blisters ; jayson

the breakage;

Crack.

Jack flinches back when the broken part of the warehouse sign makes a spark just near his hand. He woke up first thing early morning to take a walk in the fresh air, buying breakfast and settling to fixing things around the house.

This sense of duty in him stemmed out of a shame, a permanent guilt that will probably never diminish and even so, he was a grown up staying at someone else's house, eating and sleeping for free. The least he could do was fix the sign Ethan broke.

"Fuck!" It zaps again and he feels an electric shock run through his hand, he holds his wrist and his pale fingers shake and the tips whiten, the hairs on his fingers standing up tall due to the static electricity.

It hurts, and he feels his hand burning for a while and he quickly Googles whether or not he should be worried with his other free hand.

Ethan on the other hand, can barely believe Grayson has a hangover over half a bottle. He consistently questions Grayson up and down around the house, to which Grayson says he doesn't remember which makes him urged to question Jack instead, and yet he holds back.

He is more sensible than this, and doesn't pick fights, not as much as his brother does, if ever.

Jack lowers his head when he hears that- That Grayson remembers nothing of the night and not the closeness they sat in and the laughter they shared and the conversations and the whispers and most importantly, when Grayson told him his dreadful secret.

There's a strong tension in the house, though.

Grayson avoids Jack who avoids Ethan, who ends up avoiding any human being and settles to stay in his room.

And Jack decides later that day, that he is going to remind him, what he told him last night. Because secretly, it's eating away at him vehemently and he needs to know- know everything at once.

He cannot bear the wall Grayson tries to keep between them, for it's so unlike them to be this way; Jack would even go as far to say that, they have been closer friends than Ethan and Grayson ever were to each other.

"You know, Gray," Jack sets up the mattress on Grayson's floor tonight, because Ethan offered, out of courtesy that he keep switching between their bedrooms, so as to seem on cool terms with Jack and tonight it was Grayson's turn- Grayson who has been avoiding him all day today in a nonchalant manner that made Jack eat away at his own fingernails or rip them off his cuticles.

Tap. Tap. Tap- goes Grayson's phone as he types, Jack can't see to who the text messages are to but Grayson is on his stomach, in baggy sweatpants and shirtless, the smooth, curvy expanse of his back facing Jack as he continues to rudely ignore him.

All that comes out of Grayson is a "mhm" sound while Jack sits there, having awaited an appropriate reaction like Grayson facing him or displaying any scope of manners to him. But no, tap tap tap goes Grayson's fucking phone and Jack takes a deep breath.

"You know, I know you don't remember anything from last night," a pale blue blanket is between his fingers, he clutches on it as he begins, "But-"

Grayson's sunkissed skin begins to move under the dim light, lean muscles rippling like the waves of a golden ocean, he picks up the phone next to his ear and quickly says, "Oh wait, sorry need to call someone."

Jack stays frozen for half a minute, in disbelief at what he did to deserve this kind of behavior from Grayson.

He looks down at his blanket in a sad, blank expression and mutely listens to the conversation Grayson has- something about 'hey, I'll see you tomorrow man' and another guy's voice on the other end of the line.