Chapter Text
Smoke unfurled into a big white cloud in front of Marcus's face. Jayden scrunched his nose, not particularly enjoying the smell of cigarettes even after years of being around his boyfriend while he smoked. "You really should quit," Jayden mumbled.
"Ugh. You should quit talking so much," Marcus retorted. He was leaning against a big tree with a trunk large enough for the pair to stand next to each other.
Marcus tilted his head back to look up at the leaves. As he studied the way the beams of sunlight shone through the gaps in the branches, he felt a hard punch land on his shoulder.
"Hey!" He exclaimed. "What was that for?"
Jayden rolled his eyes. "You told me to quit talking, so I punched you instead," he responded simply.
"Naturally," Marcus responded before taking another drag of his cigarette. Jayden frowned.
"You know, if you get lung cancer, I'm going to be pissed."
"Okay," Marcus grumbled, unbothered. He then looked up at Jayden, who was towering over him at an astounding six feet tall. "Why're you staring at me?"
Jayden huffed out a little laugh. "I'm waiting for your dumb ass to be done so we can go sit down," he said, gesturing vaguely with his hand to a cluster of picnic tables. A few of them held families, others with couples or people alone and glued to their phones.
Marcus took one last puff of his cigarette before flicking it onto the sidewalk and snuffing it out with his shoe. "Kay, let's go. Why so impatient?" he asked, a grin spreading on his lips.
Jordan let Marcus grab his hand and he laced their fingers together. "I am not impatient. You just take too long and I get bored," Jaden explained.
"So... You're impatient.
"Nope."
"Um, yes."
"No."
"You're impossible," Marcus grumbled, and all he could do was laugh the entire way to the picnic table.
Marcus gestured for Jaden to sit down at the bench. After he did, Marcus followed suit and plopped down next to his boyfriend. Jaden wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into his side with ease.
Marcus laid his head on Jaden's shoulder. But then, he noticed an old lady staring straight at the pair of boys with an unmistakable judginess in her eyes. Marcus's stomach churned with unease.
Jaden felt her eyes on them, too, but he made a point to not look over at her. He felt Marcus tense up, so he squeezed his shoulder and rubbed his thumb in little circles over the fabric of Marcus's t-shirt. "Want me to go steal her walker or something?" Jayden joked.
"Jay!"
"What? She's over there giving us the stink eye," Jayden said, making Marcus giggle.
"Yeah, I know... Just flip her off or something," Marcus replied. To his surprise, Jayden, without an ounce of hesitation, presented his free hand and stuck up his middle finger. He was staring right back at the nosy stranger.
The woman clutched at her chest as if personally offended. Eventually, though, she relented and started walking down a far away sidewalk. Marcus and Jaden both bursted into fits of laughter.
After their laughs died down into little giggles and their giggles faded away, Marcus and Jaden were left looking right into each other's eyes, sporting matching dumb grins on their faces.