Coffee Shop Soundtrack (Marianas Trench)

Chapter Eleven

Matt got back to the apartment quickly, sighing in relief when he saw his boyfriend wasn’t home. He hummed to himself as he dropped his guitar case in the hall, making his way to the kitchen and beginning to cook Tyler’s dinner. This was nice; it gave him some peace and some time to himself. He liked it like this.

His humming turned to quiet singing, and he found himself singing the song he and Josh had just written that day.

“Run to these cautious arms in front of you, and say...” As he chopped up vegetables, he sang a little louder, enjoying himself.

“Your gay is showing.” A voice from behind him said, making him jump as he turned around.

“Holy sh-” He began, relaxing slightly when he saw who it was. Tyler was sitting at the bar counter, a can of some cheap beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. At least it wasn’t some person breaking into their apartment. “Oh, hi. I didn’t know you were in.”

“I was in the bedroom. What are you singing?” The tall man took a long drag on the cigarette and blew the smoke out in front of him. Matt coughed slightly.

“S-some song we wrote for that project.”

“We? What project?”

“Oh.” Matt mentally face palmed, he’d forgotten to tell Tyler about this! “My friend Josh, he’s in my music class. We’re in a group for this project, you basically have to write and record a song or two.”

“You didn’t tell me this.”

“I forgot, I’m really sorry, babe.” Matt said, adding the pet name for emphasis. Tyler seemed calmer today, and this made Matt a little more confident. Not so much it was significantly different, but a little.

“Can I read the song?” Tyler’s eyes narrowed in the slightest.

“Sure. Josh did the lyrics, I did the tune...” Matt tossed the vegetables into the pot of now boiling water and headed over to his guitar case, kneeling down to open it. He groaned as he rifled through the papers. “Ah, fuck.”

“What?”

“I’ve left my notebook at his...”  Matt muttered, frowning as he returned to where Tyler was.

“So? Play it to me instead.”

“Oh, uh...” Matt faltered, but complied, retrieving his guitar once more and sitting on a bar stool next to his boyfriend. He began the opening chords, clearing his throat a bit.

“This voice, I’ve heard before, he left you all alone, but you keep holding on...” Matt sung, keeping his eyes on Tyler the whole time. He stopped when he finished the first verse.

“Carry on. Finish it.”

Matt gulped, positioning his fingers back on the strings. “Goodbye heartbreak, goodbye friend, this was always yours in the end, I knew we would walk through a war for some peace of mind.”

He finished the song, flattening his palm across the strings to silence the instrument, biting his lip as he looked up for Tyler’s reaction. He was stony faced, taking another drag on his rapidly diminishing cigarette.

“What’d you think?”

After a pause, he began to speak. “I think I don’t want you seeing this Josh kid anymore. Do the project with someone else. Preferably a girl.”

“What? Why?” Matt was shocked.

“Because to me, that sounds like a fucking love song. And I don’t know whether it’s about you or not, but it’s better safe than sorry, huh?” Tyler winked, snaking his arms around Matt’s neck. “I can’t have someone else after my boy.” With that, he reached down for Matt’s left hand, and stubbed his cigarette on the younger boy’s hand, on the back of his wrist. Matt yelped, glaring down at his hand.

“I wouldn’t speak to him again if I were you, babe.” Tyler mockingly said, sauntering away to presumably the living room. Matt rushed over to the sink and ran his burned hand under the cold water for a while, sighing at the relief. He plastered a smile on his face. Hey, it could have been worse. He sniffed a little, before returning to cook Tyler’s dinner. It’s not like he had a choice anyway.

The meal was done in 10 minutes and Matt called out for Tyler, who promptly yelled for Matt to ‘get his lazy ass over here’. So Matt complied, handed the plate to his boyfriend, and then disappeared to his bedroom, pulling off his jeans and jumping straight into bed, not caring about anything anymore. He let his smile drop once he laid down, the tears falling freely now. He turned over and buried his face into the pillow. It looked like he’d be crying himself to sleep that night. Again.