sit down on the bench nearby. The birds chirp, and they are too far away from the road to hear the annoying sound of traffic. Jack rubs his hand through the blades of grass. He then looked up at Rusty, who was staring off into space. "Y-You ok, Rus?" He asks. "Oh uh heh...yeah I'm fine" He responds nervously. They both stare up at the sky. "Do you think we'll make any new friends at school...?" Rusty asks quietly. "Yeah, I think so" they sit in silence watching the birds fly by. "We should head back. It's getting dark" Rusty says, breaking the silence. The two stand up and walk back to Rusty's house. Halfway home, they start hearing footsteps behind them. They look over at eachother. The footsteps grow closer. They start to speed up. Jack grabs Rusty's hand to calm himself. They start to walk even faster. The footsteps get closer until they hear a firmilair voice. "Hey Jack, Hey Rusty!"
They look in back of them to see Mackenzie. They both tale a big sigh of relief. "Hey Mackenzie, how are ya?" Rusty asks. "I'm good. It's been a while" He replies. "Yes, it has. Would you like to come over at my house?" Rusty offers. "Yes, please!" Mackenzie shouts excitedly. The three walk to Rusty's house together. Once they reach the house, Rusty unlocks the door. "We're home!" Rusty shouts. His mum was in the kitchen. "Why, hello, Mackenzie. Are you sleeping over, too?" She asks nicely. "Oh, uh, is that ok? I'll have to ask my mum. "He pulls out his phone.
Mackenzie: Is it ok if I stay at Rusty's tonight?
Mum: sure go ahead! Be back by dinner tomorrow. Love you.
Mackenzie: thank u Mum, Love you!
"Ok, I can stay over!" Mackenzie shouts happily."Hooray!" they all shout in unison. After watching a movie, playing games, and eating snacks, it was eventually time for bed.
The three walk into Rusty's room. "Hey, what happened to your bunk bed?" Mackenzie asks curiously. "Oh, Digger moved out of my room and got his own" Rusty answers. "Were is Mackenzie gonna sleep?" Jack asks. Mackenzie looks down at Jack's sleeping mat. "What about there?" He points down at it. "But that's Jacks sleeping back" Rusty responds. "Why don't I sleep in your bed?" He suggests. Rusty's face turns bright red. "Y-You mean....W-With me..?" Rusty swallowed hard. "Yeah, if that's ok with you?" Jack responded. "S-Sure" He says nervously. Mackenzie collapses into the sleeping mat. And Rusty climbs into his bed. He plugs up his phone and notices Jack is already asleep next to him. Rusty blushes and then falls into bed. He looks up at the ceiling. "Why do I feel this way around Jack? I can't have a crush on him, can I? We're both boys...What would my parents think..." He asks himself in his head. Jack then rolls over and rests his head on Rusty's chest. Rusty's turns completely red. He takes a deep breath and waits for himself to fall asleep.
