When Lines Blur

Chapter Twenty-One

Salem left Maddox's house, and walked far enough away that no one could see him from the windows of the house, Jaxson following after a few moments. It was only then that Salem noticed the small backpack Jaxson had with him. Salem wasn't sure if Jaxson had always had it or if Jaxson just suddenly was carrying it around. He didn't get a chance to ask, as Jaxson didn't stop he walked past Salem and just continued walking. Salem knew he should follow, and did so.

It wasn't hard to tell that Jaxson was deep in thought, but Jaxson also didn't start any conversation. Instead he just led Salem off. Once they were further from the house, Jaxson finally spoke. "You'd be easy to kidnap Salem."

"Oh would I?" Salem asked.

"Yeah," Jaxson said, "I simply clued into you that I wanted to lead you off and you just willingly followed."

Salem nodded, "But you're missing a key point there Jaxson. You aren't a kidnapper."

"You sure about that?" Jaxson asked, his lighthearted and joking tone giving away that he wasn't being serious.

"Nope, not at all."

"Good," Jaxson said.

"Where are we going?"

Jaxson finally glanced over to Salem, "For a walk. There doesn't have to be a destination in life."

"Why did you want to go on a walk?"

"No offence," Jaxson said, "But I can barely stand them most days. Beyond Levi and Shawn."

Salem chuckled, "Now that's a bias."

"Do you blame me?" Jaxson asked, "In case you missed it, I'm not exactly the most friendly person."

"You're better than me."

"Everyone is more friendly than you Salem," Jaxson joked. Salem chuckled as they continued to walk, silently again. "You know," Jaxson said after a while. "I've noticed something about you Salem."

"And what's that?"

"You think you don't deserve Gabe," Jaxson said. He stopped to look at Salem, and wasn't surprised to see Salem was shocked. "When you look at him, it was strange to me. At first, I couldn't tell what it was, but you saw something about him. At first, I thought you saw auras or something and that was why you looked at him like that. But then you'd look at the others, like Adrian, or Micheal, and that look was never there. So I thought about it more, and you don't think you deserve Gabe, even after two years together."

Salem looked at Jaxson, "You're smart."

"Thank you."

"I guess you're right," Salem said, "But I suppose that's what happens when you think the first year or so is for a prank." The two walked into the park, it was empty. The weather forecast said rain today, so that didn't really surprise either of them. Jaxson sat down on a bench with Salem.

Jaxson looked at Salem, "Why did you think it was a prank? Gabe isn't really capable of being that mean in case you hadn't noticed."

"I thought Micheal set him up to it," Salem said, "The first time we talked it was because I found him in the hall just pissed off. I asked him what was wrong and his answer was that Micheal had pissed him off. And I was still a bit pissy with the whole situation with Mike, even though I was the complete cause of it... and I asked Gabe what had happened, and he told me. I don't think he really processed that he was talking to someone Mike hated, or he did and that's why he talked to me. To piss Mike off more. I'm not sure."

"How does that make you think he was pranking you?"

"Me and him kept talking a lot about religion because he noticed my pentacle necklace and asked about it. And suddenly he realized he had accidentally skipped first hour so he ran off, but said that he'd like to talk again. So, we kept talking. And as it got romantic my mind started saying that one day I'd go to see him and Micheal and you guys would be there and it would all be a prank."