Page 19 of Can't Stop Now

He wandered for another five minutes before finding him again. He walked over and found him talking to a photographer. The guy was young, couldn’t be more than five years older than they were. He was rugged-looking, with scruffy facial hair. Jacob thought the guy looked like he cared a lot about how he dressed.

“Oh, hey Jacob! This is Mark. Isn’t his work fantastic? He was just telling me how he actually went to school not far from where I grew up, in Phoenix. Mark, this is my friend Jacob,” Will said.

Jacob held out his hand and Mark gave him a handshake. He looked around at the photos surrounding him in the booth. They were all nude figures – no actual explicit shots, but tasteful nudes, artistic nudes of men and women, in black and white. Jacob had to admit that some of them did look beautiful. But he found this Mark guy intimidating.

“So you do only black and white stuff?” Jacob asked, trying to show interest.

“My work takes whatever form it needs to. I give it life, I caress the photo in the darkroom until itsingsthe way I need it to. For these pieces, that expressed itself in the form of black and white silver gelatin prints. But only the spirit of the art knows where it might go next,” Mark said. His voice was soft, lilting, and he didn’t make any eye contact with Jacob.

Oooo-kay, Jacob thought. He looked over at Will. His eyes were wide, and he started chatting a mile a minute again with Mark. Jacob listened for a few seconds, but when the conversation turned to apertures and shutter speeds, he spaced out and looked at the photos around the booth.

“That sounds awesome! Jacob, would you come?” Will was asking him. He hadn’t been listening to what the question was.

“What?”

“Mark was just saying how he and a couple friends are going to a bar down the street in a little while. The festival’s ending in a half hour.”

“Oh! Gotcha. Um, no, I think I’ll be ok. I’m probably gonna grab dinner and just head back to the motel. Kinda tired,” Jacob replied.

“You sure? …Fine. I’m gonna go hang out, but if you’re going to sleep I’ll try to be quiet when I come back in later, ok?” Will asked, his eyes looking sweet.

“Sure. That’s fine,” Jacob yawned. “I guess I’m gonna get going now, but have fun. I’ll see you later.”

“Alright. See ya. Don’t have too much fun at the motel,” Will winked, before turning back to Mark.

Jacob forced out a little laugh and turned around to head back. The sun had set fully at this point, and the air had picked up a chill. Jacob shivered slightly.

He felt faintly irritated, but couldn’t place why. He didn’t like that Mark guy. He had just seemed so pretentious or something. He hadn’t smiled at all when he met Jacob, and had kind of talked down to him about his lack of art knowledge.

That guy is nothing like Will, Jacob thought, thinking about how eager Will was to teach Jacob about his art ignorance.I don’t see why Will wants to hang out with him.

The sense of sadness that had enveloped Jacob last night began to creep back in. He was alone again, aimless. He stopped for a quick dinner in a tiny burger shop near the motel and then headed back to the room.

The room felt a lot bigger, and emptier, without Will. Jacob sat on the edge of one bed and kicked his shoes off. He opened his laptop and turned on the comedy channel, wanting some noise to fill the silence of the room. He slowly drifted to sleep, the glow of the screen the only light in the room.

Twelve

Will

Will arrived back at the hotel room about three hours later, and silently tried to open the door. He successfully got into the dark room without making noise, but as soon as he walked three feet into the room, he stumbled and tripped on some object in the pathway.

“Ooof!” he said, trying to be quiet but failing slightly. He hoped he hadn’t woken Jacob with the noise. He had ordered a few beers earlier in the night, but certainly wasn’t drunk; it was just dark in the room, and he hadn’t known anything was in his path.

He put his hands down to see what was in his way – Jacob’s suitcase. He pushed it to the side and went further into the room. Once he got in further, he noticed that Jacob’s laptop was on his bed next to him, the screen very dim. Jacob was sound asleep next to it. Will quietly went over and shut the screen.

He went to the bathroom and then ambled over to the other bed, getting in. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he let out a sigh.

Man, that guy was an asshole, thinking of Mark, who he’d gone to the bar with. They had met up with some of Mark’s artist friends at a pub, and it hadn’t amounted to much. They were snobby, which Will had been shocked to find in Cleveland, of all places. He had thought that snobby artists were pretty much relegated to Los Angeles and New York.

But the worst part had come near the end of the night, after Mark and his friends had ordered rounds of shots for themselves. Will refused to take any shots, so Mark grabbed all of the shots they ordered for Will, and got incoherently drunk. When Will had gotten up to leave, Mark followed him out of the bar and had tried to make a pass at him.

Mark had smelled of alcohol and stale cigarettes, and he had attempted to grab Will’s ass and pull him in for a kiss. Will had pushed him away and walked quickly back down the street, shouting, “Notinterested!” as he walked away.

In bed now, Will winced at the memory.As if I would go for someone like that, he thought, grossed out. He lay in bed for a while, trying to get his mind off of what had happened. Soon after, he drifted to sleep.

The next morning Will woke up to the sound of the shower. Jacob was in the bathroom, getting ready for another day of driving. Will stretched his arms above his head, yawning as he woke up.

He got up and went to look out the window. The view was nothing special. It looked out onto a small side road, and some people were outside walking their dogs and running.