The library is busier than Spencer had expected. He’d had the library from his hometown in mind: semi-abandoned and forgotten by most of the locals. He hadn’t considered the tourists that would stumble upon this particular library and follow the locals in for the sake of it. As he sits on the low wall outside the building, taking small sips from the coffee he was too impatient to let cool, Spencer pulls his gaze from his phone for long enough to spy what he swears is a familiar face passing by. “Hey,” he calls before he even thinks twice about it, standing and pacing over when he’s ignored until he’s close enough to reach out for their shoulder. “You ignoring me?”
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an act or process of closing something, especially an institution, thoroughfare, or frontier, or of being closed."hospitals that face closure"
(in a legislative assembly) a procedure for ending a debate and taking a vote; cloture."a closure motion"
28/08/2020 Visiting the city to celebrate his birthday, Josh runs into Jack in his Chelsea nightclub and is forced to allow the worlds of Joshua Cole and Joshua Yates to collide.
“We’ve got you,” Elijah is chuckling over Kevin’s shoulder, eyes squinting as he beams at Josh who holds their friend from the other side.
Josh feels a little guilty, laughing at the man’s slurred reply (something that might be ’no I’ve got you’ or ‘I’m about to throw up’ – could be either) but his boyfriend is laughing that contagious laugh that can’t be anything less than infectious. He hadn’t expected to leave whilst the music was still playing or the lights were still on, but even Josh can admit that he’s had a few more shots than he’d expected and, if Kevin’s drunken grumbles are anything to go by, he’s not the only one.
The diner across the street that they’d seen earlier this evening is becoming increasingly appealing.
The drink will catch up to him any minute now, no doubt. E’s already has that glisten in his eyes; that glassy look that he gets when he’s a little too drunk or, on rare occasions, too high. It’s the same look he’d have at about this time on a normal night mind - when they’re up too late and the sleep is just catching up to him and his eyes go pink around the edges. He looks soft and warm and ready to climb into bed.
“You look so gone,” Josh calls over the music, giggling until he accidentally trips Kev (who’s too lost in whatever song he’s now chanting to acknowledge the couple’s conversation anymore) as he turns slightly to speak around him.
“I am,” Elijah slurs, his lips pursed as he tries to fight his smile, but then the grin is breaking out again and his voice joins Kevin’s. In the hand that isn’t holding Kev, he holds Josh’s jacket above his head as he sings along.
They’re not even close to the door when the bouncer sweeps in and, instead of his friends supporting him, Kevin’s being held up by a tight grip around his bicep as a bulky man marches him towards the exit, ignoring Elijah’s “hey, we’re just on our way out,” and Josh’s “relax!”
Just a few steps closer to the door and Kev must lose his footing or stumbled over the security guy because he’s almost on his face suddenly – would be if the vice grip on his arm hadn’t remained as tight as it did when he’d gone down.
Elijah mutters something under his breath, but they’re almost out now anyway, Josh telling him to leave it. Still, the man is already sprinting ahead as he calls out, “hey, what the fuck’s wrong with you?” as he ducks to secure himself under his friends other arm again. “I’ve got him, man, calm down. Hey—” He’s pointing to someone off to the side then. “Hey, tell your security to loosen up, will you? Jeeze, I—”
“Let him go, Levi,” a voice among the crowd calls back, and Josh can’t place it -in the masses or his memory- and has to take a moment to search through the faces rushing past in the opposite direction. Then he spots him. The only one in the rush that’s stood still, and suddenly Josh is too.
He’s not looking at the bouncer as he adds, “take your break, chill out,” but is instead mirroring Josh’s gaze. The change in Jack’s appearance is almost enough to make Josh doubt himself; his hair styled with precision and beard shaved cleanly to show off skin that glows in a way that Josh can’t imagine New York has graced him with, even in the summer. He wonders where else he’s been.
He looks older too, but not in a way that might suggest he’s aged. Rather in a way that exposes some kind of maturity Josh had never seen in the past, purely in the way that Jack seems to stand taller, burying any of the vulnerability that he might have once had.
The same vulnerability that Josh himself still struggles to shake off sometimes.
He supposes he was bound to run into him eventually, but he hadn’t expected it to be so soon – or under these circumstances. In a forced, awkward reunion at Arthur’s maybe, but not a busy Chelsea club on a Friday night.
