The next morning, Ralph found Jack sitting at the kitchen counter on one of the bar stools that were hardly ever used. He was eating a banana, boredly reading some magazine of his mother's.
"You're up early" Ralph observed as he approached the counter, standing on the other side in the kitchen so he was facing Jack, leaning his weight against the sink.
"How do you ever go back to sleeping til 1000 hours after getting up at 0500 hours everyday in military school?" Jack questioned. "Plus, getting up with the sun everyday on the island? I had no concept of time but no chance I slept past 0600."
"In my defense, I never stayed up until 0200 in the morning at military school or on the island" Ralph pointed out. "My body doesn't run on four hours of sleep. Lights out was at 2100 hours, remember?"
"How often were you and I in bed by lights out?" Jack countered knowingly. "Us and that campfire" he clarified. Ralph picked up on the rather subtle hint of longing in the older boy's voice.
Ralph shrugged, too tired to keep arguing. He grabbed a couple grapes from the bowl in the fridge before returning to the counter.
"I miss it sometimes" Ralph revealed suddenly.
"Miss what?" Jack asked, shoving the last of his banana into his mouth.
"The campfire. Well, all of it really. The academy, the training, the routine, the classes, all of it. My school is a shithole in comparison" Ralph elaborated.
"And I bet my school's a shithole compared to yours" Jack assumed, reaching over the counter and taking a grape from Ralph's hand.
"How is it that you're a rich public school kid and I'm a middle class private school kid?" Ralph wondered, considering how backwards it seemed.
"Because your parents think you're going places, and mine thinks I'm going to prison" Jack concluded, plopping the grape into his mouth.
"Your dad doesn't value your education? What about the academy? That school was way more expensive and high-class than my school is" Ralph pointed out.
"The academy was a punishment; his way of getting rid of me. Can't put a price on that" Jack clarified. His tone was so casual, so unbothered. Ralph wondered how long it had taken before Jack got good at talking about his broken family without crying.
Before Ralph had to respond, his dad came in from the hallway and joined them in the kitchen.
"You boys sleep alright?" Jeffery asked as he turned the coffee pot on.
"Yeah" Ralph nodded. "When did you finally come up and go to bed? I didn't even hear you."
"A couple hours after you, I think it was" Jeffery answered simply.
"Can I have some?" Jack asked as Jeffery pulled a coffee mug out of the cabinet above the pot.
"Coffee?" Ralph questioned judgementally.
"I drank it all the time at the academy" Jack confessed, much to Ralph's surprise.
"How'd you get away with that?" Ralph wondered, eyes wide with shock. "They were so strict about our diets. They never would've let you drink coffee."
"Roger snuck it in from home. We just turned the communal shower water onto scalding hot and mixed the stuff in, usually at night" Jack disclosed.
"But why?" Ralph failed to understand.
"To help us stay up late when we were studying or getting in extra training after lights out. We did it for years" the blond revealed.
"While I certainly do believe you, I don't feel great about caffeinating a thirteen-year-old" Jeffery decided as he poured himself a cup.
"Water will have to do then" Jack shrugged. Jeffery passed him a glass and Jack hopped off the stool to fill it using the tap hovering over the sink.
Laurie walked into the kitchen in her pyjama robe a few minutes after her husband had settled at the dining table with a crossword puzzle and a mug of hot coffee. Jack and Ralph stood together in the kitchen, the older boy sipping slowly at his water.
"How are you boys feeling this morning?" she asked warmly as she poured herself what was left of the coffee.
"Good" Ralph smiled at her, while Jack nodded in agreement, his mouth full of sink water.
Just as Laurie was about to head over to the table to join her husband, she stopped in her tracks abruptly behind the boys; spilling a little of her scalding coffee onto the floor.
"What? What's wrong?" Ralph panicked a little as he reached out to take the cup from her.
"Jack, sweetie, you've got marks all over you" she ignored her son, gently grabbing at Jack's shoulder to turn him around more.
Ralph struggled to keep his jaw from hitting the floor when he realized what his mom was talking about. She was studying the scratch marks on the back of Jack's neck, the ones Ralph had inflicted several hours earlier in the night.
It took a moment for it to register in Jack's mind. But when it did, he nearly snapped his neck turning to look at Ralph, both their eyes wide with panic.
Shit, shit, shit.
