The One Without Words

❀ chapter thirteen | my head on his shoulder ❀

By the time we finished defacing the city with our pink flyers, Jack and I slumped into a park bench, exhausted. I'd probably inhaled a million and one germs after riding public transport all day, and Jack verged on sleep with his head thrown back, eyes shut. Then I noticed something glinting in the grass nearby. Some sort of... sparkle.

I bent down and picked it up.

Quartz.

Small, flecked with brown on the inside, and caked with dirt. I glanced at Jack and remembered when he'd pulled out a random quartz from his pocket while we were cleaning up the paint. Something he'd probably bought at some hippie spiritual store, but here I'd found one naturally, though this one wasn't totally transparent. 

Of course it reminded me of him. Any time I saw anything rock-related, even a pebble in the middle of the street, it'd remind me of him. Of his room I saw this morning, filled with the things.

I turned the quartz between my index finger and my thumb. What would I do with it? I wasn't the type to store a ton of little trinkets for no reason. Maybe Jack would like it. I could say it was his reward for doing a good job today. What was the worst that could happen? He'd glare at me? He'd reject it? Why did it matter anyway? It wasn't like I cared.

"Hey," I said, startling him. He sat up on the bench and blinked at me. I held out the quartz. "Surprise, I found this on the ground. Want it?"

He took it, careful not to let his hand brush mine. He held it up to the barely-there sunlight and examined it closely. And then he smiled. Small, barely noticeable, but bright nonetheless.

I looked away. "I... is that a yes?"

And then it started raining. Small raindrops plopped on my head and arms, blurring my vision and dampening my clothes.

"Ugh," I groaned, but Jack, still staring at the brown quartz a.k.a. his new best friend, didn't seem to mind.

"We need to get out of here," I told him. "Why does it only rain when I do my hair? Better hope this isn't like the storm last time."

Though he probably wouldn't mind getting soaked, he followed me through the park until we found an empty playground. Not the best temporary shelter, but we ended up sitting under a small plastic roof covering the entryway to one of the slides. 

Unfortunately, with two grown teenagers in a space meant for small children, there was no way to sit without touching each other in some way.

"I doubt it'll rain for more than fifteen minutes," I mumbled, trying to adjust my position. My shoulder was against Jack's shoulder, my right leg against his left. Somehow, he didn't tense at our unnaturally close proximity. And I had this bizarre urge to lean my head on his shoulder, so bizarre I willed the sky to empty itself faster, to eject its rain into the world so we could get out of here sooner rather than later.

"So," I said after several silent minutes, looking out at the pine trees. "I think now is a good time to explain why you're suddenly friends with Seth."

Jack's arm stiffened against mine.

"Really? You're not going to tell me? Fine... something else." I thought of the picture of him and the two little girls at his side. "Do you have any sisters?"

He nodded once.

The girls in the picture had brown skin and curly hair, bearing little resemblance to Jack. Could they be adopted? Kids from his dad's new marriage? Or maybe Danielle had a new husband I didn't know about.

"Why don't you tell me about your dad," I suggested. "Didn't you say you would?"

Putting away the quartz, Jack pulled his phone from his pocket. And moments later...