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“Oh, hush, Jo,” I said, waving a hand down at him. “I’ll come stay, but I’ll be looking for a place. I don’t want to impose permanently.”
He cocked his head, his red and green gaze as fierce as ever, even through a phone camera. “It’s not an imposition, it’s decided. I won’t hear another word of it.” Leave it to Jonah to go from crying to reprimanding in a matter of seconds.
“We’re cool with it if you are, Kai. You know that,” Oli added.
Another tear rolled down my cheek, and I swiped it away quickly with my fingers, smiling at my friends. Jonah suddenly looked so fucking angry, his body rigid and his face tight. I knew he was just doing his best not to explode so, naturally, I sabotaged his efforts.
“Jojo,” I said in the sweetest voice I could muster. “We’re going to be roomies.”
His face slid back under his hands as he crashed his head into Oli’s chest. The poor thing couldn’t keep it together. It was fucking adorable. Oli hugged him, staring at me over his shoulder and trying to bite back his own laughs as I snorted into my hand. Even just by being his nerdy self, Jonah made me feel so loved and so needed, as did the joy in Oli’s eyes. I was suddenly the happiest I’d been in a very long while.
So, that was it. I was done. I was tired of myself. Tired of this place. After six roller-coaster years, I was finally ready to leave the city which time and time over had chewed and swallowed me only to shit me out and do it all over again. I packed up what I could, donated the rest, and finally headed home.
Part 2
Chapter 13
Kai
I got into Burbank around 3:00 p.m.—12:00 a.m. in Spain—but I hardly felt tired. Adrenaline clanged through my body, propelling me across the shiny airport floor as my bags dangled and bounced, threatening to pull me from my path. My legs kept pumping until I crashed right into Jonah, Oli, and June for what might have been the longest hug I’d ever experienced. There were at least four arms wrapped around me, perhaps five, pulling me into a mess of friends and forcing my neck to arch up awkwardly. They tugged on me as if I were indestructible, and I fought between wanting to hug them tighter and needing to be able to breathe.
Jonah must have noticed and backed off because when I pulled away, he was standing a foot to the left. He watched us, smiling, with two hands in his pockets. I finished my embrace with Oli and June and stepped directly into him, shoving my forehead into his chest.
“You get an exclusive one,” I whispered as my hands slid around his torso.
He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he wrapped me tight. This hug didn’t crush me. It enveloped me and made my excitement melt into the tranquility of knowing that life was about to get a lot better, that I’d made it through the hardest part and now found myself on the other side. It was the kind of hug you get when you finally run to your favorite person after a long day. Except it wasn’t a long day. It was a long six years.
His nose pressed into the top of my head. “I’m speechless, my beautiful girl.”
And he wasn’t lying. He hardly said a thing as we all piled into Oli and June’s car and uttered a whopping total of zero words the entire ride home. But the smile didn’t drop from his face for even a second, and I could see just how glossy those green eyes were each time he stole a glance. I hadn’t seen him so overcome with joy since he got his first microphone.
The apartment was just as I remembered it, if not better. There were a few updated decorations, some new appliances I’d never seen in my life, and three new stools on the outer edge of the black island that sat in the middle of the kitchen area. The TV area off to the right of the main room looked as cozy as ever, and I was more than ready to get into my comfy clothes and lounge there with my friends until my consciousness gave out.
Oli easily hauled one of my suitcases into Jonah’s room while I wrestled with the other, following him in. I couldn’t help but notice that the futon was already prepared with what appeared to be new sheets. They were baby blue. I loved baby blue. Jonah must have gotten them when he was buying the two new pillows that sat atop my sleeping space as well: one hard and one soft. For a quiet moment, I imagined my grumpy Jonah out shopping for sheets and blankets, squishing pillows to find the best one as he glared at every other customer in the store for breathing the same air as him.
A deep voice cut through my imagination. “I wanted to go to concerts.” I turned to find Oli standing in front of Jonah’s desk, looking at me and fiddling with the bottom of his flannel in one hand. It was the first time we’d been alone together in years, a notion which struck me quite suddenly with a melancholic arrow through the heart. “There were so many concerts that were 18+ or 21+. You left before we were both old enough to get in. I wanted to go together.” His eyebrows drooped with an emotion that could only ever be evoked by lost time.
I took a step toward him. “We’ll go to every single one from here on out. I promise.” But I knew it didn’t really matter. They were the concerts now. My friends were practically famous, and I’d already missed so much.
I hugged him, barely taking up the width of his chest. Had his torso been bendable, I’m almost positive he would’ve been able to touch his shoulders to each other behind my back.
“Are you going to leave again?”
Pulling away, I placed my hands on either of his biceps. “Why would you think that?”
He shrugged. “Your parents are there.”
I shook my head. “I’ll visit them eventually, but I’m not leaving.”
He relaxed slightly and let himself smile, nodding and glancing at his feet. “June really misses you. She says she wants to have movie nights in real life, not just over video chat. And Jonah, well... You know.”
“And you?”
He caught my gaze. “We certainly can’t gush over our hot classmates anymore, but I missed having my little sister around.” A large palm fell atop my head and messed up my bangs, ruffling them around so they dangled every which way.
“I missed you too, big brother.” I flicked my chin to set my hair back into place before cocking it to one side, giving him a very specific look that I knew he’d understand. If we’d missed so much time together, we had to start making up for it as soon as possible. Right now, in fact. He squinted at me in challenge, and I tilted my head further, waiting for him to break.
Finally, a mischievous grin broke out across his face. “All right. What are you thinking?”