“Hi.” Jack’s soft smile doesn’t even try to match the tone he’d used before, but he’s not just looking at Josh now, he’s addressing him too as he adds, “sorry about him.”
Does he even recognise me? Josh doesn’t dare ask.
Somewhere in the flock ahead, Elijah is supporting Kev alone – maybe through the door by now, but Josh has fallen behind, stuck on the spot and unable to see over heads or through bodies. Not that he’s trying, too busy focussing on—
“Jack.” He’s meant to tell him that it’s alright, or maybe thank him for easing the guy off, but it seems to slip his mind.
He’d have guessed Jack was just visiting the city too, for no other reason than the fact that seeing the man in this world seems so bizarre to him. But then, picturing him anywhere other than that place would feel surreal, he’d suppose. Then there’s that bouncer, Levi, who had practically bowed to him as he walked away, nodding firmly to Jack. Jack with his styled hair and his royal blue blazer.
Jack cuts through his thoughts. “You heading out?”
“Yeah, uh. Kev. He’s had a little too much,” he tries to joke, and Jack gives an ‘oh, right’ kind of nod before he gestures to the door and they begin to walk together, towards the exit. “Gonna try and soak up the tequila in the diner across the street before we head back.”
The obvious conversation to have is what the hell are you doing here? But he can’t seem to bring himself to be so bold.
Soon the cold air outside is biting at his arms; any trace of the summer heat they’d enjoyed earlier today completely vanished. It’s not an awkward silence, per se, but he feels Jack’s mind racing just the same as his own as they step aside, away from the large doors where the bass of the music inside had followed them out. He focusses on looking around the busy street for his friends, already gritting his teeth against the cold. “Barney’s pizza is a crowd favourite at around this time – you better hurry.”
“Hm? Oh!” He laughs, linking the name with the illuminated building he’s headed too. He supposes they’re acting like this is all normal. “Wouldn’t be a huge shame really. We ate before we came out. Kev is just…”
“Josh!” Speak of the devil. He spies Kevin swinging from a post at the other side of the street, and exchanges a look with Jack, raising a brow as the man chuckles in return. You better hurry? Was he trying to get rid of him already? Kev shouts, “I love New York!”
Jack is digging around in his inside pocket as his eyes trail across the street where the man is now spinning around the pole as Trevor and Dylan (who must have been waiting outside the diner for them) try to slow him down. They’re too taken over by their own laughter to be much use. Elijah must be thinking the same as he stands a few paces back from the trio, his arms crossed as he shakes his head before glancing across the street. Josh thinks he might roll his eyes as he smiles in his direction but is too far away to be certain. He laughs anyway in return.
He hears a small click and, when he looks back towards Jack, the man is still watching his ridiculous friend swing in circles, but Josh is relieved to see the man smiling around a cigarette as he asks, “your boyfriend?”
He snorts, can’t even entertain the idea as he shakes his head. “God no. Just a friend,” he amends, watching again just in time to catch Elijah glance up the street before braving the road.
He sprints over to their side, Josh’s jacket still in hand, which he hands over once he’s within arms reach, telling him, “put this on, it’s freezing.” It feels tense for a second as the man exchanges a look with Jack, before he says, “thanks for helping my buddy out,” as he points over his shoulder. “He’s a different guy after a tequila or two.”
A cloud of smoke fogs up the air around Jack as he laughs, shaking his head as he takes another drag. “No worries,” his voice is thick with smoke until he completes his exhale. “Don’t mind Levi, he’s just pissy ‘cause his wife’s having an affair with some guy from Jersey. You smoke?”
Elijah takes a cigarette from the man, ignoring the disapproving hit from the back of Josh’s hand. He doesn’t smoke when he’s sober but, where tequila turns Kev into a show dancer, it turns Elijah into a chain smoker - despite Josh’s best efforts to prevent it. Jack pockets his lighter after lighting Elijah’s cigarette as he tells them “I didn’t realise you knew each other.”
If seeing Jack in the real world was surreal, this is downright unnatural.
Elijah opens him mouth to speak, and there’s something cheap about the idea of letting the man break the news for him, so, when an arm resting over his shoulders, Josh says, “he’s my boyfriend,” before his other half gets the chance.
