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Wiping down the counter top of the coffee hut, Jack was struggling to barely keep his eyes open from the task. He'd gotten up at 4:30am that morning all because Bridgett wanted him in at 5am! He'd barely gotten any sleep in the dorm because of someone's party down the hall. God, he missed his apartment.
Beginning to nod off on the job, he was startled by his brother's cheerful voice. “Hey Jackie!”
Turning around, he was surprised to come face to face with his baby brother Shawn. The man was grinning ear to ear causing an infectious smile of his own to climb up on his face. “Shawn... how ya doin' man?”
“I'm not too bad! Not too bad at all! Hey, I got some news! You're never gonna believe it!”
Tossing the damp rag over onto the shelf behind him, he motioned for Shawn to move over to the couch so they could sit down and talk. “I'm listenin... “
Shawn ran a carefree hand through his hair as he sat cross legged on the couch. “Well... you know how Angela and I were sharing the apartment together?”
“Uh-huh?”
“Well, I got great news! Since Rachel moved out and Angela moved out too, you and Eric are welcome to move back in! Isn't that great?”
Jack carefully studied his brother's face. The man was absolutely beaming with joy. It seemed like a trick.
And so he asked, “Is this a trick?”
Shawn's smile fell immediately. “What? No! C'mon, man! I thought we were over all of this, you know? I thought we had really made some breakthroughs. You don't... you don't wanna live with me again?”
Heaving a big sigh and shrugged, Jack nodded. “No, no, of course I do! Anything to get out of the dorms again! I'm just... confused, ya know? I thought you and Angela were... you know... “
“What?”
“Happy.” He finished, sheepishly with a shrug.
Shawn's demeanor changed almost immediately. He turned his gaze to far off in the distance before running another hand through his hair. “No, no. We are! It's just... I dunno, man. Living together... it's not right.”
Jack scoffed. “How can it not be right? You love the girl, you're happy, you've living together! What's not right about that?”
“Well, what wasn't right about you and Rachel living together?” He shot back defensively.
Ouch.
Jack nodded silently, sensing his point without further words needing to be spoken. He licked his lips, bit at them and then nodded once again. “Yeah, okay, I get it. If it's not right, it's not right.” He shrugged, wanting to drop the topic altogether now.
He didn't like thinking about his dating adventures with Rachel. He didn't like thinking about how much he'd hurt Eric. And worse... how much he had wished every night that it had been Rachel that had moved out and not Eric.
A moment of silence passed between the two. It was lucky that the lounge wasn't particularly busy around this time of day or he knew for sure Bridgett would be in there yelling at him to get off his “lazy butt”.
Eric was in class and it was for this and only this reason that he felt saying the following. “The stuff with Rachel... it wasn't right and it caused Eric to move out. If I could go back in time, I wouldn't make that mistake again!”
Shawn nodded sagely, his smile still gone from his expression, his eyes wistful. “You know, I was over at Cory and Topanga's? And... their situation's not great but I just don't get why they can't make it work. I mean, they're Cory and Topanga! Ya know?!”
Jack nodded, although he wasn't sure he grasped the full concept of the two of them as a couple. He barely knew them. He knew Cory only as Eric's “little brother”. He knew Shawn had known both of them his whole life though and he knew they'd been majorly in love for a long time. He supposed it shouldn't matter where someone lives or what troubles they're going through. If they're with the right person, it just works, it's easy.
Shawn, in some sort of voodoo psychic way, seemed to echo Jack's private thoughts. “It shouldn't matter how hard a situation is, it shouldn't matter where you are or what problems are going on. If it's love, it's love! That's how love is! It's strong and... you don't need anything else in the world if you've got your person.”
Swallowing at the profoundness of his words, the older man nodded, still speechless and unable to add to the conversation. His mind began running a mile a minute at the sudden realization that he and Eric would soon be back in their apartment again. The apartment that he had rented when he first moved to Philadelphia. The apartment where he had first met Eric. The apartment where he had said goodbye to Eric. That memory would never not hurt no matter how many times it came up.
“I swear, if I had what they had... I'd be happy forever! My life... I'd have made it, ya know?”
Jack searched his brother's face intensely with his eyes. “No. What do ya mean, exactly?”
“Well, just that, all I've ever wanted was to have someone I could lie next to on the floor in our place. You know, with the sun streamin' in the window and we'd just lie there drinking coffee and reading the newspaper together. It'd be heaven. It'd be perfect! Better than heaven! Like... nothing in the world could ever tear us apart because as long as we had each other... we'd be happy.”
Shawn nodded to himself quietly, staring off in the distance. He realized suddenly that Jack was still staring at him and came back to reality for a moment. “Anyway, uh... me and Angela realized that... we had that and it didn't really feel that way, ya know? So... “
Getting to his feet, he shrugged and seemed to shake off the sadness. “Anyway, that's why I wanted to tell you, you and Eric are welcome to move back in! And... ya know, I'm sorry that uh... you had to wait so long.”
Jack stood up as well and shrugged it off. “Aw, it doesn't matter! I mean... a lot of stuff happened, ya know, life happened! But... yeah man! I'd love to move back in! And Eric... I'm sure he's gonna be stoked too!”
Patting his brother on the back, Shawn began to make his way past him to the exit. “Great! Well, uh, I'll see ya later roomie! Tell Eric hi, for me!”
