RECAP:

the two boys moved into their bedroom, deciding to change as fast as they could, then head back out. finn felt his cheeks going red as he caught a glimpse of jack's somewhat pale tummy, him still having a small amount of baby fat that he had seemingly never lost. it was adorable, finn realized, and he quickly looked away as jack's gaze was averted towards his own direction.

but he couldn't help but look back at jack. you can't stop looking at something, (or in finn's case, someone) who was as alluring as jack was. finn wanted to tell the angel boy he loved him. he was feeling nostalgic, and weird, but in the best possible way. jack had that effect on people. or maybe just on finn. and when jack looked up at him and blushed, slipping one of finn's t shirts on then sticking his tongue out, finn felt, for the first time at peace with himself and how he had been feeling about jack.

it was okay. enjoying being with jack this much. wanting to see the most intimate parts of him; having already seen the messy parts, but also the beautiful. a little sensitive, somewhat troublesome, but beyond compare. just like him. that was the boy finn loved.

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

as jack and finn headed out towards the living room again, they set up their sleeping bags with the others, since everyone had opted to sleeping on the floor. jack wiggled his way in between wyatt and finn, and the crew settled in as jeremy put on some weird horror movie he was insisting they watch.

about half way into the movie, however, the seven were barely paying attention, and jack started insisting that he was bored.

"what do you want to do then, lover boy?" wyatt griped, carefully wiping the chip crumbs off of his blanket that chosen had gotten there. "truth or dare?"

wyatt almost said it in a joking manner, but everyone else seemed to almost jump at the opportunity to play.

"i go first!" jaeden insisted, looking around at the others. "jack, truth or dare?"

jack contemplated his options for a moment, and decided his safest bet would probably be to choose dare. he didn't want to answer any questions he wasn't ready to answer, and it wasn't like he would back out of a dare anyways. "dare." he muttered, giving jaeden a small smile. the other boy obviously wasn't expecting him to pick dare, and he sighed, trying to think something up.

"oh, oh! i dare you to... prank call somebody on wyatt's phone."

"it's almost one in the morning," wyatt started to protest, but didn't take action when jaeden grabbed his phone off of the charger it was plugged into and handed it to jack.

jack scrolled through wyatt's contacts, not recognizing many of the names, but finally stopping on one and grinning. he quickly hit the contact name and the call button, putting the phone on speaker. he held the phone a certain way to hide the contact name from the others, tempted to burst into a fit of giggles.

"yes?" a groggy voice picked up the phone, and the others started to laugh in disbelief as they realized the person on the other side of the phone line was erin. wyatt's ex.

the group did like erin; jack never intended it to be a rude prank call. a look of shock, then anger, then amusement, then surprise flashed across wyatt's face all at once.

"bonjour, mademoiselle. this is ze fresh world bakery calling you on zis fine evening, oui oui! i am calling on behalf of your friend, wyatt oleff. you two are friends, no?" jack tried his best french accent, putting on a show for not only erin, but his friends as well. the girl started to laugh on the other line, which resulted in jack grinning and trying his hardest to keep his laughter in. "please, madame! you must try our wine tasting service with mr. oleff! it would mean the world to the fine chap, i'm sure!"

"oh, you're british now?" erin concluded, and jack started to giggle, shaking his head and hanging up. "she's too good!" he said, and wyatt immediately grabbed his phone back to call her and mumble a few apologies. the other five were chuckling, and finn flicked jack on the arm. "you're such a doofus."

jack felt the words 'yeah, but i'm your doofus,' almost slip, but he kept his mouth shut and just grinned.

"why don't we play paranoia instead?" chosen spoke up, looking at the others.

"what's that?" finn questioned, almost reading everyone else's minds.

"well, everyone sits in a circle, and whoever wants to go first whispers a yes or no question to the person on their right. say sophia goes first, she would whisper a question in jaeden's ear. jaeden would then answer the question out loud with a yes or no reply. next, someone will flip a shoe in the air. probably a slipper, since we're kinda limited here. if it lands face up, sophia has to say what she asked jaeden to the whole group. but if it lands face down, sophia and jaeden don't have to say what the question was, and everyone is just left wondering. and you go around the circle like that." chosen surmised.

jack looked at chosen, amused. "well butter my buns and call me betty crocker, that actually sounds fun. where'd ya learn how to play that?"

