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"No? Come on over, you can witness a textbook example of it," Jakob told him, feeling a wry grin slip across his lips to match. "Cassie thinks he's hilarious, unfortunately. It's only encouraging him."
"Mmm. Wish I could," Ethan said, a soft look crossing his face. "But…"
"They still sitting outside your house?" Jakob asked in surprise.
"Oh, Officers Curly and Moe left a few hours ago," Ethan told him with a huff, rolling his eyes at the absurdity of it all. "I'm now being graced by the watchful presence of Lts. Larry and Shemp."
Jakob snorted, grinning despite himself.
"You said Alex thought he was being tracked or something?" Ethan asked, leaning forward in his chair.
Jakob stretched carefully, trying not to unseat the laptop again. His leg was bothering him after all the stress today and the weird angle he had it at now for so long, lying here on the bed. Might be due a soak with Epsom salts after he got off the call with Ethan.
He wasn't in any hurry though — it was too nice just chatting like this with his friend. Like it was old times.
"That backpack he brought with him, the one with all his pins and patches and stuff? He thinks his dad messed with it," Jakob answered, looking over at his locked bedroom door reflexively.
He dropped his voice quieter, hoping there wasn't anyone out there listening in the hall.
"Don't mind telling you, Ethan — it nearly broke my heart watching him dump all his belongings into a shopping bag, stripping what he could off it before pitching it in the trash. He's trying to play it all off, like he's just here for a sleepover or something, but… I think it really messed with him, having to lose that too, on top of everything else."
"I'll get him another one," Ethan said sharply then, his face turning determined. "I'll… I can — We could meet up, and — "
"Ethan."
"No, I — I'll order a backpack online and have it shipped to your place. Just — "
"Ethan," Jakob interrupted his friend, louder this time. "It's not that easy. It's not only about abag,and you know it. It just… It put the cherry on the whole shit sundae."
Ethan heaved a sigh, deflating like a balloon as he scrubbed at the back of his neck. "Yeah. I know — Iknow! I just… I want to dosomething."
"Ethan," Jakob replied, his mouth practically hanging open in shock. "Youdiddo something. He called, and you were there for him. That's huge. I mean, you've hadcopswaiting outside your place all day just for trying to keep him safe."
"Doesn't feel like it," Ethan grumbled petulantly. "Feels as if I'm just sitting here, while his dad's probably coming up with new and interesting ways to make Alex's life hell. This whole thing's suchbullshit, Jakob. I don’t care if he’s legally an adult now — he's still only a kid! He shouldn't have to deal with any of this. He should be more worried about his English essay or next week's Trig test than of his ownfather."
"Like you were?" Jakob asked softly before he could help it, the words slipping out by themselves before he could stop them. He found himself holding his breath and hoping he hadn't gone and overstepped; shattered this fragile, nascent peace they had somehow managed to find.
"…Maybe," Ethan finally said with a sigh after a long pause, and Jakob let out the breath he had been holding. "You know what he was like."
"Yeah," Jakob replied.
And he did. Remembered Ethan calling him on the house phone late at night, waking up Frank and riding in the old pickup truck to find his friend. The sight of Ethan standing there, leaning dejectedly up against the corner store's old pay phone near the apartment building where he lived. The way the glow of the old street light cast strange shadows on his newly blackened eye; picked up the tear tracks streaked down his face before he had scrubbed his fist across his cheeks to hide them.
Remembered the impromptu sleepovers, sharing his clothes and shoes. The way Ethan would always drag his feet Monday morning riding into school with Jakob. Both of them knowing he would just be picked up that afternoon by his mom, brought home to have it start all over again.
Remembered that icy feeling of disbelief washing through his bones as one particular morning when Ethan told him — his voice breaking, hitching every third or fourth word — about how his dad had woken him up at six am just to kick him out of the house for good; all plans to celebrate his friend's eighteenth birthday dropping right out of Jakob's head like a bale of hay that had slipped from his hands.
He had always seemed so — so angry when he had to call Jakob and Frank for help. Solid, good-natured, warm Ethan; sounding so lost on the other end of the line, frustrated and not knowing what else to do.
Remembered too how relieved Ethan had been when Frank said that he could stay. That Ethan could live at the ranch with them as long as he liked, provided he pulled his weight around the place same as Jakob. How relieved Jakob had been for him that Ethan finally,finallyhad somewhere safe to stay.
"That why you've been helping Alex?" Jakob asked quietly.
"I'm helping Alex because it's the right thing to do," Ethan replied, stone-faced — before the expression slipped into something more…hollowwas the only way Jakob could describe it. "But… I guess I can't say that's not part of it either. Can't ever really know, can I?"
"Don't have to," Jakob told him with a small grin. "Like you said, it's the right thing. So knowing you, I bet you'd have done it anyway."
"So," Ethan said after a moment, clearing his throat; his eyelashes suspiciously wet. "What's the plan for tomorrow, then?"
