Chapter Text
Rusty’s POV
Jack…Jack, Jack, ughhhhh……… why can’t I stop thinking oh him, we’ve been friends forever and since we’ve been kids he’s been stuck on my mind, like how am I meant to impress ladies if my mind is filled with my best friend. We may be a little too clingy, atleast that’s what my mom says. People have been up our throats about it since we were twelve, like seriously, that’s disgusting. Men dating is so weird.
“Rusty? You good honey?” My mom asked giving me a concerned look. “Oh yeah I’m fine, just thinking.” I replied. “Are you thinking of any girls?” My mom gives me a look as if she thought she was onto something. Although ladies did enter my train of thoughts, I wasn’t thinking of them, I was thinking if Jack and all his details, from how his fur shines in the sunlight to how his eyes sparkle in the dark. “Nope, just thinking of sports!” I replied almost quickly to get off the subject. My mom just looked me up and down and muttered “mhm…” in a sassy tone. I looked around for my dad for some support here but he was sleeping on the couch snoring, it always surprised me how easy it was to block them out when my mind went to Jack, I used to think about how I was unusually happy that me and Jack were friends and I’d spend hours thinking of when our next play date would be.
“What day are we?” I look over at my mom hoping she would say Friday since me and Jack both have football (soccer for the Canadians and Americans) after school. The two of us would run around, we’d get sweaty then we’d go to his or my place and watch movies. “We’re Thursday” my mom said grabbing her purse and checking the mirror, Well that sucks, guess no football, but at least I’ve got gym and science with Jack. I get up from our dining table and start walking to the door to say goodbye to my mum. She gives me a hug, kiss on both cheeks and gets going to the car. I look at the stovetop to check the oven clock and it says it’s 7:26, I get up, grab my bag an heed out to walk to my bus stop. I kick a few pebbles on my way.
The bus shows up and I hop on, my bus is always almost empty, guess that’s one of the cons of living out in the more country part of the area. I open my phone and text Jack, “Hey Jack, are you at your bus stop yet?”, I look at the window and see trees passing, all different and unique while carrying a similar look. I hear the ring and feel my phone jingle, “Yep, do you know how much longer until our bus is here?” Before I can even reply, we pull up at bus stop. I see a few kids hop on but nothing special until I see Jack. Time basically slows down as he’s walking to me, his fur moving slightly and his green bag on his back. His calm face gives me a weirdly warm feeling, like I just want to be near it, and that’s how close of friends we are, we’re always near each other, basically breathing down each others throats.
He sits next to me and the bus starts moving again. The bus shakes a bit but I get distracted by Jack handing me an ear plug, we zone out to Superstar by Toy-Box, it was the first song in me and jacks shared playlist as it was one of our favourite songs from when we were younger, I remember we’d even make a whole dance routine. As time goes by, the songs change until we make it to the school. I look at the building for a minute, just checking if I should enter or not, this was a regular and Jack usually just interrupts my thoughts by dragging me in but this time he doesn’t, he too looks at the school. I can recognize that face he has since it’s the same one I have now, he’s wondering if he should go spend the day playing something or stay in this weird building, although it’s rare so I guess there is something wrong. “Hey Jack…..” I take a breath, deep and personal talks aren’t really my thing. “Are you okay, your usually fine with going to school?” He takes a breath and puts on his best attempt at a fake smile but his eyes start watering. “I’m fi-“ he pauses, anytime I ask him if somethings wrong he usually say he’s fine when he’s clearly not. He take a breath, “Th-There is this class mate…” he breaths on the break of tears, I grab his shoulder and walk him to the side so he wouldn’t have to talk in front of the students and so he felt safer crying, I wouldn’t judge him for anything like that, it’s only natural. “What about the classmate?” I ask trying to get him to get it out. “Well, there is this classmate in my history class and she talks about her hate for people like me and it makes me feel bad and ashamed.” I pull him in a tight hug and roll circles on his back, I can feel the tears fall on my shoulder but I don’t say anything. “No need to be ashamed, you are a great person and you’re my best friend, so don’t let this random bitch ruin your day.” I assure, he just chuckles a bit and we stay like this for what feels like hours, all lovely and warm. I read many books where two dudes are the bestest of friends but these feelings never get mentioned, I wonder why. “If you don’t mind me asking, what do you mean by people like you?” I ask. But he just silently breaths, I’m assuming he either