Chapter 18- Heat Of The Moment
"You're sure you don't want to tag along?"
Jay smiled at his dad, giving his head a subtle shake. "You guys have fun!"
His mother frowned at him, seeing very clearly the jumbled emotions Jay was trying to hide. "We'll be home soon okay, sweetie? There's some food for you in the fridge."
"Don't worry mom." Jay kept smiling, waiting impatiently for them to leave. He watched them exchange words he couldn't hear, then finally, his dad's shaky vehicle rumbled to life. "See ya!"
His mom waved, and Jay waved back. The moment they were out of sight, he dropped the smile. He lowered his arm, watching the clouds of dust as they drove into the city. Then he turned, stepping into the small trailer.
Jay stopped at the kitchen first. Ignoring the protest of his conscience, he tossed the food his mom had made for him into the trash. He had no intention of eating. And he had zero desire to answer concerned questions.
He stared at the empty container. To wash, or not to wash? What was more in character with his happy-go-lucky self?
In the end, he opted for washing it. Giving his hands something to do was nice, even though the activity couldn't have lasted more than a minute. Jay dried his hands against his jeans. Then he moved to his room.
Even though Jay was alone, he shut the door, enjoying the coziness of the cramped space. He crumpled onto the bed.
Cole had looked . . . well, normal. In the few glances Jay had stolen his way, he had looked as good as ever.
Of course he had. Cole was Cole. Strong. Adaptable. Why would ridding himself of Jay phase him?
Jay scrolled through their past messages. He knew it was a terrible idea. Knew it would only serve to make him feel worse. He also knew making good decisions had never been his strong suit. So to hell with it.
Jay briefly wondered what would happen if he texted Cole.
"Nothing." He told himself, with a resigned laugh. "He'd ignore you, that's what."
Jay shut his eyes. He imagined himself being brave enough to text.
Hey, Cole. I miss you. I'm sorry.
The Cole inside his head replied within seconds. I miss you too. I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean any of it.
I'm sorry for lying to you.
How about we start over? Jay's daydream began to blend into a real dream, exhausted mind granting him the blessing of sleep. No hard feelings.
Sounds good, Cole. Jay turned over, curling into himself, phone slipping from his hand. I love you.
Cole hit the ground running.
He didn't bother with closing the door of his truck. He'd be back. Fumbling to get his door unlocked was an annoyance, but soon enough, he was running again. There was an idea in his mind. A dumb, extravagant idea.
But he'd gone overboard, yelling at Jay words he would never ever mean. So it was only fair to apologize with the same pizzazz.
"Cole?"
Cole skidded to a stop as he reached his room, throwing things around as he searched for his small speaker. He shoved it in his pocket, then began to fumble with his phone instead. "Yeah?"
"What's going on?" His dad came into view. Cole's eyes shifted over his phone, moving through a series, committing them to memory. "What are you up to?"
Cole turned his phone toward his dad briefly, as if that served as enough explanation. Then, he realized it was not. "Just need to do something. Real quick. I'll be back for dinner. Hopefully with Jay."
"Jay? I thought you-"
"Definitely with Jay. Could you make something good? And try not to be scary strict? I'm pretty sure you traumatized him the first time he came around." Cole turned back to his phone, still reading as he walked.
"Er- Um, okay?" His father questioned, still very confused.
Cole gave him a wave that offered no further explanation. He trotted back to his truck, humming softly. Once on the road, Cole began to sing instead.
He hoped Jay was home. Cole could already picture his reaction. Confused and frazzled. Then, his lips would tightened, as he struggled not to laugh at Cole's ridiculous antics. Cole smiled.
Bamm!
The truck jolted, as one of the front tires drove straight over a boulder. Cole struggled to regain control of the truck, coming to a forceful stop by the side of the road. He got out, inspecting the very real damage.
The tire was beyond salvageable.
Rocky wasn't going anywhere.
"Bad luck, huh?" Cole chuckled. "Takes more than that to stop a Brookstone, you know."
