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Awsten is grounded. Again. He missed his curfew for the third time in a month and now his mom is mad at him. When he tried to explain that none of that was his fault - he did try to be home for ten o’clock, and why does he have a curfew at seventeen anyway - his mom threatened to ground him for another week.
This would be fine, if Awsten had any credit left on his phone. His mom also took the cable out of the back of his computer, so he can’t use MySpace or anything. What did people do before the internet? Awsten has considered sending a physical letter but by the time it gets to Jawn, he’ll be ungrounded anyway.
Grounded means, in essence, no Jawn. This is Awsten’s worst nightmare. Jawn is his boyfriend, his best friend, his rock. The only person who truly knows him. Being without him feels so achingly lonely. Awsten is not much of an actual rule breaker, but mom never said he couldn’t leave his room. Just that he had to stay in the house, no computer, no more phone credit.
“Gracie.” Awsten slips into his little sister’s room and shuts the door behind him. She’s lying on the floor, doing her biology homework. “I need to borrow your phone.”
She narrows her eyes at him as he sits down in front of her. “You’re grounded, mom said so.”
“Grounded from using my phone, not yours. Please, I just wanna call Jawn.” He begs.
“You saw him at school. Nothing will have happened to him in the last five hours.” Gracie shrugs and looks back down at her homework. “Do you know what the chambers of the heart are called?”
“No.” Awsten says. He probably does if he thinks hard enough, but he doesn’t want to do that.
“Then you can’t have my phone.”
“Jesus, fine.” He points to the lower chambers on the diagram of the heart on her worksheet. “I think those are the ventricles, and then the upper ones are the atriums. Atria? I dunno.”
“That’ll do.” Gracie writes those answers down, then pulls her phone out of her school bag.
She only has one to contact Awsten if he forgets to pick her up from school. He’s supposed to walk her home, even though she’s old enough to do it herself now. Mom seems convinced that someone will snatch Gracie off the street unless Awsten - the average height skinny scene kid who’s scared of his own shadow - walks her home. Sure, whatever helps her sleep at night.
“Thank you so much. I’ll be back in like, five minutes.” Awsten scrambles to his feet and leaves the room.
“Don’t do anything weird with it!” Gracie shouts after him.
Once he’s back in his room, he sits on the top bunk of his bed so he has a chance to hide the phone if his mom walks in. He knows Jawn’s number off by heart now. It takes a few rings - he imagines Jawn scrambling to dig his phone out from under a pile of CD’s - but eventually he picks up.
“Hello?” Jawn says cautiously - probably because he doesn’t recognise the number.
“Jawn, hey, it’s me.” Awsten says as quietly as he can.
Jawn’s voice changes completely, to something soft and excitable. “Baby! Hey, I thought your mom took your phone.”
“I borrowed Gracie’s. Look, I don’t have long. I just wanted to say that I love you and I hope you have a good night.” Awsten whispers. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah, of course. I love you too, I miss you.” Jawn’s voice is small like he’s about to cry. “As soon as you’re not grounded we have to have a sleepover.”
“I dunno, my mom has gotten super wary about you being in my room with the door closed since she found out about us.” Awsten giggles.
Jawn snorts. “Maybe you should be quieter, then.”
“Oh shut up. You’re just as bad.” Awsten fires back, still giggling. “Okay, okay, I need to give Gracie’s phone back before my mom finds out. I love you, alright?”
“I love you too baby.” Jawn makes kissing noises down the phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Awsten hangs up. He has to sit for a moment and take a deep breath so he doesn’t start crying. Once he is sufficiently calm, he returns Gracie’s phone and goes downstairs to get himself a glass of water. Calling Jawn has made him feel better and worse. At least he knows Jawn is okay, but hearing his voice has made him miss him more.
His mom is sitting at the kitchen table, sorting through some mail that she didn’t get to this morning. She smiles as he passes her, and he does his best to smile back.
“You okay, honey?” She asks as he fills a cup at the sink.
“Yeah. I just miss my boyfriend.” Awsten says.
It still feels weird, saying things like that in front of his mom. Even though he knows it’s safe for him to do so now, he still gets a jolt of fear through him. Mom has been very good about it all. She still treats them both the same, although she has started referring to Jawn as her ‘son-in-law’.
