Escape

Chapter 5

"N-no... p-please...not... h-her" Ace mumbled in his sleep. Jay just kept driving, he couldn't believe his Mom let him borrow the car. The town they were headed to was about a state over, and Jay always enjoyed road trips, but this one felt different in the pit of his stomach he felt like something bad was going to happen on this trip, yet he loved the sense of adventure. The whole thing was odd to Jay, meeting a stranger on the street, taking him out of state to save a girl, neither of them knows in real life, from who knows what. Yet, there he was, sitting in the driver's seat of his absentee Dad's old truck, which he wasn't allowed to touch normally, driving a seemingly trust worthy stranger to save someone else.

Jay tried to stay on the bright side of things, he was happy to have made a new friend. He was happy to be out of the house and to be away from the town, with tainted memories of him and his sadistic ex who broke his heart.

Yet no matter how hard Jay tried he still kept thinking of him, and seeing him entangled with his now ex best friend. Jay was devastated when the man he thought he was going to marry was screwing the person who had been there for him. Ace felt like a fresh start, he didn't want to date him, he is definitely not Jay's type. He was a fresh start at a healthy friendship. He didn't mind not knowing every detail of his new friend's life, Ace didn't know Jay was gay. Jay didn't know if he should tell Ace, cause he generally didn't think it was relevant. Yes he was gay, and proud of it but Ace knowing wouldn't really affect their friendship.

Ace slowly came out of his trance like sleep when they pulled over for gas.

"Hey look who's finally awake." Jay said as he sat back in the car.

"How long was I asleep?" Ace asked groggily.

"Only a few hours, want some fuel." Jay responded as he held up some crappy gas station nachos.

"What on Earth..." Ace stared at the food, he really only had flavorless mush at the ward.

"They're called Nachos, it's corn chips smothered in cheese." Jay explained. Ace grabbed the nachos and took a hesitant bite, then started shoveling them into his mouth.

"Pretty good right.... I can't believe you don't know what nachos are"

"Well when I lived with my mother she didn't really feed me much I usually ate anything edible I could find, then once I wasn't with her the only food I was allowed to have was some grey flavorless goo."

"Sounds nasty" Jay grimaced.

"It was pretty disgusting" Ace laughed, it was nice to be able to eat food that had real flavor, he wanted to try so many foods.

"Anyway. What you said about your mom is that really true?" Jay asked. Ace sighed before answering.

"Yeah, my mom was a... to put it bluntly, a hooker."

"Oh!"

"She had plenty of us, she never really did anything to stop her pregnancies so I have many siblings, some with the 'fathers' and the unlucky ones got stuck with her."

"That must have really sucked."

"It did, and then it sucked more and it sucked for a longtime, but I'm not with her anymore, so I'm gonna be ok."

"You know my mom may not have been the greatest but I'm glad she wasn't that bad." Jay tried to relate but he hadn't had anywhere near the same experience.

"What is your mom like." Ace asked.

"Well she is the most stereotypical southern lady anyone has ever met, she is a devout christian, who is homophobic, and slightly racist. She tried her best to make me happy after dad left, she was my mom and my dad, but it took a lot out of her and without her knowing it ended up causing me to be ' a disappointment to our family'"

"Really, why does she think your a disappointment?"

"I wasn't sure if I should tell you but why not, I'm gay, and my ex was a black drag queen, we were engaged and when I told my mom she got upset. She almost didn't let me move back home when we broke up."

"Why do you think I... oh yeah your mom."

"She made me a bit paranoid to come out."

"That's awful"

"Yeah"

"If it makes you feel any better your the first gay person I've met." Jay couldn't keep a straight face as he heard this. Jay started laughing, which confused Ace because he was serious.

"Did I say something funny?"

"No, It's just I get that a lot, and your face was funny when you said it" Jay said in between laughs.

"Oh, ok.

They drove and as the hours past the two boys grew into close friends sharing stories, talking about mischief that they used to cause, Ace was very careful not to mention the asylum, and Jay just assumed that Ace was put into the system. Ace wanted to tell him, but not yet, he liked Jay but he didn't know how he would react, and didn't want to risk losing his first friend.

Jay was getting tired, and wanted to switch drivers, but Ace didn't know how to drive, so Jay found a truckstop pulled over and got some sleep, he drifted back and forth between being awake, and being asleep. He never really liked sleeping in the car, but he only had money for food and gas so they couldn't really get a motel or anything.

The sun rose at about 5am but it didn't really wake Jay up until around 6. He loathed waking up early, most days he slept until the last minute. Even when he was a baby he slept from 6am to noon, he begrudgingly sat up and rubbed his eyes. He got out of the car and went into the truckstop for a quick shower, sitting in a hot car for hours on end really did not make him smell like roses. He got out and went over to the truck and saw Ace was still sleeping, he got in and started the car, day two of this adventure and he was hot, had a crick in his neck from sleeping in the car, but he was still overjoyed to be here, he liked the freedom, he liked his new friend, and was excited to feel like a real adult.