The Fireplace (BoyxBoy)

02. Glorious Sadness

That was how Jake's grandmother found him the next morning, curled up in the confines of an armchair; body contorted around 'Harvey's letter as if to protect it.

He had spent all night contemplating what the letter contained - as well as trying to figure out where it came from. It was in the fireplace, so it had to have been placed there (meaning that someone was actually in the house), or that someone had dropped it through the chimney. Both options seemed far-fetched, but how else could he explain it? Out of those two, the former option seemed far too implausible- his grandparents treated the security of their house with an almost unhealthy devotion; obsessed with ensuring that nobody could break in and enter.

'Who would really bother, anyway?' Jake thought. 'It's not like we have anything of extreme value.'

So that only left the second option. The chimney. Someone was on the roof of the house. It was impossible to get to from the ground, as there were no lattices on the side of the house that 'Harvey' could have climbed up and no bricks were even remotely close to jutting out. There was just a homogeneous flat surface of wall. So that meant he would have had to jump from the apartment complex onto the roof. The only floor that allowed a person to do this, without sustaining serious injury, was the third floor. The floor with the balcony of bright flowers. The floor with the rainbow door.

Kolby's floor.

"Jake, what are you doing here?" Jake started from his sleep at his grandmother's voice. He had always been a light sleeper. He looked up at her and she flinched as their eyes locked, turning her head to look away from the left side of his face. She had been treating him with caution ever since Jake had come to live with her. For some obscure reason, she had developed a slight fear of her grandson's face - the endowment gave him a look of menace that set off warning bells inside her brain. She knew that he would never be anything like his outside showed, that he was still the sweet, innocent boy he was when he was younger. She just couldn't help her thoughts.

"Couldn't sleep..." Jake murmured, trailing off with a yawn. He got up off the chair, taking care not to crease the letter, and went to his room - leaving a confused woman behind. How could he have missed the way his grandmother treated him? The flinching, the reluctance to look at him. It was like he could read his grandmother's thoughts. All made him die a little inside. It was in that moment Jake realised what his future would be like. He would have to deal with people making judgements about him. The worst part was that he didn't know whether he was ready to face that. But he had to, of course, his first school day was the next. Summer holidays couldn't last forever.

Although, Jake's recent summer couldn't really be classed as a holiday.

Of all words, that was the worst possible one to use.

.

This isn't a 'cry for help' as so many put it. This is just me, a normal boy in a normal world, venting his emotions because he just can't keep them in.

Jake re-read the letter, trying to interpret what the person on the other side of those words meant. It was very similar to his own situation. Sure, Jake tried to be strong, but inside his emotions were in turmoil. Just like the one who wrote the letter. His life may have seemed perfect, but he was just like Jake inside. Broken. And so, with a glum face, Jake picked up a pen to write.

To Harvey,

Hello. Your letter was in my fireplace. It was a funny feeling for me, really. Seeing a pure white laying amongst the ashes - I guess you could say I didn't see it coming. But who would? Finding a letter in their fireplace at about three in the morning, it seems a little bit too preposterous.