Chapter 21: Freed

I hollered in laughter as Jake continually plasters my face with kisses, as he powerfully pinned me down with both hands – he had me beat in strength. Taking me off guard, he smashes his lips to mine. Shocked, I laugh even more, "I hate you!"

"You love me," he kisses me once more.

I wipe his kiss off my lips.

He makes a pouty expression. "Baby, how could you treat me like that?"

"You just kissed the ground, bastard," I retort, "Then you kissed me!"

"Aw, is my prince mad he essentially kissed the ground too?" he teased, playfully, allowing me to sit up.

"Yes, your prince is upset," I pouted, folding my arms across my chest, "Very upset."

"Does my prince want his crown back?"

"Si," I reply, with a pouting lip.

Like a mime, he places my invisible crown back on my head.

I kiss his cheek. "Thanks, my prince." Just when I was about to arise, he grabbed my arm.

"Um, hello? Where do you think you're going?"

"Oh, sorry," I apologize, "I cannot believe I almost forgot to give my prince his crown." He placed the invisible crown on his head, humming Four Seasons: Spring by Vivaldi.

"Thank you, squire."

"As you wish, your majesty," I bowed with my head.

We both cackled at our goofiness.

"Rico and Jake!" we hear Ken call, disrupting our joy, "I hope you two know you're both in your boxers right now. Outside. In the public."

We both looked down at ourselves and burst into more laughter.

Astonishing me, Jake lifts me into his arms, carrying me like a damsel while I was still chortling. "Let's get back inside. No one can see you in your boxers, but me."

"Oh, hush," I tease, "It isn't like I'm naked."

"Yes you are," he counters, "I know what you look like naked. I cannot unsee your bareness no matter what you have on."

"Woah! You two seen each other naked? You guys actually did it?" Luci questions, surprised.

"No," we both answer quickly at the same time.

"Sounds guilty to me," she smirks.

I look away from her and plant my face into Jake's neck, which was cherry red. Like me, he was embarrassed.

"And if we did, it would only be our business," he possessively remarks, "Only between us. No one else."

"Yeah," I cosign, still not eyeing her directly. Luci, my best friend, is someone who I confide in for anything and everything. We've seen each other half naked more times than I can keep track of, yet the thought of telling her the events that transpired between Jake and I while we were in that room made me uncomfortable. It's too intimate to share. Even with her.

Shifting gears, like the genius he is, Jake asks, "So, I see you and Ken arrived together." I remove my face from his neck and eye them. "You two are even holding hands. Cute."

Luci and Ken immediately let go of the other's hand and grow uncomfortable.

"Did you two make out yet?" Jake purposely interrogates.

Luci becomes evidently embarrassed and so does Ken. "That's not any of your business, asshole," she snaps.

Jake grins in delight. "You get snippy at me for asking a question about kissing, when you just asked us if we had sex. Oh, the irony."

She becomes speechless, which means she doesn't have a witty comment as a counterargument. A couple moments of intense silence pass by until she breaks it. "Keep talking and you'll be right back in there," she threatens. Ken grabs her hand, which I notice calms down her typical hotheaded outburst.

"Threats from Lucifer herself no longer faze me, after living in hell itself, in that hot ass room," Jake chuckles and walks by them, with me still in his arms. I chuckle in amusement. Jake being typical, argumentative, I-like-to-get-the-last-word Jake.

~*~

Reentering the room, Jake and I throw on our clothes quickly. We grabbed some items and began walking out.

"I can't believe we're actually going home, Jake," I say in a peppy tone, "Let's hangout at my place or yours." I paused, realizing I didn't hear movement behind me. I turned around to not see Jake in sight. I put the stuff down and go back into the room and there he was, in a daze. "Jake, are you okay?"

"I don't know honestly."

I grab his hands and comfortingly rub them. Jake Terrence has always been the kind of person to always know exactly what he feels — with his feelings towards me being an exception — and always is very decisive.

"I just—" he pauses.

"You just what?" I eye him directly.

"I honestly don't want to go back to reality."

I tense up. What does that mean?

