His Safety Net

Chapter 40

       Jerome smiled. "Anything for you."

       We got into his car and he started it up. As he pulled out of the school parking lot, he said, "Hey, so my parents are out of town for a week for a business trip. Is it okay if we swing by my house so I could pick up a few more clothes and stuff? I don't want to forget to do it, and I would really rather not do it when my parents are home."

       "Yeah, of course," I said. "Have you talked to either of your parents yet?"

       Jerome hesitated. "No. Not yet. I'm waiting for them to contact me first. They know that I'm gay now so if they want to choose to support me, then they need to prove it by not waiting for me to make the first move."

       "That's... fair," I said. "I'm sorry. About how all that went down."

       "It is what it is," Jerome said. "At least I don't have to hide who I am anymore."

       Jerome pulled into the driveway of his house, his huge house, and turned off his car. "You... You live here?" I asked as I looked out the windshield.

       "I do," Jerome said, taking off his seatbelt. "Do you want to come with me or do you want to just wait here?"

       "I'll come," I said, taking off my seatbelt before the two of us got out of the car. "I don't really like waiting in cars. In the dark. Scary things happen."

       "Scary things like...?" Jerome asked as we walked towards the front door of his house.

       "I wouldn't know," I said. "Like I said, I don't wait in cars in the dark. I just know that scary things happen."

       Jerome chuckled. "You're cute."

       Jerome unlocked the front door before the two of us walked inside. He turned on the light, and I looked around the foyer. Despite being a huge house, it kind of seemed... empty. While the house was decorated with some seemingly priceless artifacts, that was all that decorated the house. Nothing that made it seem like a family home; no pictures, no keepsakes, nothing.

       "It shouldn't take long to get my stuff," Jerome said as I followed him up the stairs. "I do have a lot of clothes already. I just wanted to pick up a few more sweaters because someone keeps stealing mine."

       "Okay, but in my defence, I'm smaller than you so anything I wear that's yours is oversized," I said. "And oversized clothes are extremely comfy for me."

       "Again, why I need to get more clothes because you keep stealing mine," Jerome said, opening one of the doors in the hallway. "And I can't wear your clothes when I run out because I won't fit in them."

       "We get it. I'm small."

       "Nolan, you... You literally just called yourself smaller than me. You can't get mad if I say the same thing. Now, make yourself at home. I won't take long."

       I sat down on Jerome's bed, looking around the room. Unlike the rest of the house, this one actually felt like it was part of a home. Jerome had pictures pinned to a bulletin board, trophies sitting on his dressers, and posters pinned up all over the room. It felt comfortable.

       Jerome looked around his room before he found a bag to put some of his clothes and other belongings in. "I don't want to bring up a sensitive issue for you," I said. "But... Do you miss living here?"

       Jerome stopped putting clothes into the bag for a few moments before continuing. "Admittedly, I do. But at the same time... It doesn't feel like home for me. My parents go out of town a lot for business trips so I actually got used to being here alone. That's why I used to throw a lot of parties. I didn't like being alone in this big house."

       "I'm sorry," I said.

       "Don't be," Jerome said. "It's fine. Really. I was planning on moving out sooner or later. I just... need to find a more stable job or at least pick up more hours at the dance studio. And that will be a lot easier once I graduate high school."

       "I'm going to miss you when you graduate," I said. "I basically started interacting with you on my first day of school. It's... going to be weird not seeing you around there."

       Jerome zipped up the bag and placed it on the floor. "Well, you don't have to worry about that for a few more months when you start your junior year. And in the meantime..." He gave me a lingering kiss. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

       I smiled softly at him before I pressed my lips back onto his. My arms reached up and wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer to me. It was a bit hard to get closer with Jerome standing by the bed, so he climbed onto the bed, hovering over me.

       We've kissed like this many times before since, thankfully, my family were polite and always knocked on the door so I never had to worry about anyone walking in on us kissing. And that was all we did at my home. Kiss. We never went too far because someone was always home with us.

       No one was here with us now.

       So I made a bold move and started unbuttoning Jerome's shirt as we continued to kiss. Soon enough, Jerome's shirt was off and he was working on unbuttoning mine as he kissed my neck. However, as soon as he did the final button, he pulled away from me.

       "What's wrong?" I asked.

       "It's just..." Jerome said. "You've never really been shirtless around me. You have to get changed, but you always get changed so quickly so I wouldn't see anything. I don't want to feel like I'm pressuring you into doing something you're not comfortable with."

       Jerome was just... so amazing.

       I gave him a reassuring smile as I leaned up to give him a lingering kiss. When I pulled away, I said, "You're not," before I took off my shirt.

       Jerome smiled back, moving back to where he was and pressing his lips on mine.

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whomp whomp i never write scenes further than this so sorry for cutting it off here.

at least jerome can never fluster nolan by saying he's gonna take his innocence away lol

oh also. i'm planning another au that i really shouldn't plan BUT I LOVE AUs. and this one will be including another special series of mine. idk if i'll be writing it on wattpad anytime soon, but i'll probably do it eventually because it includes two of my favourite couples, jerlan and grollie.

i did have a short crossover in the fall with the protector and spruceworth series, but it was a halloween series and i lowkey hate my halloween stories after i write them lol. i want a proper crossover between them that doesn't feel forced or anything oof.