It was around 2 pm when the sun got too annoying so that Jack hasn't had any other choice than getting up. At first, he didn't even realize that he wasn't in his room but when he got into a sitting position the tidiness struck into his eyes and he remembered everything that has happened yesterday. If you could see through Jack's eyes now, you'd probably see a small desk with a laptop on it and about one or two meters behind it Jack was sitting on Rusty's bed. On the right of the bed, the enormous rack with all the books was visible and there even was a really small corridor which connected the bathroom with the main room. Curiously and still a bit tired the Jackal made his way to inspect the bathroom, in which there wasn't really much to be seen. On the left there was a toilet, on the right, a washbasin took some space and behind all this, there was a small bathtub with a showerhead assembled on the ceiling. A yawn left Jack's mouth and he needed to stretch himself in order to finally get more awake. After achieving this, he was wondering where Rusty might be. "He told me he'd be in the common room", Jack scratched his head and suddenly felt uncomfortable; "Aw god, what have I done yesterday. That probably was the most stupid idea I have ever carried out in my entire life. What will he think of me?", Jack bit his lips; "But he enjoyed it too, didn't he? Or was it just the drugs? What is this all supposed to mean?"
Suddenly, the door-handle slowly went down and someone quietly opened the door. This certain fellow was Rusty who gently pushed the door to make sure that he wouldn't wake up Jack. As soon as he saw, that him being silent wasn't necessary, he quickly opened the door, greeted Jack and laid his book on the desk. Quite a heavy book, to be specific, which caught Jack's attention, who risked a glance and saw that Rusty has read through the half of Dostojewskis book, crime and punishment. "Is it good?", Jack asked with the hope to stop this uncomfortable silence. The yellow dog frowned: "Hm?". "Is the book good?", Jack pointed at the heavy reading matter. "I mean, kinda, I guess?", Rusty replied; "Don't get me wrong, it's interesting that the act of murder gets described and everything, and what happens to the person who committed it and all in all the question what justice really means, but unfortunately it gets quite annoying that the author always tries to get ya into an extreme left-wing position, because everyone who has money is soooo bad." Jack chuckled, it was quite strange hearing Rusty talking about books. His smile, however, was infectious and Rusty started to grin as well. Inspecting the grin itself, Jack realized how different Rusty had become in the last few months, which at the same time showed him how much he had changed in just one night. He could have never expected to be landing here, the old Jack would have just walked home by himself and would have said no to the Joint. "I wouldn't have kissed him", the teens' thoughts about his past personality hit him; "I have felt the temptation to kiss another person several times before, but yesterday I finally did it and it felt beautiful. In order to live, change is inevitable." Both of them still joked around a bit, until Rusty asked him if he wanted to head to the kitchen to catch some toasts as kind of breakfast, lunch, dinner or a brunchinner as he put it. Jack gladly accepted and so the two adolescents went directly down into the kitchen. While they were walking Jack wrote his worried mother a message, that she shouldn't need to worry and that he had spent the night with a friend. Moreover, he assured her that he'd be home earlier tonight. By the time he had sent his last message, they've reached the kitchen and Jack went directly behind the counter to check everything out. Unfortunately, he expected it to be bigger, but nevertheless, he still could work with this one, especially since it seemed like it covered the latest technology.
