Parks

It’s two in the morning, and Jeremy can’t sleep. Again. The window of his old room in his parent’s house is open exactly three inches, allowing the lightest cool breeze to seep into the boiler the poster-ridden room has been for the past fifteen hours. His hair is dark with sweat on the pillow and his eyes are wide open.

The lights on the alarm clock change formation for the hundred and twentieth time and Jeremy peels himself off the bed. He’d spent most of the day in pool. If there’s anything that he misses while at college, it is the convenience of having a swimming pool in the backyard. The thought of slipping into the water again almost makes him salivate with anticipation. There are very few redeemable things about summer for Jeremy.

A minute later and he’s immersed in the water under the moonlight. He wonders if steam came off the surface when he jumped in. Before long, he’s on his back and his eyes are closed. If only he could sleep here.

“Having fun there?” a voice calls and Jeremy falls underneath the water, startled. He frowns when he comes up for air, sputtering a bit on the chlorine-tainted water he accidently swallowed.

Parker or Parks, as he likes to be called, is grinning at the twenty-two year old from over the top of the fence.

“You really need to stop sneaking up on me,” Jeremy says indignantly. Parks grins, twinkle in his dark eyes.

“It’s not my fault you’re such an easy target. It’s like you do this every night just to tempt me.”

“Are you inviting me over?” Jeremy asks with a smirk.

“Yes.” Parks’ head then disappears and Jeremy climbs out of the pool. He picks up the towel he left in the sun earlier and dries himself off before going upstairs to put some clothes on.

Parks is still in the backyard when Jeremy eventually makes his way over. As with every night for the past four summers, Parks is on an outdoor recliner, holding one of those reflective sheets people use when they’re trying to get a tan. There are solar lights all around the garden, casting an eerie light on the easel with an incomplete painting of the moon on it.

“You are ridiculous,” Jeremy says when he catches sight of the older man. Sometimes he wonders who’s twelve years older in their relationship. Parks drops the silvery sheet and swings his legs over the side of the chair.

“Is it so ridiculous, wanting to keep up my amazing complexion?” he asks seriously. Jeremy snorts.

“Your mom’s Japanese. You don’t need to do anything for your skin.” Parks laughs and walks over to the boy with the bags under his eyes.

“I’m glad you think so.” He then takes Jeremy’s hands and leads him inside.

~

“Did you sleep at all tonight?” Parks asks as he pours them each a cup of ice tea. Jeremy shakes his head and leans against the kitchen counter. Parks frowns at this. He’d noticed the heavy purple colour under the young man’s blue eyes the moment they stepped into decent light.

“It really doesn’t help when your sister’s in the next room having her brains fucked out by some loser twice her age,” Jeremy says then takes a sip from his tea. Parks can’t help but laugh. He’s never had much restraint.

“Yeah, twice her age. How awful,” he says, running a hand through his shock of black hair. Jeremy chuckles a little at this too, remembering that he was only nineteen that fateful night several years ago now.

“I don’t mean it like that. It’s just bad because she’s fifteen.” Parks places his glass on the counter behind him, then reaches forward and takes the tired boy’s hands in his again.

“I know. I just…have you thought you might like it better over here?” Jeremy almost chokes on his drink.

“With you?”

“Well, I’m not moving out anytime soon.”

“You’re asking me to move in with you?”

“You did graduate two weeks ago and we’ve been doing this for a while now, so yeah.” Jeremy runs his finger over the rim of his glass and his feet shuffle nervously. “If it helps, I’m asking you now because I’m worried about your health. Well, sort of.”

“You want me to try going nocturnal, right?” Jeremy asks with a chuckle and an eye roll.

“Well, we wouldn’t see each other otherwise. That’d be shit.”

“Okay then,” Jeremy says and Parks’ eyes widen, face cracking into the biggest smile Jeremy has ever seen on him (aside from the first time they did the dirty, of course). The older man then wraps his arms around Jeremy and spins him round the kitchen.

Jeremy’s face is red and he’s wearing a very unimpressed frown but he clutches onto Parks nevertheless. He doesn’t protest either when Parks kisses him as fervently as only Parks could ever manage.

And when the sunlight finally touches the water of Jeremy’s parents’ pool, he’s sound asleep in the air conditioned room with his arms around his boyfriend.