"I need space." Those were the words Jacky said to Ryan the night before they both left for separate colleges. Now, each of them will try to learn who they are without the other. Will their paths lead them back together?
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Jacky
In the end, Jacky couldn't make himself tell Cody to leave. He sidled up to her in the laundry room while Cody was showering. "Mom, do you mind if Cody stays here tonight?"
Her shoulders drooped slightly, and he hated that he was even asking. She missed him and wanted to spend time with him; he had a feeling she'd picked out a rom-com for them to watch and had bought him a pint of Chunky Monkey (his favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor) and had a bag of kettle corn ready to pop. She'd already seemed less than thrilled that Cody was joining them for dinner. Cody had eaten tons of the spinach lasagna that was Jacky's favorite. Jacky had been hoping to take leftovers back to the dorm, and he feared that his mom noticed how little he'd eaten – he was still full from the pizza. Instead of talking about college life, Mrs. Jennings had asked the usual questions: What are you doing now? Are you still living at home? Working?
But Mrs. Jennings took a deep breath and looked at him. "He isn't staying with his dad, is he?" she asked.
That had been what Cody told her, a flat out lie. Cody's dad lived in Michigan.
"I think he's living in his car."
Mrs. Jennings took another breath, then nodded. "Okay." Then she pointed a finger not so seriously at Jacky. "But he's going to have to sit through The Proposal. And if he doesn't like Cherry Garcia, too bad."
Cherry Garcia was Ryan's favorite flavor. Jacky forced a smile. "I'm sure he'll eat anything. His body is a garbage can."
And then Cody slept over, snoring so loudly in the guest bedroom that Jacky's mother closed that door and the door to her own room.
Saturday was spent helping his mom fold his newly washed clothes, and then they went for a short hike on a local trail. Cody was still sleeping, so Jacky left him a note. "I joined a hiking group on Facebook," his mother said as they crunched through brightly colored leaves.
"I didn't realize you liked hiking." Jacky had noticed his mother's new hiking boots and her cargo pants and backpack.
"It was lonely when you went off to school, and one of my coworkers suggested it. She's in the group, too. We do a lot of hikes together. You'll be proud; your old mother has hiked two four-thousand-footers."
"Wow," Jacky said, then quickly added, "And you're not old."
The time outside and the space between their conversation gave Jacky time to clear his head of the college nonsense. He realized he was truly looking forward to the party tonight. He wanted that old familiarity, with friends who knew him and cared about him, that he could trust. And he wanted to see Ryan. He wanted to know if he'd made a huge mistake breaking up with him.
When it came time to get ready for the party, Jacky carefully selected a concert t-shirt he'd gotten from a thrift shop near campus – it was a Led Zeppelin shirt, probably not truly vintage, but the important part was that it was a faded pink, not black. He added his leather jacket and put some gel in his hair.
