Starstruck (the Idea of Always)

Woensday 00:27

JENS
Jens had purposefully taken the long way to the park from the party, so he could spend more time with Lucas, and that feeling Lucas gave him. That zipping, electric feeling, like he could ride off into the night, into space, with nothing holding him back.

He had taken the long way to the park, but the quickest way he knew back to the apartment building. Lucas didn't need to know that.

Jens slowed the bike to a stop and after he and Lucas got off, he chained the bike up and led Lucas through the sliding doors, passing the elevator and heading up the stairs.

"You don't take the elevator?" he heard Lucas say behind him.

"Unless I'm carrying a lot of stuff."

"Hm."

Jens went to unlock his door, Lucas coming out of the stairwell, watching him.

"Your mom's not home?"

Jens shook his head absentmindedly, wiggling the key around in the lock like he always had to, and said, "No, she's with some friends."

"Your sister?"

"Same."

The door finally unlocked and Jens swung it open, moving to the side and making a dramatic gesture for Lucas to enter before him. Lucas curtseyed, squeezing past Jens into the apartment, looking around. Jens smiled to himself, going in after him.

"You wanna smoke?" Jens asked, shutting the door behind him. Lucas looked away from the photos he was looking at in the wall, away from baby Jens, and said, "Of course." Jens looked from the photo of himself on the wall to Lucas, grimacing, embarrassed, before turning to head down the hall.

"Cutie," he heard Lucas say behind him, and he turned back to make a face at him.

Jens pushed his door open, quickly kicking some clothes on the floor out of the way before Lucas entered, and then walked over to his desk, sliding open the drawer and pulling out weed, a grinder, and some rolling papers.

Lucas watched him, and then did a turn, looking around his room, at all the posters Jens never looked at anymore, at the small pile of clothes next to his closet. He saw the little bear he had given Jens for Christmas on top of his dresser, and couldn't help but smile at how carefully the bear was placed, sitting against a picture frame (a picture of Jens and a girl that Lucas assumed was his sister).

"Lots of women in this room," Lucas said, looking at a poster of a woman he recognized from Pulp Fiction. He looked at Jens, who had sat at his desk, pulling out a rolling paper and filling it with weed. Jens glanced up at him and then over at the poster.

"Yeah, I should get a guy in here somewhere, right?" he asked as he twisted the paper back and forth, weed falling out of the paper onto his desk.

"Hm."

Jens looked up at Lucas, who sat on his bed, with a snarky smile.

"Young Leonardo di Caprio, maybe?"

Lucas looked at him, saying "Definitely," and then watched as Jens licked the edge of the paper. Jens glanced at him as he did it, the corners of his mouth moving up into a small smile. Lucas looked away.

Jens got up, putting the filter end of the joint in his mouth, holding a yellow lighter, and moved toward his bed.

"Maybe I should just take all these down and put up a poster of you."

"What picture?"
     "That one on your Instagram, with your eyes closed. Smiling." Jens lifted his hands and lit the joint, looking down at it and then back up, inhaling. Lucas closed his eyes and gave him a bright smile, imitating the post he was referring to.