“ Jake.” He says, and all the air rushes out of his lungs in one breath. “Hey.”
There’s a voice in the background; he can hear someone announcing boarding for a flight to Fresno over the intercom and he swallows around the sudden dryness on the back of his tongue. He's running out of time.
“Listen, I know you’re about to board, but I have to tell you something.” Bradley says and he runs a hand down his face in an effort to calm his nerves.
“Bradley—” Jake says, voice soft. It does nothing to hide his exhaustion and Bradley’s heart lurches violently in his chest.
“No, listen. Okay Jake? I need you to listen to me for just a second.”
"We will now begin boarding for flight 7036, service to Fresno—"
“Bradley.” Jake says again, and there’s rustling on the other end of the line as he begins gathering his things. He sounds distant, like the phone is away from his face and Bradley squeezes his eyes shut.
“I love you.” He says and it comes out all at once in a jumbled mess of words.
Jake is silent for so long on the other end of the line, that Bradley would have thought the call dropped if not for the sounds of the bustling airport filtering through the speakers on his phone.
“I love you,” Bradley says again, firmer this time. “And yeah, I know it’s a dick move telling you over the phone, but I had to tell you. You asked me, before you left what I wanted and I — I didn’t understand at the time, but I get it now. I want this, whatever it is, with you. I don’t know half of what I’m doing, and it's been so long since I’ve done anything like this with someone, but Jake, I’m sure. Hell, I’m so sure that I’m pulled over on the 264 and I just — I love you.”
He’s rambling, he knows and Jake still hasn’t said anything on the other end of the line, and it feels like Bradley’s chest is cracked open. Raw, gaping and bare.
“I just needed you to know that.”
“Fuck you.” Jake says after a long moment and Bradley’s heart drops to his stomach, but then there's a sniffle through the speaker and a wetness in Jake’s voice and Bradley grasps on to the flicker of hope he feels at the sound.
“Fuck you for telling me like this when I’m all the way across the country like this you asshole.”
And then he’s laughing. Bradley can hear the tears behind it, that Jake is trying so desperately to hide, but it also sounds full and lively and it’s the most beautiful thing Bradley’s heard in a long time.
There’s more rustling and he can hear the soft twang in Jake's voice as he murmurs a thank you to someone.
“Listen, I really have to go.” He says and Bradley puffs out a sigh.
“Yeah I know.” He says, voice soft.
“Yeah?” He asks, heart beating a mile a minute.
“I love you too.” Jake says softly and Bradley would do a backflip right now if he wasn’t on the side of the damn interstate with cars whizzing by at 80 miles an hour.
“Yeah?” Bradley asks, voice soft.
And when the calls ends, it doesn’t feel like a goodbye this time.
disclaimer: this work is credited to and rightfully owned by atlasinwaiting and is not authorized to be used and/or reposted on any other platform.