Together · Jack Avery

7

Friday Afternoon
July 3rd 2020

It was the day Jake is arriving in LA and I'm extremely excited. He wanted me to pick him up and not to bring anyone else. He said he had to talk to me about a few things. That kind of worried me. I spotted Jake in the airport holding to Starbucks cups. He noticed me and ran over. "OH MY GAWD. KENDALL!" he ran up to me and engulfed me in a hug while jumping up and down. I started laugh. "Hi Jake! I'm so happy you're here. I've needed company!" I smile and hug him back, but not as tight as he hugged me. He let go of me and handed me my drink. "I got your favorite" he smiled. "Thanks Jake" I smiled back. "What did you want to talk about?" We started walking out of the airport. "Well a few crappy things have happened while you've been gone" his eyes started to water. "Oh Jake...please don't tell me that your mom..." I stood still waiting for a response. He nodded and started crying. Jakes mom got into drugs in her early thirtys. When Jake was fourteen she got stage three lung cancer and got treated by doctors. Her treatments were working really well...until Jakes dad died. They lost all their money and Jake had to work multiple jobs to pay off his moms medical bills. I didn't see him anymore because his work took up his whole week. After about a year his moms bills were always payed and the had extra money to pay future bills. His mom stopped receiving treatments when she was forty three and she was fine until Jake turned sixteen. She started to get cancer again and refused to get her treatments. Then I left to go to LA and...she died.

I hugged Jake and comforted him for a minute. "lets go to the boys' house. They're out for rehearsals" I smiled as I put the last bag in the trunk. "Okay" he said while wiping the bottom of his eyes while trying not to ruin his mascara more than it already was. We got into the car and drove to the house. I was driving Jonah's car so I was trying to be as careful as possible. We got to the house and we walked in. Jake was staying in an apartment so I kept the bags in the car. We went to my room and we sat on the bed. "Wow, you've really got yourself organized." He looked around. "I guess" I looked around too.

"So, anything else you want to talk about?"

"Yeah"