RECAP:

"i ended the live, lovebirds. you're lucky i kept them distracted." jaeden had a smug look on his face as he turned back around in his seat and changed the song to something more upbeat.

finn looked out the window, letting himself think for a moment. a silence had fallen over the van, and finn assumed jack had fallen asleep.

but just as he was about to fall asleep himself, he heard a soft whisper.

"i think you're beautiful too, finn."

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

"i'm gonna sweat my balls off," jack whined, fanning his face with his hand. sophia laughed and shook her head at the boy before judging him quickly, telling him to shut up. they had just entered the amusement park, and it was huge. everyone was in awe, jack being the exception. he was too busy sweating his balls off.

"the more appropriate term would probably be turn to a crisp. or melt like a snowman." jaeden spoke up, slowing down to join sophia and jack. the others were a little ahead with andy and barbara.

"do i seem like a PG type person to you?"

"yep, you big twink."

jack punched jaeden's arm and then ran ahead, just missing jaeden's hand, and avoiding a slap on the back. he turned around and stuck a finger up, before wyatt growled at him, insisting there were children in the park.

"sorry dad." jack mumbled, nudging his way in between wyatt and finn even more. eventually, sophia and jaeden ran ahead, and the group stopped and decided what they wanted to do.

"if you want, we can let you go on your own for a bit. then we could meet for a quick meal around four, and stay for fireworks?" andy suggested.

"there's fireworks?!" jack exclaimed. finn laughed at his giddiness.

"yes, they have select dates throughout the summer. today happens to be one of them."

the teens agreed on meeting up at four, and decided to go on water park rides first. they all raced to the water park portion, grateful they had put on swimsuits under their clothes.

they stood around for a minute, taking in the rides, before andy and barbara suggest they go on a ride called the Riptide Racer. it was a mat racing slide, where several people could compete for first place as they descend down the slide.

"last one up is a rotten egg!" chosen cheered before climbing his way up the steps to the ride. the others followed soon behind, and by the time they got to the top, it was ultimately decided wyatt was the rotten egg. he just rolled his eyes and grabbed a mat, joining the others as they all lined up.

a couple people they didn't know joined them, lining up in their own lane. as jack laid his mat down and got down on his tummy, he smiled at finn, who gave him a small smile back. jack had woken up in his lap, and had to wake finn up. he had turned a bright colour when jack teased him for drooling on his sleeve.

sophia counted down to start the race, and as soon as she yelled "go!" the group went flying down the slide. jack was laughing the entire time, and could hear his friends chorus of laughter next to him. the ride was over almost too soon, and when jack looked to his left, he saw wyatt and chosen already down next to him.

"not fair!" jack whined, picking up his mat as the others reached the bottom. "i demand a rematch!"

so, for jack's sake, they all ran up and raced down the slide again. this time, jack got sixth place, to which he resorted to making fun of finn for getting last place to make himself feel better. he even insisted on getting a piggy back ride. finn let him jump on his back, (and poke fun at him) and the group decided to move onto more rides.

the day went by quickly than they had thought it was going to. by the time it was 3:30, they were just leaving the water park portion of the park. after supper they would do more rides that weren't involved with water, but before they ate, chosen and sophia wanted to go on a rollercoaster. jack and jaeden decided to sit out, and went with barbara and andy to claim a table and order their food. by the time the others were done on the last ride, they could find the four and eat.

"i'm surprised you came," jaeden said as he sat with jack at a circular table after giving barbara and andy food orders. "you usually want to go on every ride."

"i know," jack said sheepishly, sitting across from him, "but i wanted to talk to you."

"about what?"

"wyatt."

"oh."

jack nodded, and took a deep breath. "what happened, jaeden? between you two? and please, don't play dumb."