With a determined huff, he began to run.
Jay awakened with a jolt.
He wiped some unwelcome drool from his mouth, turning over to lay on his back. Outside, the world had gone dark, with only the flickering bulbs of the junkyard to light the darkness. How late was it?
"Mom?" He shouted out. No answer. "Dad?"
Nothing. Couldn't be too late, then. If they weren't home yet.
He stretched, wondering what, exactly, he could do next. Sleeping again was the most welcoming option, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to manage it. Sitting in the dark doing nothing in particular was good too, Jay supposed.
A sudden, very loud, and very familiar tune reached his ears. Startled, Jay's body gave a small jump, causing him to fall off the bed with a thud! He scrambled for his phone, wondering if his music had begun to play unprompted.
Then the singing started. Voice just as familiar as the music. Cole.
I never meant to be, so bad to you.
Jay shook his head. Wondering if he was dreaming still. Had to be.
One thing I said that I would never do
Standing on shaky legs, he stumbled out of his room. Cole continued to sing, voice growing louder as Jay moved closer. He stopped by the door, frozen with indecision. He wanted to rip it open, but at the same time, he didn't.
Do you remember when we use to dance?
What if it was somehow all in his head?
And incidents arose from circumstance.
Jay shut his eyes. He leaned his forehead against the cold metal door. And just listened. Even if it was all in his head (Some sort of terrible breakdown, surely) at least it was real now. Jay wanted to pretend for just a little longer, that Cole had driven all the way here, to apologize, to make up, to-
Without thinking, Jay forced himself to fling the door open.
And Cole was there, real as ever, with a casual smile and a spark in his eyes.
It was the heat of the moment.
Jay had to struggle to hold back a fit of laughter. Cole stood, holding a small speaker above his head, as if it were a boombox. So, so silly. And so, so Cole.
Showing me what your heart meant
Jay shook his head.
The heat of the moment
Show in your eyes
Cole lowered the speaker. The song's wordless tune continued to play. Jay stood awkwardly, not quite knowing the proper way to react. "I can't believe you remembered I liked that song."
"I remember a lot of things about you, Walker." Cole responded, still smiling. Jay could barely keep himself from jumping into his arms.
"Dork." He replied, with a smile.
"Shorty." Cole countered.
"Mophead."
"Freckles."
"Not sure that counts as an insult." Jay shrugged. "Some say my freckles are extremely attractive."
"Yeah, you keep on believing that."
They held each other's gaze. Jay was the first to look away. "I really am sorry, Cole. For not being honest. We trusted each other and I shouldn't have- shouldn't have betrayed that trust."
"I'm sorry for being as awful as I was. I didn't mean any of the things I said. At all."
Jay could hold himself back no longer. He shot forward, pulling Cole into a tight embrace. He never, ever, ever wanted to let go. Cole returned the hug, his strong arms a tad suffocating. But Jay didn't care.
They both pulled away form each other, rather reluctantly. Their hands stayed together, fingers perfectly entwined.
"Oh yeah. There was something else I needed to tell you." Cole said.
"Oh?" Jay frowned, wondering if there was a catch to all this. Because of course there was. Things didn't just-
Cole kissed him. The mesh of worries and insecurities in Jay's mind shuddered and died. He leaned into the kiss and returned it, eyes slowly moving to a close.
However long the kiss lasted, it had definitely not been long enough. Cole's eyes were locked onto Jay's own as he moved back. Jay had never, ever felt as important as he did now, within the spotlight of Cole's attention.
"Love you too, Jay."
Somehow, hearing his own name, not Walker, not a nickname, but his name made Jay fall in love with Cole all over again. He smiled, hardly able to contain the wild emotions beating through him.
As the moment faded, Jay noticed something else. "Dude. You're really sweaty."
"I am. And I smell bad." Cole smirked, stealing another quick kiss.
"Gross!" Jay laughed, pushing him back. "Did you walk here?"
