Chapter 5: Jack

Jack had a strange feeling when he saw the number show up on his screen. He immediately recognized the area code, of course.

But unless his parents had changed their number—something that absolutely would not have happened without several weeks advance notice and endless reminders from his mother—he didn’t know who it could be.

Except he sort of did know.

Or at least… he could take a pretty good guess.

If Jack was a betting man, he would put money on the hunch that the person on the other end of that line right now was the same person who had been visiting Jack’s thoughts and dreams ever since he’d heard his name the day before.

“Hello?” Jack sat up from where he’d been reclining on the couch and muted the TV.

He could hear someone breathing on the other end of the line, and for a moment he wondered if his hunch had been wrong, if this was some sort of prank caller or even an obscene caller… but then he heard a voice that was unmistakable, even after all these years.

“Hi, Jack… it’s, um… Calvin.”

Even though Jack had thought it would be him—even though he’d felt it—there was nothing that could have prepared him for the moment he heard Calvin’s voice again.

It was like talking to a ghost. Or a memory. Or a dream.

But this was real. It was really happening. Somehow, some way, Calvin was on the phone with him right now.

For several seconds, Jack couldn’t think of anything to say. Or maybe there were too many things he wanted to say all at once. With how fast his mind was racing, it was hard to tell.

He had to say something, though, right? He couldn’t just hang up and pretend this call never happened… could he?

No.

For as far apart as they were in life now—physically, emotionally… all of it—he and Calvin had been really close at one time.

And for that fact alone, Calvin deserved a hello.

“Hi,” Jack said, simply, still unsure of where to go from there. “This is Jack.” He cringed. “I mean… of course you already knew that. So… hi.”

So far, this was not going the way Jack had pictured things in his dream. In his dream, they had been able to pick back up right where they’d left off after high school without a second thought.

Well… maybe not right where they’d left off. In his dream, there had been no mention of The Kiss, or anything awkward at all.

But this wasn’t a dream, and it was really hard for Jack to pretend like the past didn’t matter.

“I, um… guess you’re probably wondering why I called,” Calvin said, seeming to ignore Jack’s less-than-articulate greeting.

Jack could hear the nerves in Calvin’s voice, too, and realized for the first time that Calvin was probably having just as hard a time with this.

Because of course he was.

They had been good friends, best friends, and it hadn’t been just a one-way friendship. When Calvin had come out of the closet just before Freshman year, Jack was the one he had come out to first. And Jack had been there cheering him on for every other first along the way.

Just like Calvin had been there for him.

“I…” Jack tried to think of some polite way of saying it, but couldn’t. “You’re right. I am wondering why you’re calling me now. It’s been… a while.”

“A long while,” Calvin said. “And I’m sorry to just call out of the blue like this. I-I really wasn’t sure if I was going to do it, if I’m being honest. I just didn’t know if you’d want to even talk to me, but…” He paused and Jack could hear him take a ragged breath. “I needed to talk to someone, and your mom said—”

“My mom?” Jack interrupted, then grunted as the missing pieces suddenly started falling into place. Of course his mom had talked to Calvin. After the way she had been going on and on and on about him the night before, Jack should have seen it coming. “Please tell me she’s not…” Jack shoved a hand back through his hair as he huffed out a short breath. “She’s not up to something here, is she?”

There was no telling what sort of thought had gone into his mom’s decision to talk to Calvin. Maybe she was just trying to get them to talk again. Maybe this was her idea of getting Jack to have some fun.

Maybe there had been a full moon, or Mercury was in retrograde. Sometimes there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to the things his mom did on his behalf—at least not as far as Jack could discern.

“No,” Calvin said. “I don’t think she’s up to anything here, I just… I think she was trying to help me out? She said you were excited about the things we were doing here, and that you, um… might be able to help? Since it’s sort of what you do for a living?”

That felt like a lot of questions, and Jack was still trying to grapple with the first bit of what Calvin had said.

“Okay, so…” Jack shook his head and tried to parse what Calvin was asking. “Let me see if I’ve got this right… My mom told you to call me, yeah?”

“Right.”

“Because she said I was excited about… what, exactly? Does this have something to do with the business thing she said you were speaking about in front of the city council?”

“She told you about that?” Calvin’s voice perked up for a moment. “It wasn’t that big of a deal, really. I mean, I guess maybe it was? But you know how we have that ordinance prohibiting big businesses from coming in and setting up shop? Well, they’re trying to get that repealed and I just… I just sort of decided that I was going to do everything I could to stop them from doing that, and now—” Calvin took a deep breath. “Now I don’t really know what I’m doing and I just… um… help? Please?”

Jack couldn’t help but smile. Even though he was still thoroughly confused, even though he wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed with his mom for getting involved—and for trying to get Jack involved—in whatever mess was going on in Silver Lake, even though Jack still wasn’t sure how he should feel about talking to Calvin in the first place… it was clear that the person on the other end of the line was still the same old Calvin.

The same Calvin who, at one time, had been Jack’s best friend. The same Calvin who used to know every single detail of Jack’s life. The same Calvin who used to be a big part of Jack’s life.

For all the other things that had happened since then, nothing could erase the history they shared.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said, finally. “But I still don’t really understand what it is you’re asking me to do. Frankly, I’m not sure I understand any of this.”

“Right. I know.” Calvin’s voice was clipped and quiet, a complete turnaround from just a few seconds before. “I shouldn’t have called and tried to get you mixed up in this. I apologize. I guess I just got my hopes up after I talked to your mom, and I thought—” his voice broke on the last word, and Jack winced at the wave of emotion that was coming through the line loud and clear. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter what I thought. I should let you go. Take care, Jack. Sorry I bothered—”

“Wait,” Jack said, cutting him off. He didn’t know what made him say it, other than the knowledge that he didn’t want to end their first conversation in ten years like this. Jack might not want to rehash all of the details of what went down back then, but this weird, abrupt conversation would only leave him with more unanswered questions if he let Calvin get off the line now. “Could you… could you tell me a little more? Help me understand.”

“You’re sure?” Calvin’s voice was still quiet, but it was impossible to miss the note of hope that was there. “You want to know the details?”

“I’m not promising anything, Calvin,” Jack said, wanting to tamp down any expectations. “I might not even be able to help, honestly. But yeah, I’d like to know a little more. I’ve got as much time as we need.”

“Okay,” Calvin said. “Right. O-kay. That’s fair. I’ll start from the beginning, then. And then… we’ll, um, go from there.”

“Perfect,” Jack said, feeling the corners of his mouth turn up again. “And Calvin?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you called. It’s been too long.”