You've been best friends with the twins since second grade. Josh had sat with you inside during recess because you had forgotten your homework at home; he had actually gotten himself in trouble by talking back to the teacher and swears that he did it on purpose. "No one should be punished for an honest mistake, she was being ridiculous!" and a beautiful friendship had bloomed.
It feels like that was just yesterday, and all of a sudden you were getting ready to graduate. Twins still by your side along with their siblings and his youngest brothers best friend Daniel.
Currently sitting in the Kiszka's backyard beside the fire. As a "Last Hoorah" Josh said when he presented the idea.
"How does it feel knowing Monday you will officially be done with the grand 'Frankenmuth High'" Sam questioned with a huff taking the seat next to you. Arm slung around your shoulders drink in the other hand alcohol very apparent on his breath. "All I have to say is good riddance" you reply slight giggle while you slightly lean into him to keep him steady.
"Awh come on sunshine, it wasn't all that bad" Josh jokes standing in front of you two. "yeah yeah Joshua, now if I can be excused I want another drink" You say holding up an empty cup "Come on love, you can't leave me" Sam groans reaching out to you as you got up, you had a hunch he has a crush on you, it's very sweet but Sam is a heavy flirt, all the Kiszka boy's are. "Let the poor girl be Sam" Josh steps in sitting next to Sam. "I'll wait for you my love!" Sam dramatically shouts for everyone in a 5 mile radius to hear. You giggle walking past a group of people sitting around Jake, sharing stories of the year.
The relationship you had with Jake was different from Josh and Sam. Recently it's taken a turn for the worse. There's been some weird tension that came out of nowhere. He doesn't call you by any of the sweet nicknames him and his twin had given you growing up, any sort of physical touch gone, even glances your way during class that turned into making stupid faces from across the room trying to make the other person laugh had disappeared. You had decided to distance yourself from him, assuming he had a girlfriend and didn't want to cross an boundaries, which you respected but also thought he cared enough to acknowledge your existence or give an explanation.
Making your way into the kitchen to make another drink and grab Sam a bottle of water, you hear the back door open and close, choosing to ignore whoever just came in a continue with your drink.
"Sammy boy is really putting the moves there on ya" you hear from behind you, recognizing the voice as Jake's you tense up a bit. "He sure is, everyone in a 5 mile radius can hear him" he chuckles and comes to stand by you. "Can't blame the kid" is all he says grabbing the drink you had just made and turning around, you lightly grab his arm-feeling him tense "that's mine Kiszka, make your own. And what do you mean by that?" You say facing his back.
He finally faces you, eyes scanning your face. Having a war within himself, he has something he wants to say but he just won't.
After what feels like a lifetime of silence, he shakes his head muttering "nothing" and walking outside. Being left there dumbfounded, you have no idea what to do. You finally choose to follow him back outside and getting some kind of explanation. You must have sat there for longer than you thought because by the time you got to the fire Jake had his arm around another girl and didn't even look your way.
Deciding to let it go no matter the heaviness you felt in your chest, you walk back over to Sam Josh and Danny who were trying to "go find bigfoot". "My love has returned!" Sam cheers running to you "Glad you missed me Sammy" chuckling as you return the hug. "You seem sad what's wrong" he rushes out looking at your face. Josh shot a look in your direction with a raised eyebrow, sending him a look of 'i'll tell you later' while returning back to Sammy "I just missed you and couldn't stand to be away from you any longer" squishing his face and releasing the hug. " "Alright lover boy let's go to bed" Josh tries to drag him in the house. "No I can not deny my girl of my presence" he fights coming back to you,"I'll be here when you get up you need to lay down" He reluctantly gives in after I pinky promised to be here until he gets up in the morning.
Danny went inside with Sam, during this fiasco all the other people were gone from the fire and you assume they had all left, but no sign of Jake. Josh waves you over to the fire "come on talk to me" he pats your back as you take a seat next to him.
Josh was your person. He could read you like a book and knew exactly how to be there for you. He is your number one, but you hadn't talked to him about the Jake situation. You didn't want to put him in an awkward position.
So you sat there in silence for a minute debating if you wanted to let it all out. "You know you can talk to me right, about anything or anyone. I'm always here for you." He reassures sensing the state you're in. "Even if it's someone you share DNA with." you mutter. "Even if it's someone I share DNA with."
Letting out a sigh you begin, as you talk the angrier and more hurt you get. Alcohol amplifying said emotions, you feel a tear run down your face. "Hold on sunshine" Josh interrupts looking at your face wiping the tears, "not to make you feel bad, but why didn't you tell me any of this. I could have helped or talked to him." he seems hurt. "I didn't want to put you in a bad spot, things were fine just different between us but after tonight I don't know what that means or if I pushed a boundary. I don't want to upset him but I feel like that's all I've been doing and I don't know how." As you wiped your face from the excess tears, Jake was walking towards the fire from the front of the house.
Laying Directly next to you, was his acoustic guitar. Dammit. You quickly wiped your face to make sure it was dry. Just then making eye contact with him, his face flashed with concern and looked like he wanted to comfort. Yet, he grabbed his guitar and said goodnight.
As he walked in the house you turned to Josh "I know exactly what it is" Josh then looked at you with a smile. "How can you be smiling, and how do you know any of that, has he talked to you about this?" your mind is now racing, "I will not be the one to tell you but, I will go confirm it with dear Jacob, but listen to me when I tell you this. You have nothing to worry about because I know how you feel as well" He squeezes your shoulder as he stands up reaching out his hand for you to grab.
"You Kiszka's just hate giving explanations apparently. You stand your ground and don't grab his hand. “Please just trust me on this."He grabs your hand from your lap and pulls you up "On the other hand, you're going to lay down and go to sleep."
You both walk to the house, parting ways as he goes upstairs and you go to sleep in the living room. After grabbing the blankets and pillows you look at the clock and see it's only 1:00 a.m. As you go to lay down, you're still in jeans and didn't plan on staying the night so you didn't grab any clothes. You could go in Ronnie's room and use her's, but felt bad invading her space, so you opted for Josh.
As you're about to knock on the door it swings open, revealing Jake, not wanting to give him a chance to say anything "I didn't plan on staying the night so I was just coming up to ask Josh for some clothes to sleep in." You say slightly avoiding eye contact. "Oh, he's cleaning up outside. I'll grab you some" he motions for you to come in and sit on the bed.
You take a seat on Josh's bed as Jake grabs you clothes from his drawers. He hands you a pair of sweatpants, a faded 'Terry Reid' shirt that looked older than he was, and a 'Frankenmuth High Soccer' hoodie with Kiszka #8 on the back. You mutter a thank you and get up to walk out of the room. Suddenly Jake's gentle grip is felt on your wrist; stopping you in your tracks.
"Goodnight" He finally said and let your wrist go.
You go to the bathroom across the hall to change into the clothes and process whatever it was that just happened. After changing and brushing your teeth you head downstairs to sleep on the couch.
"You know Ronnie's at her friend's house for the night, you don't have to sleep on the couch" Jake says coming around the corner with two glasses of water in his hands.
“I'm okay with the couch, I don’t want to invade her space” you reply, adjusting the blankets and pillows on the couch before laying down, trying to avoid looking at him. “Suit yourself then. Here's water” he said, shrugging and setting the glass on the coffee table. Muttering a quiet “thank you” as you hear him go up the stairs. Sighing trying not to think about the situation with you and Jacob, you can't help but hear Josh’s words echoing in your head as you drift off to sleep.