Page 45 of Spoonful

Hiro gave him a lopsided smile. “You’re the smartest, hardest working, most dedicated person I’ve ever met. You’ve given so much time to your friends, tome, even while you’ve been suffering. You made me a star chart just because I thought it was pretty. You’re thoughtful and generous with your time and energy, even though I know it costs you. You’ve got a heart of gold, Jaylin. I could ask you the same thing.”

It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him, possibly ever. Butterflies bloomed in Jaylin’s belly as his face went hot. For the second time in two minutes, Jaylin blinked back tears. He didn't know what to do in the face of Hiro’s sincerity.

Hiro picked up his coffee again, knocked it back like a barbarian, and went to put his mug in the dishwasher. “C’mon,” he said, not unkindly. “We’ve got a lot to do today and I want to make sure you eat breakfast before we get to work.”

***

They were parking in front of Jaylin’s building by quarter to seven, with a bunch of collapsed cardboard boxes, a couple rolls of tape, a ton of garbage bags, and a pack of sharpies–all of which Hiro had insisted on paying for. On the drive over, they’d gone over their game plan, which was mostly, “box up everything, and leave the rest for cleanup.” Hiro had been viciously insistent about making sure Jaylin didn’t do any extra cleaning or anything, once he’d discovered Jaylin’s name wasn’t on the lease.

“Mr. Asshole McShithead can suck it up not getting his deposit back,”he’d said viciously.

It had made Jaylin laugh for the first time since midterms week had started. Even more so because Hiro didn't know he was talking about Brent, the rival, sleazeball lawyer who hated Hiro’s guts.

If Jaylin weren’t so determined to keep the fact that itwasBrent under wraps, he’d share the joke. But he couldn’t tell Hiro the full picture about who Brent was. It was one thing for Jaylin to be bending over for a faceless sugar daddy. It was something else to give him a name. HiroknewBrent. Knew exactly what he was like. Knew exactly the kind of man Jaylin had been selling himself to.

Jaylin wasn’t ready for that reveal yet.

As it was, a vindictive part of him was relieved to not be expected to leave his place spic and span and ready for the next renter. Would that eat the deposit? Probably. But Jaylin didn't have to care.

“Where do you want to start?” Hiro asked, once they were inside Jaylin’s apartment. It struck Jaylin that even though he had been hanging out with Hiro for weeks now, this was the first time he’d been inside Jaylin’s apartment. They’d pretty much been spending all their time at Hiro’s place. Hiro had always been quick to offer it up, but always with the caveat of,“if you want to.”

For the first time, Jaylin wondered if maybe that was because Hiro had suspected Jaylin’s own place wasn’t… safe.

He took a deep breath. He guessed Hiro hadn’t been wrong.

Jaylin looked around. His apartment wasn't very big and it wasn't very full, but it still seemed daunting to get it all packed up in a day. “I guess we should start with my school stuff and clothes? Try to get it all together and labeled and everything, since that’s most important.”

“Sounds good to me,” Hiro said, crouching down to start taping boxes together. He grinned up at Jaylin. “Don’t worry. We got this.”

Jaylin tried to smile back, tried not to let the ever-present anxiety creep too far in, and fairly leapt out of his skin when there was a knock on his front door.

Terror crashed through him. Brent washere.He’d come early or Jaylin had gotten the date wrong, and whichever it was, Brent or Ernie was outside expecting Jaylin to open up and–

Hiro came closer to him, hands out but not touching. “It’s okay,” he said firmly. “You don’t have to answer that. Or I could check–”

Jaylin’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and Jaylin heard himself make a horrible sound, automatically grabbing it before he realized–

It wasn’t Brent’s ringtone.

“Hello?” Jaylin asked, pressing the phone to his ear. He couldn’t register the name flashing on the screen, too anxious to try to read it, but he couldn’t imagine who might be calling him at seven on a Friday morning. At least his voice didn’t tremble too much.

“You’re 608, right?” Carlos’s voice rang out, and Jaylin almost dropped his phone in shock. “Your text said 608 and we’reat608, but I knocked and no one answered and I better not be knocking at the wrong door this early in the morning because I’m willing to give up my beauty sleep but I’m not–hey!”

The last word was yelped, sounding from farther away, and Jaylin was trying to parse both Carlos calling him and the fact that he’d saidwewhenCamille’svoice then said, “Sorry about him, he’s the worst kind of morning person. Hetalks.”

“Carlos always talks,” Jaylin said dumbly into his phone. To Camille. Who was… here? With Carlos?

“True enough,” Camille sighed. “Now you wanna let us in? Hallway’s kind of crowded here.”

“Right!” Jaylin yelped. “Right, sorry, um, coming–” He threw Hiro a bewildered look and went to his door, mind whirling.

He did not expect what he saw when he opened the door.

“I don’t–I don’t know if you’ll all even fit in my apartment,” Jaylin said faintly, desperately trying to keep his voice steady. Carlos, Camille, Miguel, and Pablo were all packed into his hallway, along with Aditi, a man who looked exactly like Aditi but was quite a bit taller, and Diego, who was carrying several brightly colored boxes.

“That’s cool,” Miguel said easily. “Just tell us where you want us.”

“Raul and Martina are sorry they couldn’t come,” Carlos put in, actually sounding apologetic. “But they’re prepping El Guanaco for the Friday crowd.”

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