Merch Boy (boyxboy)

*Four: Oliver*

*Four: Oliver*

“Damn, what happened to you?” Lily gasped as I sat down next to her in the lecture hall.

“Walked into something last night,” I answered automatically. “No big deal.”

“Looks painful,” she winced, opening her laptop. Lily was here to sharpen her math skills so that she’d be ahead of the game when she transferred to a fashion school. It was her dream to be an accomplished designer, dominating the streets of New York City. I knew that Lily was a fantastic dream chaser, and she probably would reach that goal one day. She was the type to work tirelessly at whatever she set her mind to. She and I were friends because we happened to have similar life goals, and we just couldn’t stop talking about it. And secretly, I was hoping that some of her motivation and work ethic would rub off on me.

“So how were things with Adam last night?” I asked teasingly.

Lily blushed and smiled wide. “He’s so perfect,” she sighed dreamily, pushing her thick-framed glasses up the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe I actually met a straight guy who loves fashion. We had so much to talk about over dinner. No awkward silences whatsoever.”

“Wow,” I chuckled in approval. “Get it, girl.” 

“Shut up,” she laughed.

Although Lily was pretty much perfect, she had constant trouble finding love. She was always so busy with schoolwork and her job and internships that, even though she did want to date, she rarely had time for it. She had met Adam at a runway show in the city the other night. He sounded like a dreamboat, judging by the way Lily talked about him. At the end of class, I wished her luck on her Adam endeavors and told her I’d text her later.

Lucas always went straight to work at 12:00, right after his morning classes. He worked as a lifeguard and a personal trainer at a huge 24-hour fitness center, usually for five or more hours every day. Sometimes he worked in the middle of the night if it was busy. No wonder he complained so much about us not getting to spend time together. Usually I had to go to work shortly after he came home, or halfway through his workday. Sometimes he had sporadic appointments with clients throughout the day and night, making it even harder for us to find time for each other. At least we didn’t have classes on the weekend, but we both still had to work. If either of us managed to get a day away from work, which wasn’t often, we tried to spend it in each other’s company. We’d go to one of our favorite restaurants or just watch our favorite movies and TV shows at home. And unless Luke was feeling irritable, the time we spent together was nice. It was comfortable.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that today. Whenever I was at home by myself, I took the time to study and work on my online class stuff for graphic design, with music on in the background. Mostly Cobaltic Acid’s music, naturally. Trent McBride’s melodic voice would pour through my laptop speakers, putting me into a relaxed state. Sometimes I would go online and look at nice houses. For us, a nice house wasn’t attainable right now. But I knew it would be someday, maybe if we got a roommate or two. The houses were nice to look at, at least. Sometimes I would sleep, depending on how tired I was. Sometimes I’d hang out with friends. My daily life wasn’t anything special.

I thought Luke’s life was more exciting than mine. Of course, I thought the world of him anyway. But I often wondered how other people saw us as a couple. He was the buff, tan, handsome fitness guru, and I was the skinny computer nerd who sold clothes for a living. He was studying to be a physical therapist, helping people and all, and I just wanted to be a graphic designer with my own t-shirt and clothing line. Yeah, I was passionate about my career goal, but Luke’s just sounded better. If he was a ten, I was like, a six-point-five or something. No one had ever told me how I measured up to my boyfriend, but it had always seemed to me like he was just so out of my league. Sometimes I had major confidence issues.

He got home around 5:30, same as yesterday. I was lounging on the couch in our living room area, sipping a Starbucks iced coffee because I thought it would ease the pain that was still throbbing in my mouth.

“Hey,” Luke said, dropping his keys on the kitchen counter.

“Hey,” I replied, sitting upright so that he could sit down.

“Look, I need to talk to you about something,” Lucas told me uneasily.

“Does it have to do with visiting your parents?” I asked. “Because we could just—”

“No, not that,” he cut in. “I already told them we were coming. Three weeks from now.”

“Oh,” I acknowledged. “Alright. Cool.”

“I wanted to tell you that…” he trailed off, seeming to wonder how he should phrase it. “I think we should start doing couples therapy.”

I stared at him blankly, shocked that Lucas was the one to come up with this idea. “You wanna do couples therapy?” I asked in surprise.

“Oliver, I take our relationship very seriously,” Luke said quietly. “I’m serious when I say I want to marry you someday. But I know you won’t want to marry me if I keep blowing up all the time like I did last night.” Holy crap. This was it. This was the change I wanted out of him. He realized it for himself. This was great, this was amazing.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked cautiously, despite myself. “With our conflicting schedules and everything? Not to mention, therapy is expensive, isn’t it?”

“We could make it work,” he assured me. “Um…actually I’ve been saving up for a while, in case we ever wanted to do it. I’ve even found a therapist in the area who works with gay and lesbian couples. And after I snapped last night, it kinda made me realize that now is as good a time as ever.”

Wow, I thought. He had been thinking about this for a long time. I had definitely underestimated his desire to become a better boyfriend, a better person. I knew all along that he cared enough about me to take this step, yet I could hardly believe it.

“When do we start?” I smiled, squeezing his hand.

Lucas smiled back and then leaned over to kiss me carefully. “Let’s make an appointment. Right now.”

**A/N** Hola! I hope you enjoyed this (shortish) chapter. It seems that Lucas does want to change! WOOT WOOT! Please comment and vote and follow me if you so desire :) Wanna see what Lily looks like? She's that cute blonde over there on the side (also known as Avril Lavigne). Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be in Trent's POV.