Jake read my mind. "It's not like that, Rico. I'm not worried about us." He makes eye contact with me and grins. "You were my prince in here and you'll stay my prince out there."

I grow calm and smile with him.

His smile fades and he looks away. "It's just... um — I just don't look forward to going back to my life."

I inquire, "Why?"

He glances at me knowingly. "I told you already. My parents are strict. Everything in my life is monitored and regulated by them."

"Oh, yeah," I recall.

"Even though we put in her against our will, I've never felt so free before in my life," he glances around the room.

I peculiarly eye him. "Woah. For real?"

"Yeah," he answers, "Being locked in here has released me. This experience has freed me in so many ways." I grow astonished at his solemnness. Jake isn't usually this deep about, well, anything. He usually brushes aside a lot of things with sarcasm and jokes. "You freed me." He grabs my face.

I abashedly avoid his eyes.

"Seriously, Rico," he continues, "I've never felt so open with anyone before."

I bite the inside of my cheek anxiously.

"I've never felt so sure about anything in my life before — not in a long time — but, my feelings for you are solid and have been for a while."

I grow more uneasy. This is weird. This is all just plain weird. Beyond weird. I recoil from him and turn away. I won't let him see me in a flustered like this. It's disconcerting. He turns me back around.

"Rico, I'm being serious," he tries making eye contact with me, but I couldn't look him straight in the face. This was strange. I'm not used to this... this serious side of Jake. It's new, it's different.

I uncomfortably laugh, "I'm sorry; this is just all odd to me." His face falls even more and I quickly read his mind. "Not in that way, Jake," I clarify, "It's weird, because I'm used to you not being so earnest. You typically make light of things." I pause, further gathering my thoughts. "But, I love it. I love that you're opening up to me."

His face brightens up. "I don't even take myself seriously most of the time."

"I take you seriously," I retort.

"At least one person does," he chuckles, however, there was something off about it. It seemed forced. I hug him. He hugs me back, no longer laughing.

"You know, you can talk to me about anything," I murmur in his ear, "You don't have to laugh away your pain with me."

I feel moist droplets hit my shoulder. Is Jake crying? I become startled. His grasp tightens as I rub his back in consolingly manner. I decide to not speak and allow him to get it out without disruption. I cling to him for several moments, until Luci and Ken appear in the doorway. I turned us around to where Jake's face wasn't visible to them.

Luci starts, "Guys, we came to help with the—"

"We'll be out soon," I say, facing them. "Jake and I can bring the things out by ourselves."

"Are you sure?" Ken asks, "It's a lot of stuff."

"I'm positive."

"Are you positive you're positive?" he continues.

Luci immediately picked up on the atmosphere and grabbed Ken's arm, pulling him away.

Thank you, Luci, I thought. The thought of Jake being seen so vulnerable in front of others suddenly made me that much more protective of him.

When we pulled away, Jake's eyes were bloodshot red. "I don't want to return to reality, where I lack freedom."

"Why?"

"I told you."

"Is there more you're not telling me?"

He darts his eyes away from mine.

"Jake?" I press, "Is there more you'd like to tell me?"

"My parents are homophobic and have made me believe homosexuality is sin for my entire life."

I become speechless.

"They will never support me after I tell them," more tears escape his eyes, "Whenever I subtly bring up the topic, they become so disgusted and go on a rant about how unnatural it is and then, afterwards tell me they're glad their son isn't that way. That their son will give them 'real' grandchildren by procreating with a woman."

"Jake, you don't have to tell them—"

"I do," he cuts in, "I have to. The sooner the better."

"What if—"

"I'll figure it out," he replies.

"Jake, I'm scared," I feel my eyes well up, "I'm scared for you."

"Don't be," he reassures, with a smile behind fresh tears, "I'd rather tell them than hide you from them."

I cling to him tightly, as my tears could no longer be held back. "If you want, we could stay in here one more night."

He pulls away quickly. "The hell we are!"

I suddenly start laughing, wiping at my tears. "But, you keep saying how you don't want to return to reality and—"

"But I don't want to stay in here, where it's crammed and hot," he laughs.

"Fair point."

"However, I do want to stay the night with you."

