Chapter 3

Three

Jacob

Jacob woke up with a start the next morning, drenched in sweat. He checked his clock and saw that it was already 10am, later than he usually woke up. He turned over in bed, realizing how bad his head hurt. Shit, he thought. He was hungover. His muscles ached and head lightly pounded at his temples. Slowly, the previous night came back to him.

He had gone to the Old Town bar last night – the bar where he and Carrie, his now ex-girlfriend, had always loved to go to together. Carrie had broken up with Jacob a few weeks ago. It was somewhat mutual, because they knew that Jacob would be moving out to San Diego for work, and Carrie would be doing some traveling after college before settling down. But it didn't surprise Jacob at all when Carrie had broken it off with him. He hadn't been putting much effort into the relationship, and he knew it.

For some reason, it had always been like this for him. He had had two other girlfriends before, and the same thing happened – it was fun at first, but after a month or two, things would fizzle out and the relationship would become a low priority for Jacob. Needless to say, his ex-girlfriends hadn't appreciated it.

So last night at the bar, Jacob had felt especially lonely. Carrie used to stand by and watch as he played pinball, cheering him on. She had liked to watch him play. And while he didn't necessarily miss her, he felt sad realizing that he had failed in yet another relationship.

He sat up and slowly rolled into a seated position at the edge of the bed. He groaned, massaging his neck with his hand. He remembered how he had actually gotten hit on last night – but by a dude. It had taken him aback. He couldn't remember ever having been hit on by a guy before, definitely not so overtly.

" You certainly do look hot playing it, " the guy had said, teasingly. Jacob hadn't been angry about it, but just shocked. The guy had been watching him just like Carrie used to. But before Jacob had a chance to say anything, the guy had freaked out and left the bar. He felt badly about it.

Guy probably thought I was a homophobe or something, Jacob thought, but oh well, I'll never see any of these people again after this week .

He leisurely stood up and made his way to the bathroom at the end of the hall to take a shower. The shower rejuvenated him completely, and almost even made his hangover feel better. He dried off and walked back to his room with his towel around his waist. He was almost to his room when he heard a knock on the front door.

Damn mailman won't just leave our packages at the doorstep , he thought, and went to go get the door. He opened it, and felt a surge of adrenaline rush through him as he saw who was on the other side.

"Hi! I'm Will…" Will said, slowly trailing off as he realized who he was talking to.

Holy. Shit. Jacob thought. This is the fucking guy who hit on me last night!

"Oh shit . I mean, hi. Uh, I'm Jacob. God, sorry, let me go put some clothes on! Come in," Jacob said, blushing and stammering. He was completely embarrassed and could not believe that the guy from last night was Will, Freddie's friend who would be staying with him for a few days.

Jacob quickly walked back over to his room, holding his towel close to his hips. He couldn't tell for sure, but he thought he heard Will laughing to himself quietly.

Jacob slammed the door to his room, pausing for a second to take stock of what had just happened. He shook his head, and chuckled quietly himself, before throwing on a white t-shirt and shorts. He picked up his phone.

"I thought you told me this dude was coming TOMORROW?! He's already here!" he texted Freddie.

Jacob sighed deeply, frustrated. He was anxious about going back into the living room and facing Will again. But he figured he might as well do it quickly and bite the bullet. He opened his bedroom door, making his way to the living room.

He found Will with his backpack and suitcase next to him, sitting awkwardly on the black leather couch, on his phone. He looked up and stood when he saw Jacob come into the room.

"Hey man, listen - I am so, SO sorry to do that to you. I tried to call Freddie like four times to ask for your number, but he wouldn't pick up… so I just came by."

Jacob forced a smile. "It's ok, man. It is what it is." Jacob saw Will now in the daylight, and noticed that he was definitely objectively good-looking. He had his brown hair grown out a little bit, and kept running his hands through it nervously. He was a few inches shorter than Jacob, and was naturally slim. He was wearing fitted black jeans and a black shirt. Jacob was sure that he must get all kinds of hook-ups in the gay world or whatever.

"Jeeze man, how the hell do you wear jeans in this heat? I would die in those things," Jacob said, hoping it wasn't an awkward question.

"Yeah, I know. Heat doesn't bother me too much, and I gotta stay lookin' good or whatever," Will said, laughing and shrugging.

Jacob laughed. "Um, ok. I can show you where Freddie's room was if you want?"

Jacob had been prepared to yell at Will for showing up unannounced and early, but he now found that he couldn't do it. When he saw Will sitting on the couch, barely taking up any space, Jacob almost felt sorry for him. The guy didn't have anywhere to stay, and had at least tried to call. Jacob couldn't help but be sympathetic. And he was actually kind of glad to no longer be alone in the house.

He took Will to Freddie's old room, just down the hallway from Jacob's room. It was bright, with sunlight streaming in.

"Yeah, so this is the room. The apartment came furnished, so you can just put down your sheets on the bed and you're good to go. Hope it's alright." Jacob said. He watched as Will threw down his backpack and suitcase on the floor. His backpack had all kinds of patches on it – bands, artsy-looking things, a keychain hanging off of a zipper.

"So you knew Freddie from art class or something?" Jacob offered, trying to break the silence.

"Yeah! From sculpture class. I was actually assistant teaching the class, since I'm an art major. Or… was an art major, I guess. Weird to say that," Will said, turning his head to look out the window, squinting in the bright sunlight.

"Yeah, it's weird. I'm happy to be done with school, but also have no clue really what my future is gonna be like now," Jacob said.

"Tell me about it. I don't have any job prospects at all yet. Yay for fine arts degrees, right?" Will laughed. "What about you? Any immediate plans?"

"At the end of this week I'm driving out to California, actually. I got a job offer in San Diego at an IT consulting firm. Figured I'd drive to save money on flights, and see the country for the first time. Make it into a week-long road trip." Jacob said, surprised that he actually didn't feel awkward chatting with Will at all. Freddie was right, the guy was pretty damn friendly.

"Shit, that sounds awesome! I love road trips. I've never really been on a long one. Actually, I'm from Arizona, so I used to take small road trips all the time to San Diego and LA. You'll love it there. Congrats on the job," Will said, seeming genuinely happy for him.

"Thanks. It's definitely good to have a job, but also scary. We'll see how it goes." Jacob said.

There was a pause, where the two of them looked around the room, unsure of what to do next. Jacob looked up at Will.

"Um. Alright then, I'll leave you to unpack a little, or settle in and stuff. Was nice to meet you Will," Jacob said.

"You too… even though we… technically met last night," Will said, laughing.

Jacob looked back at Will and noticed that his eyes were a beautiful grey-blue in the daylight. Jacob looked back down, feeling himself blush slightly. Did he seriously just bring up last night?!

"Uh, yeah, don't worry about it, man. It's totally ok," Jacob said awkwardly, and left the room.

He had felt so comfortable talking to Will that he'd almost forgotten their encounter last night. He hadn't known if Will had been drunk and forgotten about it, but clearly, he hadn't. So much for not being awkward , he thought, sauntering back to his room. But fuck it, he thought, just a few more days.