"Did this happen at home, Jack?" Laurie pressed with a deep interest and concern.
"I don't know" Jack shrugged, struggling to maintain his smooth composure. He was panicking, Ralph was panicking, and they both knew it.
"You don't remember?" she asked with confusion, and Jeffery finally got up from his seat to come see what his wife was coddling Jack over.
"I guess not" Jack's heart was pounding out of his chest. He thought Ralph somehow looked both beat red and white as a ghost at the same time.
Ralph had never felt so embarrassed in his life. He felt like he was standing in front of the class in his underwear like in the nightmares people always talked about having. He wanted so desperately for a hole to form in the floor and swallow him up.
"That looks pretty painful, buddy" Jeffery observed as he hovered beside his wife.
"It's not, really" Jack insisted. He turned himself around and smiled awkwardly at the Langley parents. "I'm fine, honest. I can't even feel it. I must've been leaning against something scratchy or something" he lied on the spot. But the concerned looks on their faces didn't dissipate. "It wasn't my dad, I promise" he added reassuringly.
"Well, you should put something on it, antibiotics maybe. I think we have some kids polysporin ointment in Ralph's bathroom" Laurie insisted as she took her coffee cup from Ralph and finally went to sit down at the table. Jeffery sat back down at the table too, and turned his attention back to his crossword puzzle.
"I'll get it" Ralph piped up, and grabbed Jack's arm, using it to drag him down the hallway where the bathrooms and bedrooms were all located.
When they were finally alone in the bathroom, and out of earshot of Ralph's parents, Jack slapped Ralph forcefully but not painfully across the arm.
"Ow!" Ralph called out in shock.
"I'm gonna kill you" Jack insisted in a low, threatening tone.
"I didn't know it'd leave a mark!" the frantic brunette claimed. "Did you?"
"Obviously not, shitbrain!" Jack whispered loudly. "You think I've done this before?"
"I don't know, maybe" Ralph insinuated.
"Well I haven't. You were the first person I ever kissed, FYI" Jack whispered as Ralph started rummaging through his medicine cabinet. "What are you doing?" he questioned.
"Looking for this" Ralph answered as he pulled the kids' Polysporin tube out.
"Jesus Christ, I don't actually need that shit" Jack scoffed. "What am I, a girl?"
"It really doesn't hurt?" Ralph's voice shifted from defensive to genuine rather quickly. He gently turned Jack around a little to get a look at the scratch marks he left on the boy's neck, hiking his t-shirt up to get a look at the ones on his back.
"Well, sorta" Jack shrugged, "but I don't care."
"You sure you don't want this stuff? It works pretty good" Ralph offered.
"Nah, I'm good. I don't mind feeling it, it's like a reminder of well, y'know... last night" he smiled feverishly at the brunette.
Ralph's heart spiked a little at Jack's insinuation. "You're a masochist" he declared as he tried to resist the urge to laugh.
"Who's fault is that, huh?" Jack retorted, taking a step closer to Ralph.
"Mine, probably" Ralph shrugged, letting his arms find Jack's bare waist. "And I'd do it again."
"I dare you" Jack challenged, lowering his voice in an attempt to both captivate Ralph and prevent his parents from overhearing.
Ralph let out a small laugh, smiling to Jack and to himself as the older boy wrapped his arms around him too. Jack pressed his forehead against Ralph's, the adrenaline pumping through his veins at the potential danger of Ralph's parents finding them here like this.
"Did you say I was the first person you ever kissed?" Ralph quietly recalled.
"Shut the fuck up, will ya?" Jack demanded before he started to tease Ralph, letting his own lips linger softly against his, challenging the younger boy to resist his nagging urges. Ralph only lasted a second before he pressed his mouth forcefully against Jack's, silently begging the boy to trace Ralph's lips with his tongue the electrifying way he always does.
"You like that?" Jack mumbled against Ralph's lips, and Ralph nodded dramatically, desperately. Jack sensed Ralph was starting to surrender control, and he loved it, craved it. It would almost be too easy to forget that they were standing in an unlocked bathroom in the middle of the day. But that was part of Jack's power; he would never let himself far enough to block out his surroundings. Presently, he was still strong enough to take a step back, an effort to ensure nobody would catch them in this position. It was good that Jack had the strength to do so, because Ralph certainly didn't.