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Jake is pretty damn surprised when the kid next door gives him the number, not about the gay thing, because Jake's seen straighter drag queens, more that somebody that attractive would be into somebody like him. He may not be gay, but he's not blind, either, and that dude is hot, and it's super awkward but also a little bit flattering.
Carly's absolutely horrified, of course, but really, she should have seen this coming, and she definitely shouldn't have been so creepy. And, yeah, Jake is a little bit pissed at her, because he's been trying to get with her for like a year now and all she ever does is let him pay for coffee and dinner and concert tickets and make out with him in his car, and then she goes and falls hopelessly in love with her neighbor. Jake isn't sure whether she's a total tease or just super clueless, but regardless, he's had enough.
So maybe his reasons for calling what's-his-face back were kind of stupid and petty, but he does it anyway, and he doesn't feel weird about it at all, even though he's pretty sure he should. Jake's always thought of himself as, like, a Kinsey scale 1, but he's willing to bump that up to like a 1.5 if it means that Carly will keep making that hilarious face whenever he talks about Holden in front of her.
And after grabbing coffee with Holden, he's even willing to bump that 1.5 up to a 2, because he really genuinely likes the guy. He's more interesting than Carly ever was, and something about him makes him really easy to talk to. And, okay, Jake's never been attracted to men in anything more than a clinically appreciative way before, but he is so freaking built, which is not something Jake ever thought would be hot but totally, totally, totally is.
But beyond that, they both loved Inception and have the same New Order obsession and watch professional ski jumping and they even showed up wearing the same pair of shoes. And, okay, they were plain black Converse, so that's not too much of a coincidence, and everybody loved Inception, but New Order was like twenty-five years ago and Jake has never met anyone else who even knows that ski jumping is a thing. And Holden is smart, and funny, and he seems to really like Jake, despite the fact that he spilled coffee all over his t-shirt and make a horrifying Catcher in the Rye joke and was generally just his awkward self.
So when Holden asks, Jake agrees to a second date, and Carly makes that horrified look again, but it's not all about pissing her off anymore, even if that's definitely how it started out.
“You're not even gay,” she tells him, when she sees him texting Holden about their plans, and Jake sighs.
“Does that even matter?” he replies. “Sexuality is fluid, didn't you hear? Don't be a jerk.”
“Are you just experimenting with him?” Carly sniffs. “Don't lead him on, that's a dick move.”
“I'm not leading him on,” Jake retorts, “He knows where I stand and he's fine with it.”
“Really?” Carly lifts an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!” Jake snaps, even though though he isn't sure, because they spent twenty minutes arguing about whether Cobb was dreaming at the end of the movie and Jake hadn't brought that whole orientation issue up like he'd meant to. Whatever, he's going to tell Holden, and it's none of Carly's business anyway.
And he's meeting Holden in two hours for dinner, but Jake really doesn't want to lead the guy on, because Carly should butt out but also she's kind of right, so he texts Holden:
hey dude this is super awkward but idk for sure if i'm gay or not even tho i think i really like u
Ten minutes later Holden texts back with:
nbd you'll figure somthing out later we'll talk @ dinner ok? ps i think i like u 2
Jake rolls his eyes and then smiles a little bit.