A New Chapter: Small Steps
#9 of Jayne
A new chapter in Jayne's story. The buck and boomer have had a falling out. And now there's someone new on the horizon.
Featuring: https://twitter.com/justthegs?lang=en
Jayne rubbed his tired eyes as he entered into the darkened apartment, dim and grey with drawn curtains and low evening light. The normally immaculate abode was littered with laundry, take-out boxes, and the general palid squalor of a man in depression. It had hit and hit hard when Nate had left, and there were times when the deer had been uncertain he would recover, holding on only by the barest thread at times to his sanity as often the grief nigh overtook him. But, hold on he did, and inch by inch the stag had managed to climb his way back out of the hole, back towards the light. There was still a distance to go, but the footing seemed more sure, the rope stronger, and the light at the end of the tunnel didn't seem so far away as it once was. Drawing in a deep breath, the buck looked around at the mess for a moment before swooping in on a pile of dirty clothes, uniforms and street clothes alike.
"The small things..." he reminded himself in a low voice, that had anyone else been in the room, might not have been heard, "Start with the small things and go from there." Toting the clothes down to the washing machine, he set about bagging up the old food containers and setting them by the door to take to the complex dumpsters when he heard his phone vibrate on the counter. Pausing in his chores, Jayne crossed over to check the screen.
New message from: Thegs - work
Hey man, me and a few guys were going out for drinks, wanna come?
The buck's brow furrowed gently for a moment. Thegs was a slip of a whitetail buck that worked the front desk at the museum and Jayne had only met after transitioning to the day shift. Biting his lip the big stag opened the message and began to type a response politely declining.
J. Doe: I'll have to pass
Message not delivered!
J. Doe: I've got some laundry in at the moment.
Thegs - work:
No problem! We're not meeting for another hour anyways!
Thegs - work:
See you at Dirty Birdies in around 8 then?
What was this guy not getting? Jayne had just said no di- 'Fuck!' the buck reeled internally, damn this phone! Sighing deeply, the deer began a reply, explaining the miscommunication, but... something stopped him. There, on the floor, poking out from beneath the couch, was a copy of the B-rated horror film that had been the first date the buck had once had with the man he thought he'd love forever. Gingerly tugging the plastic case from beneath the sofa, the deer stared at the cover for a long time, DVD in one hoof, phone in the other. Thumb pressing down on the screen, he deleted the message he'd drafted.
J. Doe: Yeah I'll see you then
Thegs - work:
Great! See you soon!
Silently chiding himself for letting himself get dragged into some workplace function or whatever, the stag dropped the DVD into the trash bag before he tossed it down the hallway towards the others with a hollow crumple of garbage. He needed to clean out the apartment anyways and why hold onto anything that hurt? "Small steps..." he murmured softly, turning down the hall and towards the bathroom and a shower. Might as well make himself presentable after all....