Chapter 7

 

       It took me about a couple weeks to get over Jack moving away. I spent most of that time cooped up in my room, sometimes fidgeting with the Bionicles toy and just staring up at the ceiling other times. Mom tried to console me every now and then, but it never worked. The fact that my best friend had left was just too much to get over so easily, or at least for me anyway.

       The next three years rolled by a little slowly without the excitement that I always had with Jack living in the town. I had managed to pick up a few other friends along the way, but I didn't think any of them were as great as what Jack was. As time progressed, I had started to miss Jack and all the crazy ideas he got even more.

       Also, during the eighth grade, I discovered that it was the same gender I felt attracted to and not the opposite. I had became more aware of what love was over the years and I realized that what I felt for Jack was love. Not only that, but the fact that I had a hard time averting my eyes in the changing rooms during gym was also a good clue at what my sexuality was. When I figured out that I was gay, it didn't bother me. Instead I just simply accepted it as it was and left it at that. I didn't bother telling anyone about it though because I was somewhat aware of the fact that there were some people who didn't accept gays, and I didn't really want to take the chance of getting beaten into a bloody pulp.

       During those five years, Jack's house had never been bought once. Because of this, it actually surprised me to hear that someone was buying it during the summer after eighth grade. Mom said that she didn't know who it was this time though, but I couldn't help but to get a certain hunch that I knew who it was. Maybe it would be Jack's family? I didn't try to get my hopes up though so I wouldn't have to suffer from them being crushed when I came to find out that it wouldn't be Jack's family that bought the house.

       The family moved into the house in the middle of July. When I heard Mom make the announcement around noon that they had moved in the previous night, I walked over to a window to peer down the street. My heart skipped a beat. The van looked familiar. A smile came onto my face as hope began to fill me. Could it really be them? Well, there was only one way to find out.

       I quickly told Mom I was going out for a while, not bothering to stick around in time to see if she could understand my fast talk as I burst out the front door. It didn't take long for me to run down the street to get to the house. I saw Jack come out of the house before seeing me and running down the driveway to meet me at the edge of the road.

       Jack didn't really look any different than what he did when he was younger; he still had the usual short black hair and he wore the same athletic style of clothing. The only differences were that he was much taller – still about a head or so taller than me – and he looked older.

       “Hey!” he greeted, his voice deeper than it was before, a wide smile on his face.

       “Hey,” I said, also smiling, though not as much as what Jack was. “So you came back huh?”

       “Hey, I made a promise didn't I?” he asked as the smile turned into more of a smirk. “Kind of nice to see nothing has changed too,” he added as he looked around a little bit before looking back at me. “So did ya miss me?”

       “Nope, I had a wonderful time without you.” I smirked.

       “Yeah right,” he said as he gave me a playful push.

       We walked across the street and started to cross the field at a slow pace. We started to talk a little, catching up on all the things we did over the years. I didn't really have much to share because I didn't really do much during those years, or at least nothing that cool to talk about anyway. Jack talked about how he moved a couple other times after he moved away from here.

       “Dad can never settle for one job for too long,” he explained. “Kinda pisses me off sometimes because as soon as we get used to living in one place, we end up moving somewhere else.” A quiet sigh escaped his mouth before he smiled a little. “At least I'm back here now though.”

       “Yeah, but for how long?” I asked.

       “I don't know,” he replied with a shrug. “Hopefully for a while though. It would be kind of nice to be able to stay in one place until high school is over.”

       I nodded, also hoping he would stay here for a while—for longer than just a year like last time.

       “Oh, and I still have that toy car,” Jack said a few seconds later before smirking a little. “Hope you don't want it back though, because I'm keeping it.”

       “Why do you even want it still?” I asked.

       “Because it's mine. You're the one who decided to give it away.”

       “Fine, I'll just keep the Bionicles toy then,” I replied, also smirking a little.

       Both of us chuckled some. I was actually kind of surprised to hear that Jack had kept the toy car for so long. With the way Jack was, I thought he would have ended up losing it. We didn't talk anymore about the keepsakes we had given to each other though, but instead went onto other things like what we were interested in now. It turned out that we still had a lot of common interests.

       We hung out for the rest of the day. When the sun began setting, we decided that we should probably head back to our houses, and that's what we did. I parted ways with Jack when we reached his driveway, both of us saying bye to each other as we did so. As I walked up to my house, I couldn't help but to think that Jack and I would become great friends like we were when we were younger.

Reviews

[Eidolon Michael]

Hmmm, the whole Jack thing was nice, but the reunion seemed a little...I dunno, dry? It was a bit too...it just seemed as though he had only moved for like a year, not 5, know what I mean? If I went five years without seeing my best friend, I'd probably burst into tears or something once I saw them again. And conversation would probably be really akward between us because of how long it had been, it'd be hard knowing what to say. Other than that, it was a good chapter. I can't wait to see where this goes ^_^

[Mekin]

I like the story so far, but I feel that chapter two is the best typed so far. This chater was nice, though it wouldn have been cooler with a plot twist. Instead of it being Jack, it could've been another family. Making it more interesting - showing a form change in his emotions and building of an relationship towards the new family. Who knows, the narrator could've developed similar feelings towards the new neighbor's son and end up being him. Thus, finally, when Jack returns there will be conflict. But I'm glad that you've been writing a lot lately. I do enjoy your work and kind of missed signing on to read. lol.

[Amund Schofield]

this chapter is very... well loose. It doesn't have a polish, or at least it doesn't seem as polished as the rest. It doesn't do as good a job drawing the reader in as the rest. I would like to see you work on that.