Wanting Wes

Chapter 1

Wes POV

"Are you inside already?" I tic, my head jerking to the side as I stand on the sidewalk outside with my phone to my ear.

"Yeah, James wanted to go in. I'm in the lobby waiting for you." Brett says.

Starting for the door, we don't say goodbye as the door to the building opens and Brett appears. We're mirror images, pocketing our phones as I slip through the door and swallow down a cuss word.

I wouldn't say today is a bad tic day, but I can feel my nerves growing and the itch that comes with my anxiety grows within me too.

"We should have skipped." Brett murmurs. "We still talk to the people we were friends with, why bother with the rest?"

That's almost true.

"It might, fuck off, be fun." I say.

A passerby in the lobby glances at me and I offer a smile. I come in peace, regardless of what my coprolalia says.

Brett doesn't have a chance to respond though as blond hair comes bounding toward us, words filling the space at a thousand miles an hour.

"Oh my god, there you guys are. You'll never believe it, Ben got so fat." Ellie says. "Also look at our new puppy!"

She thrusts her phone out, a fluffy white puppy flopped on its back on it. Darren joins us, several steps behind Ellie and sheepishly waves.

"What's it's name?" Brett asks.

I've got a backlog of tics building and while we stand in the lobby, mostly secluded, I let a few out. Everyone inside probably still remembers me, remembers my tics, and I don't care what they think. For the most part. But it'd be nice to not be the center of attention for this.

"Ferdinand." Ellie says.

"We named him after Ferdinand Magellan." Darren says. "He's a Great Pyrenees. It seemed fitting."

"How?" A tic rips through my arm, traveling up to my head in one swift motion.

"Magellan was Spanish. So is a Great Pyrenees." He tells us, the collared shirt he's wearing buttoned to the very last hole. "Magellan actually..."

"Hey there you guys are." James interrupts Darren just as he starts giving us background information I for one will never remember. "Van's here, will you grab the doors?"

James blows past us and out the door, not waiting for any response we might have had. We all start to move in the lobby and it's then that I finally take a look around at the vaulted ceilings and the massive chandelier that dangles above us. Rich wood furniture and cream colored walls to not offend and blend in with whatever the hall needs to be at any given moment.

"No wonder our tickets were so much money huh?" Brett says as he nudges me.

My head jerks to the side, my hand following suit and I brush the end of my nose. "They weren't that bad."

Brett gives me a disagreeable grunt, his melancholy attitude such a stark difference to the ray of sunshine that is James. But they make such a great couple and Brett finally seems to have relaxed into it. I'm happy for him, for James.

I lean against one of the double doors, pushing my back into it until it's forced as wide as it can go. Darren stands opposite me, Ellie and Brett on the other set of doors.

"Do you think Laurel's going to show up? Ellie asks us, her eyes shifting to me as she says Laurel's name..

"Probably not." Brett says as we wait, manning our positions."I mean when's the last time you've heard from her?"