Letting Go * Top 10 #SYTYCW15 * (LGBT BxB)

Part Fourteen - Needing

Are you kidding? I'd love that. - Jericho.

I stared at the text message for what seemed like hours, in reality it was only a matter of minutes. Was this really the right way to go about this? Did I need to forget Ben and get all this mess out of my head by doing what I had planned to do from the very start and date someone I barely knew?

Probably not.

But I couldn't figure any of it out. I knew what love felt like, I'd felt it for Cris, I felt different around Ben, I couldn't explain it... I didn't want to explain it, not anymore. I needed to forget.

I walked up to the booking office and bought a ticket to Chicago. I didn't tell anyone I was leaving town, Mom would have tried to talk me out of it, Dad would have told me to move home, Toni was on a cruise with Adam, and Scarlett... well Scarlett had known all along. Thinking about the whole situation made me angry again so I stopped thinking and waited for my plane to board.

Once I'd touched down in Chicago I booked myself a hotel. Jericho and I arranged to meet in the bar that we were originally going to meet in once I'd had a chance to have a shower.

My phone rung a few times, First it had been Scarlett, then mom, then Dad, In fact over the course of a few hours almost everyone in our patchwork family had tried to contact me except Ben. I tried to ignore the nagging feeling in my gut, but it was there, part of me.

It was late when I caught a cab to the bar that night, I was half expecting Jericho to cancel, but when I arrived I recognized him instantly sitting at the bar. He was every bit as gorgeous as his photos, maybe even more so. He was tall, taller than me, and his clothes clung to his muscles like they'd been custom made for him. I gulped back a ball of nerves just as he turned around. He smiled at me and the butterflies took me by surprise, he was almost unbelievably attractive. The confusion I had been feeling dulled a little as he stood up and held his hand out. "I'm Jericho." He grinned. "Nice to meet you Jace."

I placed my hand in his and shook it. "Nice to meet you too."

He sat back down and pat the bar stool next to him. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Rum and coke without the rum." I laughed.

"Hey can I get a coke and a beer please." He called out to the bartender. He turned his attention back to me and smiled again. "So what made you change your mind?"

"About?" I whispered, still caught off guard by his face. I was being terribly superficial, but the guy was a fox. I'd have had to be an actual gnome not to notice it.

"Us... this, uh meeting me." He sounded flustered, and for a minute I think I could even see a pink blush crossing his cheeks. I grinned, so I wasn't the only one caught off guard after all. I looked down.

"Things back home just changed." I replied honestly, lying had caused me all of this pain, I wasn't about to start lying and cause more.

"A guy?" He questioned, he wasn't smiling or frowning, he just had a knowing look, like he could tell I was feeling somewhat odd.

"Something like that." I whispered, I flicked my eyes away from his and stared down at the floor. I couldn't think about Ben, I was here to forget him, to get myself out of this funk and move on.

"So Jericho, What should we do tonight?" I whispered with a smile, turning my head back to face his, catching his blue eyes with my own. The bartender placed out drinks down and I picked up the coke.

"We could play some pool?" He pointed over at the tables, and instantly memories of Ben and I came flooding back. I watched the table like a movie was playing in my head, I could see us together. I blinked the vision away, and the sadness that went with it.