That One Summer | Jason Waud & Joe Waud

Part 5: The Gift

Before you left the house, you grabbed the gift you got for Jason and you headed over to his house. Walking up their driveway, you saw him eagerly waiting for you at his doorstep. When you saw him, a warm feeling ran through your whole body and you started laughing to yourself. Not particularly at anything, but you just felt so happy the moment you saw him. You both walked into his living room and sat down on the couch. "So I know how hard it has been for you recently, so i got you a little something. I hope this makes you feel better", you said. "Thats so nice of you, you shouldn't have", he responded. You handed over the gift. Before he could even get a hold of the lid, a baby rottweiler popped his head out and started to lick Jason's hand. "Oh my gosh", he said, "it's so adorable!". Jason kept thanking you. You saw how happy Jason was and saw the biggest smile on his face as he started to play with the baby pup. "What are you going to name him", you asked. "I think we should name him Apollo", he said. Playing with Apollo, you saw how gentle Jason was, and how caring he was for Apollo and watching him while he played and talked to Apollo with his pet voice just melted your heart and made you laugh. "I love him, thank you so much", he kept saying. Jason hugged you. You thought about pulling away after the first second since you didn't want to make things weird, but then you noticed that he hugged you harder. "Thank you so much. I haven't been this happy for a long time.", Jason said. In that moment, everything felt right, and a tear started rolling down your face. Jason immediately noticed and asked whether you were okay. "Yeah, you responded, it's just a lot of stuff with my family right now". While that was true, you didn't want to tell Jason that the real reason was because of how happy you felt and how every moment with him felt perfect. But you didn't tell him. You couldn't tell him.