Jason & Darius |Craving Yours| ✔

4.Chicken & Shirts

Darius Dixon

"Hey, I am home," I said pushing the door open with my foot.

The smell of fried chicken and almost burnt rice enveloped me in a surprisingly familiar scent. I dropped my duffle under the coat hooks by the door then proceeded to haphazardly remove my boots. Jason was in the kitchen cooking supper. A term I used lightly because Mason clearly got all the chef skills in the family.

He walked over to me and wrapped his arms over me the moment he saw me. Then with a grunt and a noise that passed as a welcome home, he squeezed me a little tighter. When I took too long to return the affection he let out another grunt then I hugged him back. He smelled like Vanilla and a hint of sandalwood. I took a whiff of him again just to make sure. He smelled vaguely familiar like Mason used to after a long day at work. My heart clenched and I hugged him just a little closer. If I closed my eyes I could Imagine Mason being here instead of Jason.

I let go of him slowly noticing how his hands took a little too long to leave my skin. Even after the hug, his right hand hovered by my left hand, almost as if he was contemplating holding it. I walked away just to prevent any unnecessary contact.

I opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water to find something else to do. "Hey did you take a shower here?"

"Yeah... I didn't want to go home and then come back again. Why?" He said walking back to check his pot.

"Nothing... It's just uh... which shampoo did you use?" I said before taking a sip from the bottle.

He pushed the collar of the shirt he was wearing around before answering. "The one in the blue bottle," he answered nonchalantly.

"Yeah, that was Mason's," I said more to myself than to him.

He didn't reply.

"So how was...are you wearing Mason's shirt?" I said choking on the water as it entered the wrong pipe.

He looked down at the black Imagine dragons shirt then looked up like my question was stupid.

"Yeah, I washed my clothes." I barely heard him say.

My thoughts drifted to the day Mason got that shirt. We had gone hiking on some weird journey to find something that was definitely not real. But Mason had been so convinced this weird magical token existed so we had gone hiking in Mount Inyangani to find an ancient none existent artefact. Only for both of us to get lost. And things got worse when Mason got stuck in quicksand. It had been hours before another person passed through the mountain and helped us get to the cabin at the front desk. The lady at the cabin had given Mason her son's new shirt and charged us a crazy amount of money for it. Mason had been so excited to have an Imagines Dragon shirt that he didn't even care if we were being ripped off.

"Hey. Do you want to eat on the balcony?" Jason said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah sure why not," I said remembering Mason's smile after getting the shirt. He had been so excited that the whole ride home was him describing fantasies about going to an imaginary dragons concert. I had made a note to take him to a concert if they ever came to our city. And now he was dead without ever getting a chance to experience that one simple thing.

Jason carried the plates outside while I helped carry the beer. I let him open the door to the balcony then followed behind him. The night was still and the air was warm. It smelled like fresh trees and blossoming flowers. The opposite of what I felt. Mason had removed the chairs from the balcony a long time ago so there wasn't much besides a designated rug and grill for hot summer nights.

I sat down on the rug dangling my feet through the gaps in the bars. And Jason followed my lead settling down next to me. He placed the plates in the tiny space between us and I handed him a beer. Then we proceeded to eat the horrible food in silence. I wondered why I hadn't ordered take out or stopped by MacDonald's.

We sat quietly in the still night watching the moon come up over the intricate many buildings. Jason was now resting his head on the balcony railing eyes trained me. I had long since abandoned the plate of food. I couldn't finish it no matter how hard I tried.

"Mason and I used to go to this really over the top fancy art class." Jason began drawing my attention to his face.

I watched him take a deep breath before continuing.

"And let me just say art was definitely not one of those twin things." He said before laughing dryly.

I just looked at him as I listened to the story. This was a new form of comfort sharing stories about Mason every now and then just reminiscing on what life was like with him around.

"Mason hated that class with everything he had but he never missed a day of it, only because I liked it. So he made an effort to show up and tried to learn a thing or two but never really succeeded. He just... I wish... I kinda miss him." He whispered the last part

"Yeah, I know what you mean," I said realising that he wished Mason was still alive.

I wished he was alive too. I wished he was here. I wished he was in my arms. I wished I could still kiss him good morning. I wished he was still here to make fun of all my animal ties.

"The teacher always told him to go home and not come back. But Mason was stubborn. I am sure we both know that. Mason's motto was always no one told Mason what to do. " He said, continuing and drawing me back from my thoughts.

"You remind me so much of him," I said face close to Jason's.

I hadn't even noticed that we had moved so close to each other and in a moment of weakness, I was not seeing Jason but Mason. The same brown eyes. The same smile lines. The same jawline. Their faces were identical and I couldn't help but see Mason's face in front of me instead of Jason.

Without thinking I placed my lips on his and just held the position like that for a few minutes before realising what I was doing. I moved back and stared at Jason. He was not talking or moving all he did was place his index finger against his lips. Then he looked up at me without saying anything.

I just sat still staring at him. Then after a moment of hesitation, I shot up and rushed to my room. I managed to mumble something about being tired and going to sleep before going back into the house.