Of Radiant Summer Skys

Chapter 17

The next few days passed slowly, but painfully. Jaxx should have known, he should've known that no one as perfect as Luca was could have loved him. He hadn't spoken to them in a while. He was avoiding them again, but this time, instead of for their protection, it was for his own. He knew it wasn't right to punish them for something they had no control of. What was worse was he'd started to harbor some hatred for Charli. He was a terrible person.

He knew he should watch out for whatever plan Chester had cooking up in that evil little brain of his. No matter who they loved, Jaxx still didn't want Luca getting hurt. He kept an eye on them, even if he was actively avoiding them.

One night, he saw Luca enter the cabin with an upset look on their face. He hated that look, he decided. He didn't like it when the look on their face resembled that of a kicked puppy and he was going to do whatever it took to make sure they never made that face again, because he loved them.

Love was a strange thing. Sure it hurt to know he was in love with someone who would never love him back. It hurt to understand that Luca liked girls and he was a boy. It hurt to know they loved Charli. It hurt to know that even if those things weren't true, Luca just may not have seen him like that, but even so, Jaxx knew he would do anything for them, because he loved them even if he could never tell them that.

He also was aware of Chester and whatever plan he had cooking up. That plan worried him. Chester worried him. What was worse, he couldn't simply avoid him anymore, that would be suspicious. The best he could do was pretend to go along with his plan, then do his best to shield Luca from it. But first, he wanted to lay in bed and ignore the rest of the world. This was not his summer.

"Alright, pity party's over! Get up!" Levi said, shaking him awake.

Bright light was shining intensely through the windows of the cabin. Jaxx knew it was afternoon. He turned over and pretended not to hear him.

"Come on! I know you can hear me," he said, "Just get up."

"Leave me alone," he grumbled.

"I will drag you out of this bed if I have to!"

"Mhm"

"I'm serious," he insisted, "Your head'll hit the floor and everything!"

"Just go away."

"What's wrong with you?" he asked finally, "Usually you're the one bothering me! Now you're acting like I'm the bother."

"Because you are. Now go away."

"Seriously, this is getting ridiculous! We're finally off the hook and you just wanna lay here all day! This isn't like you."

"You don't know anything about me!" he snapped, "We've barely known each other for a week! We aren't friends, we don't need to be friends so just leave me alone!"

"Are you sure? Because you look like you could use a friend right now."

"Friends are nothing but trouble," he grumbled.

And so is love, he thought to himself bitterly.

"This is about Luca isn't it?"

"What gave you that idea?"

Levi sighed, "Because every problem you have seems to revolve around them."

"Not Chester," he protested.

"The only reason Chester's a problem at all was because you thought it would stop you from falling head over heels over Luca." he pointed out, "That sounds like it revolves around them to me."

Okay so maybe all of his problems did revolve around Luca, this one included. Of course, that wouldn't make him love them any less.

"Come on," Levi said once again, "Your problem isn't going to go away if you leave it alone, especially because they sleep in the bunk across from yours."

Jaxx knew he was right, but he still didn't want to get up. He wasn't ready to face Luca knowing that he loved them and they loved Charli.

"That's it!"

Jaxx was startled to feel Levi dragging him out of bed. One minute he was safely under the covers hiding from the world and the next his head hit the ground with a thunk.

"Ow!" he yelled, fully awake now, "What was that for?!"

Levi chuckled, "I warned you. I told you your head would hit the floor if you didn't wake up."

"Well I'm awake now," he grumbled rubbing his head.

"That's probably going to leave a knot soon enough."

"Yeah, thanks," Jaxx said sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Levi said, helping him to his feet.

Jaxx sighed as he stood, "What did you have in mind anyway? You don't usually want to hang out with me."

"Who said that?" Levi asked, "You make decent enough company. We're friends aren't we?"

"I'm not a true friend, I only started wanting to hang out with you because I wanted you to be my partner in crime."

"I thought Luca was your partner in crime."

Jaxx looked at him appalled, "No way! I doubt they have a mischievous bone in their body!"

"That's what you think... But they did throw that pine-cone at me."

"Yeah, but that's just good ol' sibling rivalry."

"You're an only child aren't you?'

"Yeah? What does that have to do with anything?"

"That's what I thought," Levi said, "Anyway, what's the Luca problem this time?"

Jaxx didn't feel like he could tell him yet, not when this was all so new to him.

"It's nothing, I mean it's something, but it doesn't really matter, it's just... something."

Levi raised a brow.

Real smooth Jaxx.

Look at me writing and stuff. Yeah, I'm a lot busier than I thought I'd be so sporadic updates will probably stick around. 

Fun Fact: Contrary to Jaxx's belief, Luca actually has many mischievous bones in their body, a fact Levi knows all too well