Page 6 of Uncharted

“I need room to breathe!”

There was…admittedly a need for room to breathe when it came to him, another thing about him I knew and tried not to think about too much. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen most of the guys at the outpost in their birthday suits before, but it was weird to think about Jake like that. “Or like how Trev was married before, that Mav is quietly bi⁠—”

“Wait,” Jake interrupted, looking at me in wide-eyed surprise. “He is? I knew it!”

“Shhh,” I said, even though the chances of being overheard out there were pretty low. Not zero though. “I don’t even think Carter knows.”

“Why would he need to?”

“He doesn’t need to, but they’re tight like us, so it’s saying something that Carter doesn’t know was my point.”

“Ah…okay, that makes sense. How do you know?”

“I don’t know know. I just saw him getting hit on by a guy a year ago and he was definitely not against it. Dunno if he did anything about it, but⁠—”

Jake’s eyes locked onto mine eagerly. “But?”

I sighed. “But I know there was like…twenty minutes where I didn’t see him or that guy.”

“When was this?”

“My birthday last year, when I got as many of you as Xander would let loose to go to the club with me. You were beyond shitfaced though, so I don’t expect you to remember.”

Jake chuckled. “Yeah, I remember. Well, no, I don’t remember it that well. I was drunk as hell, but I remember being drunk…you were shit-faced too.”

“I caught up to you,” I said with a snort. “That was the night I learned you get cuddly when you’re drunk.”

“I can’t help it,” he said, completely unabashed at the reminder of the morning after our night out. I had woken up to him having somehow crawled into my bunk and spooned me. Though spooning was a tame word for what had essentially been a wrestling move executed to keep me from moving. “I’m a touchy-feely kind of guy.”

“Tell me about it,” I said, but I wasn’t complaining. As someone who came from a background where touching was strictly limited to comforting a distraught person or a romantic relationship, it had been weird. Then again, it was strange how casually Jake touched any of us, but me most of all. Even from the beginning, though, I knew that was just how he was, and while it was strange to adjust to, it hadn’t been bad. “My point is you learn things about people without meaning to. And my other point is that you are nosy when it comes to people’s personal lives.”

“Not yours,” he said simply as we watched the furry family disappear under the water, their exploration clearly having ended.

“True, not mine,” I said.

It was one of those things I took for granted, but having it out in the open made it seem odd. Not that I could say why, only that it felt odd in a frustratingly vague and incomprehensible way. Not that it would be the first time in our friendship that I found something odd or disquieting, but…well, actually, I didn’t know what was ‘but’ about it, just that there was one there somewhere.

“Okay, well, ya gotta admit, your brother’s ex-boyfriend, apparently the ex-boyfriend is kinda crazy,” Jake chuckled.

“That was a lot of emphasis on the,” I pointed out.

“I mean, ya don’t act that awkward and angry toward an ex unless it was a really bad breakup, it was a really good relationship, or…both,” he said.

“Alright, I’ll admit, that’s gotta be weird to someone who isn’t related to one of them,” I said with a shrug. “Worries me is all. I haven’t seen Mika this quiet or avoid people since, like…college.”

“Back when he practically disappeared from your life, went to a college on the other side of the country, and didn’t show up in your life for a few years?”

A brutal but accurate summary. “Right. Not that bad, though.”

“Good,” he said, and while I couldn’t read his thoughts, I sensed a lingering grumpiness that was probably defensiveness on my behalf.

Not wanting to discuss my best friend holding an uncharacteristic grudge against my twin brother, I continued. “And yeah, I guess Xander is…well, that whole thing is kind of weird. I’ve tried not to think about it. I mean, so long as they’re happy and there’s not like…any drama, it’s a good thing, right?”

“Fuck yes, it is,” he said with a laugh. “I mean, Xander’s, uh…still Xander, but he’s different too. I don’t care if he’s with a guy, you should know that.”

“I know,” I said quickly, because I did. There was a lot about Jake that ‘told’ people he was a huge, lumbering, inconsiderate jackass, and they treated him like one. Most of the time, I never saw it get to him. He was a good-natured man with enough awareness to understand how he might be seen by other people. But that didn’t mean I felt the same way, I knew he was incredibly kind and gentle, and while a lot about him might make people think he was the bad version of a frat boy melded with a corn-fed country boy, he was anything but and I made sure he knew I knew that about him.

“And ya know, people can change, or I guess when it comes to liking another guy, people can learn more about themselves no matter what age. Still, doesn’t it make ya wonder?” he asked.