Il libro di Jaylos

Sugar Cookies are Sweeter

Font: frostedgoddes
On: AO3

A sharp knock jolts Carlos out of his haze, he checks the clock on his laptop, damn he'd been working for four hours, he'd agreed to meet Jay after dinner and totally forgotten last period, dinner as well as his best friend. He slammed his laptop shut and jumped off of the bed, panic making his movements sharp. Whoever was knocking kept at it insistently, "Coming!" He yanked open the door, breathless from the sprint. Evie stood of the other side, capitally unimpressed. "What the hell Carlos?" She all but yelled him. "Woah, Evie, I have to go meet Jay, I completely forgot and he made me promise." Evie looked surprised, her flawless forehead crinkling for a single moment of confusion, "He thinks you ditched him, but I'll bet he's still waiting for you out in the wood behind..." Her sentence trailed off as Carlos bolted down the hallway, a leather and fur blur, high tops squeaking as he turned the corner. Jay had seemed quite stressed when he had asked Carlos to see him before bed, even though the two boys did share a living space, it clearly was something very important, maybe Jay was failing one of his classes and needed a huge favour in order to play tourney next week. It wouldn't be the first time.

By the time Carlos ran through the tourney field and into the woods, searching manically for the clearing Jay and he hung out in together, having not really connected with any other guys at the school, he was already half an hour late. He slowed down as he entered, fairy lights glittered around the trees, lighting up the miniature meadow where the setting sun had begun to fail. His eyes found Jay immediately, wearing a white shirt of all things, slumped against a tree, eating and looking forlorn. "Jay!" He gasped, "I'm so sorry man, I was working, and I didn't look at the time!" Jay jerked to his feet, brushing invisible crumbs off his dark jeans. "Carlos you're finally here bro, I was starting to think you weren't going to show up." Jay watched his closest friend stumble into the clearing, looking puzzled at the elaborate setup. He had planned to chew out the dog lover, but looking at his friend's dishevelled appearance, the thief's heart melted completely.

"It's alright," Jay said, even though it really wasn't, "but did you get any dinner? I didn't see you there." Carlos shook his head. "I've got a meal set up, Mal got Ben to give us some strawberries, and you have to try them, they're incredible." Carlos laughed at the babble, "Okay, I'll try them." Jay helped Carlos sit down on the fallen log and offered the container, "Go ahead." The paler boy began to eat and smiled, red juice from the berries smeared around his mouth. "Be careful there Carlos, one of these days you're accidentally going to get some of the food into your mouth." Carlos shoved his entire bodyweight into Jay, ineffectually trying to shove him over off the log, "You're such a jerk." Jay just rolled his eyes, "A jerk who knows you." He replied, passing Carlos a stack of napkins. "How long did it take you to...uh...procure all this stuff?" Jay blinked, "You mean stealing? I promise I didn't steal any of it, the blanket and stuff is all borrowed, with full permission, Ben gave me the strawberries as a favour and the other stuff is from the kitchens, free for all." Carlos smiled genuinely, "That's good to hear Jay. Now tell me, are you going to make coach put me on the field next week against Granite City?" Jay brushed his longer hair away from his face, "I'm not playing if you don't, maybe without me there you'd suck, but no one else can predict my moves quite like you. You're - almost - always where I need you to be." Carlos was a little surprised, "You're not playing if I don't?" "Well yeah, you didn't do amazing in the tryouts like me." He tossed hair behind his shoulder like some kind of model, pouting with fake modesty, "But you've improved and you know just as many aerials as me to avoid the dragon fire, even if you aren't quite as solid. And you're faster than me by heaps." Carlos beamed under the genuine compliment; it wasn't just some generic "Good Job!" It wasn't fake or superficial, it showed that Jay had really been watching him and saw his strengths and his weaknesses too. "Jay." Carlos took a steadying breath. "You're the best player on that team because of things like what you just said, you notice everyone else and you understand that we all work together, Chad may be able to knock people over almost as well as you, but he always tries to take the ball to the end, score the winning shot and get all the glory for himself, he's not a team player like you." Jay pushed Carlos, embarrassed by the comment, not even really trying to cause any damage but sending him sprawling. "Oh it's on, you rotten hoodlum."