Custom Made For You

Chapter 71- Things Would Be Fine, Right?

  "So, we're here for your alcohol?" Luzien asked.

"Yup, asked my maid to pack up all my alcohol for you since, you know, Ceb is moving in and all. He doesn't drink," Vastel sighed.

"I mean, you don't really have to not drink for me. It's not like I force you to stop drinking," Ceb shrugged, eyes fixated on Vastel's television screen.

"Well, yeah, but I know how much you hate it when I drink," Vastel called back.

"I don't hate it, I dislike it. It's different."

"Yeah, yeah, same thing, whatever you say, schaf."

"I am NOT- You know what? It's fine, call me whatever you want."

I have no idea what he called him, but that was enough to send Ceb into a spiral of annoyed murmurs.

"So cute," Vastel exclaimed. "Anyway, just take all these with you."

He handed Luzien a really heavy-looking bag with glass clinking against each other, leaning in a little closer to us, "I don't know when I'm gonna see you again in like half a week, I know you are going back to Tazania, no? Plus, I'm trying to be at least a little healthy now that he's back. Consider this my little parting gift or whatever you guys call it."

"Yeah, I got you, m'dude. Glad you to see that you are back with him finally. Glad you got what you wanted," Luzien beamed, giving him a pat. I wonder what happened between both of them. "I'll call you when I have news for you."

Wait, what news?

"You've been great help, don't worry. Things would be fine on my side," Vastel assured him. "You two should get going, it's getting pretty late."

"Okay, okay, we know you want your private sexy time with him. We'll go now. C'mon, Tol, we are clearly uninvited," Luzien teased, holding out the hand that wasn't carrying the bag of alcohol to me.

"Just go already if you know," Vastel chased us out of his penthouse with a smile, swiftly closing the door as soon as we stepped out.

"So, you wanna tell me about the thing that's going on with you and Vastel back there? You guys have been acting really weird," I squeezed Luzien's hand.

"It's just some law stuff, nothing to think too much about."

"Huh, that sounds important."

"It's just our side project, it has to be approved by the government and all that jazz."

"I'm genuinely curious now, you wanna tell me what it is?"

"It's actually brought up by Ceb. According to Vastel, Ceb has always wanted to do something like this, so here we are setting up an organization for abused children, and I'm just a partner to their project because I have connections. Just the usual stuff."

I went silent. I didn't think that Ceb would actually do what I passed to be just us talking when we were young. I couldn't remember much, yet I do vaguely remember it was a clear day, we both were sitting on the roof. His silhouette was hovering above my body, blocking the sun, what he said sounded like an echo. He was talking about how he wanted to get help for us and people like us. It was literally fifteen years ago, I lost my memory, he went into jail. I shocked me when Luzien said he was the one who suggested it. He could finally do what he wanted, my heart tightened, it wasn't with sadness, I felt so proud of him if anything, it was just that I realized how much I have forgotten.

'It's new start, Tolmer, you get to know Ceb all over again, without those people hurting both of you anymore,' my heart chirped.

'But, note that you are leaving in less than a week with Luzien, if you actually want to know Ceb,' my brain pointed out.

"You've been so quiet, what's wrong?" Luzien's voice, once again, pulled me back into reality, making me aware of my surroundings once again.

Oh, we're in the car already.

"You okay?" his puppy eyes showed themselves (Goddamnit, he knows), staring into my soul.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just zoning out a little, thinking about how the organization would be like and just Ceb in general," I smiled, not wanting to bring down the atmosphere.

He pulled me closer to him, for the first time, I didn't resist or felt uncomfortable. He pressed his face into my hair. His presence somehow made me felt safe. "It's alright to tell me, if you have to. Don't keep things away from me and carry things yourself, it can get heavy sometimes, I know that too."

"I'm fine, really. Let's go back now, okay?"

He let go with a sound of agreement.

Was I too cold? I don't particularly know.

●◦●◦●◦

"This is the third bottle of whiskey. What the hell, Vastel? How much whiskey can a person have?" Luzien started to examine yet another bottle made of glass. This one was no different from the others.

The amount of whiskey on my coffee table was enough to make me want to run 50 miles without looking back. I gulped, the fear of Yuski showing up if I even have a taste of that was overwhelmingly-

"Hey, Tol, you want some? Might as well drink some since you're moving and things are already a hassle to pack, less alcohol means less bubble wrap."

Of course he had already poured two glasses, and whiskey had to be his option.

"Sorry, I don't drink whiskey," I rejected him. This isn't rude, right? I mean, I really didn't want him to know that I'm a crazy person who can't have whiskey. I was aware we were already dating, might as well just tell him. However, I just really wanted to be able to think that I was still somewhat of a normal person in front of him, even when things would eventually come out. Just for a little while, I would like to have a flaw that I don't have to show him yet. I wanted for it to still feel that I was not as flawed as I was in his eyes.

"Aw, it's alright then. Do you want some wine instead?"

Oh my gods, Vastel, why do you have so much of the kind of alcohol I can't have? (What am I saying?)

"I also don't drink wine, to be honest," I scratched the back of my ear, finger gunning him. I have no idea what I was doing at that point. "I'm just gonna go sleep, come to bed when you finish the whiskey."

Scrambling back to my bedroom, my heart thumped quicker, like my secret was about to come out in mere seconds just now. My body collapsed onto the bed, curling itself up into a foetus position.

A question flashed pass my mind: What am I doing?