"So what?" Oleander uses his heel to gently nudge Jett's lower back. The beta is sitting on the edge of his bed, eye glassy as he explains how afraid he is that he made a mistake with Boyd. Their breakup had done nothing but cause pain. He'd thought it was the right thing to do, but where is all the good he expected to come from it? No one is happy. The good is gone.
And Oleander can't accept that, not for his best friend. Jett had seen him through his fall out with Nikita. The beta had been there the night he met Carter, and for everything that came after. Jett stayed by his side all this time, watched him lose hope and find again.
Oleander is determined to do the same.
"What makes Boyd so special anyways?"
Ollie knows it isn't what Jett wants to hear. He hadn't wanted to hear it either when Jett was talking this way about Nikita, saying the Russian's name like he was nothing more than some fuck boy off the streets. It had helped though. Eventually Oleander realized that most of what Jett said was true, and sometimes the truth hurts.
"I know you miss him but come on, you can do better."
It's quiet for a moment, and Oleander wonders if Jett is even listening to him. He has more to say, would have spoken up if he wasn't shocked by the beta suddenly turning to stare at him.
"Boyd collects comic books." The statement is abrupt, and Ollie's face crinkles in confusion. Jett doesn't explain, he just keeps talking.
"His favorite hero is superman. He loves stingrays and he was five the first time Vitaly took him to see them." Jett says these things like they are special, and Ollie hurts for him. He knows this ache. It comes whenever he thinks of Nikita. Jett is telling him these things and while to him they sound trivial and unimportant, to Jett they are precious because they are about the boy he loves.
Oleander listens. He doesn't interrupt.
"His left canine tooth is chipped because he tripped and fell while they were on vacation in Russia one year. No one knows he fell because he was trying to hop a fence to a field of blue Russian chamomiles. It was for his mom, and he was so embarrassed about getting babied over his tooth that he decided not to tell them he failed at his flower picking mission too."
Jett has a faraway look in his eye's. Its bittersweet, almost mournful.
And Oleander is not impressed. Nothing Jett said had stood out as particularly lovable. None of it was worth missing.
"That's only five things."
A moment passes before Jett finally looks at him, gaze tinged dark blue with sadness.
"But its five things I know about him that no one else knows."
Gally isn't trying to listen, he just happens to be in the right place at the right time. He hears Jett's voice just as he's walking down the hallway. The beta stops outside his door, knows he should go in and ignore everything he's heard but doesn't.
Galileo stands there, those five things that make Boyd so special bouncing around his skull, causing a deep set ache in his heart. He thinks about waves hitting rock, his fist connecting against Boyd's jaw, and Jett-
Frustrating and stupid Jett, who deserves better.
They continue talking and Galileo disappears into his room, five things weighing heavily on his mind.
Jett isn't speaking to him.
The beta has hardly looked his way ever since the night their fighting turned into fucking. Jett was gone before he awoke the next morning.
And now the boys avoiding him.
On the first day Galileo told himself it didn't matter. He was glad to be rid of Jett, with his pretty mouth and harsh words. So what if he'd run off after sex? Gally didn't care.
He doesn't care.
But he does, because by the third day Gally is getting restless, looking for Jett around corners and hoping to hear the boy's heartbeat thrumming through the house when he comes home.
A week passes, and Galileo is near damn desperate. He doesn't sleep anymore. His head hurts worse in ways Gally hadn't thought possible. Its as though he's going through withdrawls, and distantly he wonders if this is what Boyd feels.
It doesn't make Gally hate him any less.
There is noise in the kitchen, and Galileo knows its Jett. He knows and he can't stand the silence anymore.
Jett wont be expecting him up yet. He wont have time to disappear.
This is his chance.
Gally makes the wise decision of getting dressed early, knowing that once he faces Jett there will be no going back. He's ready to leave for work any moment if he needs to.
Jett is sitting on the porch with his coffee, stops mid sip upon hearing boots thumping down the staircase. There's a few seconds of contemplation, Jett calculating if he could somehow avoid having to see Gally without actually seeming as if he is trying to avoid anything.
