Just Friends [✓]

20. The Manly Man Way

[ VOTE & COMMENT if you're a manly man.]

Chapter 20 "The Manly Man Way"

I Don't Want to Leave – Mathew Perryman Jones

Ethan's POV

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Nope." Jake blurted, slouching heavily next to me on his couch with one of his sock covered feet on the mahogany coffee table and the other dangling to the ground. Hair ruffled, shirtless and in the early stages of developing a beer gut, he stared straight at the television screen as he continued, "I'm going to do what all men should do and bury it under cheap beer and ignore it until it goes away."

I scrounged my nose, "Well, first, you're barley have hair on your balls and second, cheap beer," I poked his growing gut, "leads to expensive weight loss programs."

He belched, "I've just been eating a lot lately." He countered.

I blinked, "You're eating because you're depressed, which is by far the most non-manly way of dealing with feelings in the history of manliness."

He blew out hot air, sarcastically so and rolled his eyes. "I'm not depressed, E." he paused, making sure to keep his eyes on the television, even if the show had ended and a rather explicit explanation of how to use tampons was currently being aired. "I just miss her a little."

"Because you liked her."

"I didn't-" he stopped once he noticed just how worked up that little sentence got him and recoiled back to his uninterested tone of voice. "I didn't like her," he obviously lied, "It's just weird not having her around and having to be the 'dad' of the group after she left."

Jake had arguably been off his game as of late; whether or not that is due to Karla being gone and him not having anyone to bicker with (which was a stretch) was the so-called reason, it was still disheartening to see my best mate so down. And Jake being Jake, anything remotely involving feelings was strictly off limits as a topic of discussion when it came to him.

I could talk about mine, hell, Russo could talk about his, but his own were always to be a mystery and were always supposed to be suppressed and kept down. Even at the camp fire confessions when he admitted to me that he felt kind of betrayed when I started hanging out with Spencer more often and him having to make new friends (enter Russo) was delivered in a voice marinated head to toe in nonchalance. He even shrugged it off when I apologized for my unknowing behavior.

And ironically, unlike Spencer and Russo, whom of which I've known for less time, I couldn't for the life of me distinguish his major facial expressions. It was either happy or uninterested. And while his uninterested face acted as varying different emotions just being masked away, it was hard to tell which negative emotion he was hiding. Whether it be nervousness, sadness or just genuine boredom has always been a toss-up.

"Stop bottling stuff up, Jake." I warned with the up most respect as not to offend him. "It's going to hurt you when it all comes out and then we're going to have to watch the Titanic to make you feel better."

He shivered, "I'm not watching that pansy film."

I rolled my eyes, "You know, every time you say something like that, I feel as though you have a problem with gay things."

His eyes finally left the screen and landed squarely on mine. "I'm not homophobic, Ethan."

"I never said that." I responded subtly, "I'm just telling you how I feel...or am I supposed to be an Iron Man as well."