Page 33 of Spoonful

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The first time Jaylin had visited Hiro’s home weeks ago, he’d expected to feel awkward. But it had been nothing of the sort. Hiro had been warm and welcoming, and his house wasn’t… intimidating. It was a comfortable size and tastefully decorated, full of beautiful art and personal photos, such a departure from Brent’s wealthy-but-minimal-chic aesthetic. When Jaylin hadn’t been able to help looking around with interest, Hiro had given him an impromptu tour, talking Jaylin through different art pieces and telling stories of how Hiro acquired them while traveling. Jaylin had found himself enjoying it immensely, and for once hadn’t been self-conscious about asking follow-up questions.

Hiro seemed perfectly happy to justtalkto him. Like Jaylin was someone worth talking to. Spending time with.

Now, their easy conversation carried through their pizza dinner, and then Hiro was leading Jaylin into his living room, with its cozy looking couch and impressively sized TV.

“You make yourself comfortable,” Hiro said, handing Jaylin the bowl of popcorn he’d made. “And I’ll be right back. Just gotta grab something before we start the documentary.”

“Okay,” Jaylin said easily, taking a seat on the couch. He made sure to sit at the very end, to give Hiro plenty of room when he returned, and nibbled on a handful of popcorn.

“Alright,” Hiro said a moment later, coming back into the room carrying a large tote bag. “Here we go. Now you can figure out your favorite.”

“Figure out my—?” But then Hiro upended the tote bag onto the couch cushions next to Jaylin, and over a dozen different movie theater candy boxes rained down out of it.

“Did you buy out an entire candy store?” Jaylin stammered as he took in the boxes.

“Nope,” Hiro said cheerfully. “Just the candy section at the grocery store. Figured this was the easiest way for you to learn what you liked.”

“You didn’t—Hiro, you didn’t have to do that,” Jaylin said, still shocked. It was both incredibly thoughtful and incredibly silly for the man to have done this.

“Oh no,” Hiro said in mock seriousness. “I totally did. What if I want to take you out to a movie and we get there and then you have no idea what snack to pick? You might end up with something you don’t like, and we can’t have that.” He picked up a box of snow caps and shook it. “This way you can try everything. Process of elimination.”

“I-I don’t know if I caneattwelve boxes of candy,” Jaylin said, suddenly afraid that he’d be expected to. He hated wasting food and he didn’t want to disappoint Hiro and—

Hiro’s expression turned from playfully-serious to concerned. “You’re not going to be eating twelve boxes of candy, Jaylin. I mean, unless you really want to? You’re taking tastes from twelve boxes of candy. You don’t have to finish anything. And you certainly don’t have to eat more of something if you don’t like it or don’t want to.”

Jaylin’s mouth worked soundlessly for a moment. “Oh,” he managed after a too long pause. “I… thank you. For thinking of me. This is, um, this is really cool.”

Hiro took a seat on the couch, the mountain of candy in between them. He gave Jaylin a crooked smile. “Not too much?”

Jaylin shook his head. “N-no. And uh, hey I mean, it might get us into the mindset of watching people make sugar art.”

“That’s the spirit,” Hiro said, holding out a box of sour gummy worms.

***

Jaylin had his astronomy lab on Wednesday nights. He liked astronomy lab, liked Professor Smythe’s teaching methods and learning about the stars, but they also spent a good amount of time outside looking at the sky, and Jaylin was always freezing by the time they headed back inside, warm coat or no. Tonight was no different, and by the time lab was over, he was very ready to go home, take a hot shower, eat dinner, and collapse into bed.

His phone chimed just as they were getting dismissed at ten.

Jaylin flinched. Of course it was Brent’s chime.

He hurried out of class with his stuff and went to lean against the wall, pressing his phone to his ear as he played the text message.

I’ve sent Ernie to pick you up,his phone’s robot voice said as Jaylin’s heart sank.He should be arriving in a few minutes. Don’t keep him waiting, pet.

Jaylin clenched his fingers around his phone. He’d had his business law class earlier and had just finished astronomy and had been at campus almost all day, getting homework done in between his classes. He was tired and he hadn’t eaten since lunch and he had statistics tomorrow morning at nine.

And there was no telling how long Brent would want Jaylin to entertain him. No way to know what Brent would expect him to do.

Ok,Jaylin texted back, feeling numb.

He made himself push away from the wall. He needed to go outside and wait for Ernie’s car. He needed to not tie himself into knots worrying or panicking about what Brent might do to him. It didn’t matter, really, because he’d already agreed to this.

One thing at a time.

It’s worth it.

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