"it's been a couple days-"

"but it still happened."

jaeden looked up at jack, his piercing light eyes looking into jack's dark bambi eyes. he looked almost scared, or like he was about to cry, which jack had never seen before. in fact, now that he thought about it, he had never seen jaeden cry before. not even when they wrapped IT chapter one, or when he had found out wyatt had a girlfriend. or, maybe he did cry. jack couldn't exactly remember. it's hard to tell over the phone anyways.

for as long as he could remember, wyatt had liked jaeden, and jaeden had liked wyatt. or at least, jack knew, even if they didn't. when jack and finn were younger, they used to tease them endlessly. they referred to jaeden and wyatt as jyatt, and would update each other when jaeden or wyatt would talk about their other half of jyatt with jack and finn.

but things had changed in the past few years. wyatt seemed to be afraid of his sexuality, or the fact that he had feelings for his best friend. and poor jaeden had seemed to only just come to terms with the fact that he loved wyatt in a more than friends way. jaeden was jealous of wyatt and his girlfriend when they were still together, and it had caused tension between them. they almost refused to talk about their feelings.

"jaeden, what happened?"

"i don't want to lose him, jack." was all jaeden said, before his bottom lip trembled slightly. jack quickly jumped up and grabbed jaeden's wrist, pulling him to the bathrooms. of course, with his luck, they were full, so jack led jaeden outside in front of the cafeteria building instead, pulling him to the side slightly, so they were blocked from the crowd more.

"you need to tell me what happened." jack urged. he had never really been good at comforting his friends; that was more finn's thing. jack would usually just give them a hug while they would babble on about whatever problem they had to finn. he would always know what to say.

"do you want me to get finn?" jack asked, and jaeden shook his head furiously. "no, no, of course not. he probably already knows what happened."

jack struggled to make sense of what jaeden meant, but when he did he felt a small achy pain in his heart; he didn't quite know how to describe the feeling. if finn knew, that meant wyatt had told him at some point since that morning at the roof, and he hadn't told jack. they never kept anything from each other.

jack pushed his feelings aside and looked at jaeden again, shaking his head. "please talk to me, jae."

"we got in a fight." jaeden confessed. "i know i'm being a baby about this but- it was bad, jack. i said a lot of stuff i didn't mean. a lot of stuff that hurt him. he hasn't talked to me, like seriously talked to me, since it happened. i told him i didn't-" jaeden got quiet, taking a shaky breath. "i told him i didn't love him. i told him i couldn't, because all he did was hurt me."

now jack went quiet. he wrapped his arms around jaeden, pulling him into a hug. he was visibly shaking, and jack's heart almost shattered as he held onto the boy. "jaeden...why did you tell him that? you love him."

"because it hurts, jack." jaeden whispered in his ear. "you should understand this feeling."

"how would i?"

"because of finn."

jack backed up for a moment, blinking and looking at jaeden. he had a tear slowly coming down his cheek, and jack wiped it with the back of his hand. "how would i understand because of finn?"

"don't you love him?"

"yes, jaeden, but it's not-"

"not what?"

"it's not in a- it's not in a boyfriend way."

jack looked down at the ground, kicking a pebble slightly with his foot.

"you don't get it."

"don't get what?!" jack huffed, finally growing annoyed. jaeden laughed and shook his head, looking at the sky for a moment before looking back at jack.

"stop it. stop it with your clueless act. you're no different than wyatt and i. you're in love with him, jack. and he's in love with you. and its so fucking sad, because you won't do anything about it, but everyone knows. everyone knows it's always been you and him, just existing for each other."

jack didn't know what to say. jaeden had never gotten properly mad at him before, but now he was standing here, looking down at him, talking as if he was spilling some sort of secret he had kept it in for months.

"i don't know what make believe bullshit you're on about, but i think you're just emotional because of your situation with wyatt. i'm sorry, but me and finn aren't like you and wyatt with your 'i fell in love with my best friend' crap!"

"do you ever wonder why? why you've had three fucking girlfriends and NONE of them have worked out? why you always come back to finn, even after all these years? everyone saw you in the van. the way you two act around each other. god, i've seen that kid almost break his neck just turning to see you when he heard your laugh! but, i get it. keep telling yourself just friends, jack." and with that, jaeden walked off.

jack stood there, his mind racing and his heart pounding.

he wasn't in love with finn. those relationships ended because they were with toxic girls. finn was his best friend.

but now, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself of all of that.

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

that was a long ass chapter, wow? i was disappointed with it at first so i just kept writing and damn. sorry if it's too dramatic, i'm jUST IN AN ANGSTY MOOD bahdhhs

anyways, thanks for reading!

-courtney