setting fires

「 17 」

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the author wants me to thank you all for the positive feedback and hilarious comments and yadayada. ohhh myyy gooodss do I have to read ALL of this? YES? i hate my job. thankyouforallyoudo OKAY BYE.

ikissedkeaunusquip.

WHAT? I WAS TELLING THEM STUFF THEY WANT TO HEAR.

hislipsaresoft.

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What am I doing? Why am I doing this? What is happening? I'm so scared. Someone help me. Why am I running away with my boyfriend? Is he my boyfriend? Can I even say that? Oh my god, help me...

I looked in the rearview mirror. I couldn't be doing this, could I? Running away with Jake? That seemed like such a Romeo and Juliet thing to do. Just this time they both live, and there are two Romeos. I felt sick, I can't run away. Then I looked at Jake.

Maybe I could run away, with him.

We could run off to a small town, grow up without the stress of school. Get a job at a quaint restaurant, buy an apartment together. We could look out the window at night and see the small-town stars. I could sing songs to him as we fell asleep. Maybe we could adopt a dog or cat. Or something. Jake would be able to roll around the house, with that dog or cat at his side. He would kiss me. I would know what we were. Boyfriends.

I could propose to him in the town square. If the town had a square. He would cry. Would he cry if I proposed? We would get married at some fancy place. Not a church, which churches always reminded me of my homophobic father. Jake would know that. We could honeymoon to the tropics. I like the tropics. Did Jake like the tropics? We could grow old together, maybe adopt a child, who would have grandchildren that would visit us on the weekends. They could talk about their school days to us. I would laugh and tease Jake saying something witty like - 'remember that?' Hopefully, one of our grandchildren was gay. I could tell them how to come out. We could talk about being gay together.

And-

Oh, my GOD.

It was a joke. I meant it to be a little thought in the back of my head. Me running away with Jake. It was a small thing that wouldn't ever happen. But, here Jake was next to me in my car ready to go wherever I drove him. I was having seconds thoughts, was he having second thoughts? I liked my first thoughts better, to run away with Jake. Sure, people at school would talk, who wouldn't? Two closeted jocks run away together. It was like something from a TV show. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real.

Somehow it was real. He was really there. I did this all without my Squip. Maybe I didn't even need my Squip. Maybe I could deact-

HOLD UP. YOU NEED ME. HOW WOULD YOU GET HERE WITHOUT ME? RIGHT, YOU DIDN'T GET HERE WITHOUT ME. YOU WOULDN'T HAVE A BOYFRIEND WITHOUT ME. YOU CAN'T THROW ME AWAY LIKE SOME PIECE OF CPU TRASH!

I didn't understand my Squip half of the time. Didn't he want to retire to happy computer land with his computer boyfriend? Didn't he want to be there when his boyfriend proposed instead of being too busy with my life?

WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT PROPOSALS?

I ignored my Squips freakout and looked back to Jake. He was nervously picking at his cuticles. Don't ask me how I know what cuticles are okay? 

cristinethesciencequeeenn

Jake was looking at me with a smile on his face. I was starting to feel like all the air in the car was being sucked out by a big vacuum cleaner. Was it hot in this car or was it just me? I looked over at Jake and took a deep breath.

"I think I'm gay," I confessed. "W-Well I don't know - because I like girls t-too, and I also really like you so-?" Jake giggled, my hand was shaking as I shut off the car. He reached for my shaking hand and looked up at me.

"You might be bisexual, where you like girls and guys," Jake reached to kiss my hand, "and I like you too, dummy,"

"Wait," I paused, Jake froze for a second like he did something wrong, "you can like girls and guys? WAIT UNTIL I TELL HEERE!" I screamed excitedly. Jake laughed, reaching up to me to kiss my cheek. "You really wanna run away with me?"

"Yeah, maybe we could flee to Bombay? Or some fancy place like that," Jake laughed it off. I thought about the text that Jeremy would be receiving later that night about the bi thing. And about where I and Jake had run off to. He would be proud, hopefully.

"Let's do it," I grinned as I turned the car back on and drove onto the busy interstate.

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" When Rich set a fire and he fled to Bombay... "

- The Company (The Smart Phone Hour (Rich Set A Fire))