Work Text:
Bythorne Park - 2009
Jonah idly tips over pills from its opaque orange bottle to its ridgy cap on the picnic table.
Only 4 pills remained, all thanks to him and Adam getting bored and reckless. They had both taken 3 each. Jonah had showed Adam how to toss a pill high in the air and catch it on his tongue, wasting 2 pills in the process. Adam had scooped up the grass-taken pills for his own liking, blowing air onto the pill to quote on quote clean it up.
He'd have to suck it up about his broken leg (from about 3 months ago, give or take...) to his father again. Was this what they called being a stoner or was that a 90s exclusive thing? Jonah hoped it was the latter, because he couldn't help but feel a bit ashamed of his drug usage at the end of the day. Even if he was baked at said end of the day. "You're a rich kid, you had to do something to keep it interesting." To quote Adam on more hurtful days.
Crickets and the sound of trees rustling roared in his ear, due to him being several feet away from the nearby forest. The trees loomed over them, making the darkness of the night richer with shadows and all the more colder. It just barely overided the tactile sounds of Adam typing away on his Sidekick. Who could he even be messaging?
"We've been here for like an hour and she's still MIA. It's past 9 pm."
Sighs Adam, furrowing his eyebrows but keeping a lopsided, drug-induced, grin.
"No kidding. She probably got better things to do on a school night at 9 pm. Why don't you just text her?"
"I'm on it, dude. But, like, texting her to ask where she at would makes me look desperate."
Adam hovers his thumb over the enter button.
"Speaking of which, what's up with you two? What's the beef?"
"We had a little fight. She's been ghosting me since. It wasn't even a real fight—just like 5 text messages where she took me too seriously."
"What'd you say?"
"I basically said she couldn’t just bail on the gigs after claiming she started the club for her brother. I was like, ‘What would your brother think about you quitting so easily?’ And then it went downhill from there."
"The hell you mean by for her brother?"
"Her DEAD brother. Awkward."
Jonah swallows hard, realizing how messed up that sounds now that he knows the whole story.
"She's a bit obsessed in my opinion, but she's cool."
Think, Jonah, think! Make this conversation less weird!
"Well in MY opinion, DAMN do you have alot of problems with women. First it was Amanda, then it was Evelin, now it's Sarah. You collecting Christian arcs or what?"
"It's not like that with me and Sarah! I'm not into her."
"Compare her and Evelin's pic. They're a dead ringer of eachother besides the fact one of them don't have bangs."
"Not to friend-zone the girl, but she's definitely not my type. She can be bit mellow for my taste, but I still like her as a friend. I need me a girl that complains."
"So you're into feisty girls?"
Jonah mockingly raises his hand and claws it forward like a lion. Adam leans forward, resting his palm on one hand like he was daydreaming, his smile only getting wonkier (yet, that was a sign it was brighter.)
"You get it! Anyway, I'm gonna get over myself and text her already."
With a quick flick of Adam's thumb, he slid the screen up, revealing the compact keyboard beneath.
Jonah turns his gaze away, painfully bored, evident in him swinging his legs. Cold breezes whipped him like a harness every now and then. It was like a wake-up call compared to the intensifying euphoria; courtesy of the Percocet bottle he twisted in his hand.
"So, what's she like? Sarah, I mean."
"She's, like… tougher than she looks. Keeps her cool, even around alternates and all that. Doesn't even flinch half the time. And I say half the time because she quit on me—"
"Be careful, if you don't mention that she quit, I might forget."
Adam rolls his eyes.
"It just confuses me, genuinely."
Jonah's eyes wander off to the rustic playground behind Adam, its primary color paint steadily tearing off in blotches. By the white gate he spots a girl scanning the playground, arms crossed and foot tapping the ground. She held what looked to be a crumpled black hoodie inbetween her arms.
"Hey, is that her?"
Jonah points with two fingers.
"Finally."
Adam exclaims, waving both arms at her. Sarah perks up a bit at the sight—but not in a thrilled way. She looks distant, her gaze trailing somewhere past them. Jonah half-expects her to veer off into the woods before she stops at their table. Despite Adam scooting over, she hesitates taking a seat.
With an unreadable expression, she tosses her head towards Adam, acknowledging him with the lowest nod. She sits down with the corners of her mouth deliberately up into an artifical polite smile. She shifts her focus to Jonah, her eyes tracing his outline like she was sizing him up. Was... He meant to say hi? Jonah catches the bold yellow letters on the hoodie she clutches: BPS.
"Sarah, this is Jonah. Jonah, Sarah."
"Nice to meet you. Do you go to school with us? You seem familiar."
She seems nervous, and no matter how much he tried to read into her, he couldn't tell if she was conscious of him or Adam.
"Yup. But I haven't attended an actual class since the start of winter break."
"Ah, alright. This is kind of just for fun, but I have a bunch of these made."
She holds out the BPS hoodie towards Jonah over the picnic table, gesturing for him to take it like it was a ticking bomb. He takes it, surpised by the softness of the fabric, unusual for a high school club.
"This is pretty cool, actually. Thanks."
