Jab My Heart [Boy×Boy]

Chapter 13: Pathetic

"Hmm?" Jimmy's train of thought is disturbed by Steven and he snaps his head to look at him, totally clueless on what he just said. Steven just looks at him in question. "What?"

"You zoned out again."

"Sorry." Jimmy says flatly.

"Don't you wanna talk about it?" Jimmy stays silent for a while. He's battling on whether he should tell him or not. He's really not in the mood to talk but he knows he'll go crazy if he bottles everything inside.

"I talked to Adam's mother yesterday." Jimmy says with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"You've met his parents?" Jimmy tenses up as he realises that he just earned himself a lot of explaining to do since Steven doesn't even know him and Adam dated before. "What did she say?" Jimmy now decides to ignore the first question.

"Let's just say she doesn't appreciate her son messing around with a loser like myself." Jimmy mutters while playing with the remote.

"Why is she telling you that?! She should talk to her son. He's the one chasing after you after all!" Jimmy can't help but silently laugh at that, but his mood plummets yet again when he recalls his conversation with Stephanie.

"His wife is expecting." Jimmy blurts out after a moment. Steven looks at him in shock.

"AJ's married?" Jimmy's body tenses again when he realises he never told Steven that Adam's getting married either. He bites his bottom lip to stop himself from revealing anymore secrets. "So you've been sleeping with a married man?!" Jimmy smiles shyly, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"Richard didn't tell you?"

"Obviously not!" Steven continues staring at Jimmy wide-eyed before his muscles relax again. "Okay let me get this straight...so you broke up with Nathan to be with a man that is with someone else." Jimmy carefully nods still embarrassed. "What's wrong with you?"

"Well he's not married..." Jimmy says defensively but his confidence falters as he continues, "yet."

"And that makes it so much better?!" Steven was now annoyed that Jimmy was okay with the arrangement he got himself in. "Where is your self-repect?"

Jimmy deeply sighs as he sees how pathetic he is. To think that Adam might not even love him makes him feel worse, causing quick tears to run down his cheeks.

"I'm pathetic, I know. No need to rub it in." Jimmy wipes his tears and holds a frown. Steven moves closer to him and puts his hands on Jimmy's shoulders.

"Listen. I'm not judging you. It's just that I saw how much you liked AJ. You'd always talk about him, or no matter how sad you felt a text message from him was enough to sky-rocket your mood. I just kept wondering if how long was he going to keep you a secret and if he was using you. I just didn't want you to get hurt...but now that you say he's getting married? I don't think he's the one for you. You left Nathan for him. I feel he should've done the same."

"Thanks." Jimmy certainly didn't what he was thanking him for because that was definitely not what he wanted to hear, but Steven genuinely cared. He was the closest thing to a parent for him, even though Steven wasn't that much older than him. Steven removed his hands from Jimmy's shoulders and a comfortable silence fell between them.

Suddenly the door was flung open by an out-of-breath Nathan.

"Oh my goodness you guys are not even watching the right channel! The match is almost half way." Steven furrowed his eyebrows, a little confused, while Nathan impatiently flicks through the channels.

"Oh I forgot to tell you... I lost a bet so my punishment was to watch a boxing game with him." Jimmy explains but Steven's eyebrows are still furrowed.

"But that's hardly a punishment."

"You know I can't stand sports, especially violent ones. I mean what's so entertaining about seeing someone get beat up?"

"Hey!" Nathan admonishes with a pouty face and Jimmy can't help but laugh. "Boxing is a great sport!"

"Whatever you say." Jimmy looks to the t.v. and rolls his eyes at Nathan when he sees AJ. Nathan just smiles at him apologetically. Jimmy's breath hitches when he looks at the tv again. He couldn't help but look at AJ's shirtless form with desire. He bit his lower lip. His wet hair and sweat-coated skin made him look like a god. That was the first time Jimmy saw him in action in years. Now he was more mature in his fighting. He's breathing picked up pace as he saw his muscles tense with every precise jab, every effective cross punch and every jaw-breaking uppercut.

He looked away from the tv as he felt all the blood in his body rush to his cheeks.

He silently thanked god that Steve and Nathan were too busy occupied with their conversation to see him. He bit his lip again to hide the smile creeping onto his lips. Just because he doubted Adam loved him didn't mean he loved Adam any less.

Before Jimmy could admire AJ any longer, his attention was stolen by someone else. He looked closely at the opponent and couldn't help but think he looked familiar. He was sure he saw him before but couldn't remember him.

"Nathan who's that?"Jimmy asked not taking his eyes off the t.v.

"It's your boyfriend." Nathan mocked. He knew who he was talking about but was just teasing him.

"No silly... I mean the other guy." Nathan stops laughing as he takes in Jimmy's serious demeanour and clears his throat.

"Well he's AJ's nemesis. They've been rivals for as long as I can remember. He's pretty good too cause he's been a pain for AJ and in this match he's looking t--" Jimmy uses his hand to close Nathan's mouth.

"I meant his name." Nathan swats Jimmy's hand away so he can talk.

"Why didn't you just say so." Jimmy rolls his eyes and Nathan laughs before turning back to the t.v. "That's Daniel." Jimmy's mind races.

"Daniel Cooper?" Nathan looks at Jimmy in surprise.

"Yeah...how'd you know?"

Jimmy's heart stops.

A/N: Everyone remember weird Daniel? Let's see his role in the next chap.

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