Solace - BoyxBoy

Chapter Twenty Eight

Zeek's POV

  Austen's mother gestured to the seat across from her with a painted fingernail, and his grip on my hand grew tighter. We sat beside each other, much to his mother's discomfort. I brushed my thumb gently over his knuckles to help calm him and shot him a sweet smile when he looked in my direction.

  "Austen, your father and I are getting a divorce." The woman said in a clear voice.

  "I figured." He said to himself.

  "It appears that we strongly disagree on your recent...decisions...and we think it is to both of our best interests if we just end it now before it gets out of hand." She cleared her throat. There was more; I could tell.  "I'll be moving back to Philly next month, and I want you to come with me." 

  My heart dropped to my stomach. Austen wouldn't leave me...right?

  "You're kidding, right?!" Austen jumped from his seat, pulling me up with him. "You're insane if you think I'll move back to that hell-hole with you. You're the last person I'd want to go anywhere with. You refused to accept me for who I am. Zeek is the one person that has been there for me through absolutely everything, and I am not about to give him up just because you think it's gross." She scoffed and stood up as well.

  "I'm sorry, Austen, but you don't have a choice in the matter. We'll be staying with my sister until we find a place." 

  "No, I'm sorry, Mother," He sneered the word, as if it physically hurt coming out of his mouth.  "I'm not going anywhere with you. I like it here. I have friends, I'm doing well in school, I'm in love, and most importantly, I'm happy. I refuse to let you ruin that." Austen didn't give her a chance to respond as he tugged on my hand and led me away.

 I pulled him into a tight hug the second my bedroom door closed. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my head.

  "I'm not leaving you, Zeeky. I can't." Austen sniffled. I pulled away just enough to look him in the eyes and smiled widely.

  "I know." I kissed his nose and wiped the tears that ran down his cheeks with my fingertips. 

Luke's POV

  I gazed lovingly across the table where Gabe sat, sipping at his iced tea.

 "Why do you keep staring at me?" He smiled brightly, and I couldn't help but poke the dimple on his cheek.

  "I still can't believe this is real...That I can lean over this table and kiss you whenever I want to and it won't be weird at all." He chuckled and placed his hand over mine.

  "I wouldn't have minded." He smirked.

  "Yes, but I didn't know that until a few hours ago."

  "Well, what's stopping you now then?" My cheeks suddenly felt very warm as I quickly jumped from my seat, pecking his lips lightly. He laughed and lifted our hands off the table, pressing his lips to my thumb.

  "I love you." I imagined my face resembled Elmo quite well at that point.

  "I love you too." He kissed my hand again and took another sip of his tea.

  "So, I need to ask you something." I furrowed a brow and cocked my head in confusion.

  "You know, my lil heart can only handle so many surprises." He shook his head and kept his eyes focused on mine.

  "No, it isn't that. I just wanted to know if you were okay with all of this... Like...Being out. Being public like this. We have to go back to school eventually, and I know my homophobia was all for show, but the rest of my team doesn't know that." I had totally forgotten about that.

  "Gabe... I just want to be with you. I don't care who knows. Half the school was at that party anyway. But, I am willing to do whatever you want. If you don't think you can face your teammates quite yet, we can come up with something. Say it was a dare or that we were drunk or someth-" I was interrupted by a pair of chapped lips hitting mine. 

  "I don't care either."