Chapter 2 - Normal Kid Stuff

Despite Jonathan's suspicion about whether Sam was mistreating Jon, it ended up being one of the best days they'd had together in a long time. They had burgers, fries, and the best shakes Jon had ever tried, then they spent the afternoon out in the boat—it was warm enough, but it wouldn't be for much longer. Jonathan swam off for a few minutes to talk to some hot girls on a dock at the other side of the lake, which gave Jon a chance to take his shirt off and jump into the lake. His skin still crawled at the thought that Sam could see him undressing, even if it was just his t-shirt, but it wasn't half as bad as it had been before, and besides, Sam looked away the entire time.

Back at home, the three of them watched movies and ate popcorn until Jon could hardly keep his eyes open, and he headed off to his room and barely got his shoes kicked off before he passed out over the covers.

He'd been asleep for what felt like less than an hour when he heard a light knock on his door, and a whispered, "Jon L."

Jon rubbed his eyes and rolled over. Jonathan slipped into the room, closing the door behind himself before flicking on the light.

Jon blinked a few times, holding a hand up to shield his eyes from the light. "What the hell?"

"Sh, sh," he whispered. "Get up, we're going out."

Jon rubbed his eyes and grabbed his phone off his nightstand. Yep, less than an hour. "What?"

"Those girls from earlier invited us to a party tonight."

"It's almost midnight."

"Yeah, it just started at ten. I would've gotten you sooner, just had to make sure Granddad was asleep."

"Wait. You wanna sneak out?"

"They think you're hot."

Jon blinked a couple of times. "Really?"

"Nah, they think I'm hot, but you're like my clone, so it's kinda the same thing. Come on, before Granddad wakes up."

"We can't just . . ." Jon shook his head.

"He won't know. We're just going for an hour or two."

"You know what happened the last time I ran away."

"This isn't running away, man. This is just . . . normal kid stuff."

Jon frowned. It had been so, so long since he'd done anything that could be called normal. And he'd been trying to figure out how to make friends with Jonathan. It all felt so close he could almost taste it, but he couldn't imagine how this would work. "How are we supposed to get there?"

"It's a dock party. Gotta take the boat."

"Isn't Granddad gonna notice?"

"Dude, we'll be gone for, like, two hours. We'll be back way before he wakes up."

Jon shifted his weight. "I dunno, man . . ."

Jonathan sighed. "Look, if you don't wanna go, I get it, but I can't go if you don't. Takes two to row the boat."

Jon's stomach squirmed. He could secure his friendship with Jonathan. And as much as he hated to admit it, something about taking the rowboat out in the middle of the night for a party with hot girls, it just sounded . . . fun.

"It's just . . . like, you never get to meet anyone from our school, or like, anyone. Don't you get lonely?"

He did. He really did. This could be his chance to make some other friends.

And Sam wouldn't know. Jonathan wouldn't risk it if there was a chance of getting caught, would he?

"Okay," Jon said, and Jonathan grinned.

They crept out into the kitchen and went out through the back door, where Lieutenant looked up from his bed, cocking his head. Jon winced and went over to the fridge to grab him a piece of meat, and while Lieutenant was eating, Jon and Jonathan headed out.

A pang of guilt struck Jon as they passed by the remnants of the electric fence they'd torn down, and it struck him that he definitely shouldn't be doing this.

But as soon as they were long out of earshot of the house, Jonathan threw up his hands and whooped, and he jogged the rest of the distance through the darkness to the boat. Even with the full moon, it was hard to navigate the trees that surrounded Sam's property; Jon realized Jonathan probably had a lot of years' experience exploring them.

Jon was the first one to jump into the boat, and Jonathan untied it and pushed off before jumping in himself. A thrill filled Jon's chest. The night was cool without being too cold. It was dark, but his eyes had adjusted to the moonlight, so it wasn't hard to find their way. It was almost peaceful—but as they rowed, he started to hear and feel the pounding bass speaker of a raging party. It was hard to keep the smile from his face.

They rowed quietly for a few minutes before something occurred to Jon. "Wait. What if we get drunk?"

Jonathan groaned. "Are you gonna be like this at the party?"

"Seriously. We won't make it back in time."

"You be designated driver, if you're so worried about it."

Jon winced. He had only agreed to come because he thought Jonathan was going to avoid getting caught. "Won't he smell the alcohol on your breath?"

"Fine. We won't drink. Just . . . grab a cup so you don't look weird."

"Sure." Jon didn't mind bending the rules to fit in, but he had to draw the line at something that would get them in trouble.

They rounded a corner and headed toward a dock that was lit so brightly, it might as well have been daylight. There must have been fifty people out there—hanging out on the dock, jumping into the water, dancing, drinking, talking and laughing.

"Jon!" a girl shouted, and Jon's head snapped up, but Jonathan stood up in the boat, waving, and Jon realized they weren't talking to him. They didn't know him.

They pulled up in the boat, tied themselves to the dock, and a couple of guys who apparently knew Jonathan helped them up onto the dock, and a girl brought them each a half-full red Solo cup.

Jon had to remind himself several times not to drink what was in the cup. Jonathan was immediately surrounded by friends and flirting girls. He beckoned Jon over to their circle, and Jon tried to laugh along with them, but he couldn't really bring himself to say anything.

