A Step Closer to Me

A Fragile Vulnerability

Juniper nodded in agreement. "I still have that landscape painting you made me when we got back to school that day."

"I'm sure I could make you one a lot more accurate and realistic now."

"I'll never say 'no' to a piece of art from you, Dori. Just know I'll still love the original just as much." A look of fondness morphed into one of amusement, pointing to a different memory coming to mind. "I remember when I chaperoned Jay's first class trip to the zoo after he stopped being homeschooled. He was a little shy at first. But he made fast friends with a really sweet boy-"

"Pher," Jensen whispered to Roman.

"-and they were inseparable the entire day. There was a point where we went to see a few otters at the marine exhibit. Jensen was allowed to give the animal some food. It was so cute."

"And the little monster thought it would be cool to thank me by catapulting water over the edge of its enclosure. I was lucky it was warm out."

Roman chuckled. He could picture the scene in his head because a photograph of said moment was kept on Juniper's refrigerator at home. Jensen — in his white and blue striped shirt, dark green shorts, and skater shoes — was caught drenched in cold water with his jaw dropped in surprise. In the background, Christopher clutched his stomach as he laughed at Jensen.

Roman found it funny how that image summed up the dynamic of their friendship in a single, thirteen year old snapshot.

"There was another field trip I took to a farm," Jensen added, propping his cheek onto his hand. "We were helping the farmer make bread, and it was my job to bring him flour. I tripped. And got flour everywhere. We all had a good laugh about it, but, man, was I embarrassed."

Roman snorted, cupping a hand over his mouth to keep from spitting out his juice.

Jensen threw his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I was really clumsy as a kid."

"Oh, I believe it."

"Yeah, yeah." He waved dismissively, a shy smile turning brighter. "What about you? I'm sure you've got some juicy stories about little Roman in the old days."

Roman gave himself a chance to really think about it. Sure, he didn't have many fond memories with Rachel. He did, however, manage to make some nice ones with his old friends back in the day. Thinking about them still came with difficulty. He could, however, admit a lot of their antics were interesting enough stories to share.

"I don't know if it'll be as funny as yours."

Jensen's face softened at the comment. A single, urging nod was given. "Humor me."

Roman looked between his companion's eyes, seeing nothing except sincerity within them.

He tried to ignore the way the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

"...Okay. But if you ever bring this up in the future, consider our friendship over."

"Me?" Jensen splayed a hand over his chest. "Why, I would never."

Roman raised a single eyebrow in disbelief. He looked Jensen up and down, skeptical.

"C'mon. Pinky promise."

"Really?"

"Pinky. Promise."

With a dramatic roll of the eyes, Roman intertwined their pinkies together. Once they separated, Jensen kept their gazes locked to show Roman he had his full attention.

"It... wasn't a school trip. Just something I went out to do with my friends at the time. I think I was fourteen or fifteen. We went to a science museum together once. I was nerding out because I love museums, and science ones are always really cool." The corners of Roman's lips slowly curled upward the further into the story he got. "So, we're there. We're all having a good time. We ended up going to the planetarium which doubled as a 4D experience to make it more immersive. The program was about Earth and a lot of really pretty places where wildlife was thriving. We reached a segment about marine animals. When we got to the whales, the one on screen blew water out of its head spout thingy. For some reason, the entire row of seats I was in malfunctioned. And the little spurt of water we were supposed to get hit with turned out to not be so little."