Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:26:10 +0000 From: Chris Salter Subject: How I Met Jake: Chapter 41 If you're under the legal age, its illegal, or offensive to view acts of homosexuality, leave now. Disclaimer: I don't know Jake Gyllenhaal, nor do I claim to know anything about his private life. This work is fiction, nothing more. Chapter 41: "You're still here?" Rachel asked as she approached Jake. She was quite attractive, a complete blonde bombshell with a friendly smile. Quickly downing his tenth glass of water within half an hour, Jake looked up from the bar. "Yeah, I'm still here." "Wow." Rachel replied as she allowed her fingers to dance playfully around Jakes collar. "Your friend must be really important to you; you've been avoiding everyone all night." "Can you stop that." Jake pleaded. He was in no mood to be chatted up by someone. "They mean the world to me; I think I've been blown off." Moving her hand from Jakes collar to his shoulder, Rachel batted her eyelashes at him a few times, "Come enjoy the party Jake." Slowly standing up, he was feeling sober again. "Maybe," Jake commented as he slowly followed Rachel to the dance floor. Dragging him to the middle of the group of people, Rachel grabbed Jakes hand and began slowly dancing around him. "Come on, lighten up." Attempting to dance with Rachel, Jake kept his hands in his pockets to try to maintain a form of distance between him and Rachel. This didn't seem to work, as Rachel suddenly began brushing her body against his. Finally, he couldn't take it any longer. "I'm sorry, I can't do this. I'm going to go." "Okay whatever!" Rachel replied curtly. Jake obviously wasn't interested in her, so there was no point trying to bed him. "Bye...." Jake replied shyly as he turned and headed towards the door. After grabbing his black coat, he quickly wrapped himself in it and headed out the door. Passing the two doormen on the way out he acknowledged them before angrily fighting his way through the sea of photographers. He looked like shit and he felt like shit. "Guys not tonight, please!" Jake pleaded as he finally reached his car. Completely ignoring his pleas, the photographers continued snapping images of him. Groaning, Jake unlocked the doors and quickly started the engine, "Please guys, Stop!" He shouted as he tried to block some of the flash bulbs from his eyes. Putting the car into reverse, he carefully navigated his way out of the photographers and onto the street. Finally, sticking the gears into drive, he accelerated quickly down the street away from the media and towards the apartment. He felt so miserable, he'd tried to include Chris in his everyday activities, he was planning on announcing him to some of his closer friends, but lately Chris had began to grow more and more distant. He knew the reasons why Chris was feeling like this, he was overloaded at work and had been forced to stay at the lab until 1am the night he was to meet his parents. Pulling up at the red light, Jake rested his arm on the door of the car and leaned his head against his clenched fist. He smiled weakly as he thought of him trying to cheer Chris up that night. He had even broken out the finger puppets as an attempt to make Chris smile and feel less guilty. Suddenly the horn from the car behind him snapped him out of his dream. He could understand why Chris wasn't there because of work, but he'd promised Jake that he would be able to make it to the party. It meant a lot to both of them, Jake was no longer wanting to hide himself from most of his friends, and he was proud of the fact of having Chris as his boyfriend. Feeling partly at fault because he managed to leave home without his phone, he decided to head home to try to find out what happened with Chris. Accelerating again, Jake reached the apartment as fast as legally possible and made his way into the garage. Not seeing Chris' car parked, an immense feeling guilt shot through his body. Had something happened to Chris? Was Chris avoiding him for some reason? He was unsure. Quickly pulling up parked across both spaces, Jake jumped out and ran up the stairs towards the apartment. Pulling out his own set of keys, he unlocked the door and was immediately greeted by a dark apartment. He was tired still slightly dull in the head from the vodka. Stumbling over towards the answering machine he checked to see there were no messages from Chris. He then picked up the phone and dialed his own cell number. Wandering through the apartment listening for his phone, he finally found it hidden under Chris' jacket. Immediately ending his call, he grabbed the phone and searched through the missed calls. As expected, there were several messages from Chris. Pressing connect, he waited for Chris to pick up. Looking over at the clock, he saw it was just after midnight before the phone call rang out completely. Jake groaned and collapsed on the floor. Dialing the number again, he waited for Chris to pick up. Finally he did. "Hi Jake." "Fuck, are you okay?" Jake asked, genuinely confused. He could tell Chris was miserable, just from his tone. "I'm fine I guess. Just sitting here." Jake closed his eyes and sighed, "Where are you?" "Santa Barbara, sitting on the beach." Chris replied. "Are you coming home?" Jake asked. He was worried about him. Chris was silent for a few moments before finally speaking up, "I don't know." Jake swallowed nervously; he was terrified as to where this was going. Trying to hold back a tear or two, he forged on with the conversation. "I miss you, if you're not coming home, can I come see you?" "I guess." Chris replied. "I'm near the pier." Standing up, Jake headed back towards the front door, grabbing Boo Radley in the process. "I'll be there as soon as I can." To his surprise, Chris immediately ended the call. The last action absolutely broke Jakes heart in two. He loved Chris but didn't know why he was acting like this. Running down the stairs, he opened the door of his car and jumped inside. Placing Boo Radley on the passenger seat, he started the engine and quickly roared out of the parking lot. ************************************************************************ Completely losing it, Chris pulled his knees close to his body and rested his head on them before