Far From Home - Chapter 27: Chapter 27

Mid-November
"Yo." Aaron's face smiled through the screen as soon as Jake answered.
"It's the middle of the day, you need something?" Jake tried to feign annoyance, but its impact fell short with the grin he wore on his face.
"Nah, just felt like seeing your ugly face."
Jake rolled his head back to look at the ceiling. "Fuck off."
The sound of a door closing behind Aaron let him know he had just gotten home.
"You'll never guess what just happened dude."
Jake looked back down to the phone, watching the lighting changing on the screen as Aaron walked through rooms Jake didn't recognize. He squinted to try to make out where the Kellers' house he was, but ultimately couldn't tell. Aaron pulled him room through room, paying little attention to the phone in his hands as he went about unwinding from work.
"Hunter quit." He mumbled while fishing something out of a drawer.
"What do you mean?"
"Kath called me on her lunch break talkin' somethin' about Hunter showin' up to work like the happiest man on the face of the fuckin' planet, and then he just... walked out."
Jake squinted as he looked out into his room. "The fuck?"
"He quit his own fuckin' company."
Hunter was heir to all his family's fortune, he made that painfully obvious every chance he got. It didn't make sense that he would throw away his security blanket over something so small. Why did he even quit? What was that final straw? What could have possibly been worth losing his position in line? Even though the twins were older than him, neither his older brother or sister wanted anything to do with the Anderson estate when they had families of their own. Hunter was the last one left to take over, and it was all but promised to him from the day he was born. Jake struggled to make sense of it. Hunter had always been impulsive, but never like that. His impulsivity meant spending daddy's money, not cutting himself off from it.
"What the hell is he supposed to do now?"
"Don't know man." Aaron grumbled. "You think he's on drugs?"
"Nah... he wouldn't. Right?"
Although it was an answer, even that wouldn't have made sense.
"Your guess is as good as mine."
"Did Kath talk to him?"
Aaron shook his head. "Didn't get a chance."
Jake's view changed as Aaron laid the phone down on a countertop he had never seen before. He could make out a kitchen behind Aaron as he sorted through the fridge—likely for a dinner before dinner—but the backsplash was outdated and far too white to be the Kellers' house. Jake had spent enough time in Katherine's to know their kitchen had red cabinets, not white. Where the fuck are you?
"Dude..." Jake looked for Aaron on the screen.
"What?" He called from somewhere out of sight
"Are you at the new place?"
When Aaron picked up the phone again with a slice of pizza in his mouth, he grinned and started walking out of the unknown kitchen.
"Maybe."
"Did you guys really move in?" Jake beamed, sitting up in his desk chair as he tried to make out more of the scenery behind Aaron.
"Maybe." He mumbled through another bite.
"You motherfucker. I would've helped."
"Nah, you was busy."
"You didn't know that."
"Eh." Aaron shrugged. "My mom eventually came around, they helped us."
"Did you paint the kitchen yet?" Jake smirked, knowing they settled on the color Connor suggested.
"No, but hey, feel free to do that when you come home for Thanksgiving next week. I'm not lookin' forward to it."
Jake cleared his throat awkwardly. Of course it was implied that he would come home for their time off next week, but he hadn't even thought twice about staying here in the room by himself instead. It would be nice to have some time to himself to make sure he had all of his work done, and then maybe—just maybe—binge watch some terrible cheesy romance show on Netflix, or spend some time with Connor if he elected to stay around too. To say he had been looking forward to Thanksgiving was a massive understatement. He didn't even care that he might not see any of his family or that he might starve because the dining hall closed. He would take that willingly as the cost of peace and quiet.
"I'm not coming home."
"For real?" Aaron's face scrunched up. "Kath wanted to have a 'friendsgiving' or some shit. I don't know, her and McKenna were talking about it the other night and I tried my best to tune them out before I thought it was a good idea."
Jake smiled. "Awe, look at you. Domestic bliss. You're already hosting holiday gatherings."
"Shut the hell up. You know she likes parties."
"Thanksgiving isn't a party, Aaron."
"Then you haven't been to the right one." Aaron nodded to him, but all Jake could do was shake his head.
"You're impossible." He mumbled. "Is Kath home?"
"Nah, she doesn't get off until five."
Jake nodded, content with knowing Aaron was home alone before he chose to talk about Connor. He rubbed his free hand over the back of his neck as he stared out over the top of the phone to where the sunlight shone in through the window onto his bed.
"Do you um–" He paused. "What's a good date idea?"
"For Connor?"
Jake rolled his eyes. "No, for Andre. Who the fuck do you think?"
"Damn, you into that threesome shit now?" Aaron taunted him.
"Goddamnit, Aaron. Focus."
"I'm just playin'. Me and Kath did this boujee ass paint night a couple weeks ago, does Connor like painting?"
"Where the hell did you do that?" Jake furrowed his brow.
"I don't know, it was like an hour away. She drove... says my driving scares her."
"Yeah, she's got a point."
"Go fuck yourself." Aaron grinned. "So, no paintings?"
"Nah. He's not the creative type."
"Keep it simple then. Dinner."
"Is that too simple?"
Jake didn't want to sound like he was overthinking it, but he definitely was. Suggesting a date to Connor wasn't the scary part, it was suggesting something that was too lackluster after they had spent so long not being able to go on real dates at all. Even their first 'first date' was a bit of a cop-out because Jake had never officially asked him and no one had ever officially seen them out together. Jake didn't want to fuck up the first chance he got to let Connor know he wasn't scared to be with him by... being scared to be with him.
"Is it?"
"I don't know, you're the romantic. You're supposed to tell me." Jake stared at Aaron through the screen as if it would make him any more real.
"'Romantic' is not a word I'd use to describe myself, but I think that was a compliment so I'm not gonna push it."
