The Sensible One (boyxboy) ✓

Chapter Nineteen

"Hello, Max?" 

My blood chilled when I heard his voice and I froze still, the sweat on my brow suddenly cold for a second. So I stayed silent as I held the phone against my ear and pressed my lips together.

Weston.

"Is this Max?"

He asked it in that same soft, relaxed voice he always used to use when he spoke to me. It brought back memories, laying down on his king sized bed and reading his stacks and stacks of comics, some of them less than suitable for people under eighteen. We used to laugh at the way things were drawn, the hilarious length of their overly detailed cocks and the expressions on the women's faces. It was the kind of lazy Sunday morning activity that had us not wanting to leave his room, or his bed.

I'd liked a lot about him. His calm eyes and the way every position was in seemed like he was relaxing in a photoshoot pose. But above all I'd liked his voice, everything sounded so calm and polite and earnest coming from him.

My heart felt painful as I finally replied. "What do you want?"

Silence. Then a short cough.

"Max..." He began again in a more soothing tone, as though he were cajoling an animal. "It's been such a long time since we-"

"How did you get my number?" I asked firmly.

"I- My- Your friend..."

"Your boyfriend gave it to you?"

Another short silence. "Yes, well... I wanted to explain this all to you... That misunderstanding from all the way back then."

I swallowed, chest tight. "I do not know what you are talking about. Lose my number."

I hung up with a trembling finger.

Nervous, nervous and emotional. Feelings that were so old, so untouched and pointless a decade later, resurfaced as though they had never left, never exited my heart or brain. The same anger, humiliation, disgust. A million things that I was still trying to understand may not have been warranted.

He has a boyfriend.

He is dating a man.

"Oh god..." I was queasy.

My phone started vibrating again and I wiped my brow.

Angie looked over and stared at me until it stopped. I cancelled the call.

Again he called, again and again and again.

Angie frowned over the makeshift wall and gave me a look. "You being stalked?"

"What?" I looked up bewildered.

"Huh?"

My brain caught up with what she said and I frowned at her. "No no, just a... hm, an old friend."

Friend. That word made me feel sick.

"So pick up." She rolled her eyes at me before sinking beneath the wall.

I looked back at my phone as it started to vibrate again.

I growled as I answered it. "I am at work." I hissed, then cancelled it again.

This was not enough, apparently. Instead of stopping he continued calling, again and again and again.

Even this reminded me of the past. We had phones back then, but we didn't use them much. Instead we had a rule of showing up at each other's houses when we wanted to meet up and when we went out it was a matter of collecting our expensive cameras and walking off into the woods down the street from his house, which was down the street from mine.