Match

44: Are Those Yours?

Cole lays flat as a pancake on his bed, staring up at his phone. Today is his day off, and like many other days, he's unsure of what to do. With aimless scrolls he goes through his feeds. A couple photos have captions of space facts, to which he has already memorized. Then he gets a notification.

Dakota. They tagged him and their girlfriend in a few pictures from the park. The caption reads 'it's great to catch up with an old friend! :D'. As he swipes through each one, he feels slight embarrassment as it looks like he unknowingly photobombed some of the pictures with just them and Lily. He lays his phone down on the drawer beside his bed and lets out a long sigh.

He feels like he should get up. Get up and at least do something. But all his worries hold him down. Getting tagged from his friend just reminded him of the conversation he had with them at the corn maze.

Panic still grasped at his body. He walked away from the group, ashamed, trying to calm down. That's when Dakota came up to him.

"Hey, are you alright?"

It took him a few seconds to collect his thoughts and respond. Dakota sat beside him and waited, without a change in their giddy expression. Still, he struggled to look them in the eyes.

"Yeah, I just got a, a bit lost in the maze."

"Oh," they patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Cole. I totally forgot about your fear. We should've all went as a group-"

"No, Dako," he shook his head vigorously. "Don't feel bad. I never really, told anyone enough for them to remember it. I thought I was over that fear from years ago."

There was a pause. The wind picked up, making Dakota fix their hair bangs. Cole then turned his head, staring at Jonah and Lily talking.

"Can I ask for advice from you?"

They perked up. "Sure. What is it?"

"Jonah over there," he nodded to his direction. "He helped me out."

Their eyes followed to where he was looking, then turned back to him.

"And he's also... the guy I like."

"Oh?"

He sighed, taking in some deep breaths. "We already confessed that we like each other. But I feel bad for holding back, 'cause we aren't, really dating yet. He told me basically that uh, when we feel comfortable with each other, then we can try it out. I'm scared of losing him, like how I lost my other relationships. And yet, how I feel for him, is a lot different compared to my exes."

They nodded and kept listening.

"But if I jump into this cold water, what else lies in its murky depths?"

They nodded again, then tapped their chin while thinking. Within seconds, their pondered demeanour shifted back to a smile.

"An explorer won't know until they take a leap," they said. "Maybe he'll come to save you, maybe I'll jump in to help you out. Just like how you did with me."

"Huh?"

"Cole, it sounds like you and Jonah are taking your time. As you said, you're both swimming in that water, unsure if it's safe to meet each other, or that some giant sea monster will pull you down. When you both feel ready, you can swim to each other."

He blinked, then stood up. "I swear you're like my long lost sibling."

Dakota giggled. "What are you saying?! I'm your adopted parent!"

In a bashful smile back, he held out a hand, to which they grabbed it and stood up.

Now Cole felt like he was ready. Ready to embrace that water, just to breach through it and get to Jonah on the other side. He wants to push the past breakups in the past and leave them there like a dried up oasis. But still, there was something else in the way.

The opposite of calm water is a raging fire. He felt like this entire arson situation was just another hurdle in life he had to jump over. Except this hurdle is now a steep hill, growing in height the closer he gets to it.

———————————

Jonah heads up to the field. He can already see a bunch of players from Tigers spread across the entire half, doing stretches. Cole is situated by Nathan chatting. Nah, I don't think I'll embarrass him by shouting his name tonight, he thinks. On the far side, Liam, Ben and Wesley are talking to each other in a formed circle. Both coaches are having a chat on the sideline. He passes by, overhearing them discuss their golf swings.

"Yo Jone!"

Jonah waves to the other three. "Sup guys."

"Not much, really," Wesley says. "There's not gonna be a lot of teammates tonight."

"Wait what? Why?"

He shrugs. "Dunno. If we're doing a scrimmage tonight, we might have to borrow some of Tigers' players."

"Ah yeah," Jonah says nonchalant, unzipping his soccer bag pockets.

Liam pats his legs. "Does anyone here have any extra sunscreen? I'm not all for getting sunburnt like from last game."

Jonah lifts a hand up. "I have some dude! I'll go grab it."

With a swift motion and keys in one grip, he sprints back to his car to retrieve the bottle of sunscreen. I shouldn't leave that shit in my car, anyway. He opens the trunk and reels out the bottle.

Within minutes he's back on the field, handing it to Liam.

"Ah thanks man," he takes it. "Oh sweet it's the spray-on."

"Smells like bananas, too." Jonah laughs.

"Cool, I'm cool with that."

He steps away from the crowd to spray his arms. As Ben walks over to grab his gloves, his eyes catch something poking out of Jonah's bag.

"Hey Jone, what's that?"

Jonah raises an eyebrow. "What's what?"

He points to what appears to be a thin stick poking out of a pocket. Jonah moves towards it and unfurls the bag. Immediately a pile of matchsticks pour out.

"What the hell?!"

Everyone stops what they're doing to look at the pile of matches, fumbled on the grass like miniature logs. When did these get here? He scratches his confused head.

"Jonah..."

He looks up and is met with Coach John. What makes his body tense up is the expression on his face; furrowed brows, with a hint of anger in his eyes.

"Are those yours?"