doesn’t want to answer or he’s asleep, either or, I won’t bring it back up. I hear the bell ring but decide not to move, for all I know Jack’s asleep and waking him up when he’s so comfy, let alone on me, feels wrong, not sure why but it does. I decide to take advantage of missing some classes to read my book Hairy Potter and the Sorcerer Stone, by J.K. Rowling (p.s. that bitch can die, rot in hell J.K. Rowling, I swear there is some plot to why he’s reading it), the story about some fuzzy dog learning magic at a wizard school, although my mom said I shouldn’t read it since magic is bad, I’ve heard good things about it, and it’s an English assignment and Mom says as long as I do good enough in that class, she wouldn’t mind as much. I read 35 pages before Jack wakes up and gets off, his warmth leaving with him. “Good morning sleepyhead” I say cheerfully, trying to ignore how I feel so lonely now, I just want Jack to be with me every minute of every day for my life. That’s a normal thing for buddies…. “What time is it?” Jack asks while yawning, I check my watch knowing that the answer may or may not upset him. I take a breath and say “9:15.” Jack gives me a shocked look, “Wait I was asleep for almost an hour and you didn’t think of waking me?!” “Well you looked comfy, plus who actually likes going to History (if you do I’m so sorry)” I spat back out at him. I mesmerized his schedule so I know he’s missed History, so that’s a plus. “But I’m sorry I didn’t, I know your parents dislike you not doing good in school and I’m sure skipping classes counts” I look a little sad, but mostly I’m mad at myself for not thinking of that. “It’s fine, they know of the girl, I’m sure they know I’m just missing one.” He sighs but gets his typical optimistic look back on his face. “We’ll that’s good, but anywho, now that you’re awake, what do you want to do?” I ask. “Why not go to the park, all I’ve got is public speaking next and attendance isn’t mandatory, as long as your doing good, for which I am doing well in that class, you only need to show up for presentations, the speaking aspect of public speaking.” He says laughing a bit, I laugh a little with him. “Sure why not, I don’t have any important classes next” I say, putting my book into my bag and picking it up. I give my hand to Jack and for the third time, those butterflies warm where Jack’s touching. I pull him up and we start walking, trying to be as discreet as possible so no staff sees us and runs to stop us. When we walk past the bushes that make up the parking lot, we stop worrying as they can’t see us, but we make sure to whisper the whole way until we blend into the houses of the nearby neighbourhood. “Do you know the way to the park, I don’t usually miss classes.” I nod silently and we continue walking to it, we eventually make it and find a spot to sit. Jack pulls out his sketchbook, there weren’t that many drawings in it, just portraits he makes, he’s got a couple of me and they look so good, well, they don’t always physically look good, but it’s the thought that counts. His eyes wonder around for something to draw until he looks at me with an embarrassed look. I’m guessing he’s going to draw me again, he’s got tons of those in his sketchbook. But I am a natural model so I’m not surprised, the only thing that surprises me is how I don’t have a girlfriend yet. I’m a hot dude that’s nice to everyone and I have the coolest best friend, the only thing even more surprising is how Jack doesn’t have one either, he’s got the most perfect body with a cute face, no homo though, but his face shines in the light with a perfect smile and the prettiest dark brown eyes, he’s not muscular but he’s not large either, he’s kind of in that middle ground where you’d be surprised how many people have him as their type, his legs, although look weak, help him run quicker then the captain of the cross country team, he’s always smiling when he’s running, when I asked him he said that running gives him a feeling of freedom. His tail, constantly shaking side to side, showing his joy for all of his passions. Basically he’s a total 12/10 and I can’t believe that I just thought that, that’s a normal thing to think about for your best friend…..right? I can’t believe I thought a dude was hot, even if he was, that’s against what’s natural to be into dudes, since I was a kid I’ve thought this. But anyways, I’ve seen girls confess to him but he always says that he’s “looking for the right one”, I think he’s just shy but it’s technically not my business so I’ll just make sure he at least gets a first kiss by the latest, graduation.
I take out my flute, although yes an odd talent, I still do enjoy playing it. I play a flute cover if Girls Like You by Maroon 5
Jack shakes his head to the beat. His pencil making all kinds of sounds and lines on the paper, Jack had been improving a lot since we were kids, I mean hey, at this angle I can see it’s me and it’s upside down, well for me, for Jack it’s right side up. When I finish I put away the flute and just grab the book from earlier and continue reading it.