bursting out into tears. He felt so lonely, and he felt like his work was beginning to alienate Jake. All he wanted to do was run away and hide, but now that he'd told Jake where he was hiding, it was only a matter of time. Chris continued to cry as he heard someone crunching his or her way across the sand. Hoping it was Jake, he turned his head nervously. The dark figure continued to approach Chris before crouching down, "Hey, are you okay?" The stranger asked. Wiping the tears away from his eyes, Chris replied nervously, "I'm fine, I'm just waiting for my friend." "It doesn't sound like you're okay. But if you need anything," The man pointed inland, "My house is over there. My name's Luis." Chris smiled; the man was kind and welcoming. "Thanks, I'll be okay." Expecting the man to disappear again, he was surprised when he took a seat on the sand next to him. "So, what's his name?" "Jake," Chris sighed. "I was supposed to go to a party with him tonight, but he ignored me." Luis' silhouette changed slightly, "Is he your boyfriend?" "Yeah." Chris sighed. "Well then, I'm sure it's not what you think." Standing up, he announced his departure before continuing, "If you need to talk, I'm over there." Chris smiled, despite the fact he couldn't really see in the dark, "Thanks, I think I'll just wait here for Jake." "Good luck then." Watching the silhouette wander away, Chris sulked back into his previous position and waited for Jake to get there. After another fifteen minutes or so, another figure began to approach Chris; there was something different about this figure. It wasn't the same figure that had approached him before. Noticing the figure was carrying something, Chris began to stand up, so he could run if attacked. "Don't come any closer, I've got a gun!" Chris yelled. He wasn't lying. As an investigator, he always needed some form of protection around him. "Oh yeah? Well I've got a dog." Chris smiled weakly at the dark figure, "Hey Jake." Immediately planting himself on the sand next to Chris, Jake looked over at him. "So, why are you hiding from me baby?" "You're mad at me, so I thought I'd give you some space." Chris replied solemnly. Jake placed his arm around Chris, "I'm not mad at you. But where were you tonight?" "They wouldn't let me in." Chris responded curtly. "My name wasn't on the list. "What are you talking about?" Jake replied genuinely confused. "I put you on the list myself, and double checked with them." Chris shrugged, "Maybe they didn't want me there. I don't know." Sliding slightly further away from Jake, Chris continued, "I just assumed you were pissed off with me for continually blowing you off." "Oh Chris, don't say that. It wasn't your fault." Pulling Chris back to him, Jake noticed Chris was shaking; also, by the tone in his voice, he could tell Chris had been crying. "I've never been mad at you. I love you too much to be." Slightly surrendering to Jakes touch, Chris replied in a croaky tone, "After missing the thing with your parents, I was sure you were mad at me." Jake smiled, "Is that why you've been sad lately?" "Yeah." Pulling Chris into a tight embrace, Jake kissed him on the cheek, "You're a silly fool." "Shut up." Chris responded. "I've been treating you like shit, and you've been all sweet to me, which made me feel worse. If you were mad at me, it would have been easier to accept." He sighed, "I just love you too much. I don't like treating you like you don't exist." Jake grabbed Chris hand and gently ran the ring around the finger, "This is a sign of how much I love you. I know you've been busy with work, I can understand that, I know you'd do the same to me. I just wanted to cheer you up; I want my happy Chris back." Smiling at Jakes comment, Chris nuzzled his head into Jake. "Did you have fun tonight then?" "No." Jake replied immediately. "I spent the whole night watching the door for you. I stayed at the bar, hoping to see you. I was so excited about introducing you to people." Moving his hand under Chris' jacket, he gently ran his cold fingers over Chris' warm back. "I had some girl named Rachel flirting with me...." "Did you flirt back?" Chris asked nervously. Jake shrugged, "How could I not? She was blonde, beautiful and had legs that never stopped." "Oh..." Chris replied shyly. "Well, I guess you needed to maintain your heterosexuality." Pulling Chris closer again, Jake kissed him again. "You idiot. Of course I didn't flirt with her. She wasn't my type." "Wasn't she?" Chris asked. "What is your type?" Jake smiled, even though Chris couldn't see in the dark. "Tall, dark hair, cute, charming and goes by the name of Chris." Chris returned the smile and leaned over to kiss Jake, "Aww." Getting more comfortable with the beard, he nuzzled into Jakes warm body. "Actually, I stayed at the bar until she dragged me to the dance floor." Jake responded thoughtfully, "As soon as she started grinding against me I left." Completely comfortable with Jake, Chris closed his eyes. "Good boy...." "I didn't want to be there without you." Jake replied. "So there was no real point in staying around being felt up." "Poor baby." Chris whispered as he held Jakes hand. "This is the first time we've done this in public." Jake smiled, "The wonders of darkness." "I'm really sorry Jake." Chris mumbled as he was wrapped completely in Jakes warm arms. Looking out to sea, he felt absolutely comfortable. Moving again so he was sitting directly behind Chris, Jake placed a leg either side of him and rested his lips on the back of Chris' cold neck. "I'm sorry for not having my phone with me." Leaning back into Jakes body caused a funny feeling within Chris' body. He felt safe, he felt comfortable, and most of all he felt absolutely content. All the trouble and angst he'd felt in the past weeks immediately flew out to sea as he was held close by the man he loved. --42 soon-- Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I still have a while to go before I finish this story, but as you can probably tell, I've got some other things I need to take care of which will take priority until the end of the month (exams). I'll try to keep this updated, but I promise I won't leave you all stranded! Love hearing from you all, thanks for reading and the great comments, you rock!