I kiss him. "I wouldn't mind that at all, my prince. My place?"

"Yeah," he kisses back.

"Let's wash our faces," I laugh, "My after-cry face is ugly."

"Are you kidding me? Your after-cry face is sexy as hell."

I grin. "Yours is handsome."

"Yeah, right," he chortles, "My eyes probably look redder than a cherry."

"They're not that bad," I tease, kissing him. I instantly jet off into the bathroom to wash my face off. He follows behind and does the same. We wash our faces until it isn't easily noticeable that we've cried — Jake's eyes were still a little red. Afterwards, we put away the air mattress into the box after deflating it and grabbed several of the items, carrying them outside. During the first round, we caught Luci and Ken breaking away from a heavy make out session. Me being me, I pretended I didn't see it happen, while Jake blatantly snickered and made kissing noises. Luci sent him a death stare, after popping open her trunk.

After a few more rounds, we had everything in Luci's car, so we hopped into the back.

Luci began driving. "Rico, I'm dropping you off first."

"Jake's coming over my place."

"Alright," she replies, "Less trips for me."

Ken asks, "So, guys?"

Jake and I both replied, "Yeah?"

"How was it?" he inquires, "I mean, how was being locked in there — the experience?"

"It was a roller coaster with this dude," I answer quickly in a joking manner and Jake punches my arm.

"Rico was an annoying asshole." The jokey atmosphere vanished in thin air.

"I'd rather be an asshole than a cheater," I pettily brought up, "You cheated during that game and you know it."

"It wasn't cheating. It was ignorance on your part," he argues.

I grow instantaneously annoyed. "Screw you."

"When and where, baby?" he questions with a smirk, "Your friend already gave us the needed items. All we need is—"

"Guys, quit it. I don't want to hear it," Luci says, in revulsion.

"Oh? But, you were so curious about our sex life a bit ago?" Jake reminds.

"Shut the hell up, Jake."

I chuckle lightly. Jake is one irritating bastard. He flickers his eyes at me and grins. I grin back and rest my head on his shoulder. But, he's my irritating bastard.

~*~

I dozed off on his shoulder until I hear Luci announce, "We're here, now get out of my car you lovebirds."

"Where's our phones?" Jake demands.

"Here." She tosses them to us. "Almost forgot."

"And we would've gave you hell for it too," I say.

"Sure would've," Jake concurs.

I see Luci roll her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Get out." She pops open the trunk for us to grab our belongings — I get mine first and Jake gets his second — and shut it.

Reaching my front door, I realize I don't have my house key. "Wait here," I tell Jake.

I head to the side of the house and pull open a window I keep unlocked for this very reason. I climb through it and go to the front door, letting Jake in. I flicker on the light and he looks around after handing me my phone.

"So, this is your home? Nice."

I give him a quick tour and then show him my bedroom last. I looked at my phone and saw that I have notifications from multiple apps. I flip through and see that Luci has been replying to my parent's texts and see recent texts from Ken. I squint my eyes. Why does it have me giving him Luci's phone number? I immediately grin. That sneaky girl.

I yelp as I'm lifted into air and thrown on my bed. "Get off your phone. I want to spoon."

I smile, putting my phone on the nearby nightstand, and stripping down to my boxers. Jake gawked at me in shock. "Wouldn't it be more comfortable this way?"

"Yeah," he answers, and hesitantly strips down to his boxers as well.

I turn my entire body the opposite direction of Jake. He climbs onto the bed and spoons me. "Why are you so surprised?" I murmur.

"It's just different, because we're outside of that room... we're in your bedroom."

I wiggle my butt. "Worried you'll get excited?"

"Do that again and I'll bend you over and spank you."

"Punish me then, daddy," I challenge in an overly sexual voice, facing him.

"Don't say that or else I just might," he playfully warns, pecking my lips.

I began making out with him, until I decided to turn back around. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until fell asleep in his arms.

~*~

I held Rico as he slept. Exhaustion soon took over my body as well and I became momentarily freed of my worries for that day.

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There are 3 chapters remaining. Hope y'all enjoyed this bit. <3