"where did you learn an expression like that?" chosen started to chuckle, and the others quickly joined in, laughing at jack's thought provoking phrase. jack simply shrugged their laughter off, a pleased look on his face, and glanced at the others. "i'm down to play."

everyone agreed, and decided sophia who's go first, like in chosen example. in the circle it was sophia, jaeden, jeremy, wyatt, jack, finn, and chosen. jack was elated that he would get to ask finn a question.

as chosen ran to get a slipper they started the game, and sophia leaned over, whispering inaudible words into jaeden's ear. he made an almost puzzled face, then replied, 'yes,' in a heartbeat. chosen came back in time to hand him the slipper. he flipped the shoe quickly, and it landed face down.

"i'm safe!" he cheered, grinning as sophia nudged him in the side. "you're lucky."

"c'mon, i hate this game!" jack complained. "i wanna know!"

"that's not part of the rules, jack." jaeden teased. jack flipped him off and stuck his tongue out, crossing his eyes for added effect. jaeden pretended to be hurt, motioning as if he was crying. the two then started to giggle, and jaeden went to whisper his question to jeremy in his ear.

jeremy answered no to the question, but the slipper landed face down again.

"this game is rigged." jack concluded, leaning forward a bit more with his legs crisscrossed, and looking over at finn. he realized finn was already gazing over at him and the both of them looked away flustered, obviously nervous, yet exhilarated to even be near each other. jack started to smile and pretended like he didn't notice finn softly move over a bit more so their knees were touching.

jeremy then quietly asked his secret to wyatt, who replied with a no, and proceeded to flip the slipper. jack screamed in glee as it landed face up, causing wyatt to jump.

"jesus jack!" wyatt almost glared at the brunette boy, to which jack gave him a toothy grin. "what! it's about time someone expose their question."

jeremy didn't look as ecstatic as jack was. he met wyatt's eyes, who looked at jeremy almost as if to reassure him.

"i asked wyatt if him and jaeden were okay. it wasn't a mean thing, you guys just haven't seemed to be close—"

"it's okay, jer." jaeden interrupted. as it slowly dawned on him that wyatt had, in fact, replied no to the question, he tried to ignore the dull ache he felt. wyatt tried to catch jaeden's eyes, but he didn't let him and instead flipped the slipper around, urging wyatt to ask his question for jack.

wyatt obliged quickly and jack felt his breath start to gently blow on his ear, and although it tickled, jack felt it was the wrong time to laugh.

"did you catch feelings for him?"

a flush crept up jack's face, and he looked at the other boy, eyes wide. "him?" was all jack could manage to say.

"yes, jack."

wyatt knew jack knew who he was talking about, and he certainly didn't know how to answer. if jack said yes, and the slipper landed face up, they would all know for sure, all suspicions aside. and if he said no and it landed face up, he would be lying right to them.

jack couldn't lie. maybe his friends wouldn't even know who the him was, and maybe it wouldn't even land face up.

"yes." jack said, his voice tremulous. his throat felt tight, and he couldn't understand why he was so shaky. the others didn't even know the question.

yet.

wyatt grabbed the slipper, throwing it up in the air.

they could very easily find out in just a few seconds. and they would know. they would know jack's truth, the thing he had been trying to hide for so long. finn would know. jesus fuck, finn would know. his best friend. he probably had never seen jack like that, like in a true romantic way. after all, they had always acted this way. aside from the kissing. that had to mean something, didn't it?

and jack felt his heart sink as the slipper landed facing upwards.

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

☆゜*・:+* 。 *゜☆

wowww i feel like these chapters are dragging on, or at least the past three. i'm really sorry guys, but, needa get that fluff out! plus, giving the characters more of a backstory and falling in love with each of them and their relationships even more is good.

i think i have a goal to finish this book by may/june, especially since this book starts in june 2020. when i started writing it (late 2018) 2020 seemed so far away, and now we're here! i've decided there won't be a sequel, (i personally don't enjoy sequels to books myself, and i feel as though the ending of this story will be satisfactory enough!) however, i might write a story in the summertime involving several ships, with people like lilia buckingham as well as the IT cast, although i'm not really sure yet.

okay, yikes, that was a lot! but, thanks for reading ♡