"So, dinner then?"
"Sure, why not?"
Jake wanted to laugh if it wouldn't have been such a lie. "Because I don't want to fuck it up."
"You're not gonna fuck it up, stop worryin' so much." Aaron sighed. "It's Connor, dude."
"The last date we had didn't turn out so well."
"That wasn't because it was a bad idea. That was just fuckin' Peterson and bad timing."
Yeah, okay. Whatever.
It still somehow marked the best and worst night of Jake's life all in one. He couldn't help but feel a twang of impending guilt like this one was going to turn out the same way if he didn't meticulously plan every detail out in advance. He didn't know this city like he knew the backroads back home. He didn't know escape routes and what to expect when he turned every corner. It made going into a date with a blind eye even more terrifying, but if he owed anything to Connor to allow him to trust that he was all-in this time, this was it.
"Okay." Jake mumbled. "Yeah, I guess."
"Great." Aaron grinned. "Don't you dare psych yourself out about this, it's gonna be fine."
"Fuck you."
"Seriously, you know it's gonna be fine, right?"
No.
"Yeah, sure." He agreed anyway.
"Good, because if you're not going out with Connor you have no excuse not to come paint my kitchen."
Jake rolled his head back with a smile. "You and Kath can do it together like one of those couples bonding activities."
Aaron pointed to him defensively. "You keep makin' fun of her for that, but the shit works."
"Mhm, okay."
"Maybe you and Connor should try it."
"Painting your kitchen together?"
"Yep."
"No." Jake shook his head. "You're on your own, buddy."
"Could've been my best date idea yet."
"How?" He grinned in ridicule.
"Well you know, there's a lot of different things you can paint... and no one said you had to ruin a good pair of clothes."
Jake wanted to cover his face in embarrassment when he realized where his mind wanted to go. Aaron had set him up for failure from the moment he suggested it, but it cast a grin over his face as he watched all the different shades of red that Jake turned through the screen.
"Fuck you." He was barely able to mutter as he took a deep breath.
"That was so worth it." Aaron choked down a laugh.
"You're not funny."
"Didn't say I was. It's a good idea though... might have to take it up myself."
Jake cringed thinking about what that implied. "Ugh, fuck off."
"You still get so flustered over this shit." Aaron shook his head. "I remember when Hunter used to tease you like a virgin and you would get so defensive over the littlest thing..."
"I am."
"Shit, wait... really?!"
"Can I ever catch a break with you?" Jake grumbled, running a hand back through his hair to see if it would make his face feel a little less flushed.
"Dude, I swore you–"
"I lied."
"Fucking hell." His best friend grinned. "Look at you. So precious."
"Shut the fuck up."
"I need to text Connor now, thank you for that." Aaron saluted his fingers off his temple like he was saying goodbye, but Jake knew it was just a trick to get a reaction from him.
"You don't have his number."
He raised his eyebrows playfully. "Kath does."
"Bullshit."
"You want me to call her right now and ask?"
"Don't." Jake rolled his eyes.
"I'm just fuckin' with ya."
"I know."
Aaron shifted on the other end of the line like he was becoming a tad more serious, and Jake should have known what was coming, but it took him completely off guard regardless.
"How does that work though? Can you lose your virginity to a dude?"
Jesus Christ–
"Goddamnit, Aaron. I know you did not just ask me that..."
Jake secretly filed this interaction away under the 'top ten worst things Aaron's ever said' compartment of his mind.
"What?!"
"Use your fucking imagination."
"I'd rather not." Aaron grimaced.
"Then google it, I don't give a fuck." Jake grumbled through a level of embarrassment he couldn't even place.
"You know how weird that would be if Kath saw my search history?"
"I am not explaining this to you."
"How do you even decide?"
"Decide what?" Jake squinted, but then he watched Aaron's face start to fill in an answer and immediately regretted asking. "Nevermind, don't answer that."
"One of you has to be the girl, right?" Aaron continued anyway.
"Neither of us are girls, that's the fucking point."
"Do you think it would be Connor?"
"I'm hanging up on you now." Jake sighed, his finger hovering over the end call button.
"You wouldn't–"
He did.
A couple seconds later the name 'Keller' appeared on his screen again, and for the first time in his life, Jake declined it. He felt bad because Aaron wasn't asking to be an asshole, but at the same time Jake couldn't handle talking about something he hadn't quite figured out himself. Of course, he knew how sex worked. Despite a very unhelpful sex-ed program in high school that revolved mostly around abstinence pledges, he wasn't completely in the dark with the help of the Internet when his mind wandered too far into the gutter asking logistical questions he was embarrassed to even be thinking of. It still left him with an odd sense of guilt any time he entered a question into the search bar, and an even bigger sense of guilt any time he thought about himself having those same feelings.
Hunter and Aaron never had to think about it. They could talk freely between each other about things that Jake could understand, but never fathom for himself. There was never anyone like that for him. There was no one to tell him that he shouldn't feel bad about asking questions, or shouldn't feel guilty for wanting something different than everyone around him. There was no one sharing stories and advice with him so he wouldn't feel so alone—if only he had the ability to listen without shame. There was no one to ask him why he stayed up all night staring at the ceiling the first and only time he had ever touched himself wondering if there was something wrong with himself because he felt like vomiting knowing he could do that to his own body. He couldn't tell anyone that, and he couldn't bear for anyone to listen.
Aaron wouldn't get it. He might understand Jake better than he understood himself, but he wouldn't understand this. It was a fine line drawn between the things they did and didn't talk about, and Jake left it where it was for a reason. A part of him thought that Aaron didn't know that the line existed, but the texts that appeared on his screen moments after he declined the call proved that part wrong.
Sorry
Shouldn't have asked