Chapter Text
“So the big day is finally coming. I’ll be honest, thought I’d be in the ground before it ever happened.”
“Very funny Nicky,” Jason replied as sarcasm dripped from his lips. “It’s only been three years.”
“Yeah! Three whole god damn years! Do you realize how insane it is to be engaged to someone that long and not have at least moved in together?”
“We’re traditional.”
“Uh, neither you or Clarice is traditional.”
“Then our families are. Ok? Besides, no need to fuckin’ rush it.”
“Oh, Mr. Kolchek said a bad word,” gasped one of the kids.
Jason turned to look at the class. “And you curse more than a smashed biker in a bar and I have never told your mother that. Focus on the test.”
The class laughed as their eyes went back to their test, though a few glanced up to look at Jason and Nick.
“Isn’t your mother the one who said weddings are like heroin to her and she absolutely needs one more before she dies?”
“It was a joke.”
“Once is a joke. I’ve heard her on three separate occasions actually say it. I think she means it.”
“Well, I am getting married now. Ok? The engagement period is finally over.”
The entire classroom lit up with cheers.
Jason yelled, “Hey! Focus on the test!” The class erupted into laughter and to be fair, Jason couldn’t help but smile at the kids.
He focused back on Nick as his best friend said, “You watching the game tonight?”
“Of course. Clarice is coming over too.”
“She was here when Zain was a kid too, right?”
“She was just starting. A student teacher,” Jason replied. “But yeah, I think she tutored him some. I imagine the whole town is going to be watching tonight.”
“You imagine? America actually has a fuckin chance this year at the World Championship and it’s in part thanks to our whiz kid Zain who was one of the youngest players accepted onto his team and he completed college early with like a 3.5 GPA just so he could accept the contract. Of course everyone is going to watch it! Hell, I’ll even call soccer football from now on if he helps us win.”
Jason laughed at that. He remembered when Zain had been on the team in high school and how insistent he’d been calling it football. To be fair, once you started thinking about it, the name did make more sense. “I bet Salim is proud of him.”
“I’m sure. You still talk to him?”
“Whenever I’m at the library, but I mean, this is a small town. I bump into him like weekly at the grocery store. Don’t you?”
Nick laughed. “Yeah, fair point.”
At that moment, the bell rang. “I wish detention could always be this empty,” said Nick. “Way more fun talking to you.”
“I can imagine. Alright! Papers in. Come on! Hurry it up!” Jason waved everyone to the front as a few kids scribbled in last minutes answers and the others started to pack up.
It was a normal day in a completely normal, little town. Jason Kolchek had been the history teacher and coach for several years now. His family was from there and he’d moved back after retiring early from the army. In a rather roundabout way, Nick Kay had followed him. First, just needing an honest friend after they’d left the army at the same time. Then he’d stuck around a bit longer after meeting Rachel King before straight up moving there. The whole love triangle between Rachel, her husband, and Nick had been quite the talk of the town a few years ago. Jason still didn’t fully understand how they’d managed to end it somewhat amicably. Or maybe just no one had thrown a punch in public. But Nick was still working at the school that Eric was the principle of so clearly somehow the three of them were on ok terms.
After the divorce, Rachel had actually left to restart the career she’d put on hold. Though she had promised she was coming back down for the wedding. Jason was friendly with everyone in town, but there weren’t many he’d call friends. Rachel just barely fit that bill, though that was partially because they’d grown up next to each other.
Despite the whole fallout, Nick had stayed, saying he’d fallen for the little town.
“I’ll catch you later,” Nick said. “Also, Clarice said to meet her in the teacher’s lounge.”
A chorus of ‘oooo’s went around the room as the remaining kids put their tests on his desk and left. Jason waved them away with a quick ‘get’ before grabbing the stack and heading for lunch.
Yes, it was a completely normal, perfectly average day. Jason had lunch with his fiancé. Neither got any work done as they both complained about the same annoying kids in class and talked about the end of the year coming up and graduation for the seniors. He did his afternoon classes and then went to the second to last practice session with the soccer team. He got unexpectedly blasted with Gatorade as way of celebrating that the wedding was finally right around the corner. He’d gotten cleaned up from that and then headed home on his bike.
When the town was described as small, it truly was small. Jason didn’t have a car, not that he needed one. Besides, he usually just borrowed his parents if he was ever going out of town, not that either of them really needed to be driving as often as they did.