I eventually check my phone and see that we have 10 minutes before lunch. “It’s time to start heading back if you don’t want to be late for lunch” I said with a bit of sadness in my voice, I don’t exactly want to go, but if we don’t then I worry what will happen after, our gym teacher wasn’t exactly the most calm person when it comes to missing his classes, plus I don’t want the left overs of whatever’s at the cafeteria. “Okay fine” Jack replied rolling his eyes, he closed his sketchbook and put it in his bag. “Want to continue listening to music?” He asked. “HELL YEAH!” I said a little loud, just glad no one’s out at this time. We decide that since it’s just us here, we don’t need to use the ear plugs, we play Hey Lover by Wabie (p.s. I get some of these songs from a Spotify playlist by Marz_tv on Spotify, links in the top notes, thanks)
We keep walking until we make it to the school with 2 minutes to spare, we turn off the music and just kind of wait for the bell to ring so we can enter and not have to worry about hall monitors. When the bell finally rings, we go in and walk to our lockers, luckily no one really saw us, we don’t want to explain why we still have our bags on. I put mine in my locker and grab some change in there, it isn’t much but it’s enough for a sandwich and 2 cookies, one for me, and one for Jack. I start heading to our usual table and see him already sitting down with his computer out. Jack usually packs his lunch in advance because he hates the long lines more than the time a frog snuck into his room when we had a sleepover.
“What’s with the computer?” I ask him. “Oh nothing much, just writing for an English class tomorrow, we need to do an assignment on Cults and their negative effects on society!” He says smiling. I giggle a little and pass him the cookie, in exchange he gives me a part of Lulu’s lovely brownies, she makes them every Christmas and she always have extra that Jack gives to me.
We spend our whole lunch here and just talk while Jack writes, eating slowly and sometimes checking our phones. Next class we have is gym and we go get changed, I stare at Jack shirtless, god is he so ho-… I mean he’s a true ladies man, all girls think he’s hot, but not me since we’re close friends and liking dudes is weird. I quickly change but then see him take off his pants to but on the gym shorts, he turns around to face his locker to put away his pants in the locker and I actually feel like boiling water, my face is warmer then any sun burn I’ve ever had, my mind races so bad that I don’t even realize Jack is now right next to me, “You good mate?” He asks, it shocks me back into reality and out of my head, “I’m fine Jack, no need to worry” I respond and finish getting dressed. We walk out and the teacher says we are swimming today. We start walking to the nearby pool that the school rents out during class times.
The class gets there eventually and we put our towels in the lockers there, and start walking to the actual pool area. The pool was large with a shallow area and a deeper area. At the beginning of the year we had to do a swim test to see if we could swim or not, me and Jack used to swim at his house so we were good. They allowed us to go swim anywhere so me and Jack decide to just swim around in the deep area. After a bit we go to the corner and just lie on the wall, I observe Jack as he turns to face those in the shallow side, maybe to see if anyone he knew needed help learning how to swim, Jack loved helping others. Jacks whole body is fantastic, he is, he’s cute, he’s sweet, he’s constantly there to help others, I just really want to kiss him… I just, I can’t believe I thought that, I don’t mean it…but, I do, I do just really want to kiss him, I want to have him near me for the rest of my life, but if Mom or Dad figured out that I would be kicked to the road. Tears start falling down my eyes and I start struggling to breath, Jack notices this and helps me out of the pool, he yells that he’s showing me where the bathroom is but when we get there he stays with me. “What’s wrong?” He asks concerned. “Nothing” I scoff trying to hold back tears. “I can tell you aren’t, but if you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have too” He says wrapping his arm around me bring the normal warm feeling that I’m now identifying as a crush, even though it’s stupid. My mind tells me to smack it away but I really don’t want to, I know my parents would be pissed if they figured out about this, but right now, I wish to stay like this forever. Or atleast for the next couple of minutes. He hugs me and my whole body is warm, for a couple seconds I forget why I’m crying.
I finally wipe my eyes, rinse my paws and splash some water on my face as if the tears wasn’t enough. Jack gets up and ask “Are you ready to go outside, we don’t have to if you wish not too?” I just simply nod to respond.
We walk out and I see Indy walking over. “Are you alright Rusty?” She asks me. “I’m fine” I say taking a breath. “W-Well I’ve got something to ask you.” Indy says. “We’ll what’s up?” I reply. “Can you and i talk after school today, near the outside cafeteria door?” I just simply reply with a yes and me and Jack go back to swimming but I’m not as optimistic as I was earlier. My thoughts are blinded by Jack and how it should’ve been obvious from the start, how obsessed I was with him, how he brought a smile anytime I was with him, how many nights I’d spend thinking of him, how many more nights I’d spend probably thinking of him.
For the rest of gym, we just raced from side to side until it was time to get out, for the locker rooms, I made it a point to not look at him.