Jackson Storm
"I hate it when he's bossy," Storm grumbles, after four hours of Ray drilling him hard on three-corner short tracks. He pokes at the mound of rice on his plate and puts something called lau lau in his mouth, chews reluctantly.
"Is he making you eat that?" Gale asks. "I mean, Lee's is good stuff, but - "
"He said I didn't have to if I didn't like it." And Storm had hated that, too. What's he supposed to do with that?
"So do you like it?"
"No."
After that, Ray never brings plate lunch again, just like he never talks about fish again. Just like he never parked too close again, after that first time Storm had jumped away, told him to stay back. Ray was always pushing, but he never forced. Every week Storm spent with him was a series of all-new nightmares, but Ray never made them linger if Storm didn't want them to. He'd only ever asked that Storm give them all a shot - or at least a staredown. This made Storm glad and guilty and annoyed and anxious and sometimes even happy.
If Storm had ever wanted to go fishing again, all he would have had to do was ask. But the thing is, Storm didn't want. He didn't want any of that noise.
Or at least, he hadn't thought he did.
Were you disappointed? Storm wants to ask Ray. He's pretty sure he knows the answer.
Storm knows that pretty much anyone normal would rather be at a wedding, or up at a cabin, or cracking open beers on a dirt track, than sitting in a dark room with someone who doesn't even like your barbecue. The choice is a no-brainer.
Except for all the days Ray had chosen otherwise.
But maybe it'd be worse if Ray hadn't been disappointed in him. Because that would mean Ray thought that this was the best Storm could do. That this was as good as he was ever going to get. He was always going to be this empty, alien, alone.
"Wanna go fishing?" Ray asks, in Storm's dreams.
Storm still says no.
He wakes up cold.
"What do you want?" Storm asks Danny, who'd yo'd at him on the way to his own pit stall.
"Just tryin' to make a change. Saying hi," says Danny.
"I think change has done enough damage," Storm replies tersely.
"Nah, man, I hear you. I do."