"So, what do want to eat?", Jack asked putting the chef's hat and the apron on; "I'm your personal chef today." Quite confused Rusty simply chuckled and grinned again at his counterpart: "How about scrambled eggs? That seems easy enough, I guess." With crossed arms, Jack simply stood there, horrified, and looked at Rusty with a not quite so serious smile: "Come on man, I got a major in cooking, that's way too easy." Still grinning as well, Rusty inspected Jack before saying: "Well, then surprise me with really good scrambled eggs." "Challenge accepted", Jack thought to himself and simply nodded with a warm smile at Rusty who was still watching him how he cooked. When he scrambled the eggs he looked back at the yellow dog. "Afraid that I may poison you?", the Jackal asked with a malicious grin. "I don't know what else you wanna do to me, after last night", the dog replied quick-witted; "Besides, I'm your only witness." Again, the teens laughed and Jack continued filling the eggs into three cookie sheets he has found underneath the counter, to put them all into the oven. Afterward, he prepared the cheese, ham, and paprika for the next step. Slicing everything up into the right size, the Jackal also made sure to season everything right, when suddenly the bell for the oven rang. "Could you help me with that?", Jack asked while pointing with his head at the oven. "Sure", Rusty jumped up from his chair and directly went to his target, until he was stopped by Jack who gave him the oven gloves and added: "Be careful it's hot." By nodding, the yellow dog confirmed Jack's statement and continued his task carefully, as his counterpart has told him to. Consequently, the cookie sheets were laid down on the prepared spot and Jack started putting the first layer of ham on one of the baked scrambled eggs. Rusty, never having seen scrambled eggs being prepared this way, still looked quite confused, but was also pretty hyped for tasting this delicious smelling dish. The next layer was on the second cookie sheet, which he filled with many slices of paprika and the third one had cheddar cheese on it. As soon as he was finished with laying everything on the sheets, he started rolling up the first one, filled with ham, which was then laid into the second sheet and rolled up another time. In the end, he had the ham sheet rolled into the paprika sheet, which again was rolled into the cheese layer. "Now we still need to wait like five minutes until the cheese melted completely and then we can start eating.", the Jackal said, while scattering parsley over the just-cooked dish. Cutting the roll into two, Jack scrupulously made sure that the cheese wouldn't flow out too quickly, to serve it afterward on a plate. In the meantime, Rusty managed to get the crockery out of the cupboard and laid it out on the quite huge table in the dining room next to each other. When both of them sat, they've said their "Bon Appetites" and started to tuck in. Almost immediately, after Rusty has cut his slice open, a whole dose of cheese flew out from his brunchinner and he just looked at Jack wondering how he had managed to cut it that perfect earlier. Nevertheless, he just used the outlaying, liquid cheese as a sauce, in which he dipped the pieces into. Putting the slice into his mouth, the yellow dog was still quite curious how this dish may taste like especially since the look of it seemed so exotic. However, it was a culinary delight, the feeling of how the melted cheese spread over his tongue, mixed with the different spices Jack used, felt like a never-ending orgasm inside of his mouth.
If you have ever eaten such a dish in your life you probably nod agreeing right now and remember exactly when this culinary orgasm has happened to you. Quite a special moment, wasn't it? How you felt back then, Rusty feels right now, impressed that he has never tasted something similar before and that all ingredients were directly in front of him the whole time, in the schools own kitchen. "Wow, I didn't expect that you could cook that good", Rusty slurred with a full mouth; "Man, that tastes amazing." Jack chuckled: "I'm glad you like it, I actually found this recipe on YouTube a few months ago." With quite a disbelieving expression the yellow dog looked at Jack. "At YouTube?", he asked, like he wouldn't have understood it right the first time. "Yeah", the Jackal confirmed; "I know what you think, it is quite unconventional." Rusty laughed when he heard this word. "But you know, it is actually a platform like any other and there are also great chefs on there as well.", sipping on his glass of water, Jack soon after continued his explanation; "But you're right, I usually go on different webpages as well, it just was in my recommended list that day and I couldn't resist clicking that button." Still frowning, Rusty scratched his head: "Well I guess I should thank YouTube for existing then." Then again, they continued eating and enjoying the taste, until they promptly were interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Never expected, you two would ever get along." Both of the teens watched into the direction from which the sudden words came from. A certain red-furred antichrist was visible, whose sight made their resistant grin fade away. "What are you doing here, Damian?", Jack sighed. "I'm getting a coke", Damian spitefully responded while pointing at his bottle; "But I could rather ask you the same question." Another sigh left Jack's mouth: "No, I mean what are you doing in school? Shouldn't you be in hell right now? I mean during the holidays?" It was that moment when Damian started to get quite a hard laughing fit in which he couldn't even express full words, which was commentated with rolled eyes by Jack and Rusty. "Oh my, you don't want me to be here, to ruin this moment for you, don't ya. I'm in school, cause it's summer and it is already hot enough up here, why should I visit hell at this time?" The demon almost burst from laughing. "Alright, we got it now, that's funny or whatever.", Finally Rusty was saying something as well; "So why don't you piss off now?" Abruptly, Damian's laugh started to end and his eyes were now fixed on Rusty, having a malicious grin on his demon face. "Oh, what about you Ruben? Couldn't make an impression on the doe boy and now trying to fuck my cousin?", the devils' sons grin got even bigger; "Such a shame you two didn't work out, you two would have been such a cute couple." Flying around Rusty, Damian continued trying to provoke the yellow dog, who also was almost about to stand up and punch him, until Jack interrupted both of them. "Damian, don't you have to study or so?", Jack responded insinuating that Damian didn't pass his finals; "Cause I mean, it might be a rumor or so. But I heard your dad is really pissed at you." Now it was Damian, whose grin faded away. "No way man, it's fine with him, I will pass next year.", Damian replied, being shocked that it was Jack who metaphorically punched back for Rusty. "Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot that he's more interested in saving his crashing stock.", the Jackal continued, now having himself a malicious grin on his face; "I wonder how hell looks like when they have to sell his financial empire. Can you imagine that, a Chinese hell?"
