For the entire day, Jake did not stop touching Avery. At all. He made sure he was constantly touching him, because, in his own reasoning, he knew Avery couldn’t really disappear if Jake was holding onto him. Jake wouldn’t let him.
It’s not as if this was really out of the ordinary, since Jake touched Avery constantly all day and every day anyway, but this time he was being conscious of it. He held his hand walking to class, stroked the back of Avery’s neck when he was sitting behind him, pulled him close so Avery could lean on him and then wrapped an arm safely around his waist while they were just standing in the hallway. Jake’s hand was in his back pocket, on his arm, in his hair; and as often as he was able Jake made sure both his arms were around Avery and the smaller boy was solid against his chest, even while kissing Jack.
Avery hardly even noticed, besides the memory of he disturbing dream that would resurface at times, but was fading more and more quickly the more Jake and Jack touched him.