Waving goodbye, Jack began making his way back to the coffee counter, his brother's words playing over and over in his mind. He glanced back at the exit as a plan began to form in his mind.
…
It was later that day when Jack finally got around to swinging by the old apartment, trying out his new key his brother had dropped off an hour or two later at the lounge.
It was empty of course, what with Shawn still being in class, and that was fine by him. He needed a little alone time. He needed to get away from the lounge and think.
Eric's obsession with Bridgett had grown to aggravate him beyond words. He could see just how vicious and narcissistic she was, why couldn't he? Jack rolled his eyes. It didn't matter. She wouldn't be sticking around long anyway. He knew her type. She'd be long gone soon, off to her vacation home in the alps or to her year long trip abroad. He imagined her going to France somewhere, soon she'd be their problem.
Jack opened the fridge and glanced inside only to find it empty. He never took Shawn to be an especially diligent shopper but he thought he might have at least had some snacks stashed away of some kind. His eyes scanned the door for beer bottles but he knew before they landed there that there'd be none.
Good for him! He'd taken his pleading about alcoholism to heart! Jack hadn't been lying about their family having a drinking problem. He had however, incidentally left out his part in all of it.
God, he wished he had a beer right now! Or a scotch. Or a pint of whiskey. Anything! He'd take anything! Well, anything except chardonnay. God, he hated chardonnay!
But he needed a drink now more than anything. He needed to take his mind off of Eric.
Two things had become clear to him with his conversation with Shawn. One, that his whole affair with Rachel had been a mistake. Well, to be fair, he'd known that for a while now. It was the singular reason why they'd ended things after all.
And two, he had it bad for Eric. This, he had also been particularly aware for quite some time. But it had taken Shawn's poetics to really spark that feeling in him once again. After all, he'd been fighting it for quite a while now. And this whole Bridgett thing... god, did he hate that woman!
Closing the empty fridge, Jack spun on his heels determined to fix this whole situation. This thing with Eric, Bridgett, once and for all!
He left the apartment with a plan, one that for once he wasn't absolutely frightened to begin to entertain.
…
It was Saturday morning and having fully settled back into their old apartment, Jack and Eric were finally getting some much needed rest and downtime. Classes were off all next week for Thanksgiving break, Shawn had spent the night at Angela's and everything was quiet on the home front.
Jack had just settled down on the floor in front of the bright red couch with a cup of coffee and the paper. He heaved a sigh of relief, happy to have a bit of time off from work and school and the chaos that was college life. It wasn't long before he heard the sounds of Eric waking up in the next room and making his way down the stairs.
“Mornin' Eric!” The man called over his shoulder, standing up to greet the man.
“Mornin' roomie! How sweet it is to have our old pad back!” The older man laughed giddily as he made his way to the kitchen.
“Coffee?” Jack smiled, offering him a freshly poured cup.
“Ah, yes! Why thank you!”
Jack watched as the man sipped at the brew gingerly before smiling happily at his friend.
Sitting back down beside the coffee table, he maneuvered the gray afghan across his lap once more as he stared up at the man. “Hey... uh, Eric?”
“Yessir?”
“Can you do something for me, real quick?”
Eric beamed down at his friend seemingly already full of energy even this early in the morning. “Of course!”
Jack shook his head, grin on his face. He didn't know where the man got the energy! “Could you just sit right here with me? Like down here?”
To his surprise, Eric complied immediately, taking the space on the floor next to him situated between their bright red couch and the coffee table. Jack moved his cup of coffee over to make room for Eric's on the table and licked his lips nervously.
Eric watched as he reached over to grab the newspaper lightly folded on top of it. “Ooh! The funnies! Gimme!” He made grabby hands at him causing Jack to laugh nervously.
“Okay, here... “ He handed the comics section to him while picking out the business section for himself.
The two settled down into the moment reading the paper and every now and then sipping at their coffee. Eric was completely engrossed in his section whereas Jack was moreso just pantomiming.
He kept sneaking glances at his friend from the side of his eye though he hadn't seemed to notice. Eventually, he decided to get rid of all pretense and placed his paper back down on the table.
Jack cleared his throat and stared at Eric who was mouthing the words he was reading silently and laughing to himself. After a moment or two, he finally noticed the stare.
“What's up?” Eric chuckled uncomfortably.
And that was enough to make Jack's nervousness skyrocket. “Oh, uh, nothing really.” His eyes failed to hold his gaze and quickly shot back to his mustard yellow mug on the table before him. He took a few gulps of the coffee to hide his nervousness and buy him some time to think of something to say. When he looked back over at Eric, he saw he'd already lost focus and went back to reading the comics.
Jack watched as the man giddily read to himself, grinning here and there as he sipped his coffee. All at once, he felt his heart beating in his chest quickening, his breathing becoming irregular and though he couldn't see it, his face flushing.
He thought about what Shawn had said, about this sort of test of love. He looked at Eric, felt his pulse quicken more and thanked God that he had this second chance with the man.
Back in their original apartment, together on a Saturday morning having coffee and sitting on the floor.
How did he get so lucky?
Eric feeling his intense stare, glanced back at Jack once more, a contented smile playing across his face.
Jack met it with full intensity.