At home, he got to work on a few of the papers, completely forgot to actually prep anything for dinner, and ended up with an assortment of snacks grabbed from the cupboards when Clarice got there.
“You better know how to cook,” Jason teased as he stole the bowl of salsa from her.
“Jason Kolchek, you’ve known damn well for the last three years I can’t.”
“You can’t? Well shit. Better call the whole thing off.”
“Your mother would wring both our necks.”
“Fair fuckin’ point,” laughed Jason. He flipped to the right channel, much like most of the town was doing at that moment. Jason enjoyed sports. Hell, he was a coach for a reason, even if it was just high school. But it was also the end of the year and he needed to finish grading the last of the papers. Clarice was mostly in the same boat, being the tenth grade teacher for biology and the twelfth grade teacher for chemistry. They both made the occasional joke, passed over a snack, and glanced at the TV every now and then.
As the game went on, Jason couldn’t help paying more and more attention though as it didn’t look like the American team was going to outright lose. By the time it was all over, about three fourths of the grades were complete and Clarice and him were fully focused on cheering at the screen.
With only a few seconds left on the clock, Zain Othman scored the winning goal.
“I can’t believe he did it! Hell yeah!” yelled Jason.
“And to think, you taught him everything he knows.”
“I taught him maybe a fifth of what he knows, but I’ll take the compliment.”
Clarice laughed. “You made a good impression, and isn’t that what every teacher strives for?”
“Also taught him a swift kick in the shins will take any bully down. Not that Principle Peg Leg was very appreciative of that.”
“You can’t baby a bullying moment and kids have to learn to stand up for themselves. Besides, I wasn’t in that meeting but if I remember correctly, Zain’s dad left clearly trying not to smile.”
“He just appreciated I was looking out for his kid. That was freshmen year and they were still pretty new to town. By that point, the only thing foreign in nature this town had met was the Asian section of the grocery store.”
“Seriously, I don’t know how I ended up here.”
“Hey, before you think I’m only bashing my hometown, the folks are pretty descent. A few just needed a good kick in the butt. We’re lucky the Othmans moved here.”
“We are. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been Zain’s coach and he never would have just won the god damn World Championship.”
“Again, you are putting too much faith in my role as a high school coach, but I will take the compliment tonight.”
They both laughed again as they quickly cleaned up. The TV was still going when Clarice started to gather her work up. The celebrating had finally calmed down enough for reporters to get in and start interviewing the teammates. Jason paused with his hand on the remote as he and Clarice watched Zain get interviewed.
It was all good, heartwarming, excited young adult talk as Zain’s accent thickened from how quickly he was stringing the words together. As the reporter was winding down to the end and clearly looking to talk to someone else though, Zain said, “And I’d also like to give a shout out to a teacher and coach in my life, Jason Kolchek. He was a great mentor and I was lucky to have him when I first moved to America. Oh, and he’s gay.”
In quick succession, Zain rushed off into the crowd, the TV was suddenly turned off, and a loud crashing sound came from outside.
“Jason,” Clarice slowly said, “did you just throw the remote outside and break the potted plant on your front porch?”
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Yes?”
They both stared at each other for a second longer. “I’m sure it was joke.”
“Definitely.”
“This generation, am I right?”
“Yeah, I mean who cares about soccer? Pfft no one.”
“I’m sure no one else watched that.”
“Ok, now that was a bit a sarcastic.”
“Hold on. You’re not actually worried, are you? No one’s going to care. It was a joke.”
“Well of course it was a joke. We’re getting married in three days.”
“Yep. And it’s not like there’s any hesitation there, huh?”
“None.”
“Uh huh.”
“Do you want me to say yes?”
“No, no. I’m just saying.”
“So we’re good.”
“Definitely.”
“Just a dumb joke--”
“That no one is going to remember,” finished Clarice with a quick kiss. “It’ll be fine.”
Suddenly, the phone started ringing.
“Ok, now who the hell is that at this hour,” groaned Jason. He picked it up. “This is--”
“Uh, Jason, did you see the end of the game?” Nick said before Jason could even finish the sentence.
“What do you think? What the hell was that all about?”
“I don’t know. You knew the kid better than me. Any idea why Zain of all people would say that?"
"I really don’t know.”
“Are you ok?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. It’s nothing to worry about. Right? Just a dumb joke from a dumb kid.”
