Home is a Four Letter Word

chapter twenty-two

Early May

"Jakey, you coming to my grad party, right?" Hunter reached over Aaron to tap him on the shoulder while they walked down the school's main hallway.

"What?"

Jake glanced over to his friends—lost in thought about what kind of speech he was going to write if he ended up getting valedictorian. He anticipated the need to dumb himself down to surface level jokes and references just so the collective crowd might be able to think he was actually raised in this town and not in a private academy downtown, but a part of him wanted to show off how truly poetic he could be.

"It's the day after ours." Aaron shrugged. "Actually, I don't know why you don't just join ours, Hunter..."

"My mom said I gotta have one with my cousin."

The way Hunter shrugged said it all. He's definitely had this conversation before.

"Well, I mean. Yeah, I'll probably go." Jake eventually answered. "What time is it?"

"Noon."

Hunter seemed even more enthused about this aspect than the party itself.

"Oh, boy. I don't know about that one." Aaron laughed. "Me and Jakey prolly still be hungover in the backyard at that point."

"Please." Hunter scoffed. "I'll still be hungover. You just gotta fake it so my aunt from up north doesn't think we're unsophisticated."

He changed his voice with the word, looking as prissy as he could manage while containing his fragile masculinity. Even though he wanted to roll his eyes, Jake got a smile out of it as he looked over to Hunter.

"'Up north?' We talking Canada or Michigan?"

"Michigan." He whispered like it was a curse word.

Aaron laughed loudly while Jake fought down the urge to cover up his best friend's face with his hands and tell him to shut the fuck up, but instead he found himself smiling along with him as Aaron shoved Hunter's shoulder.

"We're literally graduating next weekend, can y'all believe that?" Aaron said nostalgically as they all returned to normal.

"No, absolutely not." Jake's face blanked. "I never thought you would've made it this far."

"Shut the hell up, man. I ain't that dumb."

Jake anticipated a smack to the back of the head that never came.

"Please." Hunter scoffed again. "Yesterday you asked me how they got the bones outta boneless wings."

"And you didn't even have an answer!" Aaron looked to Jake like he had been waiting for Hunter to bring it up so he could prove a point. "You completely avoided the question."

"'Cause it's a dumb one."

"Well then, what's the answer?"

Hunter's face was void of any emotion.

"See? He don't even know!"

Aaron looked way too enthused over this. Jake physically felt his eyes roll as he stared out at the line forming to pick up graduation gowns at the front of the cafeteria just to avoid the idiots next to him.

"You're stupid." Hunter repeated, not willing to settle an argument without the last word.

"You don't know!" Aaron pointed over to him.

"Aaron..." Jake sighed. "It's not an actual chicken wing. It's a glorified chicken nugget. It's chicken breast you dumbass."

"It's not a chicken nugget, though." He pointed over to Jake like he was on to something. "Chicken nuggets are like ground up or somethin'."