Crossroads

Crossroad

Monday, June 6th, 8:00am

It was everything Jai heard.

It was everything he did; it was everywhere he went.

"I hope you want to know me."

On the Monday after his life-altering weekend, Jai made his way over to work early.

He was hoping to get to the shop before his co-worker. If he didn't, he knew just what he was in for. Typically Dylan wouldn't bother him about much, but in this specific situation, who knew? Dylan was, after all, the one who brought the Instagram blow-up and video to Jai's attention on Saturday morning.

Much to Jai's dismay, however, not only did Dylan get to work before him, but Dylan had clearly been waiting for him too.

"You've been ignoring my calls, man," Dylan hopped around the front desk and started the steady flow of questions before Jai could even get through the shop door. He obviously wasn't going to let this one go.

"Sorry, I was busy this weekend," Jai mumbled, simply trying to push through and get to his workstation.

"Yeah, I bet you were busy. You went MIA after I told you about your Instagram exploding. You gained like, fifty followers in just one hour!"

Jai had in fact been 'busy.'

He was busy pacing across his living room floor and watching Luke's video over and over again. He hadn't dared log in to his Instagram after seeing Luke's initial post—the one that led Jai to the video. He'd been tagged far too many times in the post's comments for his identical counterpart not to notice.

When he'd just about started to rip his own hair out over it all, he slammed his laptop shut and pushed it under his bed so it was out of his reach. He couldn't risk watching the video again.

He couldn't risk it because every time he watched, he had driven himself mad trying to answer the same one question: did he want to know Luke?

"...And then I go on the explore page and there was a picture of you! Well, it wasn't you...but it was a guy that looked like you and holy fuck Jai, how come you didn't tell me?" Dylan continued the interrogation.

"Tell you what?" Jai snapped at his friend. "I didn't know about him either, Dylan!"

Dylan backed off as he realized how hard the situation must have been for Jai.

"On Friday night I basically found out that my entire life has been a lie. A whole twenty years went by, and quite literally half of me wasn't there," Jai's voice cracked.

"You're your own person, Jai. His existence doesn't make you any less you," Dylan said after a while.

"Thanks," Jai nodded, Dylan's words made him feel a little bit better. "Means a lot."

Dylan smiled. "So, have you reached out to him at all?"

Jai shook his head.

"I haven't even looked at my Instagram since you told me to check," he said as he sat down on the edge of the table that clients usually laid on to get their tattoos done.

"You should, or I could ask Will if he knows people at the party that might know him and get his number for you—"

That was just too much for Jai at the moment.

"No, no," Jai tried to prevent getting worked up again. "I'm thinking about my options on my own for now, thanks."

Dylan nodded; he understood it was time to let the conversation go. The shop door opened and a group of guys walked in.

"Let me know if you need any help," he gave Jai a sympathetic look before walking away to greet the customers up front.

Jai sighed before pulling out his phone. After many, many moments of hesitation he was able to bring himself to open up Instagram. He typed in his username and password slowly before he was greeted by what must have been thousands of notifications. He knew the only one that mattered, though, was the small orange dot in the top right corner of his feed.

"I hope you want to know me..."

With Luke's words ringing in his head once again, Jai took a deep breath and tapped on the Instagram direct-message icon. There was a single message there, no picture accompanied with it. Just a single, long message.

lukebrooksofficial:

"Hi, Jai.

Sorry for stalking you out like this mate. I didn't think asking my subscribers to help me find you would actually work lol. Anyways, I know this situation is a lot to think about. I'm pretty sure I know exactly what you're thinking right now, this situation is really fucked, isn't it? My (OUR) brother Beau and I can hardly wrap our heads around it either. If you don't respond to this message I won't bother you again, I just figured it was worth a shot. If you saw my video, every word was true. I would love to meet you and get to know you.

20 years is a long time to make up for, but I'm willing to give it a try if you are mate. Until next time (or maybe not), cheers.

Luke"

Jai sat in shock for a while—unsure of what to do or think. It was as if in this moment, the universe was telling him that he now had to decide.

He was at a crossroad.

For one, he was given the option to meet his other half—to complete the family he never knew he had.

He was also given the option to ignore it all completely and move on with his life. Luke had said he'd never bother Jai again if that was what he wanted.

At one point, Jai thought all he truly wanted was a normal and balanced life.

But now, both Jai and Luke knew that he didn't actually want that.

Jai's attention was thrown off as Dylan called from the front of the shop. "Jai, could you assist this client?"

He glanced back down at his phone as reached up and tugged on his eyebrow piercing. The message from Luke was still pulled up.

"Jai?" Dylan called him again.

"Coming," he answered.

After taking one more deep breath, he typed out and sent out a message that would change it all:

@jaibtats:

"Let's give it a try."

A/N: Let's get this party started, yeah? I've kept you all waiting long enough. ;) Let me know what you think! xx Sarah