The Only Living Boy in New York

FORTY FIVE

Taylor

We had five days left before we needed to head home, and I wanted to stay forever. Things were different here. The pace was slower and the stress was less. It made me homesick for a place I'd never been and I couldn't get enough of it.

We'd spent a week with Van's parents and I felt like I knew them for years. Mary was kind and inviting and wanted to know everything about me. I could see where Van got his inquisitiveness from. She asked a lot of questions but never in a way that made you feel like you were on the spot. She simply wanted to know you, was all. His dad, Bernie, was stoic and proud, but also quite open to having long, analytical discussions over things. He was well educated and firm in his thoughts, but he wanted to hear things from all sides. Van was different with them. More understanding and passive of things that might stress him out at home. They also called him Ryan...not Van, which became his nickname later in life. Everyone here who knew him called him that. When I asked him why, he shrugged.

"It's how they know me. I'm not Van McCann to them. I'm Ryan...or Ry. The label liked the way Van McCann sounded more than anything. It was my nickname, sure, but not everyone called me that until the label pushed it. Then it became who I was. And it...stuck."

Part of me wondered what he preferred to be called, but I was too afraid to ask. I didn't think he even knew how to answer that.

I met some of his extended family and some people he'd been friendly with in his youth, but the majority of our time was spent with his parents and getting to know them. I didn't have any issues with that, it was peaceful and refreshing to get to know them as well as I had. They made me feel like I was already a part of their family, and seeing how much Van loved them and how much they loved him, somehow made all of the muck and mire we had been through recently, worth it. As our time with them wound down, we tried to figure out where we wanted to go and we both knew we needed some privacy. We hadn't done anything more than have extremely heavy make out sessions and the tension was easily identifiable between us.

We settled on visiting London and a few places nearby since I'd never been there and Van claimed it was perfect. We were on the western side of the city and Van had been preoccupied with his phone over the last few hours. I felt the concern grow in the pit of my stomach as I weighed out who he could be talking to. Van was never too enamored with his phone, but right now he was.

"Is everything alright?" I asked as he pulled into a gated community and punched in a code.

"Yeah love, why wouldn't it be?"

"You've...you've been on your phone a lot. That's weird for you is all. I thought..." my words trailed off. I didn't want to bring up Ivy especially after a week of not thinking about her at all. But it's what I was worried about.

"Tay." He said softly. "I promise you it's not what it looks like. I've just been making sure I know where I'm going and had the code to get in, along with the details."

I flushed and looked at my hands. "I'm sorry...it just had me thinking."

"There's nothing for you to be sorry for." He paused before continuing up the paved path slowly. "I get how it looks. I hate that I've made you question things."

I shot him a smile and shook my head. "No...really it's fine. Please don't think that." I turned and looked out the window as we made our way up a curvy path and stopped in front of a house that looked like an art museum.

"Where exactly are we?"

He smiled sheepishly. "I need to drop some demos off to a producer for The Deadcoast...this is his place. Come on." He shut the ignition off and reached into the back and grabbed a small bag of items.