friends | jorbyn ✓

three

WHEN JONAH GOT his report card, he burst into tears.
"what's wrong?" corbyn asked.
jonah shoved the paper in corbyn's face, wiping his face.
next to science sat his first B ever.
corbyn's jaw dropped a little, eyes scanning the paper for some form of an accident.
in all ten years of jonah's life, he'd gotten nothing less than an A on his report cards.
"in science?"
jonah scowled.
"science is hard, corbyn," he said, snatching his paper back.
"no it's not!"
"shut up. maybe for you it's easy but not for me."
corbyn frowned at jonah's usage of words.
he stopped talking, as per jonah's request.
"i'm sorry," jonah mumbled.
"it's ok. sorry you got a B."
"my dad is gonna be so mad."
jonah dreaded going home, fearing the consequences of his 87 in science.
on the way to his father's car he dragged his feet against the ground, upset.
"bye, corby."
"bye, jo bear."
jonah climbed into the backseat his father's suv, clutching his report card in his trembling hands.
"i heard report cards came today?"
"mhm."
"buckle up, jo. so what'd you get?"
jonah snapped the seatbelt across his body, eyes glued to his lap.
"jo?"
"oh. here."
he handed over the now crumpled paper as his dad pulled out of the car rider lot.
at a red light, timothy looked down at the paper.
"good job, buddy!"
in jonah's mind, he'd heard: 'a B?! how?!'
as his father's actual words processed, a nervous laugh escaped his lips.
"the– the quiz was hard."
"what d'you mean?" his father glanced at him in the rear view, frowning a bit.
"the 87 in science. it's only 'cause the test was hard."
"what? the 87 is fine, you still have higher than a d, jo."
"wait– why aren't you mad?"
"because it's just a b."
jonah's eyebrows knitted in confusion as his father put the car in park.
they got out of the car and timothy sighed heavily before speaking.
"good job again, bud."
he opened the door and stepped in, parting ways with jonah.
jonah headed to his bedroom, nearly tripping on the mess on the stairs.
he climbed into his bed, where he attempted to finish one of his books before his parents started arguing again.
he neared the last few pages of the book.
but, he was pulled back to the real world as the familiar sound of his parents' casual evening argument started up again.
"i'm not the one keeping secrets," his mother hissed from their bedroom across the hallway.
jonah didn't care to hear the rest, just slipped out of bed and forced his feet into his shoes.
he tore down the stairs, jogging out of the back door.
he quietly closed it behind him, looking back at the house before running towards the stream separating his and corbyn's neighborhoods.
he didn't care that his shoes were getting wet and he'd probably get a cold.
he climbed the tree in corbyn's backyard, grabbing the flashlight corbyn kept in the treehouse.
he turned it on, shining it at his best friend's window, praying he was still up.
the curtain in corbyn's window swished, and he flicked the flashlight off. waiting patiently for corbyn, he traced the cracks in the wood.
corbyn climbed up a few moments later, planting himself right next to jonah.
instead of saying anything, he let jonah be sad and worried.
it might've seemed nice in the moment but if he was being honest, corbyn was terrified. he spent more time at the roth frantzich household than his own. he hated when they argued.
"what if they break up?" jonah whimpered, breaking the silence.
"they won't," corbyn said back, voice wavering a bit.
he wrapped his arms around jonah and sat in the deafeningly stressful silence, trying to be as good a best friend as he possibly could.
exactly twenty eight days after jonah successfully finished his book, his parents sat him down.
"your mother and i are getting a divorce," his father said bluntly.
that's all jonah needed to hear. he tuned out the rest, staring down at his laced fingers.
"are you okay, jo?"
he nodded, standing up from the sofa.
"can i– can i go to corbyn's?"
"yeah, that's fine."
"okay."
jonah frowned the full two minutes to corbyn's treehouse, where he grabbed the flashlight as he had so many times over the past few months.
when corbyn climbed up, he was frowning a bit.
"my mom made cookies. they're still hot, so they're inside."
jonah twisted the bracelet he'd had for years, then placed his fingers gingerly on corbyn's matching one.
"they're getting divorced,"
he slipped his hand fully around corbyn's wrist.
"they don't love each other anymore, corbyn."
corbyn frowned. those were words he'd never wanted to hear.
"i– i'm sorry, jobear."
when jonah released his wrist, he let jonah fall into his arms.
"on the bright side," he started. "you'll have two christmases."
jonah nodded into his shoulder.
"yeah, i guess. but they still hate each other."
"no, they just fell out of love, like some people stop being friends? like that."
jonah frowned deeper, squeezing corbyn tighter.
"i don't wanna stop being friends with you, corbyn."
"we won't stop being friends."
"promise?"
"pinky."
jonah sighed again, going slightly limp in corbyn's arms.
"can i sleepover tonight?"
"yeah."

—

i got my report card today, i got all a's 💅🏼.