《JAY'S POV》
"Thank you for the ride." Matt politely said. Jay repeated his words, and closed the door. When he turned around, he saw that Matt was running towards their home. He now remembered the threat he made to his step brother.
He started walking towards the home as well, and after walking around it entered through the back door. They rarely used the front door, since you either needed a key to open it, or you had to ring the door bell.
When their parents were at home, they always left the back door open, so both him and Matt preferred to enter the house that way. The back door also helped since it let directly to the kitchen, so they could easily grab themselves something to eat and drink.
Matt was nowhere to be seen and Jay guessed he must he locked himself inside his room by now. He didn't bother to go check, instead he walked over to the cabinets, to grab himself a glass. He filled it with water, and walked to the living room, where he sat down on the couch.
He wasn't sure where his dad or stepmom were, but he figured they must've left the home for a short while. They lived in a peaceful neighborhood, so leaving the door unlocked for a short time wasn't really a problem, especially in broad daylight.
He took his phone, and saw he had some messages from Tiana. She had finally stopped constantly messaging him how sorry she was for outing him to his friends, after he had explained that he had truly already forgiven her.
The texts were not about anything really important, she was just talking about what happened that day at school. He thought about it for a moment, and then decided to text her back.
Levi's future boyfriend:
Tiana, I have to tell you something.
Tiana👑:
OMG YOU SOUND SO SERIOUS!!!
THIS BETTER BE SOMETHING GOOD!!!
She had forced him to put a crown next to her name in his contacts, saying all of her friends called her a queen. Jay didn't really know what she meant by that, but he had given in anyway, since he couldn't really say no to her.
Levi's future boyfriend:
Well, I think you're going to be excited indeed
Can we perhaps call instead?
Tiana👑:
Of course!!!!!!!!
Snshxuhdbsjssu IM SO EXCITED
YOU'RE MAKING ME NERVOUS
WHY AREN'T YOU CALLING YET
JAY HURRY UP!!!
AAGHHJ
Jay grinned, and finally called her. She immediately picked up.
"OH MY GOD WHAT IS GOING ON!"
"So you remember Levi right?"
"Eh duh, he's your future boyfriend, how could I forget him."
Jay sighed, and tried to make his voice sound like he was upset. "Tiana, Levi is not my future boyfriend."
"I'll only allow you to say that if you're already dating him, Jay."
"And what if I am?" Jay said.
Tiana went silent for a second, which was a new experience for him. "Oh my gosh..." she whispered. "So... I was right?"
"Right about what? About me being gay or about me liking Levi."
"Both! TELL ME I AM RIGHT."
Jay started laughing at her panicked voice. "Okay, okay. You were right... I'm gay AND I'm dating Levi, alright?"
"OH MY GOD!!" Jay suddenly heard a loud noise and then Tiana shrieking in the distance.
After a while she started talking again. "Sorry, I just threw my phone across my room. BUT I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!"
"I can tell." Jay grinned. "But I have to hang up, since I have to go do my homework, so I can go meet my boyfriend tonight. I'll call you back later, to tell you some more details. Oh, and don't tell anyone besides your family please, we're trying to keep it a secret for our family."
They ended the call and Jay grabbed his glass. He turned around, to see his dad standing in the door opening, staring at him.
"D- dad? How long have you been standing there?"
His dad didn't answer his question. Instead he asked: "Levi? That's that kid who lives nextdoor, right?"
Jay closed his eyes. How could he had already messed this up? They had been dating for less than 2 hours and his dad already knew.
"You better don't let your stepmom know."
Jay opened his eyes. "You're... not going to tell her?"
His dad shook his head. "No. Just don't tell her that I knew if she finds out."
He proceeded to turn around to leave the room, but Jay felt the urge to ask him something. "Why aren't you going to tell her? You know she is against it, so why are you hiding it from her now?"
His dad looked a bit confused. "Well... do you want me to tell her?"
Jay took a step towards him. "No! I'm just wondering..."
"Honestly Jay, if I told her I know she'd make a scene and I'm quite busy right now, so I won't even bother."
Jay laughed in disbelief. "So you don't care at all? Why did you even marry her?"
His dad stared at him for a while. "Are you mad at me right now for helping you?"
"No dad, I'm not upset just because of this. It's just... you really don't care about what I do, do you?"
His dad didn't respond.
"Right, that's exactly what I thought."
Finally his father spoke up. "I'm sorry for making you feel like that, Jay. It's just that I'm busy-"
"I know, that's not even the problem! You don't have to spend lots of time with me, I won't ask you to do that. But you can at least try to not make me feel like you wouldn't care even if I dropped dead right now."
"Jay..." His father tried, but Jay wasn't finished. "Can you at least show a bit of interest in me? You don't even have to actually mean it, you can just pretend you care instead. Try and remember, when is the last time you asked how my day has been, or how I'm doing having to move schools, and making new friends?"
His dad turned his head away, seeming too embarrassed to face his own son.
"It seems like you can't remember either. Well, nevermind. I'm going upstairs now." Jay said, even though he knew his dad probably wouldn't care what he was going to do anyway.
He walked past his dad, who didn't try to stop him. He ran up the stairs, slamming his door shut. He let himself fall down on his bed, and stayed there for a while.
He felt something on his cheek, and realized he had started crying without even noticing. He never cried, especially not in front of other people, so he honestly felt quite humiliated.
He was a bit shocked by his own outburst. He knew his dad's lack of interest for him had always irritated him, but he has never expected that he would get this emotional about it.
He heard his bedroom door open, and looked up to see Matt coming in.
