Chapter 3: The Unplanned Reunion

Senior year wasn't turning out to be a very good year so far. At least, all eighteen days of it. The workload just kept piling up and their teachers kept talking about exams and college and basically, about their future. Even Gabriella and Taylor were starting to feel the pressure.

Jason reluctantly entered the library during free period, an assignment sheet for History in hand along with two textbooks. If he didn't start on it now, he'd fall behind even more than he already was. Basketball training, it seemed, for the moment, would have to wait.

He hovered at the History section, sleepy eyes skimming over the titles that were printed on the spines of textbooks and other reference books that were supposed to help him with the assignment. He pulled out two worn out books and went to find a seat. He was going to go to his usual seat – or as often as he went to the library anyway – by one of the large windows, only to find that it was occupied, by none other than Kelsi. At once, his heartbeat quickened, his palms became sweaty and the heat rose in his neck as he slowly approached her.

Since the first day of school, they had been spending a lot of time together. Though admittedly braver, he was still quite shy and nervous around her.

"Hey Kelsi," he said.

Surprised, Kelsi looked up at him. "Oh, hey Jason. What are you doing here?" He held up the History sheet in response. "Oh, right."

"How about you? Aren't you usually in the music room during free period?"

"Usually," she said. "But I've put my Biology homework off for far too long, and it's not going to get done by itself, so, here I am. Besides, I think I might actually need to start going to class instead of just blowing it off. My – er – mom's not impressed as it is." She grinned sheepishly up at him before motioning to the empty seat across from her. Swallowing, he took the seat across from her, feeling his neck warm up dramatically, as she went back to her work.

'Okay. Breathe Cross,' he thought to himself. Opening one of the textbooks he had taken to a random page number, his eyes skimmed over the words, although not even a minute later the words looked as though they were blended together, so he stopped, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose, forcing himself to take several more deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" he heard Kelsi ask.

"Yeah, yeah," Jason said, his eyes only half open and smiling lopsidedly at her. "I'm just… tired."

"Hmmm. Well, it is free period. And it's lunch next anyway," Kelsi said, a suggestive tone in her voice, her eyes alight and her lips pulled up in a smirk.

"I thought your Biology wasn't going to get done by itself?"

"I can always do it at home," she answered nonchalantly.

Jason was torn. On one hand, he needed to get his History paper done before Monday, and there was only two days left. On the other, he really wanted to get out of school, even if it was only for a little bit. And he would be spending time with Kelsi. But if he disappeared from lunch without telling the others, there would be a lot of questions.

'Gone out for lunch. See you in class. J.'

He sent the text to Zeke, who he would be having Math with after lunch – he groaned inwardly, remembering the pile of questions their teacher had set them, also to be handed in by Monday – before flipping his phone close. Gathering his things, he deposited the library books onto a rack that was already filled with several used science books.

Jason turned to Kelsi and smiled.

"Well? Shall we?"

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As expected, when Jason drove them over to the Boltons', there were a lot of questions as to why he was missing from lunch. Zeke had declared that his text had been "completely vague", that it only told him he was going out for lunch, and not where and with who. Chad had commented that Kelsi was also "coincidentally missing from lunch", and no one, not even any of the girls, knew where she had disappeared to. Jason had refused to say anything, except for a smile he couldn't control and cheeks that flamed red. Troy just laughed in the passenger seat as Zeke and Chad teased him about his "lunch date".

"Are you boys staying for dinner?" Lucille Bolton asked, walking into the living room, addressing her son's three best friends. They were all squashed on the longest couch, slumped into it as they played video games. Chips and drinks lay scattered about on the table, the bags in disarray on the floor. It was clear that they had come straight here after school. "Boys?"

"Not tonight Mrs Bolton," Zeke said. "I've got a ton of Math homework that really needs to be done."

"Yeah, and my mom claims she hasn't seen me in weeks. I was just at the house this morning," Chad said, rolling his eyes.

"No!" Jason yelled, when his player died. With some difficulty, he managed to get off the couch and frowned at the screen, flinging his controller at Chad. "That's it. I'm going home." Turning, he made to pick his things up when he noticed Lucille standing there. He blushed, and the other three just laughed at him, as he greeted and apologized to her for being so loud. She just looked on in amusement, shaking her head and going back to the kitchen.

"Hold on, man. I'll see you out the door," Troy said, trying to get up but failed. He groaned. "Mom! I think we need a new couch!"

Lucille shouted something back from the kitchen, but because Troy couldn't make out what she said, just shook his head and successfully got off the couch, grabbing his open can of Pepsi and followed Jason to the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow man," Jason said, bumping his fist lightly against Troy's. "Assuming I can get up early enough. Breakfast over here right?"