He supposes it makes sense for Elijah to have met Jack if he’s some kind of manager at the club. E’s had their booth booked for months now; had swung by just yesterday to finalise the details - with Jack, apparently.
Jack doesn’t falter though, just smiles again; nods once more as if to say, ‘that’s nice.’ Good. Josh can smile about it too. Does smile even, when Jack says, “cool, how long?” and Elijah takes the question this time because Josh is busy thinking about how there’s nothing strange about introducing your new boyfriend to your ex-boyfriend after bumping into one-another after years of zero communication on both parts, in a foreign city at the other side of the country - and did he mention that they met in an illegally run asylum, he and his ex? Because that’s probably an important factor, too.
That pizza is sounding a lot more appetising right now as he looks across the road to where his friends wait patiently for them to finish their exchange. Trev looks like he’s about to pull Kevin’s arm from his socket as he holds him back from his attempts to cross the road after Elijah – likely for the cigarette he’s acquired.
“Blacklist, wow,” he hears Elijah mutter then, having missed where the conversation had gone. “I forget it actually happened,” he then adds, rambling a little more than usual in his drunken state. Josh has never told him in-depth about the relationships he had in Blacklist. If Jack’s name has ever propped up, it’s for the sake of filling in the gaps of a story rather than giving a rundown of his sexual history. That being said, if Elijah happens to recognise names like Arthur or Billy or Stella over, say, Jack Croft, then that’s purely a coincidence. “Doesn’t sound real, you know?”
“You’re telling me.” Jack’s being polite: if someone had said something like that to Josh, he’d have been damn close to biting their head off at one time, but Jack somehow manages to put it into perspective without being an asshole about it.
He doesn’t mean to get so anxious about the situation, but he must do because he focusses so much on the smaller details that he misses half of the conversation they have. At some point, Kevin makes it across the road and is dragging Elijah back towards the diner in a similar way to how Trevor had done with him. His boyfriend says his goodbyes and Josh is preparing his own parting words as he begins to make his exit, but then Elijah’s waving him off as he says, “you guys should catch up – we’re only across the road. I’ll order for you.” He leans in for a kiss that Josh almost refuses -cigarette breath- but lets it slide just this once.
He’s about to make his excuses anyway and head off with the rest of them, but Jack’s already nodding politely, saying, “yeah, why not?” and his boyfriend is being dragged away and then they’re alone on one side of the road while his friends huddle into the 24-hour diner on the other.
Suddenly the street feels quieter and the crowd further away as the two of them stand before each other with no distractions but a hazy bass deep inside the building behind them. He should have said yes to that cigarette, he thinks as he tucks his hands into his jacket pockets uselessly, clueless as to how to hold himself anymore as a million questions coming to mind now, that he hadn’t even considered a second earlier.
Jack picks one for him. “What are you doing in New York?”
He answers him easily- “Elijah booked up for my birthday.” -safe in the knowledge that their introductions have already been made. Elijah, his boyfriend. Current boyfriend.
“No kidding. Happy early birthday.”
“Thanks. Yeah, uh... Small world.” They both clear their throats at the same time. Josh adds, “what about you?”
“Uh, I own the club.” He looks bashful as he says it, looking down to where he kicks the ground with a shoe that looks too expensive to be scuffed on some New York sidewalk. Josh wants to ask how on earth he found himself here. How he seems so well despite those years that he let alcohol take over him, only to now own a bar in Chelsea. He forgets that a conversation usually requires two or more people to take turns in speaking, but Jack takes it upon himself to pick it up again as he asks, “how long have you been here?”
“Just a couple of days.” He’s quick to reply. “You?”
“God… Eighteen months now.”
“Wow, good for you.”
“Thanks, yeah.”
“Any insider tips? We fly back on Sunday.”
“Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village isn’t bad. There’s a show tomorrow, actually.”
“Will you be there?” Shit. Bad question. Awful question. Why would he—
“Nah, I’ll be back here, cleaning this mess.”
Thank God. “Got it.”
It flows and it doesn’t. They answer so fast that it’s clear they’re chasing out an awkward silence. They allow themselves to slow down then though, pretending to be distracted; Jack by the people still filtering out of the building (his building) and Josh by the group of four that laugh over the table of the diner opposite.
