Entry #12050104001305

Time To Hit The Road

A hazy sense of reality rested on the edge of Jay's consciousness, but he couldn't be sure if he was awake or not. His hands came up to rub at his face and instead met with a plastic surface. A quiet sound vibrated in his throat, but his lips refused to cooperate so the sound died quickly. Blinking his eyes, he realized that his face felt stiff and his eyes were sore, as if he had been crying.

A short groan sounded from beneath him and Jay froze in place, his muscles going rigid. Where was he? His eyes were still slightly blurry and he had tunnel vision which was concerning to say the least. He couldn't recall any of the events from nearly the past twenty four hours and he found that his head hurt when he tried.

Pushing his hands against the bed below him, Jay quickly found that he wasn't laying on a bed; there was no mistaking the fact that he was laying on a person. He was suddenly hyper aware of the arm that was loosely draped over his waist before the person below him shifted a little.

The hand on his hip began running up his back soothingly as a familiar voice said, "Good morning, Skully."

Jay froze in place, his mind spinning.

"You alright?"

Jay finally tilted his head up just the slightest so he could see through the holes in the mask and his arms were trembling as he reached his hand up to run his fingers over the obvious cut just below Tim's bottom lip. His eyes immediately drifted down to the white bandage wrapped around his right hand and he found that he couldn't remember how he had gotten hurt. He realized this must have been what Tim felt like, though to a much greater degree: waking up, injured, no recollection of what had transpired the day before.

A light pressure against the left side of the mask had Jay focusing on Tim again. The man's hand was cupping the side of the plastic mask and Jay only realized his breathing was becoming hectic when Tim asked again, "Are you okay?"

Jay's left hand balled into a fist slowly, gathering the fabric of Tim's shirt. He felt completely powerless and, besides the obvious throbbing pain in his knuckles, he felt hurt.

In a quiet, scratchy voice, so quiet, he wasn't sure he had even said anything aloud, Jay rasped, "No."

Tim looked shocked that he had answered and immediately his hands came up to hold Jay's plastic face in his hands.

"Jay?" His eyes were searching Jay's and the cameraman wasn't sure if he could actually see his eyes behind the mask, but he thought he could.

Slowly, Jay's left hand released its grip on Tim's shirt and moved up to the edge of the mask, pushing it up until the strap released him and he was free of it. After he'd dropped the cheap piece of plastic onto the floor, he reached his hand up again to run his fingertips over the cut in Tim's lip. His eyes were fixed on the wound and the only thing Jay could think was, Please, God, tell me I didn't do this.

"What..." Jay's throat hurt and he wasn't sure if he should ask the question; he didn't particularly want to know the answer.

Tim let out a small sigh of relief, though Jay wasn't sure why, and a simple smile appeared on his face. "You, uh, you kissed me last night."

"It looks like I tried to take a bite out of you," Jay anxiously replied, his eyebrows knit together as he studied the small wound. He let a moment of silence pass before he asked, "So... What happened last night? Or yesterday. I don't exactly remember either."

The smile dropped from Tim's face, but it seemed like he had been expecting the question. "There's not a whole lot to say. You became the person behind the mask, just like I have."

"You called me Skully?" Jay suggested, hoping for more of a substantial answer than, "Not a lot happened."

"Yeah," Tim awkwardly replied. "That's what you, well, he wanted to be called."

Jay nodded his head before dropping it against Tim's chest, closing his eyes.

"This sucks."

Tim couldn't help but utter a ridiculous and inappropriately timed laugh. He'd spent so much time going back and forth between living a "regular" life and being the person behind the mask that he had forgotten how utterly terrifying it was the first time you woke up with a mask and substantial memory loss.

"Yeah," Tim finally said, setting his hand on Jay's hip. "It really sucks."

The hurried shuffle of feet could be heard down the hall before Tim's bedroom door was thrown open and Jessica came running down the hall.

"I'm late for work!" she anxious announced, seeming at a loss for what to do, when her eyes landed on the two men sharing the couch. Jay had forgotten what that felt like - how long had it been since he had last had a job? - and he realized how stupid it was to think for even a second that Jessica didn't have a job. Of course she did. She was only in this mess because of Alex, but she had still been functioning fine.

"I'll drive you," Tim offered, sitting up once Jay had slid off the couch.

"I'll need to stop by my house to get my work clothes," Jessica said, earning a nod from Tim. As Jessica hurried out the front door to get in Tim's car, Tim turned to look at Jay sitting on the floor.

"I'll only be gone a little while. Will you be alright?"

"I'll be fine," Jay weakly said, giving Tim a small smile. Tim didn't believe that for a second and he was about to tell Jay to get in the car when a familiar figure appeared at the end of the hallway. How Hoodie had managed to scramble up to the second story window in Tim's bedroom was a mystery and Tim wasn't sure even why he would do that when the front door was literally right there, but he supposed it was because he didn't want to be seen by the neighbours or anyone else who might be watching.

Hoodie grabbed Tim's hand and tugged on it, trying to pull him toward the bedroom. A notebook was held in one hand and Tim glanced at Hoodie before looking to Jay.

The cameraman understood the unspoken request and nodded, fishing his keys from his jean's pocket and opening the front door. If nothing else, driving Jessica to work would be a good distraction, one he desperately needed.

A yellow piece of paper was taped to the door and Jay ripped it down, reading over the lines of text that covered it. At first glance, he had expected to see a cryptic or threatening message from Alex and his heart sped up; what he found was nearly as bad.

"What is it?" Tim's voice asked from behind him, causing Jay to jump. He thought Tim had already gone to his room.

Turning the page around, Jay held it up for Tim to see. In large print at the top were the words "EVICTION NOTICE" and Jay watched Tim's face closely. The man looked confused, hurt, and angry before his face became completely blank.

"Tim?" Jay urged, trying to get him to say something, anything.

Nothing.

"You've only been out of work two weeks," Jay pointed out.

"I couldn't make my rent last month," Tim replied, turning away. "And this month's rent was due last week."

Jessica appeared behind Jay suddenly. "C'mon, I really gotta go."

"We'll talk about it when you get back, Jay," Tim said before gripping his crutches tight and returning to his room. Jay wasn't looking forward to that.