Chapter Text
Rich was at work for a long time that afternoon. Almost six boring hours of taking orders and making frozen yogurt. He got home at almost 10:30 after being dropped off by Brooke (who he apologized to profusely), and when he walked in Jake was sitting on the bed doing homework. “Hey, you’re home late.” he said.
“Alex didn’t show up for his shift.” Rich said, before tossing his phone and paycheck on his dresser and collapsing on his bed. He could shower in the morning. “So I had to cover for the asshole while Abby got to go home early.”
“Ah, Alex and Abby the Alliteration Assholes.”
Rich snorted. “What, you finally paying attention in English?”
“No, I just have a roommate who likes to read all the livelong day.”
“Wow, can I meet him? He sounds awesome.” Rich mumbled, already falling asleep.
Jake chuckled.
Wake up.
Fuck off.
We both know you won’t wake up early enough to shower. You just got off of an extra long shift, how badly do you want to smell tomorrow?
For once, they had a point. Rich groaned again and shoved himself up to a half-sitting position.
“You can go to bed, dude, no one’s stopping you.” Jake said from his bed.
“Nah, ‘m still in my uniform and I want to take a shower.” Rich mumbled, rubbing at his already mussed hair. He sighed and climbed up before grabbing a pair of pajamas and starting towards the bathroom.
“That’s gonna take, like, another hour!” Jake called after him.
“I know!”
He set the pajamas on the sink and tossed his work clothes outside the bathroom to get after taking the shower and put in the wash.
And the world proved once again that listening to a Squip was a terrible fucking idea when Rich almost fell asleep standing up in the shower three times.
He managed to make it without breaking his own legs and changed into his pajamas before heading out to fall asleep, expecting Jake to already be doing so.
Instead he was sitting on his bed staring at something in his hands in what appeared to be confusion.
“Uh, Jake? What are you looking at?”
Jake jumped and looked up to where Rich was standing as if he hadn’t heard him enter. “Uh… math.”
That was obviously a lie and they both knew it. “Jake.”
“Nothing, I swear. It’s not a big deal.”
“Jake, come on. We already said we were gonna try not to keep things to ourselves.”
Yes, and you’re holding up that agreement splendidly.
Jake sighed. “I’ll— tell you tomorrow, okay?”
Rich sighed back. “Okay.” he said eventually. He moved to go pick up his uniform before realizing it wasn’t there.
“I sent it to the wash for you.” Jake called in explanation.
“Oh.” For some reason that made Rich’s chest squeeze painfully. “Thanks, Jake.”
“No problem.”
Rich went to sleep pretty quickly after all of that, and woke up a couple hours later due to a nightmare. At this point he was used to getting about five hours of sleep at the most, which was probably a bad thing, to be honest.
He probably wouldn’t have woken Jake up that night if it hadn’t been such a habit already— the nightmare hit a little too close to what had been on his mind before he fell asleep and seeing Jake would only make it worse. But at this point, waking Jake up when he had a nightmare was just what he did, so he walked across the room, nudged Jake’s shoulder gently, and when Jake opened his eyes he went back over to his own bed.
“Do you want to talk or me?” Jake asked, stretching his arms over his head.
“You, please.” Rich said.
“Okay.” Jake replied, and started talking about what he had just been dreaming about, which started with Jake giving some kind of presentation to all of these kids who he had never met before and who were all ignoring him—
“That’s very rude.” Rich said, smirking a little.
“I know, right? You should pay attention when a total stranger is giving you a presentation on something he clearly knows nothing about.”
The dream then shifted to a journey through the Himalayas, and Jake climbed all the way to the top of Mount Everest to find Edmund Hillary, who commenced to give him a speech about how sometimes giving up on your dreams is what’s best for you—
“From the top of Mount Everest?
“From the actual top of Mount Everest. I wouldn’t even have know about Edmund Hillary if Mrs. Rodriguez hadn’t gone on that tangent the other day in history. Oh, I also wouldn’t have known it was him if dream-me hadn’t said: ‘You’re Edmund Hillary,’ because the guy looked exactly like Christine.”
“Ah, those classic dreams of Christine-Canigula-Edmund-Hillary telling you to give up on your goals. From the top of Mount Everest. Where was Tenzing Norgay in all of this?”
Jake laughed. “Falling back down the mountain.”
That caused both of them to start laughing until their stomachs hurt, partly because it was funny and mostly because it was probably about 3AM and they were both delirious.
When they both eventually stopped laughing Rich was exhausted again, and rapidly falling back asleep. Doing so always freaked him out a little, because it was about a 50/50 that he would have another nightmare, but this particular night he was too exhausted to try and stay awake.