"Aren't you scared to get beaten up?" Jay joked.
Matt sat down next to him. "It sounded like you were gonna need someone to comfort you, so I'll take the risk.
He rested his hand on Jay's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Jay got up. "Yeah I'm fine. Things got a bit heated with my dad, but I figure you must have heard."
Matt nodded. "Wow, isn't it strange." He then sighed. "We are literally in the same family, living together. And you have to deal with a parent who is negligent, and meanwhile mine is way too overbearing."
Jay couldn't help but find the irony of the entire situation a bit funny. It had been like this ever since their parents got together. He remembered being amazed with how much Matt's mom seemed to try and control his life, since Jay's dad had never done that to him.
He had sometimes felt a small amount of jealousy over how much Matt's mom seemed to care about his whereabouts, but he also could tell that having that much rules was a pretty suffocating expectation for Matt.
Even though they were supposed to be a family, it was still very clear who belonged to who. Matt's mom wouldn't really acknowledge him, she mostly let Jay's dad make the rules about what he could and couldn't do.
That ended him up with not really any rules at all. Except that his dad agreed that he should go to church, and church activity of course. Jay had opposed to it strongly, and was able to avoid going for a long time, because his dad didn't really want to push him, but a few months ago his stepmom finally convinced his dad to make him go.
Surprisingly he didn't mind going now, but that didn't have much to do with church itself, rather the cute boy sitting next to him during both church service and church activities.
"Do you miss your mom?"
The question came quite sudden. Jay and Matt never really talked about their past from before they met, so this was a bit of an odd question, but Jay understood why Matt asked it.
"Yes. I don't try to think of her too often, it just makes me sad."
Matt had an understanding look on his face. "Same with my dad. I'm still mad at him, but for some reason I do really miss him a lot."
Matt's dad had left when Matt was about 6 years old, from what Jay had heard. His stepmom had never talked about him, so he had no idea what really happened, since Matt claimed he didn't remember.
"Sometimes I just start wondering what he is doing right now." Matt sighed. "Does he even remember I exist?"
"Of course he does! There is no way you can forgot your own child."
"Well, he seems to be doing perfectly fine without knowing me though, so perhaps he can." Matt got up, and walked towards the window.
Jay let him be, it was clear he needed a moment to think.
"Do- do you think he perhaps ever tried to contact me? Who knows, my mom might have hidden it from me. She's controlling enough to do such a thing."
Jay didn't answer, even though he found that theory to be quite likely to be true. He didn't doubt that Matt's mom would be able to hide things from him if it didn't fit her narrative, so it could be possible that she held a grudge against her ex, and because of that wouldn't allow him to contact their son.
"I don't know." He finally said, since Matt still seemed to be waiting for him to answer.
But Matt didn't respond to him, and instead started smiling and waving at Levi, who had just entered his room.
"Oh, weren't you gonna go meet him?" He then asked, while he turned around to face Jay again.
Jay nodded. "Yeah, I was supposed to go meet him tonight."
~~~~
Jay finished his homework fairly early, after which he decided to message Levi.
Jay:
Have you finished your homework yet?
Minnie🥰❤:
Yes, you can come over. Please don't hurt yourself though.
Jay:
Don't worry, I'll be fine
I'll be right over then, just wait a few minutes😇
Minnie🥰❤:
Okay, but I won't be watching you risking your life for no good reason, so if you fall you better hope someone finds you before tomorrow.
Jay:
You're a pretty good reason
Minnie🥰❤:
NO!
Also you could just come in through the door like a normal person, my parents wouldn't mind you visiting us.
They would mind you jumping from your balcony to mine and falling to your death.
Jay:
Good thing I won't be falling then
I have to go now, see you in a few minutes
Minnie🥰❤:
Okay, stay safe.
Jay:
No worries Minnie
He turned off his phone, and left his room. Downstairs he saw his stepmom and dad in the living room. His dad was the first one to see him, and started staring at him with the same strange look on his face as he had had during dinner.
His stepmom was the first one to actually address him. "You're going for a walk again? Make sure you're back before 11."
She continued reading her news paper again.
Jay glared at his dad for a moment, but since he didn't seem to have anything to say, Jay left the home.
He walked around the house to sneak through a hole in the hedge between his and Levi's home. He took about three steps until he reached the tree that was standing next to Levi's balcony.
He could easily climb up the tree, taking advantage of his tall, flexible body. He got on a thick branch that could surely carry his weight, and used it to cross the space between the tree and the balcony, holding on to the branches above him for some stability.
At the last part he got up from his squatting position, and easily jumped to the balcony. He grabbed the balustrade at the same moment his feet landed on the small ledge of the balcony that was sticking out.
He quickly climbed the balustrade since he didn't feel safe standing there for long, and flung his right leg over it, after which he sat down on the balustrade, since the edge was flat and big enough to easily sit on. He then got his other leg over the balustrade as well and got down standing both of his feet on the balcony.
He looked back at his own balcony, and grinned as he realized that Levi seriously seemed to believe that he'd be able to jump over that great of a distance.
Then, he walked over to knock on the balcony door.
Levi seemed to have been waiting, since the door immediately opened.
"JAY!"
Jay instantly knew something was wrong. "Levi, what is going on-"
Levi jumped forward, wrapping his arms around Jay's waist and burying his head in Jay's chest, as he began to cry.
《END OF THIS CHAPTER》
Oofs so yea I had a bit of a writer's block but here we are.
Oh andddd I've been thinking a lot about Riven and Nick and I think I've kinda got their storyline now ehehe since that was a bit confusing.