Really solid effort, could've used a few tweaks to really elevate it though.
Getting right into the breakdown, spoilers from this point forward.
Implementation of Theme:
"Suddenly, a light in the dark pierced through the night". Yeah, it's not subtle, but we have the literal headlights of the truck mirroring the light of new motivation and perspective helping Frost escape the darkness of feeling alone and hated for being gay in a family that doesn't accept him. Sure, all checks out, moving on.
Story:
First of all, I appreciate the restraint in having this be at least a bit more grounded in the approach to developing Ridge and Frost's relationship instead of taking a hard right turn straight to porn - I think in many ways, the conversations between them created the hopeful, but realistic message you were going for. With that said, I think the revelation that Ridge is gay and is staying together with his wife for the kids actually hurts the narrative rather than helps it. I think it would be more powerful and nuanced to have the trucker savior actually be a happily married straight man who is helping Frost because there are actually good people from all backgrounds, not ones that just happen to have similar circumstances as him. There are even more nuanced ways you could take that too - maybe straight Ridge has some lingering homophobia that's mitigated after learning about Frost's background and understanding his experiences, that kind of thing.
Second criticism I have, and some others have already mentioned this, is that the language can feel a little... extra? Like something you're submitting for a creative writing class to show how many figures of speech you can cram into one section. It is possible to overdo it on the similes and metaphors, and that can especially be seen in the intro where it's almost every line. Some of them are really good and vivid, but don't be afraid to have normal text between them to let them breathe.
Third point is regarding introductions and exposition, which can be a bit clumsy here. Frost's first line to Ridge, "Oh, thriving. Can't you see I'm one with the storm?" does not feel like something that character would actually say in that situation. Like yes, we have the line that follows stating he uses sarcasm as a shield, but he's an 18 year old from what sounds like the burbs in pouring rain off of a highway. When the truck pulls over, he should be in fight or flight, not making witty quips. First time getting into Ridge's truck is a bit odd as well. We're getting a lot of detail about the logbooks and maps and chip bags, but only a stray line of "Ridge - he said his name was Ridge". The details are nice, but they don't really inform much about his character other than "trucker", which we already know. It feels weird that these details are prioritized over introductions between the two characters, which are much more narratively important. Last example to note, Frost asking if Ridge ever got married feels completely out of nowhere and like you couldn't figure out how to introduce that plot point naturally. There are ways you could do this much more organically like having Ridge state that he can take Frost to Seasaltia but then he immediately has to leave to get back to his wife and kids.
Last point, the whole cop subplot feels kind of jammed in to artificially add tension to a story that mostly lacks it otherwise, and I don't think it really helps. First, especially for a story this short, it's okay to not have a direct, extrinsic conflict and just be more meditative. Second, the tension doesn't feel legitimate. One of the first things we hear from Frost is that he's 18, so realistically the cops aren't a threat. I'm sure that would still be a stressful situation to go through, but from a reader's perspective, there doesn't feel like there's any risk unless some bullshit happens so the tension never really builds. Having Frost be underage, or at least ambiguous about it, could really make that subplot much more intense since there are much deeper implications for both Frost and Ridge.
Presentation:
Pretty good, as far as I could tell. Based on other comments I've been reading during the jam, I get the feeling I'm more lenient on this category than some, but the sprite looked good (despite the fact that I still do not personally understand beards on anthros...) the backgrounds and music were as effective as they needed to be, the text was well proofread, and I don't recall encountering any bugs. Ticks the boxes from my perspective at least.
Creativity:
Right, so, as others have pointed out, this is not the only jam entry in which a struggling, lost young gay man is picked up on the side of the road by a significantly older wolf trucker with a beard and a dad bod that teaches him that there's hope out there. You are not penalized for happening to have the same idea as someone else as 1) you can't control that, 2) the subject matter was handled in a distinctly different tone here, and 3) at least it wasn't a story about the apocalypse.
That said, I do feel like the plot, while forwarding a very welcome positive message, was just a bit on the generic side, and there were entries that took the prompt in more novel directions that make me feel like I really can't give full points here.
That said, as previously stated, I still think this was a welcome entry and the effort put into this project was visible.