A Piece of You

Part 3. Sunset

Sunday night and Gulf just finishes his lesson plan for the following week when he received a message from Mew. He didn't know exactly how it ended up this way but they've been in constant communication - messages, calls, sometimes videocalls. Their talks started with games and it morph into other topics, like their daily lives. It's been going on for almost two weeks now.

Mew: Busy? Want to play?

Gulf: Sure. Give me 10 minutes, I'll just tidy my things.

Gulf sighs ending the game after an hour, he had long discovered that Mew sucks in the game. A moment later and his phone is ringing, Mew's name flashing on the screen.

Gulf, "I can't believe you. You still sucks, why play if you always ended up being dead?"

Mew laughs hearing Gulf complains, "Sorry. And I can't believe you're a pro in playing. You aren't teaching your students to play during class, aren't you?"

Gulf scoff, "I'll be fired if I do that"

Mew laughs more, "Thank you for playing with me"

Gulf frown, "Are you ok?", he asked remembering that Mew likes to play when he feels frustrated.

Mew smiled at how soft Gulf's voice become and again he noted the worry in his voice, "Yeah. I just had a dream earlier". He slept early but was woken up by a dream, it was fragmented - him kneeling, crying, getting into fights, hugging and making love. It just confirmed his suspicion about First, as far as he know and the people around him the guy was the last one he had a relationship with. The dreams are getting more frequent now, with lots of scenes although a bit blurry. The previous ones when he was in New York just sticks with one scene replaying over and over, mostly about him making love with someone. He couldn't go back to sleep when he woke up earlier and decided to play games.

Gulf, "Drink something hot like tea or milk and try to sleep back"

Mew, "I think wine will be better"

"No. Don't drink any alcohol", Gulf answered sternly and Mew chuckled again.

Mew, "You must have seen me so wasted by alcohol before. I'm not an alcoholic, I barely drink"

"I thought you will be", Gulf whispers remembering how Mew used to drink everyday after the break up. Several times that he went to a bar to pick up a very wasted Mew. The first time was because he called the older in time when a waiter was about to call someone from Mew's phone, to ask to pick up Mew from the bar; and the rest was because he was keeping tabs on Mew, worried about him. He was observing Mew since they met again and he felt relieve seeing that Mew was back to his usual one to two bottles.

Mew, "So you really seen me wasted?"

Gulf clears his throat he didn't like to remind Mew of bad things, "Try to go back to sleep. If you really can't, just message me, we can play another round"

Mew smile hearing what Gulf said and he knew that the younger man was trying to dismiss the discussion, "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind. It's late, you still have class tomorrow, you better rest as well"

***

It was Friday afternoon when Gulf was surprised to find Mew waiting for him in front of the school. Mew is talking to some children animatedly and a few of his co teachers were glancing Mew's way, who wouldn't? The man is a sight to behold even with just his simple jeans and white shirt.

"What are you doing here?", Gulf asked drawing the kids and Mew's attention. The children greeted him politely and Mew said goodbye to them.

Mew chuckled, "Waiting for you. You usually have some free time before going to Zee's place. Do you mind going somewhere first?"