By the time Jake asked: “Rich? You fall back asleep?” Rich was too far gone to answer.
…
Rich woke the next morning not having had another nightmare. He still had to wake up at 7 in the morning, so it wasn’t like he was well-rested, but he was better than usual.
They both got eggs for breakfast before being picked up by Brooke and heading to school. Rich got far less stares today than he had yesterday, mostly due no doubt to Jenna being very threatening when she wanted to be— which was sudden and a little surprising, but not exactly unwelcome.
“Do you guys want to join our restaurant tradition?” Rich asked at lunch. He gestured to him and Jake. “The two of us were planning to go today anyway, since Jake and I are both off work, but you all could come too. The way it works is we all take turns picking a place to go, and newest members automatically get first pick.”
Chloe shot him a look. “Since when?”
“Since now. Since I said so, right now.”
“I want to go to Waffle House!” Michael called, and Jeremy and Christine both groaned.
“What’s wrong with Waffle House?” Brooke asked in confusion.
“He only wants to go there because of this book he’s reading that came out earlier this year.” Jeremy explained, as Christine nodded her affirmation. “It’s called Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda. It’s about a closeted gay kid, and everyone in the book goes to Waffle House a lot, so now he has dubbed it the unofficial ‘gay restaurant’ in his head.”
“Everything in that book is now gay in my head.” Michael said. “And let’s go to Waffle House.”
“He is the newest group member, so based on Rich’s logic he gets to pick.” Jake said with a playful shrug.
Jeremy rolled his eyes. “Fine, let’s go to Waffle House.”
“Yes…” Michael whispered, doing the gentlest fist pump Rich had ever seen.
Therefore, after school the whole group went to Waffle House.
Almost everyone got waffles, except for Chloe, who just got a milkshake.
“Do you not like waffles?” Jenna asked.
“Eh.” Chloe shrugged. “They’re good, but… I dunno. Not in the mood.”
“We literally came to a restaurant that is all about waffles.” Jake pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
“Not in the mood.”
Rich didn’t realize that he’d forgotten his wallet at home that day until the check came at the end of the meal.
I could have reminded you of that you know.
“Shoot.” he mumbled, ignoring the voice in his head. “Hey, Jake, can you pay for mine? I can pay you back when we get home.”
“Uh… yes, yes I can.” Jake said, and he suddenly sounded incredibly uncomfortable.
Rich shot him a look. “Dude, I can pay you back.”
“No, it’s not… it’s fine. Yeah, I got it.”
Rich tipped his head in confusion. “Are you okay?”
“I’m great.”
Jake was spared from any further questioning when the waitress came back around.
They all paid before Jake grabbed Brooke’s car keys and got up to start walking, due to probably taking longer to get there. Rich offered to walk with him, but he waved his hand dismissively before leaving.
As soon as he left the door every person at the table simultaneously turned to Rich.
“Dude, you are both so far gone!” Michael called.
“What?”
“We just wanted to wish you good luck with your crush.” Chloe said with a wink. “But you two have been glued to each other all day, so we haven’t had the chance.”
“What— we’re not—”
“Rich, sweetheart, no offense but it’s painfully obvious.” Jenna said.
“It’s also painfully obvious Jake likes you too!” Christine said, bouncing in her seat.
“Wha— he does not—”
“Okay, you all only recognized it after I practically pointed it out.” Jenna said. “Because you’re all blind as bats when it comes to romance. But yes, Rich, he totally does.”
“First of all, Jake is straight—”
Jenna snorted.
“—And even if he wasn’t, why would he like me, of all people?”
“ Because he totally does!” Brooke said happily, all but clapping her hands like a seal.
“Yeah, Rich, I’ve been down this road, and self-deprecating thoughts are not a good determination on whether or not someone likes you.” Jeremy said.
Michael shot him a look. “Wow, someone’s being hypocritical today. Self-deprecating statements were like, half the reasons you gave me for why Christine couldn’t like you.”
Jeremy shrugged. “All the more reason I know they’re a bad idea.”
“Ugh.” Rich groaned, crossing his arms on the table and setting his head in them. “You all suck.”
“Come on, we gotta get you two lovebirds home!” Brooke sang as everyone else climbed up from the table.
“We’re not lovebirds.”
“Suuuuuure.” Chloe said, nodding slowly along.
Rich growled through his teeth and threw up his hands before stomping towards the car to the infuriating laughter of everyone behind him.
…
When they got back to the room Jake walked over to his bed and sat down with a definitive huff that definitely meant something was up.