It wasn't the guilt. Not exactly. It was the intrusive thoughts. He found himself wondering how many of these people had ever seen the inside of a prison cell, or watched the life fade from a man's eyes at their own hands. They laughed like they didn't have a care in the world.

"I'm gonna walk around," Jon muttered to Jonathan, who looked over at him with a little surprise before nodding.

"Yeah, totally," he said.

Jon wandered for a minute before he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned to face a blonde girl in a bikini top and short shorts.

"Hey," she said, grinning and looking him up and down. "You're Jon's brother, right?"

"Uh. Yeah." They hadn't actually worked out their story. "Aren't you cold?"

She laughed, though her face looked disbelieving. "That's what you want to be asking?"

Jon's mouth felt dry. He used to be good with girls. It had been a long time, and his confidence had taken quite a few hits over the past few months. She was pretty, and she definitely would have been his type, in another life, but he wasn't sure he was there anymore. Maybe he'd jumped into all this too fast.

Then something caught his eye. A girl off in the distance, staring at him.

He frowned in her direction. He didn't recognize her, either from this world or his own. She had short dark hair, and she was dressed more warmly than most of the girls at the party, though it didn't do much to mask the fact that she was probably the prettiest one there. Was she watching him on purpose? She was looking at him like she knew him.

"I'm Brenda," the girl in front of Jon said, snapping his attention back. "What's your name?"

"Uh." He hadn't thought about what to say. How had he gotten this far without any kind of plan. "Jake," he said.

"Jake." She smiled, her eyes flicking down and up again. "Where'd you get the boat?"

"It's, uh, my granddad's." He snuck another look past her. The girl was still watching him. She smiled, almost like she was laughing at him.

"And he let you take it in the middle of the night?"

"Uh. Well. I mean, he doesn't know."

Her grin widened, and her eyebrows raised. "You're not afraid of getting caught?"

"Uh." He swallowed hard. He knew this type. He just couldn't remember how to play the game she was playing, and he wasn't sure he wanted to play. "I dunno."

Her smiled faded just a little. "Do you live around here?"

"Yeah."

"Where do you go to school?"

"Uh, I do independent study."

"You mean you're homeschooled." Her smile wasn't completely gone, but disdain obviously dripped from her voice.

He didn't think independent study and homeschooling were quite the same thing, but maybe it would get her to go away. "Yeah," he said. "I don't get out much."

"Oh." She nodded slowly. "Uh, nice to meet you, Jake."

"Yeah, you too," he said, and she wandered off.

Jon glanced back in the direction of the girl who had been staring at him, but she was gone.

Sighing, Jon wandered back toward Jonathan, who was still talking and laughing in a big group of friends. He stood awkwardly to one side of their circle for a minute, not sure how to insert himself into the conversation—they seemed to have inside jokes about everything, and they kept talking about people Jon didn't know and gossip he hadn't ever heard about. Jon wandered off in the direction of another crowd of people.

A couple of other girls tried to flirt with him, but his mind kept jumping forward, worrying about what came next. If he encountered them again while he was out in the boat with Sam, how was he supposed to explain how he knew them? If they decided they liked him, they'd want to spend time with him, maybe find a hidden corner to make out . . . he didn't have time to do that. And what if he they really liked each other? Was he supposed to keep sneaking out to visit a secret girlfriend?

Jon pulled out his phone, the phone Sam had given him. He'd been here for two hours. He'd betrayed Sam for long enough.

After striking out for a third time—if he could call it that, considering he wasn't trying—Jon wandered over to Jonathan, who was sitting on the edge of the dock with a couple of friends, bare feet dipping into the water.

"Hey," he said, "we should get going."

"We just got here!" Jonathan said. "Come sit with us. We were just talking about that diner we went to today. Mandy and Jess don't believe me that that place has the best fries."

"Uh, yeah, they're really good." The mention of food was making him nauseous. "But, uh. It's almost three."

Jonathan sighed and shrugged. He looked over to the girls beside him. "I gotta head out," he said. "See you at school?"

The girls smiled and waved, and Jon and Jonathan went to take off in the boat. Jon realized he hadn't been keeping an eye on it; they were lucky no one had messed with it.

On the ride back, Jonathan chattered on about the night, about how cool it had been and how they should do it more often, now that they knew they could. Jon didn't respond to that. He was glad he'd scored the points with Jonathan, and it felt good to have so many people call them brothers. He knew that he'd pretty much gotten everything he'd wanted out of the evening, even if he hadn't made any headway with any of the girls. Even if his mind kept going back to that one girl who had kept staring at him like she knew him. Jonathan sounded so happy, and more than that, he seemed so happy with Jon.

It was an experience they shared. They hadn't spent a ton of it together, but that wasn't because Jonathan didn't try to include Jon; Jon had been the one who had wandered off. But they'd share this secret together. It was the kind of thing that made a friendship—or a brotherhood.

It was what Jon had wanted. He just wished there had been another way to get it.

They tied up the boat, walked back to the house, and made their way in through the side door as silently as they could. Jon caught a glimpse of the refrigerator as soon as they were inside, at the magnets holding up the grocery list. He remembered when he'd used the magnets to silence the alarms on his window. Now, Sam had trusted him enough to turn the alarms off. He felt even more nauseous.

Jonathan gave Jon a couple of pats on the arm and a wave, and he headed over to the couch and lay down.

Jon took a deep breath and crept back to his bedroom. The house was still silent. Sam was still asleep. They'd gotten away with it.

Jon wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.