Home is a Four Letter Word

chapter twenty-six

Early May

The sun was going down at a cinematically perfect time.

They were in the lot of an abandoned Dollar General in the middle of God-knows-where about twenty minutes from the drive-in they started at. Jake had a general sense of direction about how to get home, but absolutely no idea where the hell they actually were in this town. Weeds were growing in through the cracks in the pavement, and Jake had to admit that just the sight of the building behind them made him park as far away from it as possible. He was quite creeped out by the dark windows that held endless nothingness behind them. Come dark, he would absolutely turn into a paranoid baby, so he was already turning over excuses to leave in his head before the sun completely set.

As the sun went down it began to get colder—but Jake knew it would, which was why he came prepared for the movies. Connor was sitting on the tailgate of the truck they had put down so they could eat in the back, still eating what were now cold fries from McDonald's—the only place they could find on the way out of town. On his phone next to him, Lorde's 'Royals' was playing on low volume—a playlist filled with songs from their middle school years that Connor put on shuffle just as he had promised. Jake reached behind him and slid the black duffel bag to the tail gate so he could pull out a blanket.

"Ah..." Connor put a hand over his mouth while he chewed. "Is that to hide my body in?"

Jake smiled as he pulled out a Fourth of July themed quilt his grandmother made him years before she passed.

"Yep. How'd you know?"

"Had a feeling." He shrugged, setting his red fry box down back into the paper bag beside him. "You know what?"

"What?"

"This would be the perfect spot to kill me."

Jake wrapped the blanket around his shoulders like a child and then looked back up to Connor with a flare in his eyes.

"Stop, you're spoiling my plans!"

"Oh, sorry! Was it supposed to be a surprise?"

"Well not anymore."

Jake couldn't stop his uncontrollable smile as Connor rolled his head like he was disappointed in himself for ruining the night.

God, you're adorable.

"There's a sweatshirt and another blanket in there if you want something." Jake gestured to the bag, his hand holding on to the corner of his blanket as he did so. "Wouldn't want you to freeze to death."

"Right," Connor reached into the bag. "Because what fun would that be?"

He dug out Jake's football sweatshirt from last year and gestured it up to him. "You want this?"

No, I hoped that you would.

The one thing Jake always wanted in high school was for someone to walk around wearing his sweatshirt on game day. He wanted someone to be proud to be with him, and to cheer him on the field, and to wait on the sidelines for a kiss after the game was over. But now high school was over... there was no time for that now. He had missed his opportunity. Never took the chance.

"No, go ahead."

Connor pulled it over the basic black tee shirt he had been wearing earlier at graduation practice, his hair falling in different angles around his face as the hood stayed on top of his head. Jake swayed awkwardly in his blanket to make sure it didn't sweep the ground as 'Royals' ended. The sleeves of Jake's hoodie fell over Connor's knuckles as he held on to the end of tailgate while 'Shake It Off' started playing from his phone.