#jaycole

The middle of July never really meant much to Jayden growing up. The sleepiness nights stained with sweat, the endless morning filled with long grass itching around her ankles and nights filled with the sound of cicadas. 

But now as she lays, back against Adam's shoulder there's almost something akin to finding herself in the early morning heat. "Is it really your birthday?" Jay asks, barely looking up from their textbook, Cole tilts his head back, Jayden feels the pressure of their chin pressing into her forehead as he nods and Jayden just chuckles. "You feel like a summer baby." 

Adam pauses his laughter, stares at her through tired blue eyes and by the time that jayden looks up she's sure that she's drowning in small rockpools of emotion. "What?" She asks chuckling and Adam closes the textbook, lets it sit between them and Jayden stares back blinking in confusion. "No seriously what?!" Jayden asks and Adam leans forward pressing soft lips against her sweaty forehead. 

"You should probably go shower idiot." Adam whispers and Jayden kicks her legs out, feeling the old mattress springs squeak. They play wrestle, laughter filling the air and it's only when Jayden pins him down, knees pressing into his ribs does the laughter die away and the two of them are left gazing at one another, blinking through strands of hair. "You're really stinky." 

"And you're summer." Jayden whispers, flicking the tip of Cole's nose. She chuckles and lets Cole slump against the mattress, letting their bodies sink just a little deeper. The two of them are quiet for a few seconds before Jayden rolls off and pads her way to the small connected shower. "So what do you want?" She shouts over the roar of the water and Adam takes the slight mumbled edge to her words to follow her.

He sits on the bathroom floor as Jayden showers, eyes staring at the water that gurgles down the dirty plughole. "You could get me anything." He makes sure to look at her, keeps his lips slow moving so Jayden can read them through the water smudging their vision and Jayden just nods, washing shampoo out of the curls that lash around their chin. 

She says goodbye with a kiss, nudges Adam in the curve of his ribs after she's showered and Adam pretends not to notice the way that his shorts look almost stupidly big against Jayden's smaller frame. "Have fun shopping." He says, waving and Jayden waves back. The door slams and the small dingy hotel room suddenly fills a lot smaller when Adam is alone. 

The sun's barely setting when Jayden stumbles back through the door. Her jacket sits in the gap of her arm and Adam looks up from his place on the bed, blinking sleep from his eyes. Jayden tosses the jacket against his lying frame, laughing when Adam flinches away from the smell of leather and nicotine. "What happened to you stopping smoking?" He asks. Laughter, bright and happy fills the room when Jayden flips him off and soon there's the ghostly smell of cigarette smoke filling the room.

"Oh help yourself!" Jayden snaps, throwing her arms up playfully. 

Adam just grins around the end of the cigarette, smoke billowing out his nose. "Dont mind if I do." 

Jayden giggles, folds her arms across her chest and it's the first time that Adam has noticed the small bag knotted around her wrist. "You're such an asshole!"

It's Adam's turn to laugh, chuckling to himself as the two of them share the cigarette, smudging the smoldering ember out against the heel of Jayden's boot. "So what did you get me?" Adam asks, hands folding neatly into the middle of his bare legs. "come on! its almost not my birthday and giving it to me after my birthday screws up the point of a birthday gift!" Adam rambles and he even lets Jayden kiss the taste of smoke off his split lips before she hands him the small box. Its wrapped in crumpled paper, shimmering silver under the flickering hotel room light and Adam shakes it a little. 

"Dont do that idiot!" Jayden swats at his arm chuckling when he flinches, rubbing at the red mark that grows just over the curve of his arm. "Just open it!" There's almost a certain hit of nervousness under the bite in Jayden voice and Adam lets his blunt nails pick at the shiny paper until it rips and collects on the floor. 

"Hand cream?" Adam asks once the paper has stripped and the tube sits out of its box. He rolls it around in his hands, pinches at the creased corners of it and his eyebrows screw up in confusion. "I don't need makeup."

Jayden just raises both eyebrows, like there's a joke that Adam's quite getting. "I got you a chain as well." Jayden adds and the silver links shimmer between her fingertips and Adam knows not to ask where she grabbed it from. "I can take the hand cream back if you don't like it-..." 

Adam shakes his head quickly. "No no, it's great!" He promises, it smells of roses when he squirts into the middle of his hand. There's hints of lavender and the milky substance slides between his fingers easily and he sniffs at it. "It smells kinda girly." He shrugs and keeps rubbing his hands together. 

The tube continues to sit at the bottom of his suitcase a year later. Adams hands are a lot more tired now. There's a scar across his pinkie and the freckles that had once shimmered like dirty stones now sits covered by ring tape and he picks at the sticky substance left behind. He rubs it into his hands, breathes in the smell and pretends when he strokes a hand through his hair that Jayden is beside him once again, nose pressed into a text book and her shoulders pressing into his. He sinks into a slighter better mattress and lets the room surround him. "Where did you go?" He asks the shadows on the wall. 

Adam never gets a reply, the texts end up never being read. He doesn't even know why he keeps trying to reach out with softer hands than before. She never grabs back. 

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