Chapter Text
Jake Wheeler stared at the text on his phone. An invite to Oliver Hayden’s annual fall break cabin retreat. Something that Jake Wheeler never dreamed he would get.
But there it was, staring back at him from his phone. He had been surprised when Oliver had asked for his phone number in the hallway the other day, and he was more surprised at the fact that Oliver had actually used it to text him.
He sighed. Jake’s dad dying was the only reason that any popular person like Oliver had been talking to him lately. Well, talking to him like a human being, rather than the punching bag for words he’d always been before. Jake couldn’t exactly guess as to why. It’s not that Jake’s dad dying had made him less of a loner, less of a freak. It definitely didn’t make Jake any cooler.
A novelty. That was the best that Jake could figure. His dad dying, in such a horrific way as getting electrocuted, had made Jake a novelty. And this, this was exactly why Jake was torn. Should he just accept it, take the “win,” and go to the biggest social event of the fall semester? Or should he keep his pride, whatever that meant, and refuse? Stay a loner, which he was comfortable with by now. Stay a loner forever.
He sighed again, tossing his phone onto the bed he was sitting on, the bed that wasn’t technically his, the bed that belonged to his aunt and uncle, and his cousin. The cousin that hated Jake’s guts. The cousin who would also be at the cabin party, along with his bully of a blonde girlfriend. It would just be another chance for them to mess with Jake, just like they did at the Halloween party.
He lay back on his pillows, feeling more and more conflicted as time went by. And then his phone lit up in the dark for a second time. With another text. A text that wasn’t from Oliver.
Devon: Hey, Jake, I heard Oliver invited you to his cabin party for the weekend. Are u coming?
That was it. Jake was going.