Rich decided not to comment and grabbed his wallet before handing Jake the five bucks that his meal had cost, which Jake accepted remarkably quickly before turning away.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Rich said, sitting down on Jake’s bed. “What is going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re acting weird about me paying you back five bucks, you’ve been awkwardly looking at me and looking away all day, you’ve also been staring into space all day, and there’s still that thing from last night that you were staring at and acting like a cryptic weirdo. What is going on with you?”
“Nothing’s going on with me.”
“Jake, we both know that’s a big fat lie.”
Jake sighed. “Okay, I— I saw your paycheck.”
Rich tipped his head in confusion. “Huh?”
“Last night, when you got back up to shower really late I thought I’d put your uniform in the wash and your paycheck and phone on the nightside table, just to save you the trouble, and then I saw your paycheck was for $80, which was weird, because you only ever put $40 in our bank account—”
Rich immediately tensed up.
Well, this conversation sounds like it’s going somewhere interesting.
“So then I looked up minimum wage, and I thought the money you get is only half of what you should get, but the paycheck I found was for $80. So then I spent the next day wondering if there was actually something wrong with that or if I was just making a big deal out of something, because I’m not exactly good at analyzing this kind of stuff.” Jake rubbed the back of his neck.
“But you know, if you aren’t being horribly cheated by your boss, you should have a bunch of other $40 amounts somewhere, so is someone, like, taking those from you?” Jake finished.
Rich had no idea what to say. “N-no, no one’s… I put half of my check in a seperate account,” he muttered.
Confusion flickered across Jake’s face. “What? Why? Are you saving up for something?”
“Yeah, you know…” Rich said quietly, looking away.
“No, I don’t. Is it for a birthday present or something?”
God, why did he have to make him say it? “No, it’s for when you— well, you know.”
“Me? It’s for when I what?”
I can tell you what to say if you would rather not have this conversation.
“It’s for when you kick me out and I have to find a place to live!” Rich blurted.
The room went absolutely silent.
“W-what?” Jake whispered it, and to Rich’s shock, when he looked up Jake looked almost hurt. “Do you really think I would do something like that?”
“I mean,” Rich mumbled. “I took the Squip because you wouldn’t have liked me Freshman Year, so now if I’m not listening to them anymore—” He could sense the pieces clicking into place in Jake’s head. “Then I figured it’s only a matter of time before you realize that I’m not worth it, and then I’ll need somewhere to live and some money to—”
“Rich, what the fuck?!”
Rich flinched.
“What on earth gave you the indication that I don’t like you anymore?! What have I been doing that could possibly suggest that?”
“Well, that’s— that’s what they always said—”
Rich realized the words that were coming out of his mouth as soon as he said them. And now he was crying and looking away. “I just—” he started. He sniffed. “That’s what they did.” he sniffed again. “I mean whenever— whenever they wanted me to do something and I wasn’t listening, they would find a way to bring you into it almost every single time. And it worked! It would always get me to listen!”
Rich brought an arm up and scrubbed at his eyes. “And that was one of the things they said over and over. That you wouldn’t like me without their help. And I think they’ve done studies about your brain hearing something over and over and starting to believe it—”
Jake reached forward and pulled Rich to his chest, who promptly started to sob into his shirt.
“Well then.” Jake said quietly, once Rich had calmed down. Jake sniffed, and Rich wondered if maybe he was crying too. “I guess I’ll just have to tell you for the next two years that I like you just the way you are.”
Rich let out another sob, and Jake squeezed him tighter. “I mean it.” Jake said. “You’re so much better without that thing in your head. You’re so much happier. I mean, maybe not right now—”
That caused one of those broken half-laughs you hear about.
“But you seem so much more like yourself. You seem so much more real. I think your lisp is adorable, I think you’re love of reading is frickin’ smart, I think you’re even more adorable when you get excited about something, and I think you’re a really cute nerd.”
“That was three ‘cute’ compliments and one ‘smart’ compliment.” Rich mumbled into Jake’s shirt, and Jake laughed.
“Well, then you’re really cute and only a little smart.” Jake said, sounding amused.
“I take offense to that.”
They both laughed a little at that, and the following hours found them both curled up under Jake’s covers watching movies on the TV across the room. It was late, he was pretty sure it was sleeting outside as well as freezing, and Rich didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.
“Rich?” Jake said at one point. “Can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Rich hummed his agreement, knowing the question would probably have to do with the breakdown he’d had.
“Why did your Squip bringing me into things get you to listen?”
Rich tensed again. That wasn’t what he’d expected. “Um—” he bit his lip. “Maybe because I’d admired you for a really long time?”
