I need space. Those were the words Jacky said to Ryan the night before they both left for separate colleges. Now, each of them will try to learn who they are without the other. Will their paths lead them back together?
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Jacky
Due to the November chill in the air, Ryan did opt to put his shirt back on before they all headed out to the party – both his tight t-shirt and a sweatshirt and a jacket, which was very unfair, in Jacky's opinion. Even fully dressed, Ryan drew more than a little attention from the others at the party, who all wanted to know where Ryan had been hiding this whole semester.
"I'm taken," Ryan said the first few times he was asked, giving Jacky a squeeze.
After a few more times, however, Jacky growled, "He's taken," and people finally began to chill the fuck out. "Bunch of horny bastards." They poured some beers from the keg and wandered around until they found a place to sit where the music wasn't crazy loud.
"Is your friend Liliana here?" Ryan asked, looking around.
"Doubt it." Jacky took a swallow of his beer. "She's usually off partying with whoever."
"Oh." Ryan looked surprised. "She and Billy seemed tight when you all came to visit me."
"Yeah, but this is a gay party."
Ryan nodded. "I guess that answers that."
"Answers what?"
"Well... Jordan and Sam both expressed a bit of an interest in her. But I'll just tell them she's straight."
Jacky nodded at Billy and Braedyn sucking face in the corner. "Guess he came out?"
"Safe to say."
"I'm glad you talked him out of the closet. He was making us all miserable."
Just then, Jacky saw someone he didn't want to see and ducked back behind Ryan's shoulder. Ryan glanced at Jacky, then at where Jacky had been looking. If Ryan thought Cam was as hot as everyone else did, he didn't react. It wasn't until Cam spotted Jacky and made a hasty retreat out of the room that Jacky could breathe again.
"What was that about?" Ryan asked.
"Ugh... just a bad date."
Ryan raised his eyebrows. "Wanna tell me about it?"
"He had a little too much interest in the fact that I'm an amputee."
Ryan grimaced. "Weird. Like a fetish?"
"I don't think so, but he wasn't picking up on me not wanting to sit there and talk about it. We were at a Marvel movie, for Christ's sake. I wanted to geek out over Marvel and he's next to me wanting to unpack all my trauma."
Ryan chuckled. "Yeah, best to keep that trauma bottled up so you can explode under pressure."
"Oh, I exploded, all right."
"You did? No wonder he just ran away."
To change the subject, Jacky asked, "Have you been to a lot of college parties?"
