Runaway

Chapter 19 - To Be Continued?

Shaun spent the month and a half in a daze, surfing, drinking, surfing, crying and becoming an insomniac because he couldn't sleep at night and letting his beard grow back. He stayed at home in his locked shell and wrote songs almost neurotically. He wanted to break the deal so many nights and just take off to Andy's at midnight and just say "fuck it" but this was something important for them. There was no contact, and Bradie was in on the plan, not talking about the other to either of them. Shaun felt almost lost, he didn't want to let Andy go, even as much as Andy said go for it, he didn't want to. He can't lie because he did try, he went on a date with a couple girls and another guy to see if that did anything and it just wasn't happening for him. He felt incredibly alone and was having withdrawals from Andy. After spending so much time with him it felt so distant and cold to be apart. He knew what he wanted, and he tried to wait as patiently as he could till the moment rose to tell him he loved him once again.

Andy spent the month and a half not much better, he partied more than usual, he was scared to surf in case Shaun was there, he lived every day with anxiety and fear that Shaun had found someone knew. Andy knew he was fucked, he had never fallen so hard in love and like drugs, he internally felt like a recovering addict, sweating and trembling and every bone in his body just ached. He watched a lot of Netflix and tried to write songs but they became too messy to make any sense. He also spent drunk nights trying to contact his psycho ex for a quickie and reliving his tinder nightmares, inviting boys over to have sex with and ending up crying about his love life and how he fucked up to the guy he could never recall the name of.

It shouldn't have been this hard for either of them, and what was harder is that they couldn't even do band stuff, it was like they were just dead to one another.

Fans couldn't understand, they were so lost as to what happened as neither tweeted that much and if they did it was stuff like deep, meaningful quotes and drunk ramblings that were quickly deleted the next morning. The fans were hard for Bradie to control, having to tell them over and over that Short Stack were still a band and hadn't broken up again. Everyone was mourning a relationship they adored, it ached them to know something horrible was still going on after coming out of their original shitty position.

What was hard for Shaun and Andy was the rest of their families trying to understand what was happening, they didn't care if either were 'gay' they just wanted them to be happy and work it out. Andy's mum called him stupid a few times, despite Andy shouting back that he knew over and over.

Andy woke up on what would've marked the official month and a half since they decided to postpone in case it wasn't what they wanted. He pulled his phone off charge and there was an instant text from Shaun.

It's been over a month

Something in Andy fluttered as he wrote back

I know

Wanna catch up?

Sure. Head on over x

Andy deleted and retyped the 'x' at least six times before sending. He instantly got up, showering, making sure he looked nice and making sure the house was somewhat clean. He felt happy and nervous in case the results were bad. He hoped that all his hoping was worth it. He wanted to be with Shaun again.

About half an hour later, a knock at the door came and Andy jumped up so fast it almost made his head spin. He jogged to the door and opened it, revealing a scruffy Shaun who had tamed his beard and had a haircut. Andy had no idea how he could remember how Shaun even looked like it had been that long for him. He avoided looking at the photos on his camera out of fear, but here he was. After all his delusional thoughts. He was actually here.