His Game

Chapter 24: Jack

Elsa turns and smiles at me, though I can see a certain sadness in her eyes. I can understand why. She has just been disowned by her father, and probably won't be seeing her family again for a long time.

Today has been crazy.

"You okay?" I ask. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. It hurts a bit but I'll be okay." Else says. "I get to be in control of my life now, and, anyways, I have you now."

My face heats up a bit, my cheeks flushing pink. Hiccup laughs from the front seat.

"Sh*it, is that the first time you've ever blushed, Jack? Quick, someone take a picture!"

"Shut up." I roll my eyes.

Elsa clears her throat slightly. "Where are we going? I've just realized that now Jack and I've got nowhere to go."

"Don't worry, girlfriend. Hiccup and I have talked about it and we were thinking that you guys can stay in his apartment." Astrid, says, grinning. "There's an extra room for you guys."

"Sounds good." I say. "Elsa?"

She nods, beaming at me. While I'm sad that she is cut off from her family at the moment, I'm happy for her that she finally gets to be herself. She's got some new friends, clothes, mindset, and a place to live. I can already tell that Elsa's starting to open up to herself more and take chances that she never would have dreamed of before.

And she also has a boyfriend.

I can't help but grin at the thought. I've had girlfriends before, sure, but for some reason, Elsa seems so much more special, which is funny considering we used to hate each other. Not anymore, though.

"I love you," I whisper. "a lot. I hope you know that."

Elsa nods and leans her head against my shoulder. "I know. And I'm glad. It's going to make being away from Anna much easier."

"Ugh, you guys are too sappy. Try to take it down a notch." Hiccup snickers.

"Whatever." Astrid says, "I think they're cute."

Elsa giggles and I slip an arm around her shoulders. I haven't felt this happy for a long time. Will this feeling stay? Something inside tells me yes, as long as Elsa stays, too. She's the cause of this happiness, after all. 

I'm jolted out of my thoughts as Hiccup goes flying around a corner. He's speeding and he knows it.

"Calm yourself, man!" I exclaim, gripping the arm of my seat. "Are you trying to kill us?"

"Relax, Jack, look, we're here." Hiccup says.

"You know I hate it when you speed." I grumble.

The van comes to a stop in front of a small apartment complex. I'm familiar with it; I've come here before and stayed a couple nights when I was hungover or just needed to get away from my mom. It's a tight, brown brick building. Hiccup lives on the second floor.

"This is it?" Elsa asks.

"Yep, home sweet apartment complex." Hiccup grins.

"Let's go." I say.

Elsa and I get out of the car and she laces our fingers together. I love holding her hands, they're soft and cool to the touch.

We walk into the building. It's relatively clean and nice looking, if you can get past the smell of sour milk. The elevator is old creaky. At least it doesn't smell, though.

"How long are we going to be here?" Elsa asks.

"Not too long. Just until we figure something out." I answer.

"Can it, Jack. You guys can stay as long as you need." Hiccup says. "I hate living alone, anyways."

"No way." Elsa and I say at the same time. I hate accepting too much charity like this, and apparently, so does Elsa. I'm glad that we both agree on only staying as long as we need. Hiccup rolls his eyes.

"You can keep telling yourself that, but- " the elevator makes a dingy noise and the doors open. He gives us a sideways glance. "We'll finish this conversation later."

I shrug and follow him down the hallway, still hand in hand with Elsa. Hiccup stops at a door with the number 27 on it, pulls out his keys, and opens it. We step inside his apartment.

"Your room is right there. That one's mine. The TV works and you guys are open to anything in the fridge, but just warning you, the only thing in there is a super old rotisserie chicken from Safeway." Hiccup says. "Astrid's waiting in the car and I have to take her home. Be back in a sec."

"Alright," I say. He leaves and then Elsa turns to face me.

"So, this is actually pretty nice." She says. "The outside had me fooled, but it isn't so bad."

"I know it's not what you're used to, but it won't be- "

"I like it just fine, Jack. It's a better home than the last one was. And don't act like I should be all shocked; we were both raised in wealthy homes!" Elsa elbows me playfully.

I shrug. "I suppose. Let's go check out our room." Well, I already know what it looks like because I've been here before, but Elsa doesn't, so we walk over to the door.

Elsa pushes against the door, which swings open on squeaky hinges. The inside of the room is revealed.

Thr carpet is dirty, there's a broken foosball table in the corner, and a twin bed against the wall. A tiny dresser is under the window and a tight closet is set in on the far side of the room.

All the times I had been here before, none of these qualities seemed to be so bad. But now that Elsa iss seeing it all, everything iss jolted into a more realistic perspective.

"It's not awful." I say, awkwardly scratching the back of my neck and feeling embarrassed. I hope she isn't mad that I pulled her out of her home only to dump her into this place.

"It's fantastic!" Elsa smiles, then shyly holds up her box of clothes. "Where should I put these?"

"In the closet, I guess. I'll help you hang it all up." I say, taking the box from her.

We spend around thirty minutes taking everything from the box and hanging it all in the closet. The clothes are pretty cool. There's even a few bands on the shirts that I recognize: The Dead Weather, Blink-182, Three Days Grace, Falling In Reverse, Pierce The Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, and so on.

As Elsa folds a pair of ripped skinny jeans, she yawns widely. My face turns pink because it's kind of cute to see her like that, all adorable and beautiful and sleepy.

Okay, cool it with the mushy stuff, Jack.

But still. My girlfriend's cute when she's tired.

"You wanna go to bed?" I ask her. "You can go to sleep and I'll wait for Hiccup to get back."

"I was hoping you would stay and cuddle with me." Elsa blushes.

I grin. We both get into the bed and slide under the covers. Elsa snuggles up against me, burying her face in my chest, and I put my arm around her. Somehow we manage to fit in the twin bed, and with our clothes still on, we both drift off to sleep.

Today has been a crazy day.