“Uh huh.”
“Okay, now why the fuck did you and Clarice sound the exact same when you went ‘uh huh’?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re completely right. No reason to worry. Just a dumb joke that no one’s going to remember tomorrow.”
“Exactly.”
“Yes sir. No one’s going to care. I’ll see you at school tomorrow, yeah?”
“Yeah of course. Can’t fuckin’ bail at the end of the school year. I’ll see you tomorrow Nick.”
“Bye.”
Right as Jason put the phone down, it rung again. An exasperated look came across his face. He pulled it to his ear. Before a word could get in, he recognized Joey’s voice on the other side. “So about that interview after the game...”
“I have no idea what that was about.”
“Yeah, I mean, man that shit was crazy. Right?”
“Definitely.”
There was an awkward silence for a second.
“Listen, I need to be gettin’ to bed. I know it’s the end of year but I still got class tomorrow--”
“Oh, yeah of course man. I’ll catch you later.”
“Uh huh. Bye.”
This time, Jason managed to take two steps away from the phone before it rang again. Clarice snorted.
“I’m gonna chuck it out the window,” groaned Jason. He picked it up.
“So when you said ‘blow me’ the other day, was that an actual invitation--”
“Fuck off Merwin.” Jason didn’t even bother to continue that conversation as he hung up again. The phone started to ring for a fourth time. Jason answered and yelled into the receiver, “No thank you, we don’t want any, good night!” He hung up and ripped the entire phone off the wall.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Are we under siege? What the hell is goin’ on! If I answer the door and it’s fuckin’ Merwin, I’m gonna kick him down the-Mom, Dad, what a surprise!” A very forced smile came across Jason’s face as he stepped back from the newly opened door.
Clarice had a face that clearly said she was trying not to laugh as she barely got out a, “Good evening Mr. And Mrs. Kolchek.”
“Evening Clarice,” said Jason’s dad. “Um, about what that kid said on TV...are you...”
“What? No! Of course not.”
An only somewhat uneasy laughter went around the room.
“Got any idea why he’d say such a thing?” asked his dad.
“Not a clue! But kids though, am I right?”
“They are somethin’ I guess. So...the wedding isn’t off?”
“Why does everyone keep askin’ me that. No! No, we are definitely still getting married.”
“Well, honey,” Jason’s mom suddenly butted in, “I just want you to know that no matter what, we love you.” Her sweet smile suddenly turned very serious. “But I need to experience another wedding before I go. It’s like heroin to me.”
Ok, maybe Nick had a point. “Well do not worry Mom, there is definitely a wedding still on.”
“We won’t let you down Mrs. Kolchek,” joked Clarice.
“Oh, you never could sweetheart. I’m just glad this one here finally decided to keep going through with it. I thought you’d be engaged still by the day I died.”
Another round of laughter went around, this one just barely containing a hint of unease and that was mostly from Jason.
“Uh, son, why are you holdin’ your phone by the by?”
“Just fixing it.”
“Well, there’s a mess on the front porch you need fixin’ to. You got a broken pot out there.”
“I will get right on that,” sighed Jason.
“Can we take you home Clarice?” asked his mom.
“Thank you, that would be great. I was just heading out anyways.” Clarice grabbed her bag and gave Jason a quick kiss on the cheek. “No one’s going to care tomorrow. It’ll be fine.”
“Yep,” Jason tried to convince himself. “Totally fine.”
He saw them all out and waved goodbye. When he closed the door, he didn’t even get a chance to dramatically slam his head against it. The landline in the kitchen started to ring. Jason quickly ran around the house unplugging that one and the one upstairs before he collapsed on his bed with a pile of phones in his arms.
“No thank you, we don’t want any, good night!” The line suddenly clicked and Salim was left staring at the phone. He thought about calling back for a second, but decided against it. Clearly, Jason had a lot on his mind right now.
Salim had no idea what Zain had been thinking.
Well...he kind of did, but he hadn’t thought his son was actually serious. Salim would have to find Jason and apologize to him tomorrow. As for Zain, Salim didn’t bother trying to call the hotel he was in. Besides the fact he was in Europe and there was the time difference to consider, Zain was definitely still celebrating at that moment. Salim would let his son enjoy the celebrating for now. After he apologized to Jason tomorrow, he’d call his son and give him an absolute earful.