His Death Awakened Me (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 3: Honesty is the Best Policy

I laid in my bed, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness. There was no way I could sleep with my mind buzzing from what had happened earlier. I rolled over onto my side and looked at the clock on my nightstand. It read 1:35 in big green letters. I took a deep breath and sighed.

I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and looked at it. There was an unread text message from Kim. How long has that been there? I wondered. I must've slept a little because I didn't remember the phone making any noise or vibrating. I carefully opened and read the message sent at 12:45 a.m. 'Hey, are you up?' It read. I blinked. She was up thinking about things just like I was, or at least she was about 40 minutes ago. I hoped she was still awake. I texted back: 'Yea, I can't sleep. Looks like we're two for two haha.' I set the phone down on the comforter and closed my eyes. Immediately the phone vibrated and I looked at it. 'Can we talk some more tomorrow?' She said. I thought about my answer. After the kiss, I definitely wanted to talk to her again. But not here. 'Sure. How about I come pick you up at around 12?' If I picked her up, we could go do something and talk about whatever we needed to.

The only problem was tomorrow was Saturday, and Collin would be home. He wouldn't miss giving me a tease about picking Kim up. Oh well. I'll deal with it later. I thought. New text message: 'Sounds good. I'll see ya then.' I thought about not saying anything back, but then I remembered girls were funny about not getting a text back, even if the conversation was over, so I settled with: 'Awesome. See ya then.'

I rolled over to my other side after putting the phone back on my nightstand and closed my eyes. My mind was still reeling from everything that took place, and even knowing that I was going to pick her up tomorrow, for the first time in like two years, wasn't helping my nerves. Calm down. I told myself. Everything will be fine.

In the morning I got up feeling refreshed despite the fact that I didn't sleep hardly at all. Maybe it was because of what was going on with Kim. I didn't know. I was just glad that I wasn't in a pissy mood. I decided I was going to take Kim and just go for a simple walk. I didn't want to go someplace too public if the sole purpose of our meeting was talking about things.

After we walk for a bit, I figured we could go someplace to get some lunch. I showered and got dressed in a simple dark blue t-shirt and jeans.It was casual, but still nice-looking. Oh hell. I'm thinking about this way too much. I thought as I opened the door. I woke up late, and after getting ready and taking a shower, it was now 11:00 a.m. I had to be to Kim's in an hour. I went downstairs to the kitchen. My mom was loading the dishwasher.

"Hey Jake. You slept in late," my mom said turning around to look at me. I opened the fridge and peered inside. I grabbed a yogurt and began tearing off the top.

"Yea. I couldn't fall asleep for a while last night," I answered. I opened the drawer for a spoon and sat tentatively at the bar.

"How come?" She asked. I looked up at her from my yogurt. She hadn't moved since I walked in. I shrugged.

"I don't know. Too much on my mind I guess." This was the truth, but I was hoping to avoid going in depth about it.

"That happens to me all the time. Just be glad it was a Saturday morning when you didn't have to get up early," she said smiling. I was glad that my mom had decided not to press me. I was gearing up for one emotional conversation today, I didn't need two. "

"That's true," I said. She finished loading the dishes before crossing the bar and sitting beside me. Damn it. Here she goes. I thought.

"Did you hear about Sydney?" She asked, her expression neutral.

"Yup. Collin told me as soon as he got home last night before dinner," I told her. "When did he tell you?" I looked over at her. She sighed.

"He didn't," she said, "at least not exactly. I suspected something was up but didn't want to say anything in front of the Jacksons. I asked him this morning if everything was ok. He said they broke up, but that it wasn't as big of a deal as he thought it was." She looked at me, her blue eyes piercing, but in a gentle way.