“Admired me?” Jake asked, and there was something else in his voice.
“Yeah, I mean, you were really popular and you seemed really happy and kind of awesome, you were just— kind of everything Freshman Me wanted to be.”
“Wow, I was only kind of awesome? I’m not sure if I should take offense or not.”
“Shut up.” Rich said with a little laugh.
Oh yeah, and it was also probably because I had a massive crush on you, even back then when I was way deep in The Nile River. That might’ve factored into their reasoning.
“I just— I care about you a lot.” Rich said quietly. “I don’t know if you know that.”
“I do know that. And I care about you a lot too.” Jake said just as quietly, and that was the end of that conversation before Rich blurted out every single thing he felt about Jake.
“We should probably get ready for bed, huh?” Rich asked, sure a little disappointment showed in his face and voice.
“Or, you know, we could just stay here.” Jake said, pulling the covers up further. “We can get ready for bed tomorrow.”
“That sounds like a really good idea.” Rich said, and before he knew it he was tucked into Jake’s side fast asleep.
He had no nightmares that night.
…
They both woke up to a loud annoying alarm on the nightside table to Jake’s right. It took them both a couple moments to remember everything that had happened the previous afternoon and night, which was about the same amount of time for them to realize that Rich was still pressed against Jake in his bed. It took another couple seconds to realize that emotional growth was exhausting, and neither of them wanted to get it.
“Ugh.” Jake mumbled. “Why did I make that my alarm?”
“Tha’s what I said.” Rich mumbled. “We’re skippin’ today, right?”
“Uh-huh.” Jake said, turning the alarm off before collapsing back against the bed. They both fell back asleep in seconds.
When Rich woke up again it was at least a couple hours later. He probably would have fallen back asleep because there was a hand running through his hair, but when he shifted the hair slowed down and that didn’t feel as nice.
“Jake?” Rich mumbled, only for the hand to immediately freeze. “What’re you doing?”
“Uh… nothing. You’re dreaming.” Jake said hurriedly.
“No, ‘m way too conscious.” Rich mumbled, shifting in the bed. He wasn’t that conscious yet, though, because he shifted closer to Jake again. “I didn’ tell you to stop.”
He heard the sharp sound of Jake’s breath catching before his hand slowly started to move in Rich’s hair again.
Rich smiled in his half-asleep state. “Mmm, that’s better.” he mumbled, moving closer until his head was tucked into Jake’s chest. And the hand moving again combined with Jake’s warmth did cause him to fall back asleep.
Then, when Rich woke up a third time Jake was gone. He sighed at the emptiness of the bed and sat up and stretched before he realized what had happened last time he’d woken up, and now his face was bright red.
He didn’t have any time to dwell on that, though, because a second he located Jake’s voice at the door talking to someone. He quickly buried his head back in the pillow and hoped Jake would think he was still asleep.
When Jake walked back in Rich could hear him setting something on the desk before he heard the sound of crutches signifying he was walking somewhere. They were getting closer. Shit he was coming over to the bed. A second later Rich felt a hand gently shaking his shoulder.
“Hey, Rich, I got breakfast.” he said.
“What time is it?” Rich groaned.
“About noon.”
You got up far too late to get anything done today.
“So it’s more lunch than breakfast?” Rich said, sitting up and stretching again, hoping his face wasn’t as red as it was a few seconds ago.
“That’s true.” Jake admitted. He seemed nervous. Maybe he was thinking about the hair thing too.
Rich got up and walked over to the desk, grabbing one of the plates of pancakes and sitting on his bed. Jake did the same before sitting back on his own. It was silent for a minute as they both ate.
“Hey, Rich?” Jake said slowly.
Rich glanced over. “Yeah?”
“How did you know you weren’t… straight?”
Rich nearly choked on his pancakes.
“I… um. That’s…” A really loaded question. “Wow. Okay. Do you— do you think you’re not—”
“I don’t know.” Jake muttered, fidgeting with his sleeves. He still had on his jacket from yesterday, as neither of them had ever changed into pajamas. It was pretty rumpled. “That’s why I’m asking.”
“I mean… I probably would have realized a lot sooner if I didn’t have a Squip in my head, but—”
Richard, I would advise against this.
“—I guess what really helped me realize it was when I realized I had a crush on a guy.”
“Oh, you mean Dustin Kropp?”
Rich was so caught off guard by the question and by the fact that Jake still remembered that tiny part of the chatroom conversation that he just blurted out: “What? No.”
Shit.
Jake blinked in surprise. “Wait, a different guy?”
“Uh… maybe?”
For a future English major you are not exactly good with words.
