Invincible

ninety-eight

SECOND OF A DOUBLE UPDATE - MAKE SURE U READ 97 FIRST!! :D

The next week, with Mum on a business trip and Cosmo away at the Green Man Festival with his group of equally idiotic friends, there came a day of sunshine and blue sky and Isaac said decisively,

    "Let's go outside."

     Jared was still half-asleep at the kitchen table, scrolling through twitter as he demolished Cosmo's 'secret' stash of Golden Nuggets.

    "Why?" he grumbled half-heartedly. Isaac stuffed his hand into the Golden Nuggets box and pulled out a handful for himself, munching cheerfully like some sort of annoyingly morning-loving chipmunk.

    "Cos the sun's out. We could go to the park."

     Jared put his phone down.

    "No way are we going to that park, Isaac. It's full of screaming kids and year 8s hanging round the public loos cos they think they're gangsters." He was going to stop there, but Isaac had his disappointed puppy face on so Jared added faux-reluctantly, "We could go find somewhere out of town to sit if you want. Like- I don't know. A field."

     Isaac laughed and nodded.

    "Sure thing. I'll drive."

     (As if they had any other options. Jared still hadn't retaken his driving test. Not because he liked getting lifts with Isaac and needed the excuse of not being able to drive. Shut up.)

     And so twenty minutes later Jared found himself sloping out into the drive, eyes squinting in the sunlight. When he got in the car Isaac was already searching round in the glove box, looking up with a delighted little smirk as he found what he was looking for and waved it in Jared's face. Jared groaned.

    "And just when I thought you couldn't get any more lame," he said, huffing out a laugh. Isaac just shrugged with an 'I-don't-care' beam (god was Jared glad to see that one back again), and answered,

    "This is the best 'Now' CD they've ever released, hands down."

    "Isaac, that's Now Sixty-fucking-Seven. Is that even from this century?"

    "2007 actually," Isaac told him smugly, slipping in the CD. He paused before asking, "You know where we're going, J?"

    "Nope. Let's just drive into the countryside and find some fucking grass to sit on."

    "Sounds idyllic," muttered Isaac sarcastically, small grin on his face like the obnoxious, adorable little shit he was. Jared wanted to kiss that smile right off his lips.

    "Yeah, yeah, whatever," he retorted hurriedly, and looked away to keep himself from leaning closer. Fuck Isaac and his fucking- magnetism. Isaac began to reverse out of the driveway.

    "Turn it to track 5," he said, and Jared almost did it just like that, without even snarking back, just because Isaac had fucking told him to. Shit, dude. You're so gone. Luckily he remembered at the last moment to ask dryly,

    "Any other orders, o lord and master?"

     Isaac just laughed, the sound an unexpected burst that made everything brighter (it still struck Jared almost giddy with relief, to be honest), and then suddenly-

    "Isaac Whatever-your-fucking-middle-name-is Hanly, is this Avril Lavigne?" demanded Jared as the song began. Isaac turned his face to him a second and grinned, yelling out the lyrics as he wound the windows down.

     "HEY HEY YOU YOU, I DON'T LIKE YOUR GIRLFRIEND!"

     And there was that helter-skelter-middle-of-summer-jumping-into-the-sea-off-a-rope-swing feeling again, that Isaac feeling, making Jared's stomach flip and his mouth twitch into a smile.

     "I swear-" he began, then trailed off into laughter as Isaac drum-rolled his hands across the steering wheel, singing-

     "Don't pretend, I think you know I'm damn precious" – another ridiculous beam, in Jared's direction, like he deserved it, like it was his - "AND HELL YEAH, I'M A MOTHERFUCKING PRINCESS!"

     "You're ridiculous," snorted Jared, to stop himself saying 'I fucking love you'. Isaac threw his middle finger up. "And you're so much more rude than you used to be, god. Remember that good boy angel we used to know? I've corrupted you, Hanly."

    "Hey," Isaac said, not sounding very bothered. "I'm still an angel."

    "Whatever helps you sleep at night," sing-songed Jared.

     A few minutes passed before Isaac spoke again.

    "It's Ciarán."

    "Hm?"

    "My middle name. It's Ciarán. After my grandad." He smiled. Jared added that to the mountain of Isaac-related-miscellany in his head.

    "I would tell you mine," he said, "but it's way too fucking embarrassing."

    "Fair enough," hummed Isaac, giving up suspiciously easily. His eyes crinkled in that way like he was trying not to smile, and Jared's mouth fell open.

    "You know already, don't you," he accused. Isaac shrugged.

    "Yep."

    "I- how?!"

    "I have my sources."

     Jared rolled his eyes.

    "Fucking Cosmo..."

    "It's not that bad," reasoned Isaac, still smiling, then added, "Maybe I should start calling you that instead of J."

    "Yeah, maybe," Jared agreed, voice dripping with sarcasm. "If you wanna actually die."

     Isaac laughed.

    "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Barnaby."