THE PIT | JYATT

IX

"Here's your milkshake and your fries." The waitress politely told the two boys as she sat the food on the table in front of them.
         "Thank you!" Jaeden replied as he began to take a sip from one of the two milkshake straws.
        "So," Wyatt began as he reached for the other straw. "How long have you lived here?"
"I'd say basically my whole life," Jaeden replied with a slight chuckle. "I think we moved here when I was 3?"
"Damn, okay." Wyatt giggled with wide eyes. "I could never imagine living in the same place my whole entire life."
         "The thing is," Jaeden began as he took a sip from the milkshake that they shared. "you just get so used to the town you're in that it starts to feel like there's nowhere else in the world."
        "Is that a good or bad thing?" Wyatt questioned with genuine curiosity.
        "I mean, I don't know. All I know is that I want to get out. I want to move where it's flashy and bright and always moving."
       Wyatt reached across the table and outstretched his hand. Jaeden took this as his cue to grab Wyatt's outstretched hand.
        "I don't really know where I'm headed, and I'm sure you don't either, but we can find our way together."

✧︎

As the pair finished their food, they paid and exited. "So, you wanna go to the park or?"
Jaeden was about to accept the invitation but quickly hesitated. "My mom wants me home to help clean the house tonight."
Jaeden was evidently lying. He just was so afraid to mess things up with Wyatt and he just had the urge to start writing about their whole encounter in his journal.
"That's cool, we could always go tomorrow or another day." Wyatt suggested as they got into Jaeden's car.
"Yeah," Jaeden began as he started the car. "You need a ride home?"
"Yeah, if you don't mind." Wyatt told him as his face grew red. What was making him nervous? He was just getting a ride home.
        The first few minutes of the drive were somewhat awkward until Jaeden confidently broke the silence. "What's your address?"
        "Uh," Wyatt had no clue as to why he was so nervous all of a sudden. What got into him? "It's 62 Hillside Court."
        "Oh, yeah!" Jaeden nodded. "I know where that is! It's near that one green gas station."
       "Can we listen to something? Panic maybe?" Wyatt asked quietly. His stomach was flipping around for no reason. He'd gotten rides home from plenty of people and he'd never felt like this.
         "Yeah," Jaeden hit play and the third track of Vices & Virtues began playing. "That was the last disk I had playing so."
        For the remainder of the ride, which was about 9 minutes, the two boys sat in silence and listened to the songs that played in the car.
         By the time they'd reached Wyatt's house, the car radio was turned off by Jaeden. "If you ever need a ride home aga-"
        Jaeden's words were cut off because the overwhelming feeling in Wyatt's stomach was too much to handle. To solve it, he leaned over and kissed Jaeden.
       Shocked at first, Jaeden breathed out calmly and kissed back. "-just say the word." He finished his sentence from before the kiss.
       "Yeah, I'll text you." Wyatt told him with a smile as he got out of the car and skipped towards his front door. Evidently, he was excited.
       His face didn't really show it, but Jaeden was going to explode with overwhelming happiness in that very moment.