"Yup. Mom's even making your favourite."

Jason laughed. "I look forward to it." Checking his watch, he glanced back at the black SUV sitting in the driveway. "Well, gotta run. I need to pick some stuff up for my mom."

Troy shook his head. "And we know just how much you love it at the supermarket." Chuckling to himself and ignoring the roll of the younger boy's eyes, he added, "Tell Auntie Sandra I said 'hi'."

"Will do," Jason nodded, getting into his car. "See you man."

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Jason stood in the middle of the aisle, reading the back of a cereal box lazily, even though he had no intention of buying it. His basket, almost full with the items on his mother's groceries list, hung by his elbow. After leaving Troy's house, and after picking up a mocha, he went to the supermarket, where he had been for almost an hour now. There was an odd relaxing feeling about grocery shopping, which was probably why he always volunteered to go in his mother's place. Sometimes, mother and son would go together, and it didn't embarrass him, not even when his best friends mercilessly teased him about it.

Deciding that he had spent long enough, Jason hastily grabbed a box of Pop Tart. With his recent late-nights, they would really come in handy in case he got hungry in the middle of trying to do some math equation or an essay.

As he waited in line to pay for his things, he froze. He thought he saw someone pass by the large glass windows of the supermarket. It was a face he hadn't seen in years, a face he didn't think he'd ever see again, nor did he hope to. Except for a few pictures hidden away, which he had been meaning to throw out for a while now, there was no way he could tell if it was him otherwise. Besides, the man had been walking a little too fast.

He shook his head, frowning. 'You haven't seen him in ten years. Why would he show his face now?' he reminded himself, sighing inwardly as he paid for his things.

Jason took the long way home. The sky was darkening, the sun was setting and he was on the verge of falling asleep. He had to force himself to stay awake, so he wouldn't get into a car crash. Hastily, he switched off the air-conditioner and switched the radio on. A recently released pop song by some new band was currently playing. He was thankful it was Saturday tomorrow; he could put his homework off until Sunday – but if he was honest with himself, he couldn't really afford to do that – and sleep in all he wanted tomorrow.

Although remembering Troy's promise of his mother making his favourite – apple strudel, which at the moment, was competing with Zeke's own recipe in his books – for their weekly Saturday morning breakfast in which they would take turns at whose house they would be having it at, he groaned, before remembering that he could text Troy with a message to move the time a little bit later than their usual time at nine. It was a common thing for them to move the time a little later, considering how late he and Chad always seemed to arrive. It was a longstanding tradition with the boys, and they rarely missed it.

By the time he reached the two-storey house, the sky was already dark and the lampposts switched on, illuminating the neighbourhood. Out of the four, he lived the furthest away from the school. Troy and Chad had been neighbours since forever, and Zeke's house was before theirs, about a fifteen-minute drive from where Jason lived.

Parking into his usual place by his mother's car, he got out, groceries in one hand and his keys in the other. He breathed in the night air, and loved the feeling of comfort it seemed to bring him.

Jason entered the house through the back door leading to the kitchen, placing the bags on the island in the middle of the room. It looked as though his mother hadn't started dinner yet, which he found a little unusual, considering she usually started around five. Suddenly he heard talking coming from the lit up living room. He frowned slightly.

With his keys still in his hand, he walked into the living room. The moment he stepped through, his heart practically stopped.

Thinking back to when he was paying for the groceries earlier on, there was no mistaking it. The man he saw earlier this afternoon was the same man who was sitting in his living room with his mother. But who it was, he couldn't be sure. He still only had a perfect view of the back of his head, and not his face.

"Jason!"

It was Sandra who had spoken. He froze, as the man finally turned around fully, and Jason could finally see his face. His keys dropped to the floor in shock, the sound of metal hitting the wooden flooring echoing.

The man looked exactly like the man in the hidden pictures. He was a bit older now, it was evident by the slight wrinkles and the greying hair, but it was him. There was definitely no mistaking it.

"Jason?"

Something in him snapped.

"Oh, my god, look at you!"

Suddenly all he saw was red. Anger rose in him, boiling in his blood, so much that his face flushed.

"You're so big now!"

"What are you doing here?" he spat angrily.

Shaking his head, he turned around sharply, making his way to the front door, disregarding his car keys. He hurriedly walked away from his mother and that man, hearing them call him. He didn't stop; he just ran out of the house, slamming the door as he did so.

He ignored his mother calling for him to come back. He continued to run until his legs and chest hurt, continued to run even if his side was hurting. He stopped at the corner about a block away from his house, sweat dripping down his face as he leaned his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. The pain he felt in his legs and his side was nothing compared to the pain in his chest. He opened his eyes and gazed at the ground, realizing with a pang that his vision was blurred, and that tears were slowly running down his face.