With that Damian left defeated, after having screamed "Fuck off" at the two teens. Rusty, being similarly shocked, now looked at Jack. He really couldn't believe that these words have left Jack's mouth, who himself wasn't sure what kind of evil has befallen him. Slowly getting everything back together, the Jackal just realized what he did, when Rusty just started, completely out of the blue, to clap. "That just was amazing man.", the yellow dog laughed; "Aw man, I'm so corrupting you." Whereas Rusty continued laughing, Jack got quite stressed and looked up from the ground, directly into Rusty's eyes. "Dude, shit, what have I done?", the Jackal said quite stressed. His inner turmoil was noticed by Rusty, who immediately tried to calm his counterpart down again, especially since Jack was just about to hyperventilate. "It's fine man, he was the aggressor and you won the fight. Nothing you should be sorry for, he basically was asking for it.", Slipping closer, Rusty laid his paw on Jack's shoulder again; "Thank you, that you defended me back there. I'm really grateful for that. No one ever really did this for me." The two of them closed in for a hug again and with that Jack felt that this all may become something life-changing for him. In a good way, so that he hasn't to be alone during his studies in Safe Haven like he actually expected. When he was with Rusty, it felt like that his entire insecurity was covered by his counterparts dominance, which obviously made its way into Jack's mind as well. "Thank you too", Jack responded; "I never felt so great in my entire life. I was really on my edge, yesterday and I jumped, … deep. But I didn't hit the ground, you stopped me. While falling, you showed me that I could fly as well. I really needed someone to follow, someone who told me to sip, who told me to talk and who told me to live. I don't know where I would have landed if you wouldn't have been on this bus station, that night." Hearing this, Rusty held Jack tight, feeling the other boys heartbeat and perceiving every single hit of it. Perceiving the tears flowing down his new friends' cheeks, perceiving every single sound he made, while speaking, sobbing and breathing. "It's okay, Jack", Rusty was still holding him; "We are two wandering souls, trying to find our place in life. I know exactly what you are living through, believe me. Those books may have helped me to change, but it needs another person to actually help us. For that, we could compare ourselves like Harry from Steppenwolf, the book I showed you earlier. He may have had a mentor who already mastered to live, but we have our little study group consisting of two." To be honest, Jack has felt like a Steppenwolf before but never could have given this feeling a name. They were both Steppenwolfes, searching for each other's company, their pack of two. "How about we wash up now", Rusty finally broke the silence. "Yeah, I should be heading home soon anyways." Hence, they went to the dishwasher, put everything in, until both of them went out to the bus station, where they met the last night. Before stepping into the bus, the two teens promised each other, that they'll meet soon again. Then, Jack sat in a seat in the back row and looked out of the window at Rusty. It didn't take long until the bus started to drive away, however, Jack's eyes still were set at the window, watching everything pass by. For the first time in his life, his head was completely empty, he didn't know what else was still left to think about. Yesterday, he had sipped on life.
