The Middle - Volume Three ✔️

Volume Four - Chapter 1

"You are up." Jay says, walking around to sit down on my bed. I casually kick Patrick's shirt below the bed before Jay notices it. "How was the flight home? How was Scotland?" 

"Good, good. All good." I say awkwardly. I'm still standing in front of my closet, and Jay's looking at me weird now. Shit, I'm acting strange. Get away from the closet, don't draw attention to it. I move over to the bed and sit down next to Jay. "We can catch up properly later, I'm a little...out of it, right now."

Yeah, I'm out of it. I was unbelievably turned on a couple of minutes ago and now I'm sitting on my bed talking to my brother from another mother. Not okay. He needs to leave. I hope Patrick is okay in the closet... Jesus. 

"I guess the time difference is catching up with you. I thought you would have gotten up early though, Scotland's ahead, right?" He asks me curiously. 

"Yeah. Um, I was just about to get up, actually." I say stupidly. I have no defence for why I've stayed in bed for so long, other than the truth. "I haven't been out with Benji yet."

"Cool, I'll come." Jay says casually, standing up.

"No!" I call out automatically. He can come for a walk with me I guess, it'll get him out of my house at least. But I wanna stay with Patrick... "I mean - don't you have class?"

"Jamie, it's almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon." Jay laughs at me. "I'm done for the day. Come on, get dressed and we can go. I'll feed Benji while you change." 

I look over towards the closet and see that Benji is wagging his tail and sniffing around at the bottom of the closet door. He knows Patrick is in there. Shit!

"Okay, come on, Benji!" I snap my fingers at him to get him away from the closet before Jay notices.

"Oh, how did it go with Patrick last night anyway? Were you nice to him?" Jay asks as he walks over to the bedroom door, closely followed by myself and Benji. He needs to get out of this room.

"Of course I was nice, I'm always nice." I say, and I'm sure I just heard a muffled laugh coming from my closet...

"Cool, I was worried you'd be pissed that I didn't come to pick you up. I had an early class, though. And Patrick offered." Jay explains while opening my bedroom door.

"No, it's fine. It was fine." I say, trying to usher him out of my room quickly. I don't wanna talk about Patrick when I know he can hear everything.

"So, where is he?" Jay asks, and my heart almost stops. Oh my god, does Jay know!? Fuck! 

"Wh-what?" I say, feeling a little sick.

"His cars still parked in the driveway." Jay replies casually, and I relax a little. "Did he crash here then walk to college this morning?" Fantastic, Jay. You do the work for me.

"Yes, that's exactly what happened." I say enthusiastically, trying to move away from my open bedroom door, but Jay has stopped and turned to face me.

"I'm glad you're being cool with him." Jay says seriously. "He told me some stuff the other day, and... I don't know. I think he's been having a pretty hard time lately. I'm totally good with him now too, by the way. He needs us right now."

What the hell? I can't help but ask the question. "What did he say to you?"

"Don't laugh, because he was being totally serious. This is gonna sound so stupid, but you know how big of a deal this is coming from him... He thinks he's in love." Jay smiles and rolls his eyes, because with any normal person, being in love isn't a problem, it's a good thing. But I understand why Jay would think it's a problem for Patrick. This news would normally shock me. I should act shocked.