Far From Home - Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Late August
"Hey, Dobovic!" Jake called out as he spotted a familiar set of brown braids a couple meters in front of him.
He had seen her yesterday in class, noticing immediately how anyone who talked to her referred to her by her last name instead of her first. It seemed like everywhere they went, people knew her. They waved to her in the hallway, they nudged her in class, she called out 'Hi, how are you?' to every 'Dobovic!' that was sent their way as they walked from their statistics lecture to the library nearby to chill between his two Monday classes.
Today was Tuesday. The four o'clock labs were ending in the science building and Jake was filing out of Environmental Science as he caught sight of her walking out of the room across from him. Her attention piqued towards him for a moment before he was able to catch up. There was something unfamiliar written on her face, something darker than he was used to seeing—a furrowed brow that didn't ease as his shoulder accidentally nudged hers while they walked.
"Hey." He smiled, feeling more optimistic than usual.
"Sorry, do I know you?" Nat scanned his face for a sign.
Jake's stomach sank. What?
"Jake... we're in stats together."
His words were slow, but his heartbeat was fast. How does she not remember me? He thought he had made a friend—his first one. She had spoken to him on the first day of class, and then again on the second. They went to the library together—her sipping a peach tea from the university Starbucks as Jake flipped around his notes awkwardly looking to start the homework. Jake swore that must've been an invitation for friendship, but maybe college friendships didn't work the way he thought they did. Maybe it was a misunderstanding and he was just one more person that she would pass by in the hallway.
Her lips twitched in a smile, not the genuine one that filled her eyes with light, but something more delinquent that settled her borderline curiosity.
"I'm just fucking with ya." She sighed, but it didn't seem complete.
Jake awkwardly readjusted the strap of his backpack that had twisted underneath his shoulder from throwing it on too fast in hopes to catch up with her through the doorway. Nat didn't exactly seem to be interested in being conversational like she was yesterday. The bags under her eyes mimicked the ones Jake had when he first met her and her lips curled into a flat frown that she carried around with as little enthusiasm as possible. She seemed to shrink away inside instead of boasting all that outgoing kindness Jake was used to. If Jake didn't know any better, he might have mistaken this new personality for a completely different person.
"What class are you getting out of?" He spoke up to break the silence.
"Hm?" She turned towards him, but then with that pause, seemed to comprehend what he had said. "Oh, uh, Biology."
Shouldn't you have taken that your first year?
"Environmental Science." Jake offered out although she didn't ask.
"Took that for shits and giggles sophomore year. The corn field lab sucks ass by the way."
"Good to know. This week was rock formations."
She took in a sharp inhale. "Yikes."
Her eyes were fixed on the hallway in front of them expectantly. Jake didn't know what she was looking for, but he couldn't help but notice the way she gazed over everyone with disinterest—watching with a speculative glare instead of a warm, welcoming embrace of anyone who reached out to talk to her. It was strange, but not as much as the slight inconsistency that Jake picked up on her jacket. The warm-up looked identical to the one she had been wearing to class the past week, but the hockey sticks on this jacket had been replaced by two lacrosse racquets. Jake did a double-take, making sure the name 'Dobovic' printed underneath didn't change to something else when he blinked.
"I thought you played hockey?" He let his curiosity get the best of him.
He didn't know much about any sports other than football, and had never seen a game of either hockey or lacrosse, but he knew they didn't use the same instruments of play. His memory might have been hazy somedays, but he knew he wasn't delusional. Nat's jacket had been for hockey. This jacket undoubtedly was not.
She looked at him with her brows knitted together and then followed his gaze down to the logo on her chest. "Oh, uh... yeah, I do both."
"Hm, I didn't know you could do that. That's awesome." Jake nodded a smile over to her.
"It is what it is."
She shrugged, but Jake could see a bit of a smile on her lips. How the hell she had time to be a full-time student and play two collegiate-level sports, he didn't know. He could barely keep up with football and academics in high school, let alone higher education and competitive team rankings. Damn, this girl must have a tight schedule. It made him admire her and pity her all the same.
Jake watched the hallway in front of them crowd as the last door on the left opened up to let more students out. Half of them were in scrubs, the other half in a variation of work-out attire and whatever they rolled out of bed in this morning. Beside him, Nat's smile turned back into something interesting—a complex grin that startled Jake as he tried to land eyes on what caught her attention. Down the hall, stopped outside of the door was a girl that looked just like her, lips turned in a pissed-off frown as she looked between the two of them.
"Seriously, Kris?" She tossed her hands up in complaint as they neared. "Are those my shorts?"
"Yes." The girl beside Jake beamed. "They're quite comfortable. Thank you."
Kris. Jake turned his head to look at her.
Nat. His eyes landed on his friend out in front of him.
"Ohhhhh..." He didn't know he had made the revelation out loud, but Kris broke into a laugh when the sigh left his mouth.
Twins.
"Did she twin-swap you?" Nat looked at Jake with genuine concern, and then back to her sister with a scowl. "That's fucking annoying, Kristiana. Is this first grade still?"
It should have been obvious. Jake was honestly a little upset with himself that he didn't figure it out. All he would have had to do was look down—Kris' hands were bare, the engagement ring on her left ring finger void from where it should have sparkled.
Kris smiled, a little fire igniting in her eyes from her sister's disdain. "Thank you for indulging me, Jake. I enjoyed that. To be fair, you absolutely walked yourself into that one."