Elijah is trying to read from a menu while Kev attempts to snatch it away, just to be a pain no doubt. They feel an entire world away from where he stands with Jack, who feels so out of their league as he leans back against the brick wall and takes another long drag of his cigarette.
Images of the man stood against a similar brick wall, only mossy and cracked and along the edge of a dreary courtyard flash before him, but Josh can’t find the link. Jack holds the smoke almost elegantly between two fingers, bringing it to his lips and back down again smoothly. No chapped lips or shaky hands, no brushing his hair from his face or rubbing red eyes with dry knuckles. No, there’s no correlation at all.
“So, where’s back?” Jack asks, catching him off guard.
“Sorry?”
“On Sunday. Where are you going back to? Where’s home?”
“Oh, San Francisco… A little outside Silicone Valley.” Now it’s his turn to watch the ground, his cheeks flushing at the fact. The Gay Capital of America. That’s that they call it, and he wishes he could defend his choice, but, honestly, he can’t. He never went home; flew over to the coast the second he got the chance to leave the rundown hotel he was staying at in exchange for another, not-so-run down hotel. Wanted to live a little; didn’t want to be alone; wanted to find somewhere where the people would embrace him – would embrace anyone. He travelled across the country in search of love. He can admit that, but not to Jack. Can’t admit how eager he was to shake the dreary waters of Blacklist off his back and pretend it had never happened. “We own a hotel out there. Or—I own it. Elijah’s just my backseat driver when I need him to be.”
Jack’s laughing but it’s not jeering. No, he looks taken aback, head shaking again as he pushes himself away from the wall with the new energy he suddenly has. “Woah, that’s. Awesome. Really. I’ve never been but I’ve been wanting to.”
Of course he has. He’d fit right in there. Josh would be tempted to say Jack’s on the complete wrong side of the country if not for the fact that he’s seen him here now and witnessed how he thrives on a busy New York street.
“Let me know if you do, I’ll—”
“Josh!” Elijah’s stood at the entrance of Barney’s, hands in his pockets and shoulders drawn up in the cold. They look towards him together, and he gestures to the diner beside him to suggest that their food is ready.
“That’s me,” he says with an apologetic smile, which Jack returns as he drops his cigarette, expensive shoe grinding against the slab beneath him.
“I ought to go back inside anyway.” He checks his watch. “Forty minutes ‘til closing, yikes. I’ve got a lot of shit to do. You’re causing havoc already, Joshua Yates.”
“Cole.” Jack frowns – confused by the single syllable and Josh shrugs slightly as he scratches the base of his neck. “My name.”
The man’s frown only deepens, but then flickers to something lighter. Intrigue? “I… You. I mean… To Elijah?” He blinks, gesturing across the street.
“Oh. No, no.” Josh huffs in amusement, shaking his head. “I mean that I changed it.”
Jack blinks again, his understanding visually dawning on him as he lets out a simple “huh” at first as he considers this. “You said you would.” Josh nods. He had said that, hadn’t he? Right before he said he wanted to leave Blacklist and everyone in it, and never look back without a hint of remorse. He sees a similar realisation wash over Jack’s face before the man adds, “have a good life, Joshua Cole,” his soft smile returning.
It had been a long day for Jeff. With his final midterms, his morning shift and the gym and now his dance class, Jeff just wanted to go back to the dorms and sleep for the next entire day. Recovering from being sick with there was so much to stress about was putting Jeff in a bad place, he was tired, cranky, and he couldn’t focus most of the time. That’s why he ran into someone while making his way to the subway. He reached for the person’s shoulder to steady himself before actually looking at them immediately recognizing them “Jack! Hey, man, what are you doing in the city at this time? No law encyclopedia to read?” he asked with a light smile.
Mason approached the Hazel Run Bar and Grill with a smile on his face, having been invited out for burgers for lunch with Jack. He wasn’t a flashy sort of guy but he didn’t want to look like he hadn’t made any effort at all, casual was his look but he gathered that if he dressed in his usual sweats he’d get given the eye and thus he’d found a plaid shirt to wear with a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of trainers.
He walked into the bar and took a deep breath, taking off his sunglasses and looked the sea of people over with his eyes, searching for Jack. Once he’d managed to spot him, he grinned at him and rose an arm to wave at him, mouthing “Hey” at him from his place in the doorway.