“Who was it?” Jake asked, because duh he asked that, that was a natural step forward in the direction of this conversation, if someone tells you they have a crush, you usually ask them who it is.
“Um…” Rich could feel his face heating up, and it was probably bad that he was starting to have to rely on Jake’s social blindness in order for him to not find out who he was referring to. Honestly, sometimes Rich really appreciated it, but sometimes it was annoying that Jake could never read a room or the fact that Rich didn’t exactly want to have this conversation .
“Wait, if a different guy helped you realize you were bi, when did you have a crush on Dustin?”
“Oh for pete’s sake, Jake, I never had a crush on Dustin, I had a crush on you!” Rich screamed in annoyance, only to slap his hands over his mouth a second too late.
Jake’s eyes widened across the room, and Rich was pretty sure his face was bright red in part embarrassment, part mortification.
“Really?” Jake asked quietly, and Rich had no clue what to say.
“Huh.” Jake muttered after a second. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”
“It— huh? It does?” Rich asked, because hey, it was out there now and he couldn’t take it back, might as well get some clarification.
“Just— some things you’ve done over the years is all. Did you quit play rehearsal because you didn’t like me pining after Christine?”
“Oh, um, actually no. That was because of Jeremy’s crush on Christine and when our Squips synced I had to help him before anyone else.”
“Oh.” Jake said. There was a pause and then he blurted: “Oh, I um— I like you too. I should probably clarify that.”
Wait. What?
“Y-you do?!”
“I did ask you how you knew you weren’t straight.”
“I didn’t know that was because you liked me!” Rich exclaimed, shoving the pancakes aside as he jumped up. “Geez, Jenna told me—!”
“Jenna did what?”
Rich dragged a hand over his eyes. His brain felt like it was glitching, and maybe he was dreaming right now, because Jake liking him didn’t fit into his set image of things, or into his set image of Jake. “Jenna Rolan, Keeper of all Knowledge, apparently knew that we both liked each other and weren’t saying anything about it.” He looked back at Jake. “You’re being serious? This isn’t some prank?”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Jake said, and a couple more seconds of silence found both of them sitting on Rich’s bed. “I was serious, you know.” Jake said, and he smiled a little. “I like you more without the Squip.”
“Apparently.” Rich breathed.
“How long have you had a crush on me?”
“Well, I mean— Matt would tell you since the beginning Freshman Year. But honestly, I think it was earlier than that.”
Jake raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Um—” Rich was bright red again. “Would you believe me if I said I kind of really liked watching you in gym class in 8th grade?”
Jake burst out laughing, and Rich’s face turned an even darker red. “Hey, don’t be mean! You know how many guys have probably had sexuality crises because of you?!”
“Yeah, well I only like one of those guys,” Jake said teasingly, and Rich went bright red again.
They were quiet for another minute before Jake spoke up again. “So now what? Do we kiss?”
“I think that’s usually how this goes.” Rich said. “But only if you want to.”
Jake leaned forward and pressed his lips on Rich’s. And then they both sat there for a while. They didn’t use tongue, they didn’t dissolve into desperation, because they both seemed to get it wasn’t necessary. That they could do this again any time they wanted.
They did, however, forget to breathe for a while until Rich finally pulled away gasping. “I need a minute, I have smaller lungs than you.” he said, sticking his tongue out.
Jake laughed, and then there was another one of those comfortable pauses. “Hey.” Jake said, his voice mischievous. “We don’t have to tell anyone we’re dating just yet, do we?”
Rich got where he was going, and managed to grin back even as his heart soared at the fact that Jake had just confirmed that they were dating.
“No, I think they need to stew on this for a while. Make them annoyed by how idiotic we are. And I can give you a forlorn look every now and then so no one gets any ideas.”
Jake laughed. “Did you really do that?”
“Well, not anymore. Not for real.”
Jake kissed him again, for less time than before, and smiled when he pulled away. “Good.” He said definitively, and followed it up with, “When do we tell them?”
“My birthday.” Rich answered without hesitation. “Where there will be absolutely no chocolate cake.”
“Wait, you don’t like chocolate cake?”
“Nope. The Squip seemed to think that wasn’t acceptable.”
“Because it’s not. Oh my God, I’m breaking up with you.”
“I would probably be more heartbroken had we not gotten together mere seconds ago.”
“Fine, I’ll break up with you on your birthday.”
“Well then no one would ever know we were dating!”
Jake gave a clearly fake groan. “Fine! You have until then to win back my favor.”
Rich grinned again, pretty sure this was the happiest he had ever been in his whole life. “I’ll see what I can do.”