“Well, you shouldn’t’ve gotten yourself grounded then.” She says, not turning to look at him. “Let that be a lesson to you.”
He sticks his tongue out at her while she can’t see him. “When I’m ungrounded, can he come over?”
“Brave, asking me that when you’re still grounded.” She clicks her tongue. “But Jawn is always welcome here.”
“Thanks, momma.” Awsten gives her a quick hug. “You’re the best.”
“You’re not getting your phone back for another two days.” Mom pats him on the cheek.
“Worth a shot.” He kisses her on the side of the head and goes back upstairs.
Awsten is tired, so he decides to just go to bed early. He has nothing better to do with no Jawn to talk to. It’s hot out, so he leaves his window open. Rummaging through his closet, he finds one of Jawn’s shirts that he… liberated once when he stayed over. He keeps it hidden like his own little secret for when he really misses Jawn.
He pulls it on and crawls into bed. It’s too hot for his blankets so he kicks them all off the bed. He curls up on his side and slowly falls asleep.
It’s pitch black when he wakes up to someone touching his face. He almost lashes out until he hears a voice he recognises through his sleepy haze. For a moment he thinks he must be dreaming, but he opens his eyes and Jawn is crouching beside his bed in front of him.
“It’s me, it’s me.” Jawn whispers, running his fingers through Awsten’s bangs.
“Jawn, what-”
“Shush, you’ll wake your parents.” Jawn climbs onto the bed beside Awsten. “Sorry, for showing up like this. I missed you too much.”
“S’okay.” Awsten whispers, shuffling over to make room for Jawn beside him. The bed really isn’t big enough for both of them, but that’s fine. It’s better if they’re touching as much as possible. “How did you get in?”
“Your window was open. Your screen is pretty easy to get off from the outside.” Jawn touches his nose to Awsten’s. “You should get that fixed. Someone might break in.”
“Not a problem if it means I get to see you.” Awsten chuckles. “This is like one of those cringey teen movies where the main couple sneaks around to see each other.”
“Does that make me the guy in this relationship? It’s always the guys climbing in through the window.”
“We’re both the guy, dumbass. That’s how being gay works.” Awsten laughs and Jawn shushes him again. “Sorry, sorry. I’m just so happy to see you.”
“Me too, baby.” Jawn kisses him on the forehead. “You need to stop getting grounded so we can actually hang out.”
“Stop making me late for my curfew, then.” Awsten kisses Jawn gently, slowly as he savours him. “By being the prettiest boy in the whole world.”
“We need to get our own apartment so we stop having this problem.” Jawn smiles against his lips.
“Do you have money for an apartment? Because I sure don’t.” Awsten sighs. “Let’s focus on getting out of high school first, huh?”
Jawn hums and kisses Awsten again. They make out lazily for a while, until they can barely keep their eyes open. Neither of them wants to go to sleep, but they have school in the morning. Jawn decides to stay the night and leave just in time to get home before his parents wake up. It’ll be like he was never gone.
It’s foolproof, in theory. Awsten curls himself around Jawn, chest pressed against his back. He kisses Jawn’s shoulder, buries his nose into his neck. It’s so nice to be back with him. Nothing could ruin this.
“Awsten Constantine Knight!”
They’re awoken again by Awsten’s mom, standing in the bedroom doorway. The sun is well and truly up, shining in through the open blinds. Awsten shoots up, putting an arm protectively over Jawn. Ah, fuck. They slept through the alarm they set to prevent this from happening.
“Momma-” Awsten struggles to come up with an explanation as to why Jawn is in his bed right now.
“This was my idea.” Jawn says quickly. “Kick me out if you want, don’t ground him again.”
Mom looks between the two of them, then smiles. “You two are lucky I find you cute. Don’t do this again, alright?” She says, then turns and leaves the room.
Awsten and Jawn stare at each other for a moment, then descend into giggles. Jawn wraps his arms around Awsten and pulls him back down onto the bed. They laugh until they can’t breathe.
“God,” Jawn wipes his bleary eyes, “One of these days you’re gonna get me into so much trouble.”
“At least it’ll be fun.” Awsten kisses Jawn’s collarbone. “We better get up before my mom changes her mind.”
Fortunately, Jawn’s parents don’t question where he is. Awsten doesn’t get his phone back for another week. It’s worth it, though. It’s always worth it to be with Jawn.