Somewhere Only We Know

XII - Farms whatnot

10:02 a.m., Charlotte, North Carolina

"So, where are you guys going to stay in North Carolina?" I asked as I looked away from the cars passing by us. Jesse looked up from his phone, then looked back. "Cyplex. You know it? It's in Columbus."

"What? Bro, I live there. What the hell?" I said. I groaned in annoyance.

"So? Wouldn't that be better rather than staying somewhere else?" Jesse asked, not pulling his eyes away from his phone.

"Oh, God. Please don't tell me you guys are going to stay in my unit."

"Of course, not. Don't be ridiculous. I have a unit there. Second floor, Unit 2847. And it just so happens that it has 3 extra bedrooms for the boys. So no one will be bothering you," Jesse said.

"Where are we? This place is all farms and yeehaw shit," Edward asked. He almost looked like a lost child in a large mall in the middle of nowhere. "Well, Squidward. We are currently in Shelby. So we have about 1 hour and 21 minutes until I can have peace and alone time in my unit," I responded.

"Hey, Max. There's a café somewhere near your place. You want to go? Later, of course. I need to make some calls. Literally no one knows I'm not in New York," Kai asked.

"Yeah, sure," I responded. Not to be presumptuous, but I feared this dude had a thing for me, which was extremely worrying considering we had met only a few hours ago. He was a chill guy, just personally not super open to the idea of dudes or relationships in any form.

"Before you two go on your little date, I want you to talk to Diane. I know you guys are on bad terms right now. But you're graduating. Who knows where you're going to go? She deserves to at least know something. Anything," Jesse said while drinking a bottle of water.

"No can do, man. Apparently, Diane left North Carolina. She moved to Brighton, apparently," Chase said, showing his phone to me, then Jesse.

Jesse choked on his water when he saw what Chase was showing. "What? What happened? Did I miss something in the photo?" I asked, looking at Jesse. I would've been laughing at how red Jesse's face was, but it seemed like the wrong time.

"Diane is with Ron, Max," Jesse said, still coughing from the water going down the wrong tube.

"Whoa. Who's Ron? Is that her boyfriend or something? He looks awfully old for Diane," Chase asked, giggling like a child.

"How the fuck do you not know who Ron is? You've been with Micaela for like 9 years. Has she not mentioned this fucker?" I said, annoyance creeping in my voice.

"Wait, why would Mics know Diane's boyfriend? They don't even talk," Chase asked.

"You're so fucking dense, Chase," I said, sighing. "Wait, is that your dad?" Kai asked, pointing the phone screen at himself to get a better view.

"Yeah. That's, um, our Dad." Jesse responded, continuing to drink more water.

"Wait, let me see that." Edward grabbed Chase's phone and zoomed in on the man behind Diane. "Mate, you look just like him." He showed it to Jesse.

"Oh, shut the fuck up, you twat." Jesse responded, pushing the phone away from his face.
I grabbed the phone from Edward and gave it back to Chase. Jesse was looking out the window with a clearly annoyed expression painted on his face.

"Alright, that's enough. No phones. If I see another phone, I'm going to throw it out the window. Do you understand?" I said, looking at Kai, Edward, and Chase as they nodded, continuing whatever they were doing before.