Chapter Text
Jack’s break ended too quickly for him to feel better about the uncomfortable situation he’d created between himself and Parse, and by the time his shift ended later that morning, Parse had already left without a goodbye. So, yeah, maybe Jack should have got the message that Parse didn’t want to talk to him. Maybe Jack should have got the message that he, himself, had initially been trying to send, which was that as cool as Parse was and as fun as he could be to hang out with and definitely as awesome as it was to hook up with him, their relationship was not going to turn into a relationship.
“God, he’s so cute.”
“Right? Jack is so lucky.”
Jack looked up from counting out his drawer and tried to pretend that he wasn’t listening to Katie and Dan talking quietly about him a little further into the breakroom.
“You think they’re together?” Katie asked, sounding disappointed.
Dan laughed and said, “I mean, as much as I’d love it if they weren’t, they clearly have something going on. Kent totally only comes in when Jack’s on.”
Katie huffed. “Maybe they’re just friends? It’s not like Jack ever talks about having a boyfriend.”
“Maybe not to you,” Dan replied—which made Jack bristle because he was most definitely not close enough with Dan to talk about boys or whatever. In fact, Jack was pretty sure the most he’d ever talked to Dan was asking him to cover a shift here and there. His coworkers, for the most part, were just that: coworkers, not Jack’s friends. He had plenty of friends on the hockey team and from some of his classes and, of course, Parse who, until very recently it seemed, was his best friend. “But I guess we’ll just never know,” Dan then added, loud enough that Jack clearly was meant to hear, “since it’s not like he’ll ever tell.”
“Dan,” Katie hissed, but it didn’t matter. Jack wasn’t going to dignify the bait with a response. It was nobody’s business but his own who he chose to spend his time with, and also, it was completely fucking rude for someone to suggest he just come out of the closet or whatever just because they were curious if someone else was single or not.
“What? I’m just saying…” Dan trailed off, like it was going to entice Jack to go over and join them in their gossiping.
Instead, Jack finished up with his drawer, dropped the money into the safe, and then took out his phone to send a text.
To: Parse
Why is everyone such an asshole?
His phone chimed with a response about twenty minutes later, after he’d already walked back to his off-campus apartment and dove into his World History reading for class tomorrow, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the response he probably should have been expecting, opening himself up the way he did.
From: Parse
takes one to know one Zimms
To: Parse
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Are you free to talk?
Parse didn’t respond again for a long time, long enough for Jack to finish up his reading and make himself lunch. He sighed aggressively, feeling put out for reasons he wasn’t entirely sure of, even though he kind of knew that it was his own fault. Parse could be so stubborn though, and it was frustrating not being able to get through to Parse. It was frustrating feeling off balance about the whole thing though too.
It should have been easy to get back to normal, considering that they’d cleared the air before they’d hooked up. It should have been so easy to just go back to being best friends the way they’d been before. Jack wanted that so badly. He wanted to be able to talk to Parse without feeling like he’d done something wrong. He wanted the closeness that they had before without feeling like—Jack didn’t know, actually. He had no idea what he was feeling, only that it wasn’t good.
From: Parse
working til 8, then gotta do that essay, sry.
To: Parse
Could I come over after work? I won’t get in your way, I promise.
From: Parse
idk man. gotta finish, can’t really get distracted
The phone suddenly rang before Jack could finish composing a response, and he fumbled to answer it after nearly dropping it in his surprise. “Parse?”
“I just realized you probably wanna, uh, you know, and yeah I guess that’s cool if you wanna come by,” Parse said, beating around the bush while also coming to straight to the point somehow. He was so good at that; it was infuriating, honestly.
“No,” Jack said quickly, because that really wasn’t what he wanted. He just wanted to hang, to talk maybe. To just exist in the same space because sometimes that was all Jack needed to feel calm and centered—chilling on the bed reading while Parse sat at his desk and did his problem sets, or maybe having Parse sit with him and do that thing he liked to do sometimes where he dragged his fingers through Jack’s hair and sort of massaged his scalp while he was reading through some article and Jack was ostensibly working on something while struggling to keep his eyes open under the relaxing onslaught. He just wanted all that. He wanted what they had and he didn’t want to have messed it up so terribly just because he’d gotten greedy and wanted something a little more.
Oh. Oh.
“Oh, uh sure, sorry I guess I got the wrong, uh, idea,” Parse was saying, but Jack quickly cut him off.
“—I mean, yes, that, but not only that.”
Parse was silent again, but Jack could still hear him breathing on the other end of the call. The silence felt loaded, until Parse said, softly, almost disbelieving, “You want more than that?”
“Yes,” Jack said quickly.
Jack could hear his grin when Parse responded, “Cool, then it’s a date.”