He's too slow. Galileo is already walking out the door and he has Jett effectively trapped.
Except he does nothing to actually make the beta feel cornered. He stands a respectable arms length away, just far enough that Jett can see into his eyes but he can't be ignored.
And he watches as the betas expression hardens, and his eyes go cold.
Jett opens his mouth and Gally can see by the curve of his scowl that something harsh is about to leave those pretty lips.
He stops the boy before he can start.
"Don't talk, alright? Give me jus' a minute to say my piece."
Gally wants to kiss those lips again, just as much as he wants to strike the boy for ever making him feel this way in the first place.
Gally aches to touch him. And he almost has the urge to run. This is important what he is about to do. He is giving pieces of himself to Jett, peace offerings that he isn't sure the boy would even care about.
God, Gally wants so badly to touch him. Skin remembers skin. It would be enough to just hold his hand.
And Galileo hates it. But he swallows that down, and speaks while he still has the nerve.
"I'm sorry for how I acted that first night. It's one of my biggest regrets in life, an' I have a lot of 'em so that's really sayin' somethin' I reckon." His head is throbbing. The words sound pathetic leaving his mouth but Gally doesn't stop. That's only one down. He has four more to go and his momma ain't raised no quitter.
"Sometimes, when no one is looking I make wishes on dandelions. I wish on eyelashes, falling stars and other s'pposedly magical bullshit. I ain't never actually believed in any of that stuff but my Ma said we ought to make wishes anytime we can, and maybe we might just get lucky."
Jett's just staring at him as if he's grown a second head all of a sudden, like he can't understand why Gally is telling him all this. Gally isn't sure himself, it's not as though this will change anything. There aren't enough dandelions in all the world to change Jett's hatred towards him. Gally's a fool for even trying.
He knows, and he keeps talking anyways.
"Did you know that I lived in Roxanne for three years? That's my truck by the way, jus' in case your mind was wandering." Of course Jett wouldn't have known this. Gally hadn't mentioned it to anyone, not even Thatcher. He is ashamed. This feels like handing Jett a weapon but Gally never hesitates. He's gone this far, why not a little further?
"I fucked up something in my head. It hurts. All the time. Every second of every day. Except...Except for the night you ran your fingers through my hair. I reckon you was meaning to pull at it, but I found peace. So jokes on you I 'spose." He blurts the words out, and he's shocked by how easy it is to say them. Gally has no reason to believe they won't come back to haunt him. Jett is harsh on his best days. All the rest he is downright cruel.
Gally should probably stop now, but there's still one more to go.
"And I....I missed you this week. I hate it. I hate it so much I tried to drink myself stupid so I wouldn't feel it but that didn't do nothing for me. I missed you. So it don't matter that we fucked. We don't ever have to talk about that if you don't wanna. But I wont have you ignoring me Jones. It stops today."
Jett still looks dumbfounded, eyebrows drawn together. Gally tips his head almost like a southern gentleman and watches as Jett's mouth turns into a small, firm line.
He is struggling to process everything Gally has told him. Or maybe he's just working up some sly response.
Galileo doesn't wait around long enough to find out.
"So I reckon that's it. That's five things. Five things that I hope will make it a little harder for you to hate me. "
Their eyes catch, and Galileo is overwhelmed. He has missed those eyes. He has missed everything.
Its terrifying. It's dangerous. And there is no stopping it now.
The beta finally drops his gaze, mutters something about being late for work.
He needs to leave.
He needs to leave because he knows what will happen if he stays. Jett will only wind up hating him more and Gally can't bare it.
He should leave because he is a fucking coward and he is terrified of another person having so much power over him.
Jett doesn't stop him. Jett doesn't say anything. He stares, watches Galileo climb into his truck and back away, all the while pondering over everything he said, the five secrets he'd offered in the sheer hope that it would fix whatever is broken between them.
And for the first time in months, Boyd is the farthest thing from his mind. All Jett can think of are dandelions and the feel of his fingers threading through soft blonde hair.