But she surprisingly offered out a hand to him, the same way her sister had days before.
"Kristiana Dobovic. Starter on the women's lacrosse team, and adamant hater of anything that has to do with hockey."
Jake took her hand with a single firm shake—nothing gentle and kind like Nat's. He almost liked it. She was brash, but something about her reminded him of home. Her enthusiasm was contingent on her entertainment, it bordered something closer to pessimistic contentment and Jake decided he could relate to that.
"Jake Holmes. I'm just a freshman, no sports or anything."
"Never just a freshman, Jake." Kris snaked her arm into his with no warning. "My new bestie is a freshman. I guess that makes two of us, huh Nat?"
"Your definition of 'bestie' looks a lot like 'victim,' Kris."
"Nonsense." She waved her free hand out at her sister. "You're just mad I pick the interesting ones."
"I'm so sorry about her." Nat gave Jake a warm, but pitiful smile. "She's a tad condescending."
Kris scoffed. "I'm not condescending. You're just soft."
"No, you are a bit condescending." Jake shrugged, not realizing the words had left his mouth before Kris' jaw dropped to acknowledge his comment.
A fiery smile spread across Nat's face as she looked to her sister with a righteous glare. She loved that Jake had just proved her right. He could tell what kind of relationship the two of them had from his interpretation of this interaction alone. Nat had to be the older of the two, even if only by minutes. She carried herself with honor and respect, talking to everyone she met on an equal level and treating every single person she met with kindness until she evaluated them not to deserve it anymore. Kris had to be the exact opposite. She liked problems because they were interesting. Her will to live up to her twin's status was secondary to her own self-indulgement of less conventional things like watching fires burn and knowing she was the only one who could put them out. Jake had only known them together for a few short minutes and he could already tell who played judge, jury, and executioner.
"He has a voice," Kris squeezed his arm in a friendly way, not intimidating like Jake might have initially thought. "I think I like you."
"Thank you?" Jake found himself smiling in return.
Nat sighed beside them like she knew what was coming even if Jake couldn't see it. Kris' approval must've been dangerous, like passing some secret test he hadn't even prepared for. It didn't bother Jake at all, in fact his smile stayed plastered on his face as he watched Nat shake her head in pacified disapproval.
"Did you bring the car like I asked?"
Kris' smile dropped at her sister's question. "Yeah, but only if you're back by nine."
"It's our car, Kristiana."
"The keys are on my lanyard, Natalia."
Natalia. Interesting.
"Okay, bitch, and you stole my clothes. Give me the damn keys." She shook her hand out like it was an obvious comeback.
"So bossy." Kris squinted as she let go of Jake's arm to pull the lanyard off of her neck in one swift move.
The multitude of keys attached jangled together as she offered the green patterned print out to her sister. Nat took it from her with a single sarcastic smile and pushed her own set of keys into her hand instead. A trade. One set of keys for another.
"I'm going to the store, you wanna come?" Nat dangled the new lanyard in her fingers as she motioned out to Jake.
"Uh, no..." Jake rushed to figure out his entire night in the course of a few seconds. "No, I've gotta get some work done."
"I'll see you later, okay?"
It wasn't a question, it was a promise. She really was Jake's friend. She wanted to see him later. A silent cheer rang through his mind as he nodded his head with the smallest smile his lips would allow.
"Yeah." His nodding stopped. "Yeah, see ya."
He and Kris picked up walking the rest of the hallway once Nat was out of sight. She hadn't taken his arm back up with her own, but she didn't seem as distant and pissed as she had before. Aside from the ring and the way they carried themselves, the two girls looked absolutely indistinguishable from each other. Jake knew he was going to have a hard time if Kris somehow got miraculously engaged in the next two weeks. He scoured Kris' face subtly for a sign she wasn't the spitting image of her sister, but came back with nothing. No scars, no moles, no piercings or tattoos—just Kristiana Dobovic, an exact replica of Jake's first friend.
He raised the count in his head to two. Two friends. Two people who had somehow determined he was worth their time only two weeks into the semester. Aaron once teased him about how he could befriend the whole school, but Jake never believed him. He wasn't much worth noticing to the average person. He only made acquaintances in high school because they worshiped the ground he walked on. These were two genuine people who didn't know him from Adam deciding he was more than just senior football star, boy next door, Jake Lee Holmes.
He was a new person now, and as much as it terrified him, it excited him all the same. Maybe this Jake could be something. Maybe this Jake wouldn't run and hide from the things that went bump in the night. Maybe this Jake would be unapologetic and stand for the things that actually mattered. Maybe this Jake wouldn't be scared to find himself—even if it meant having something to lose. Right now he had nothing. This Jake was determined to find something worth keeping. Something worth fighting for. Something worth the pain and anger and fear that fed his adrenaline until it made him sick.
Jake Holmes was done being a traitor to himself. The new Jake would put up a fight. He would keep his chin held high and his fists held higher. He was done playing defense. He was leaving that part of himself on the football field back home that he would never step foot on again. This was playing offense—proactive calculations that kept his mind sharp and his heart protected. This was putting up a barbed-wire fence instead of the brick wall that was way too easy to climb over or demolish with the sledgehammer his father took to it once he saw the cracks. This wasn't just survival anymore. This was evolution, adaptation, to survive and thrive.
This Jake was done being the actor.
It was finally time to be the character.