“Alright let go of me and we’ll get going as soon as I go grab something in my safe.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“So you can see my combination? No thanks. I’ll come back out just let me grab what I need.”
“Alright your clothes are already packed in the car. I used a small suitcase I found next to your things.” Jon finally released his vice grip on my arm. “5 minutes and I come back in. I’ll be waiting.”
I ran downstairs and punched in my safe code. It had been a while since I had opened it. I keep emergency cash in here along with a copy of my parents will, and some family heirlooms. Today however I was looking for my fake id. Yeah, stupid as it sounds I had a pretty good quality fake id made just in case I needed to get in somewhere. I couldn’t seem to find it and after five minutes on the dot I heard mister happy come down the stairs.
“Are you hiding in that safe? What’s going on?” “Still looking for it. Give me a few.” I was at the point where I shoved everything to one side to look for the id piece by piece.
Jon groaned as he walked back up the stairs. “Come on I need to take you clothes shopping.”
After another 5 minutes of searching I found it stuck in the middle of the will; perfect sense as I just threw the thing around with no intent of looking at it straight on. One of my biggest fears in this world is the fear of death so anything associated to it freaks me out. After closing up and turning on the security system I locked my house. It was strange leaving the house for something that wasn’t a vacation with my parents. This would be the time ever I was traveling without them. I really was such a spoiled and idiotic kid, pissing away my youth because of my repressed anger and animosity towards others. It was time to take steps towards being someone in this world. I hopped into Jon’s car and saw he was busy texting someone.
“Holy shit finally.” Jon drove towards the mall in an abrupt manner.
“Sorry I didn’t realize how important your time was on my birthday holy crap.”
Jon groaned and stroked his chin at a stoplight. “Sorry, you scared me back there. I just want to see you happy at least once. You worrying about Jenna isn’t fair to you when she screwed up. I’ve known you for a year Jason. I’ve been biding my time trying to show you that I’m a great guy that just wants a chance with you and I’ll be honest, if I screw up today i just don’t know.” He was rambling aimlessly but it was cute and endearing like a retarded puppy. “I just want you to know. I like you, like a lot. I have never pursued someone like this ever in my life. I’m not trying to pressure you by telling you this but…”
“Off to a great start! What a great decision I made!” I honestly couldn’t stand the sappiness of this conversation so I decided to cut it with blatant sarcasm.
“I mean it Jason. I just want to make my feelings for you very clear. I really do enjoy being around you. You make me complete and a strange kind of happy that I have never experienced before.”
“Oh come on plenty of girls have made your dick hard.” I said with a gigantic snicker.
“You’re just going to be difficult this entire time aren’t you?” Jon pulled into a parking space and looked me in the eyes.
“Just let me know if you have second thoughts about trying to make this work.” I gave made a dumb face and popped out of the car. “Where are we going?”
“I guess lunch right?”
I looked at the clock on my phone. 2:00pm.”Alright Chipotle it is.”
“Anything you want birthday boy.” Jon came up behind me and squeezed me really hard stopping us for a bit. Something about Jon’s hugs made relatively chilly days like today feel like summer. We stood around the parking lot for a couple minutes before he finally let go.
“So I’m winning.” Jon walked ahead of me and winked like the cocky bastard he was.
“One step forward, two steps back as always.”
“Oh come on you love me when I’m like this.”
“You were serious about 10 seconds ago and you’re back to being a jackass.”
“What can I say? That hug reinvigorated me. Come on we still have to get you clothes after lunch.”
For the little over a year I’ve known Jon, he always maintained this happy-go-lucky attitude. Now that I think about it, Wednesday night was the first time I had seen him serious. I guess this is why it took me so long to trust him. I have to admit it was becoming hard to ignore every advance and he was definitely growing on me.
“Are you coming or what?” Jon was waving from the entrance trying to pull me from my thoughts. I brought myself back to earth and ran to catch up.
“Sorry, just thinking about stuff.”
“Do you want me to fight Houston? I’ll beat his ass I swear. It will be your present!” He thought i still gave a shit about Houston.
“Yes, I need more bullshit drama. What a great present.”
“I’m kidding. I would never do something like that unless he hurt you.” Jon continued the conversation as we walked into the restaurant. “Are you ok to talk about this? I don’t want you to say anything you aren’t ready to admit yet.”
“No it’s fine I have to tell you eventually.”
Jon was insistent on paying when we got to the register. I wasn’t in the mood to argue so I found a table and made quick work of the bowl. Jon kept looking around like he was expecting someone to show up but i didn’t think much of it.
“So what did he say?”
“About what you would expect. Same old stupid apology”
“How did you respond?”
“Told him to get out.”
“Is that really it?”
“No he confessed his undying love for me and we fucked and had 12 kids and lived happily ever after” I was getting annoyed talking about Houston’s stupid ass. “It’s fucking Mark Houston. You think I care for any of his bullshit after our past? You think some stupid tears affected me?”
“No it’s just feels like…”
“WOW YOU’RE RIGHT HE WAS CRYING HE CLEARLY MEANT EVERYTHING HE SAID I SHOULD JUST FORGIVE EVERYTHING HE DID AND WE’LL BE HAPPY TOGETHER FOREVER JUST LIKE SOME GARBAGE ROMANCE NOVEL TROPE!” I was probably too loud but I really wanted to drive the point home that I had no intention of associating myself with him ever.
“Alright I get it. You hate him. I’m just making sure you aren’t going to run off and fuck him when we get back.”
“You still act like we’re dating Jon.”
“I’m pretty confident you’ll be mine by the time we get back on Sunday.”
“I thought it was only for today.”
“No, I said I would take you back today if you hated it but I know you won’t.”
“You are far too confident of yourself.”
“Nah, I just think I have gotten to know you over the past year and hopefully that translates into me knowing how to make you happy.”
I shook my head and went back to my food. Lunch went rather quickly as we continued the conversation. I kept asking the details of our plans for today but Jon insisted on keeping it a secret. He led me towards his favorite clothing store after lunch. I had never actually been in the store but Jon insisted that besides my tailored suit, nothing in my wardrobe would be suitable for this weekend. That was fair; I did a majority of my shopping online. Band shirts, Jeans and monochromatic hoodies were all I ever wore. As a guy that only really left his house for concerts it made a lot of sense, but it lacked anything formalwear wise.