He was crying.

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It couldn't have been later than half past six. The sun was already slowly rising. The slightly cool early morning air and the birds singing seemed to help calm Jason's emotions, which, at the moment, were running high.

He had returned home around midnight, after spending the better part of his night alone in the park, sitting on the swings, staring ahead, a thousand thoughts and emotions going through him. His mother had been fast asleep then, and there was no one else in sight. Not even him.

Jason leaned his head against one of the beams outside Troy's house, bags under his barely opens eyes and dressed in sweats. Having been awake practically the entire night, he had jogged to Troy's when the sun wasn't even up yet. It was a long way off, but the jog helped him slightly, but not much. He had entered through the backyard with the keys Troy had given them – them being him, Chad and Zeke – in case of any sort of emergencies. Now was definitely an emergency.

He jumped slightly when the backdoor opened and Troy came walking out, yawning and rubbing his eyes as he attempted to pull his shirt on at the same time.

"Hey man," Troy greeted and bumped his fist weakly against Jason's. "Chad and Zeke not here yet?"

The younger boy opened his mouth to answer him when the boys in question came walking in, grumbling. "Oh we're here alright," Chad muttered grumpily. "So what's this about? It's a Saturday! I don't wake up until ten on Saturdays, you know that. I should be in bed."

"Don't know," Troy said, shrugging, stifling a yawn with his hand. "Ask Jason."

Jason took a deep breath as he looked at their sleepy faces, and decided to put off telling them his emergency. 'More like disaster,' he thought bitterly. Standing up properly, he bent down to retrieve one of the basketballs by his feet.

"Come on, guys. Let's have a game before it gets too hot," he said calmly without looking at them, jogging slightly towards the court.

He heard Chad mutter angrily. "You called me at four in the morning and had Zeke come and wake me up and drag me here to shoot hoops? We could've done that when the sun was – oh, I don't know! – up!"

"Chad, come on," Zeke said urgently, lowering his voice, but Jason still heard him. "He sounded upset on the phone. Doesn't that tell you something?"

Jason scoffed bitterly to himself as he dribbled the ball. He stared up at the basketball hoop, and let out a strangled breath, feeling their eyes on him. He could tell, without looking, that Chad was now alert, and the other two were very much awake. He took a shot and it rebounded off the hoop, and he dejectedly stepped back slightly, his arms falling limply to his sides.

"J? Dude, what's up? You know you can tell us," Chad asked, his voice gentler this time.

Jason felt tears start to form beneath his eyelids as a lump formed in his throat. He refused to cry again. Save for last night, he hadn't cried since his older sister, Jen, left for college.

"Jason," Troy said, starting to walk towards him, his voice cautious and worried.

"He's back."

He turned away from them, his breath becoming heavy as he desperately tried not to choke on his own tears. He tensed, his fists clenching by his sides, his fingernails digging into his palms.

"What do–"

"He's back," he repeated. He had put off saying it out loud, in the hopes that it wasn't real, that it couldn't possibly be real. But it was real. He was back, and he didn't know what to think. "After ten years, he's finally had to nerve to show his face."

"Wait. Ten…" Chad muttered. He exchanged shocked looks with Zeke and Troy. "You mean, your dad's…?" Troy looked from Chad to Jason with wide eyes.

"Yeah," he said quietly. None of them missed the break in his voice. "Yeah, he – he was at the house last night, and–" He sniffed. A stray tear made its way down his cheek, leaving a glistening trail. He hastily wiped it away, but kept his hand against his forehead as more tears just ran down his face.

Behind him, Troy, Chad and Zeke barely knew what to do or say. Every single one of them still had their fathers. They couldn't possibly understand the pain Jason was feeling. The only thing they were sure of was that they were shocked, sympathetic, but most of all, angry, for walking out on Jason, for leaving him behind when he was only seven years old, and now, for walking back in without warning and throwing their youngest friend, and his youngest son that he should never have left, off balance.

"Jason?"

Troy was standing right behind him now. He tentatively put a hand on Jason's shoulder, feeling it tremble and shake under his palm.

And suddenly, Jason was crying into Troy desperately, abandoning the tough mask he had attempted to put on. He should have known he couldn't do it. He had known these boys since pre-school; they were best friends, brothers.

By now, Chad and Zeke had joined the pair on the court, patting his shoulder and just stood there, to show that they were there for him, as the sun shone properly down on the four boys, its rays kissing every surface, lighting and waking up Albuquerque. It seemed inappropriate now, given the situation.

Jason would need all of them.