"Jack?" Finn's croaky voice bounced against the thin walls in his close friends' home. "Are you home..?"
Jack hadn't shown up to school for 3 days, and had no connections with his friends since. He had always been the shyer and more distant friend, but never to this level. He's just sick, he'll be fine. Finn thought. Maybe I'm just overreacting.
"Jack?"
No response.
At this point, Finn's heart was racing with fear. So many questions were running through his head. Why didn't Jack go to school? Did something bad happen?
Before his heart nearly had a heart attack itself and died, he heard small footsteps. He turned around, a small figure standing in front of him, holding a mason jar with paper hearts inside. Jack.
His hair was frizzy, he had eye bags, and looked like he had taken 60 Benadryl pills. He had a beanie on, his lanky body barely fitting into his pajamas. He looked terrible, but it was the cutest terrible he'd ever seen.
He always had a little crush on the smaller boy, but sort of ignored it. Everything Jack did was adorable to him, even the smallest things, like when he sneezed or when he poured salt onto his sweet potato fries. Even at his worst times, he was adorable.
"Hey," the lanky lad nearly choked out, almost losing grip of the mason jar, as it bounced around in his hands. "What are you doing here?"
"I was worried about you." Finn answered reluctantly, scratching the back of his neck, his tight shirt tugging his shoulder back slightly. "So was everyone else, but they couldn't all come, so I volunteered."
"Oh." he said. Finn was closely eyeing the mason jar, and Jack took notice. He quickly started messing with the lid, in hopes that Finn wouldn't continue looking. But instead, his eyes dilated in every direction the lid went. Jack rolled his eyes in defeat.
"Nice jar you got there," Finn snickered, Jack blushing. He quickly noticed Jack's constant red cheeks, and smiled a little. He's so cute. "What's in it?"
"Just some stuff," Jack completely lied. It wasn't just some stuff. It was 50 paper hearts of reasons why he adored his best friend. It was going to be a valentines gift, but now that Finn showed up, the surprise he was so proud of was exposed. "A project for art."
"Looks cool." Finn nervously chuckled, blushing himself.
"Yeah." his voice cracked, setting the jar down. "C-could you maybe stay? I've been alone for 4 hours and it sucks. I want company."
Yes! I have to stay! He's so cute, jesus. His little hands, AH!
"Of course, parents won't mind."
"Coolio." Jack smiled, his feet trailing off to his room.
Coolio.
That is the cutest thing he's ever said.
"Coolio." he replied back, making his way up to Jack's room.
-
"Which one?" Jack held up two VHS tapes. Jack's parents couldn't afford a television, so they gave Jack an old VHS that used to be his uncles, before he died of heart failure. It always made Jack sad when he looked at the tapes. The only piece of his uncle he had left.
"Looney Tunes is fine."
"Looney Tunes is for 6 year olds, we're 14." Jack whined, "Are you sure?"
"Unless you want to watch a foreign karate movie with cheap sound effects." Finn laughed, "Then yeah."
"Ok, fine." he put the tape into the player. The title credits rolled in, and Jack quickly hopped onto his twin bed. He sat there, since Finn's body was stretched out across it. Oh, how he wanted to hop into Finn's arms and fall asleep. He couldn't.
They laid there for what seemed like hours. Well, Jack sat, his back beginning to ache, but he didn't want to ruin the moment. The whole time, Finn wanted to invite him to lay down as well, but he didn't want to ruin the moment, either. They were both in fear of the other leaving or feeling uncomfortable. But, Finn quickly decided to invite the boy anyway.
"You look like you're in pain," Finn said. "Lay down."
"Huh?" Jack had been caught off guard, since his eyes had been glued to the TV for such a long time.
"Lay down, Jack."
"There's no space for me, I'm fine." Jack replied in a smart aleck tone, but Finn's sophisticated self moved over to the edge, a big space left for Jack.
"From what I see, there's plenty." He laughed, his finger pointing to the empty spot.
"What if my mom catches?" he asked worriedly, "She'll assume the wrong thing.."
"Screw your mom, okay? And so what if she thinks that, Jack? She knows you're straight."
"Yeah, but you're bi." he fidgeted. "My family's super anti-gay, Finn. She'll think you're trying to make a move or something absurd like that. I don't want-"
"I know what I am." Finn answered, sighing at the thought of Jack's mom walking in on them. "I know how your family is, but that can't get in the way of us watching a VHS tape together."
"But-"
"You have a girlfriend, Pete's sake. I'm not making any moves. I just wanna lay down, and watch a cartoon with you."
Jack felt defeated, but nodded his head in agreement. He moved over to the empty space, Finn quickly wrapping his arm around the boy. Jack felt scared at first, but soon forgot about his mom and drifted off to sleep.
He's so adorable, I can't see myself without him. Finn thought to himself.
