Memphis Baby | Garrett Watts x Andrew Siwicki

Part 4.

"Come in! Come in!" Garrett says quickly to Nick as soon as he remembers his manners.

Nick chuckles and enters the house then looks at Garrett's family in the living room. "Hi everyone!"

Everyone greets him from where they're at... well... all except Andrew.

"You guys all know him?!" Garrett asks surprised.

"Garrett, you brought him over all the time when you two were dating!" his mom answers.

"Right!" Garrett says remembering and then gives an awkward smile.

Truth be told, it took his mother to remind him. He was so overwhelmed from even seeing Nick that he forgot almost everything about their history together. Garrett had no intention of seeking out Nick at all while he was here. They hadn't talked since a while before Garrett moved to California, and even then the conversations were kept short.

"So, how did you know I was here?" Garrett asks trying to both be polite and break the ice. The shaking of his voice is prominent to everyone in the room, but Nick let's it slide.

"I was just walking my dog and I heard you laugh," Nick says smiling. "I'd recognize that laugh anywhere!"

Garrett giggles nervously. "Wow! What a coincidence!"

"I was actually on my way to meet Lily to go to the cafe. Do you want come with?" Nick asks.

"Uh, I don't know if my family would-"

"It's fine, Garrett," his mom interrupts.

Crap, he thought to himself. That was my last line of defense.

"Oh!" he says in response. "Well, in that case, I would love to go." Garrett is about to walk out the front door until he looks back and notices Andrew. "Andrew!" Garrett says, attempting to catch his attention, but unaware that he had it the whole time. "Do you wanna come with?"

Andrew thinks about it for a second. "No, it's... uh... it's fine."

"Oh, ok." Garrett says sounding kind of nervous. "I'll see you guys later!" he says as they walk out the door.

***

Garrett arrives back home when everyone was eating dinner; at this point of the day, the sun had been down for a while.

"Bye, Nick!" he says as he closed the door.

"Bye!"

He walks over to the kitchen and greets his family and Andrew as they pretend like they didn't hear him bid farewell to Nick.

"Watcha got there?" his grandma asks him softly.

"Oh! Nick bought me some really cool books!" he says excitedly as he pulls them out to show everyone. "This one is the new J.K. Rowling book! And this one has something to do with kids in space! I don't know much about it, but the summary in the back sounded interesting!"

"Wait, Nick bought them for you?" his mother asks.

"He also bought me my drink at the cafe," he adds, even though he feels like his mother is gonna scold him for letting Nick spend his money on him.

"Well," she begins. "Glad to see you had fun on your date!"

Garrett giggles nervously. Andrew looks down at his food in a sense of dismay, but Garrett doesn't notice.

"It wasn't a date," Garrett says blushing a bit. "Anyways, I'll be up in my room reading," Garrett says as he heads out of the kitchen.

"Wait! Aren't you gonna eat anything?" his mom calls out.