Prompt: Amuse Me

Characters: Jake & Ryder

Words: 395

When Ryder leaves the choir room, Jake is on his heels. He's almost sorry he pushed this. Up until now, Jake assumed Ryder's secret was something ridiculous that Ryder was just self-conscious about. Like, he secretly liked Susan Boyle music or something. He had no idea it'd end up being this serious.

But then, Ryder had talked, and did the song Everybody Hurts, and Jake got the feeling it probably went deeper than that. Still, he had no idea. If he had, he wouldn't have pushed so hard in the first place.

"Ryder, wait up," Jake called, lighting the way with his flashlight. There were some advantages to starting to take school more seriously. Flashlights were way less hassle than a lantern or a candle. This wasn't the dark ages.

"What? You wanna congratulate me, too?" Ryder insisted, turning around. Jake hadn't realized just how close they were standing until he was face to face with Ryder. He'd walked right up on him and hadn't noticed.

"No, dude. They're morons. Listen, if I knew that's the kind of secret you meant, I would have never pushed you about it. I definitely didn't mean for you to tell everybody in glee."

"Well, I did," Ryder shrugged, defensive. "So?"

Jake sighed taking a deep breath. "What I mean is," he dropped his voice, "I'm sorry that happened to you…and that…as much as possible…I get it."

Ryder raised his eyebrows, his face lit eerily in the glow of the flashlight. Jake read the question in his eyes before Ryder voiced it: "You, too?"

Jake swallowed, held his head up and looked Ryder in the eye. "No. My mom."

Everything drained out of Ryder then. All the fight. All the anger. Even the way he pretended it didn't matter. "Sorry," he said. "Listen, not to be insensitive or whatever, but can we just…not talk? I don't wanna think about this."

Wordless, Jake handed his flashlight to Ryder, and walked off to the side, to stand beside a brick wall. Effortlessly, he made a swan with one hand and a dog with the other. Jake stayed serious while his shadow animals were huge idiots…until Ryder handed him the flashlight, and made an alligator. They went back and forth until Figgins busted them and threatened to confiscate the flashlight.

"Better?" Jake asked.

Ryder nodded with a shaky smile. "A little bit."

The End.