Better Sorry than Safe

12.

Sem: hey Con, you free now? [Sent: 18:03] 

Sem ran up the stairs, taking two steps at the time, as he checked for new messages. As soon as they had arrived at the hostel for dinner, he'd dashed off, on his way to lock himself inside a toilet stall again. 

He definitely hadn't handled things the way he should have today. Walking with Emma through romantic London all afternoon wasn't going to help fix the crush problem in any shape way or form. She'd snapped a selfie of them together at Big Ben, and hinted it'd make a super cute profile picture for the both of them. That said enough. He'd have to tell her a more harsh 'no' sometime soon too, before it got out of hand. Great, really looking forward to that. 

But what else was he supposed to do today? 

He knew himself. He'd been so messed up that morning. He would've ruined everything one way or another the moment Matthew or Ethan said one more word about Blake. Those guys had a way of getting under his skin sometimes, and Emma had been the only way to ensure they would leave him alone. Neither would try to get in-between him and Emma. As Ethan put it so eloquently: no friend will cockblock another friend. 

And Nick... Nick said he was on Sem's side, without realising he wasn't on his side at all. Not really, and that was even worse. It made his stomach churn, thinking about it. 

Sem paused when he arrived at the floor his and his friends' room was, and then continued running. Even though they were downstairs waiting for dinner, better move one extra floor up, just to ensure he wouldn't run into any of them. Or Mr. Brown.

He really hated Mr. Brown right now. All he did was give Matthew and Ethan a 'stern' reprimanding, which was more of a joke than Blake was. Not to mention, the man dared to praise Sem for defending Blake. Sem had been itching to punch him in the gut. If he'd done his job in the first place, nothing would've happened, and Sem might've been enjoying London for just a little bit. 

Sem sped down the hostel's hallway. Screw London, Mr. Brown, and his friends. And Connor. Where was he? 

Only Sem's own message was visible on screen, and it still went unanswered. Taking deep breaths, Sem dragged his hand up his forehead. Of course, the immediate panic had settled quite a while ago. He wasn't some whiny bitch; he'd pulled himself together, and he'd keep himself together. He got through it, by avoiding dangerous situations with the guys during the afternoon while he cooled down, and reminding himself everything would still be okay, as long as they didn't know. 

That didn't mean he couldn't use Connor's kind voice. Or advice. Or listening ear to some venting. Hell, he wanted that with anyone at this point, before he'd explode. But everyone else, including his usual to go to guy Nick, was out of the question, for obvious reasons. Connor was still the only one left who knew, and the only one who understood. 

"Come on, check your messages," Sem quietly urged Connor, but his phone stayed completely silent. 

He arrived at the bathroom, and pushed the door open without looking up. He should just try to call Connor himself. Maybe he wasn't looking at his phone right now, but would pick up when called... 

"Sem?"

Sem first caught a flash of hot pink from the corner of his eye, before looking up. There could only be one guy in the entire hostel who wore hot pink, and had a high-pitched voice like that. Blake was standing at the sink. He had a toothbrush in his hand, and a smile on his face. And eyeliner. Of course, there had to be eyeliner. 

"So, who are you hiding from?" Blake cocked his head to the side. 

"What?" Sem shot him an irritated look. He'd almost forgotten how grating his exaggerated high-pitched voice was in the past few seconds. Despite the way people treated him in school, Blake never really stopped talking, and talking back. In some way, respectable. In most other ways, really annoying.