It's a Friday night, and Jake is lying in bed alone.
It's not like he’s never spent a Friday night alone before; it's actually something he has a lot of practice in, whether he likes to admit it or not. He’s spent more nights alone than not, in the grand scheme of things. He knows how to be alone. It’s fine.
It's been a while, is all. He’s grown used to having a certain someone around wherever he goes, especially in his bed. Initially against his will, and then just against his better judgement. Amir has always been around, for years now, but for the last few months it’s been different. They’re— they're together now. They’re officially dating, and it’s been good. It’s been really good, but it’s not like Jake is the kind of guy that defines himself by his relationships. It's nice that he has a boyfriend that he lo— likes. That he likes a lot. It’s new but it’s good; he’s not exactly crossed the valley into saying I love you yet, because that's scary, and they don’t live together officially because that's also scary, even if Jake can count on one hand the number of nights Amir has spent at his own apartment in the last two months.
So, like, Jake should probably be happy to have the night to himself. Amir is crashing with one of his insane friends from back home for the guy's bachelor party, and Jake can hear his own thoughts for once. His apartment is almost dead silent; even the New York City noise seems quieter than usual, barely a whisper, and Jake closes his eyes and tells himself to try and enjoy it before it’s too late. In a few hours, Amir will be back, probably slamming open the door and jumping on the bed and waking Jake up with a kiss that holds all the desperation he felt for him while he was away.
Jake isn’t desperate, though. Jake is normal, and he misses Amir a normal amount, and definitely doesn’t feel the crushing weight of his absence even though it's only for one night. He’s not some codependent loser who is just sitting around staring at the clock and waiting for his boyfriend to text him. He’s not.
He watches the tiny digital clock in the corner of his phone screen turn 9:27, and then 9:28, and then locks it with a sigh. Still no word from Amir.
This is crazy. Amir texts him a hundred times in a row every single day, but now Jake can’t even get one text? One measly text? He deserves so much more than this. Just because he’s out committing arson or whatever the fuck with his loser friends he's forgotten about Jake?
This sucks.
His phone dings, and he scrambles to check it, even though it was still just sitting on his chest from the last time he looked.
It’s from Amir, and Jake reads it grinning.
could never be forever night without you here babe. just sometimes night. L O L
It’s followed immediately by what is very obviously a picture of Amir and some of his friends handcuffing each other to some train tracks, laughing, and it’s more or less what Jake expected but he still feels anxiety creeping up his spine.
Be careful.
The next text comes in less than a minute later.
train clipped me but am ok. bradel is legit bleeding out right now though L O L
Go to a hospital, he replies straight away. He already had it typed out, expecting some kind of grievous injury. Part of him is just glad it wasn’t Amir.
bradel says hes feeling better now, Amir texts him less than thirty seconds later, so it’s obviously bullshit. he says its just sicolojicul.
Still, you should probably go to the hospital, right? He shoots back straight away. Jake doesn’t like worrying, but he can’t help it, even when he knows that this is what Amir’s friends do, and they end up generally fine.
yo fine but only because i love you, Amir says, and then sends a selfie of him and some guys Jake doesn’t recognize presumably in the back of an ambulance, from the looks of things. He has no idea how they did that so fast, but at least he knows Amir is fine.
Please be respectful to the paramedics, he says, because he’s too scared to say I love you too.
Also because Amir has a history of biting paramedics, so it never hurts to cover his bases.
I miss you <3, Amir responds, and Jake smiles even though he knows he’s gonna have to max out his credit card to cover whatever medical bills Amir manages to rack up for himself.
I miss you too.