Tom and Haz: more than friends

Public view (Haz's POV)

I lie on the bed staring at the ceiling. What are we gonna do? We obviously love each other and have for years, but Tom is right, there's not much of a place in Hollywood for a gay male actor. His fans would go wild, not in a good way... and I have my own career to worry about. If I don't get my break soon I'm gonna be known as Tom's best friend forever!

I slip out of my sweatpants and put on underwear and some jeans, and rummage through my suitcase which I still haven't unpacked for a t-shirt and a hoodie. We are going to the mall today, so I try to pick out something as low key as possible, but you know me, I still want to look bomb for photos with fans. "Tom are you dressed!?" I yell down the hall. "You don't have to ask that any more babe!" Tom yells back, walking out of his room shirtless, his jeans low enough to accentuate his v-line. "Damn you look good," I say, and doing my best impersonation of a cat-caller, I whistle at him. Tom blushes and tries to hide his smile but can't, breaking into that wonderful laugh of his. With all the pressure he's been under, that sound has been a less and less frequent presence in my life, so I'm glad I could loosen him up a bit (pardon the pun). Once he puts on a shirt throws on a jacket, and grabs his phone from his room, we are ready to leave. "How are we gonna do this?" He asks, his shaking hands a dead giveaway that he's extremely nervous. "Tom, we've been best friends for years in the public eye, how hard could it be?"

"Well, it's gonna be hard to keep my hands off of you," he says sheepishly. The way he looked down at the floor after he said that did it for me. I pull him in for what was meant to be a quick kiss, but which lasts much longer. "You good?" I ask. "Yeah," lets go.

We head to the car and pull out of the driveway, Tom driving as per usual. As we pull onto the freeway, Tom steers with his left hand, his other resting on my thigh. I slide it off, "You can't tease me like that. We need to get into the mindset we must have for being out in public." Tom agrees but still inches his hand back to its resting place on my leg.

We pull into the parking lot and hop out of the car, making sure not to act too familiar with each other as we walk through the automatic doors into the mall. As soon as we do, we are swarmed with a mob of paparazzi and reporters. There's nowhere to go, we're blocked off on all sides, completely surrounded. In the fray I protectively grab Tom, trying to push our way back outside to the safety of the car. I can barely make out what any of the reporters are saying until, eventually, we break out of the pack, sprinting to our car. As we run I hear one of the reporters shout, "Tom! Is it true?! Are you and Harrison really dating?" Shit.