The silence stretches, awkward and brittle. Adam clears his throat, shifting a bit closer, clearly trying to bridge the gap, but Sarah remains shut down. Jonah feels the strain radiating between them, unspoken but thick in the air.
"So. What do you think? You ready to take on alternates with us?"
Sarah snaps her eyes towards Adam as if he said water wasn't wet.
"Oh yeah, absulotely. Just point at something spooky and I'll... Stare at it."
Damn you, oxy, lowering inhibiton... Jonah thinks with dramatic flair, trying to recover from the embarrassment of what he said.
"What about you, Sarah? You still in? Seeing what Adam said."
"We'll see. Not everyone's obsessed with danger."
She only shrugs, and he mourns her current hostage situation for her.
"Come on, obsessed? I’m just… thorough."
"Right. I never specified anyone.”
She leans back, folding her arms, digging her elbows into the wood.
"Hey, well, if nothing else, at least we’ve got the merch!"
It feels like everyones playing a game and Jonah doesn't have the rule book. That he's defusing a bomb with just a pair of shears. He shifts in his seat uncomfortably, sensing he’s walked into something bigger than he realized. Sarah’s expression softens a bit, but she’s visibly holding back.
"They better be. I paid good money, and I've only used 3 so far, including myself."
Jonah recognizes that she was planning for that to come out softer. He spots the split secondshe fists her hands, like punishment for sounding so rude.
"Yeah. Jonah's here for the perks, alright."
He smirks, leaning back, clearly trying to keep things light. But there’s something tense in his expression, messed up with lingering effects of the pills they popped.
"And it’s not like I drag people anywhere. We’re a team."
"Team."
She echoes, testing the word, but it doesn't seem to quite fit as she looked dejectedly away. Jonah traces the indents of the wood pattern on the bench, mentally preparing himself to take off from his seat and directly into the woods.
"Sooo. you guys have been doing this for a while, huh?"
"Since forever. We’ve had each other’s backs through some pretty messed-up stuff.”
Adam tries to catch Sarah's eye like a weird game of ping pong. But she presses her palm from the picnic table, standing up.
"Yeah. Some messed-up stuff. Anyway, I just came to drop off the hoodie. I should get going.”
"Already?"
Jonah wonders if Adam's a masochist or something. Why would he want her to stay, considering all the jabs she's given?
"I guess there's not much too say."
In a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment, Adam frowns. Never had Jonah seen him hurt by anyone's words before; he was like the poster child of 'sticks and stones.'
"Right. I didn't know it'd be that easy to let go for you."
Wait— it's over between them? Is staying friends not on the table? Jonah thinks this is all a little... Dramatic.
"I'm glad you're catching on!"
"You got me hyped up over nothing, I hope you know that."
"We just see things differently now. Before, I was angry and overzealous. We were just playing a more high-tech version of Charlie, Charlie, if you think about it."
"Are you serious? Comparing alternates to some paper game?"
Adam stands up, and Jonah realizes they’re eye-to-eye in height. Sarah instinctively takes a step back, her shoe crunching on the grass.
"Uh, should I go check out the swings and come back later, or..."
"You're fine. I'm not here to ruin anyone's night."
"Wouldn't want that. Gotta play nice and safe, don't you?"
"There’s no other way to deal with you, Adam! It’s like arguing with a child!"
Sarah's voice raises, but a cupped hand ove her mouth didn't trap the words away like she was expecting them too.
"That’s what you think of me? I just thought you cared."
"I do care, Adam. Both about you and... All of this. Don't you dare tell me otherwise. Look, I'm not saying this to be mean. but we were just 2 kids with EMF readers, we can't change this shitty world. You should make peace with that—before it kills you next."
"Right."
The atmosphere shifts, like the calm after a storm. Yet the tension lingers like the wind gusts. Adam’s gaze drops, his expression hardening. Not so much in anger, but as though he’s holding onto something painful, like a child with hurt pride.
And for some reason, Sarah's musing about being unable to change the world resonates with him.
"Anyway. Jonah, it was nice meeting you. Take care.”
He watched as Sarah turned away, her figure blending into the shadows at the park’s edge. Adam didn’t say a word; he just sat back down, fingers tapping absently on the table, looking somewhere far away from here. The silence settled in around them, heavy and unbroken, until Jonah finally cleared his throat.
“So... that was intense.”
Adam huffed, his gaze still distant, lips curling in a humorless smile.
“Yeah. Guess that’s just how it is now.”
Jonah wanted to say something encouraging, but he didn’t have the words, so he just picked up the BPS hoodie Sarah left on the table. He could almost feel the weight of what had just happened stitched into every seam.
“Well... she said take care, right? So maybe there’s still a chance.”
Adam looked at him, and for a moment, Jonah thought he saw the faintest glimmer of hope. But Adam just shrugged, staring down at his hands.
“Maybe.”
They sat there in the cold, letting the quiet fill in the things they didn’t know how to say. And as Jonah glanced back toward the path Sarah had taken, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something had shifted.
Maybe it was the end of something, or maybe it was just the start of a different kind of silence.