First Day of School
HAPPY BIRTHDAY @tinyowlbear!!!! I hope you have an amazing day, you totally deserve it <33
“Are you sure—”
“Fuck’s sake, Jack, I’m sure.” Gabe reaches out and pulls Jack to him, trying to hug away his worries even though he knows it won’t work. Jack melts a little, leaning them both back against the door of Gabe’s car. The sun hasn’t quite risen yet, but the early rays peeking over the horizon are playing wonders with Jack’s hair, setting off his golden halo nicely, and Gabe can’t resist running his fingers through it even though he knows what happens when he does that and he really needs to get going or he might be late for work. Against him, Jack shudders and goes completely boneless, managing to stay upright only thanks to Gabe’s arm around his waist.
“Not fair,” Jack mumbles into Gabe’s neck.
Gabe chuckles and turns his head to press a kiss against the side of Jack’s head, stilling his fingers so Jack can recover his composure. “You’ll be fine. You’ve handled tougher assignments than this before.”
“I’m not so sure.”
Gabe’s response is to laugh again and kiss him again, which really doesn’t make Jack feel any better about this whole situation, and then he gets into his car and leaves, waving at Jack as he drives away. Jack lifts his hand and stays there, frozen on the driveway, until he’s totally sure that Gabe isn’t coming back to save him from this. It’s not Gabe’s faut his new job starts earlier than his old one, but now that the summer’s over, someone needs to get Jesse up and ready for school. And with Gabe gone before Jesse wakes up, that leaves Jack, newly moved into the house that July, who doesn’t have to be at work until mid-morning.
Jack is positive that this is going to be a disaster on all levels, since he’s pretty sure Jesse hates him. The kid hasn’t said more than ten words in a row to him in the nearly two months they’ve been living under the same roof. He’s sullen and moody, withdrawn and...teenagery, spending most of his time out of the house with friends or inside his room with the door closed. Gabe’s the only adult who seems to be able to get through to him, well, Gabe and Ms. Amari, the mother of one of Jesse’s friends, Fareeha. Jack needs to sit her down for coffee one of these days and ask how she does it, because whenever he asks Gabe all he gets is a shrug and sometimes a “we understand each other,” which is absolutely zero help.
He does have a plan for this morning, though. Gabe’s been helping him in the kitchen, so he’s confident in his ability to make eggs and bacon without reducing anything to a burned and inedible mess. He’ll start that up, wait for the smells to tickle Jesse’s nose, and then go and wake him up the rest of the way. After that it’s a bit more of a gamble, because he’s not sure if Jesse will expect conversation over breakfast or if he should let the kid eat by himself and avoid that potential hurdle. What do you even talk to a fifteen-year-old foster kid about? The same thing you’d talk to any fifteen-year-old kid about, probably, but Jack’s not sure what that is, either.
Jesse solves Jack’s dilemma by coming out of his bedroom still in his pajamas just as breakfast is done cooking, grabbing the first plate that Jack makes, and going right back to his room. Jack isn’t sure he’s allowed to eat in his room, but since he doesn’t know for sure one way or the other, he keeps quiet, eats his own breakfast at the kitchen table, and cleans up afterward, rushing through his own morning routine so he’s ready before they need to leave to get Jesse to school on time.
Ten minutes after they should have left, Jack’s standing outside Jesse’s door, about to screw up the courage to knock, when it opens under his raised hand and Jesse snakes out past him.
“Le’s go,” the kid mumbles, letting himself into the passenger seat of Jack’s car like it’s something he’s done so many times before.
The drive to Jesse’s high school is silent until they’re almost there. They’re maybe a couple blocks away, the traffic from other parents and students with their own cars starting to clog the roads a little, when Jesse turns in his seat to face Jack with his whole body, one leg folding up next to the center console.
“Jesse, that’s—”
“You like Gabe?”
“—Not safe—what?”
Jesse stares at him for the few minutes it takes them to get into parking lot, his brown eyes piercing the side of Jack’s face. Jack is positive he’s blushing and wishes he could bury his face in the steering wheel so Jesse can’t see. The relative silence after Jesse’s question seems to be all the answer the kid requires, though, and he sits back in his seat, staring out the window. But it’s not the response Jack wants to give, and he bites the inside of his cheek on the side of his face not in Jesse’s line of sight.
The line to get to the front of the school is still long, but once they reach the point where Jesse can get out onto the sidewalk and take himself from there, he reaches for the door handle.
“Jesse…”
The kid stops, stares, raises one eyebrow. The toothpick in his mouth shifts from one side to the other.
“I love him.” The words kind of come out in a jumble, and Jack isn’t sure it was actually possible to understand what he said, but Jesse nods like he heard anyway and opens the car door without looking away from Jack.
“Cool,” he says, and gets out, shutting the door behind him before Jack can even think about formulating a coherent response to that. Jesse raises a hand as he walks away, though, and Jack thinks maybe driving Jesse to school won’t be so bad after all...though he’s still not sure the kid doesn’t hate him.
