Missing Pieces

Skye (Part I)

A/N: It's highly recommended you read Fanboy before you read this. This is a story that may or may not have happened after Fanboy - you can decide if you want them together or not.

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SPRING

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Skye was still in the church office that night when Pastor Ben stuck his head in. The pastor looked a little surprised to see him there and admitted he'd expected to see someone else.

"I just got a reminder that you have tomorrow off," the pastor held up his phone.

"I do, I just started reading this email and lost track of time," Skye tried to seem casual but Pastor Ben smiled, as if he'd figured him out.

"And the fact you opened your email at 8 at night instead of heading home after the outreach meeting, I'm sure, has nothing to do with a certain college boy who happens to be speaking at youth night tonight."

"Is that tonight?"

Ben gestured with his chin in the general direction of the dry-erase wall calendar, which had the current day's event schedule in neatly-lettered, bright neon block letters. Youth Night was even embellished with squiggle lines, probably by their most recent set of interns. Skye was caught.

"If you want to stand in the back, he's still on stage for another 10 minutes."

"I've been watching from here," Skye turned his computer screen to show the pastor he had their internal livestream pulled up. "I have no idea how he managed to put this together with all the classes he's taking."

"He's a pretty awesome guy," Pastor Ben still had a knowing smile on his face. "For what it's worth, 4 years starts to feel like a much smaller age difference the older you get."

"What are you saying, exactly?" Skye crossed his arms.

"That it's okay to be interested. You have my blessing. You are interested, aren't you?"

"Oh, I'm interested but he's made it clear he's not."

"Bummer. Well, maybe he'll change his mind."

"I doubt it. He knows about me," Skye could still remember the first actual conversation he'd had with Bryce and the way Bryce looked at him. "My past, I mean."

"That's good though. No repeat of the Brenden situation," Pastor shrugged. "You never know."

"Branden. And it would be good if Bryce didn't already hate me for it," Skye was still trying and failing to put what had ended his relationship with Branden out of his mind. They started talking about marriage soon after their one-year anniversary and that was when Skye opened up about his past. Branden hadn't looked at him the same way again and after a month of disappointed looks and stupid fights admitted he couldn't take knowing that he was being asked to wait for something everyone else had already gotten to see.

"Bryce doesn't hate you."

"You know what I mean."

"Alright, well, I have to head back in. You should be there, show him what a good friend you are," Pastor Ben shrugged.

"You're right. Hiding is stupid," Skye unplugged his phone and followed Pastor Ben to the auditorium.

He wasn't scheduled to work the Youth Night so he wouldn't have his usual reserved seat up front so he stood in the back near the production booth and watched as Bryce finished his message. It was exciting to see how the nearly-packed auditorium of middle and high school students were clapping and cheering as Bryce talked, posting videos and pictures to their various accounts to share their favorite quotes. Of course Skye had seen Bryce lead their small youth group so many times, but he'd never heard him tell this story before.