"Ran. Halfway. I drove over a boulder or something and pop! Bye tire." Cole shrugged. "Nothing that can't be fixed. It'll be a pain in the butt to pay for it though but-"
"Pay for it? No, no." Jay shook his head. "Why would you pay for it when you have me?"
"You?"
"Me." Jay turned toward the piles of junk, eyes quickly scanning for anything useful. "Don't you know, I can fix anything?"
By the time Jay had gathered all he needed, his parents arrived.
Cole had tried to help, but funnily enough, the boy who was perfect at everything was incredibly terrible at simple mechanics. Despite Jay's explanations, he never quite managed to find the right things.
In the end, Cole had accepted defeat, and opted for sitting back and watching Jay gather things instead. He was the first to spot the headlights heading toward them. Unnecessarily large, and unnecessarily bright.
"Your parents are here!" Cole shouted.
"Okay!" Jay shouted back, finally managing to dislodge the perfect tire from the mountain of junk. "Perfect timing too. They can take us to your truck."
"Cole!" Edna shouted as they climbed out of the car. "Oh, it's very nice to see you. What are you two up to?"
Jay nodded toward his box of tools and the lone tire. "Cole needs some help fixing up his truck. Would you guys mind giving us a lift?"
Jay's parents did not mind. The drive to Cole's truck was surprisingly short, most of all compared to hold long it had felt, when Cole had been on foot. They dropped them off, leaving only after showering Cole with come-and-visit's.
Jay set to work.
Cole watched him with deep admiration. He could hardly understand any of the movements Jay made, but he made them with a practiced confidence that was terribly admirable. And, somehow, extremely attractive.
Some odd minutes later, Jay stood, his now dirty hands resting against his hips. "Should be good to go. I'll try to find a newer tire for you, but this one will probably hold for a while."
"You're my hero." Cole smiled. "That was awesome. Thank you."
Jay gave a sly bow. "Told you, I can fix anything. Call on me anytime."
"You definitely can." Cole said. "You helped fix my relationship with my dad."
"Huh?"
"He isn't making me go anywhere any more. He made me promise to really work on finding something that's meaningful to me but. . . he won't push it."
"Dude!" Jay smiled. "High five!"
"With those hands?" Cole gave a dramatic grimace. "No thanks."
"Whatever, Sweaty McGee." Jay said, before smearing both grease-covered hands upon Cole's arms. "You owed me one."
"Fair enough." Cole pouted. "And I'm going to owe you another one."
"Meaning?"
"Told my dad you were coming over for dinner. So. . . you're coming over for dinner." Cole opened the passenger door. Jay looked from the open door to Cole. "Head on in, Walker."
"You're serious? You want me to have dinner with you and your dad?"
"You can clean up at my place."
"That's not my concern. My concern is uh- he's sort of terrifying. He's going to hate me."
"He won't. Besides, I've had dinner at your place."
Jay had no counter to that. But he still didn't really want to go, either. "Um."
Before Cole could continue, Jay's phone rang. Loud against the quiet night. He slipped it from his pocket, thankful for the intrusion. Maybe for once, the universe was on his side.
"Nya." Jay smiled. "Hey. You won't believe what-"
The Djinn's at the school. You need to meet me here ASAP.
"Ah." Jay frowned. "Yes. Yeah. Okay. We'll be there."
We? Jay could imagine Nya shaking her head, forcing herself to focus. Never mind. Just get here soon. We're taking him down.
"Aye, aye." Jay nodded, then hung up. He looked to Cole. "While dinner sounds amazing, I've still got one last thing I need to fix."
"Oh?"
"The Djinn." Jay took a slow breath. "At the school. You in?"
"You mean am I in to stop the thing that took my best friend? Heck yeah, I'm in."
Song is Heat Of The Moment by Asia!
Things are drawing to a close! So I'm really sorry to say I'll be taking a break next week, due to the Dreaded Finals. Thank you for reading, as always!