thirty six

"Who wants to go for a walk?" Michael asks as he walks from the bathroom to the living room.

Luke looks down at his watch—a watch that is too big for his slim writs. "It's midnight, Michael."

Michael grabs his light jacket from the back of the couch. "What's your point?"

"We could get murdered or kidnapped or raped. It's New York City!"

Mike rolls his eyes, "If any of those terrible things were to happen, it would've happened by now. Either of you wanna go for a walk or am I doing this alone?"

Jack shrugs, "I don't want to put on pants."

Luke looks at the younger boy with concerned eyes, "You're not wearing pants?" He stands up, sliding out from their shared blanket, "I hate both of you, both of you need to stop doing that."

Michael grabs Luke's jacket, tossing it at him. "You're up, now you have to go for a walk."

He sighs, accepting he wasn't getting out of this. "Let me get my pepper spray."

Mike walks in front of the television, blocking the show Luke and Jack have been binge watching. "Are you going to be okay alone for about half an hour?"

"Duh."

"Will you stay out of trouble?"

Jack licks over his lips and laughs, "Possibly."

Michael reached over, quickly running his hand through his younger brother's hair to mess it up. He sprinted away before Jack could punch him in the lower region. It's a brother thing.

Luke took Michael's hand after making sure at least one of them had a key. They headed out into the brisk city, not saying much for a few blocks.

"I'm sorry I've been a bit of a dick," Michael says quietly. He slows down his pace, rocking their entwined hands back and forth in the space between them.

Luke doesn't know how to respond. Michael made him so loss for words.

"It's just that," he pauses with a sigh, "you make me feel something that I'm so scared of." Their walk stops as he presses the button to signal the lights, giving them a few seconds of silence as they wait for the flashing light to give them the O.K. to cross the street.

They do just that, now heading towards their work and into the heart of the city.

"I care about you, I think I love you."

Luke has been thinking of Michael as his significant other for a few months now. When he thought of Michael, 'boyfriend' matched up in his mind. Hearing this wasn't a surprise to Luke, he couldn't help his heart beating faster or his breathing picking up. "Oh."

"It's taken me all this time to realize that I don't want to be alone. I've lived two and a half decades alone, I've got a good few decades left and I don't want to be alone. I don't want to be alone, Luke, I don't want to be alone."

"Oh," Luke says once more. They're walking in the cold air, a few groups of people passing them. "Well, all right."

"I understand if you don't feel the same way, you're a lot different than me and—."

Luke abruptly stops. Michael turns around as his hand is pulled back by Luke's weight. "You think I don't feel the same? Are you serious, Michael?"

"What? Of course I'm serious, I'm not gonna expect you—."

"I'm purely in love with you, Michael. I don't love a lot of things in life—I don't love a lot of things about life. If I'm sure of one thing, it's that I'm completely obsessed with you." Luke didn't recognize the voice coming out of his mouth. It was his head speaking for him, it was everything he's been too afraid to speak.

He never thought he'd be saying these words to the kid he works with.

It was Michael's turn to respond with, "Oh."

Luke unconnected their hands, he takes a step forward and places his hands on Michael's jawline instead. "Are you asking me to be your boyfriend?" It was a forward question, but Luke was sick of playing around.

Michael nodded, completely loss for words.

Luke leant in as their lips met for the first time as a couple. A loving couple. It was right there, in the middle of New York City with the traffic honking around them and drunk couples stumbling up the curb that the two men admitted they were lost for each other. They were alone together.

Jack wasn't afraid of anything. He wasn't afraid of spiders or the dark, of clowns or heights, he wasn't afraid to be home alone and he wasn't afraid when he saw a person sitting on their fire escape.

That's why he unlocked their window and crawled out with him. "Are you going to murder me?" He asked the smoking boy.

He looked up and let out a tired laugh. "Probably not. Are you planning on murdering me? It's an easy push off the fire escape, you know. It could look like an accident, I won't stop you."

Jack laughed. A pure laugh. He sat a few feet away from the stranger. He brought his feet over the edge just like the other boy, his hands rested in his lap. "I'm Jack, by the way. I kind of live over here."

He nodded, not looking at the teenager. "I'm Calum, I haven't slept in nine days." He looked down at his hands, watching the cigarette burn into ash, his dark hair falling in front of his face. "I'm next door."

Calum took Jack's breath away. He thought that only happened in movies but he was looking at the boy next to him and he couldn't feel his lungs doing the one thing they're supposed to be doing.

"Why're you out here?"

Calum shrugs, "Sometimes I come out here and take photos but my parents say I can't do that unless I sleep."

"That's fucking bullshit."

He does that half-assed laugh again, "I know. It sucks. I'm in a sleepless city and I, too, am sleepless. Can someone write a poem about me?"

Jack leant back on the brick wall of their apartment building. He crossed his arms over his chest and wished he brought out a jacket. Jack needs a jacket. "That's beautiful," he says, "in a terrible way."

"That's insomnia for you."

"My brother has that," Jack responds. He figures he shouldn't talk about his family problems with a stranger. There's something about Calum, though, that makes him want to confess all of his sins. "He's better now."

"I'm not." Calum looks up for the first time, his dark eyes admiring the boy in front of him. "What's your problem? Why're you out here?"

He shrugs, "I saw you. You seem like the type my brother is going to hate."

Calum reached up his hand, hanging his fingers over the edge and watching his cigarette fall to the ground a few stories below them. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Do you hate him or something?"

Jack shakes his head, "I don't hate him, not at all. I just feel like he's embarrassed by me."

"Is your brother the really patchy black-haired one?"

Jack nods, he knows Calum is watching him.

"Dude, help him out. He's got their patch he always misses at the back of his head."

Jack laughs again, his laugh fading to only a smile. "I just moved back in with him. Haven't lived with him since I was 6."

"Yeah?"

"Got kicked out of boarding school."

Cal nodded as he looked back in front of them, "That's kinda cool."

Jack shrugged, "It's whatever." He turns his head, watching the sidewalk as Luke and Mike come back from their walk. "I've gotta go. When are you not going to sleep again?"

"If I don't sleep tonight then Mom is gonna take me to therapy. So, it'll either be Sunday or early next week."

Jack stands up on his feet. "I'll be out here, I'll bring snacks."

Calum looks up, watching him leave.

Calum has lived in New York City for six months and Jack was the first person to talk to him. 

yayayayyayayyy u meet calum!!!! he's gonna become an important character 

luke and michael are not Officially ™ dating whoa 

what are your thoughts?