You Make My Life Complete (Boyxboy)

Chapter 14

Jay's POV

I smiled to myself, wanting to give myself a pat on the back. I held out the photo frame, eyeing my work. 

After showing Levi my old photos and finding out they were of him and his best friend, I had decided to make prints of them and frame them for him and Mrs. Connolly. I had brought the prints to work with me in order to find good frames to put them in and, luckily, I had. 

"What are you up to?" Carson said, coming up behind me. 

"I'm finishing up on preparing some gifts. Turns out some of the photos I took here when I was a kid were of Levi and a friend of his, so..." I held up one of the frames to show him. 

He raised his eyebrows. "That's some weird shit." 

"Yeah, I guess." I said with a laugh, placing the frame in the gift bag I had chosen. 

"And it's going good between you two?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course." When I looked up and saw his expression, my brows furrowed. "What?"

"Have you told him yet?" He asked, crossing his arms. 

My feet shifted and I looked back at the bag as I fiddled with the handles. "Not yet, we haven't really had much time to ourselves lately. I was thinking about doing it tomorrow."

"Listen, dude. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I know from personal experience that the longer you wait, the worse it is." He was staring at me pointedly, I could feel it. 

"I get that. I just don't want to lose him." I said, looking back up at Carson.  

"Tell him the truth and I doubt he will. Just don't let him find out from anyone else and you'll be fine." Carson said, patting me on the back with a small smile before shuffling out the door behind me. 

I looked down at the frame, taking a breath before placing it into the gift bag in front of me. 

*******

My brows furrowed as I pulled up in my driveway. There was someone sitting on my front porch, cradling something in their arms. I parked my car and got out quickly, leaving behind the two bags. 

"Hey." Riley looked up from where he was slumped, holding a sleeping Spencer. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

I shoved my keys into the pocket of my pants as I approached him. He stood as I walked up the pathway to my door, giving me a weak smile. 

"Yeah, yeah. We walked here from home and he got tired. I just wanted to talk to you." Riley whispered,  cradling Spencer's head to his shoulder. He seemed nervous, his fingers fidgeting with the hem on the bottom of Spencer's shirt. 

"Okay, yeah. Let's head inside." I fumbled for my keys. 

Walking in, I placed my keys on the hook next to the door while toeing off my shoes. Riley followed closely behind me before breaking off and heading into the living room. I headed into the kitchen, grabbing two glasses of water and sending Levi a text to make sure he knew where Riley was. 

Entering the living room with the water, I noticed that Riley had taken the recliner. He was staring at the carpet, rubbing Spencer's back seemingly unconsciously. I placed the cups of water on the coffee table, taking a seat on the couch across from him. 

"So," I said, shifting on the couch, trying to find a comfortable position. "What's going on?"

Riley started, looking up at me before flitting his eyes down to the coffee table. "Um." He started fiddling with the hem of Spencer's shirt again. "I didn't really feel comfortable talking to Levi about this because I just, I don't feel like he would understand. Even though he only had one best friend in high school, he was still pretty popular. Plus, he's got a lot on his plate and I - I just don't want him to worry about me." 

Riley's eyes kept flitting from the coffee table to me and then back to the coffee table again. I tried my best to show that I was intently listening to him but my brain was all over the place. I had no idea how to handle this. I didn't even attend high school.

"I guess I'm nervous about going back to school, which sounds stupid but Levi wasn't the only one I pushed away." Riley's voice shook slightly as he spoke. 

I took a sip of the water in front of me to ground myself while I thought about how to respond. 

Back in high school, or at least the one year of real high school I attended before my homeschooling, I hadn't necessarily been popular. I had a couple of acquaintances, people I had hung out with during school but wasn't close enough to, to hang out with after. They hadn't reached out after I had dropped off the face of the earth and I had no way to contact them anyway. 

Thinking about it now, I hadn't really ever had true friends after high school either. Sure there were people who were kind, people who were friendly, but there were never people I was close to. Whether that was my fault for not reaching out, never giving people the benefit of the doubt, or I was just never the person that people around me wanted to associate with, I didn't know. 

I took a deep breath, placing the glass of water back on the table before speaking. "I've never really had close friends. I was pulled from my private school after freshman year and was homeschooled until I entered the workforce under my father's watch. Even there, I was pretty alone over the years. Thinking back now, though, I think things could have been different if I was a little bit more open or reached out more." I said, looking at him with a small smile. He was looking back at me now, his eyebrows drawn together, his body still a little tense, folded around Spencer.  

"But how did you find people when you got here? How do I reach out or open up?" Now, with Riley maintaining eye contact, his face a lot more relaxed than earlier, my heart squeezed. He trusted me and was taking my advice and knowledge to heart. 

"Well, when I got here, I didn't really know the right way to reach out so the relationships I've made were based in being open to people, in responding positively when people reached out. Like, my best friend from work, Carson. He reached out at work, made conversation, invited me for drinks and I accepted. Now, we are pretty close." I smile at him, trying my best to be supportive. 

Riley nodded, staring back down at the coffee table as if deep in thought. "What if...? How do I do that? Reaching out, being open?" 

"I think the easiest way to do it is just smiling at people and more than that just letting people sit with you at lunch and engaging them when they talk to you. Growing up in the business world, I've learned that first impressions can determine what a person will see you as. Knowing that, the best advice I can give is just walk in there with a smile on your face and someone may even just seek you out." My racing heart seemed to have calmed down since the beginning of our conversation, now I was just focused on making sure Riley was okay. My eyes traveled over the room, giving Riley a chance to digest what I just told him. 

"Jay?" My eyes snapped back to Riley, who was looking at me with a small smile. "Thank you. I know this must seem kind of weird. You've only been dating my brother for like a month and you've already helped me so much. I just wanted you to know it means a lot."

My heart squeezed a little as I looked at Riley. "I never really got to be a big brother to my little sister so I'm happy I can be something like that for you." 

Riley nodded, looking back down at Spencer sleeping on his chest. "I should probably get back home and put him to bed," he said, standing carefully so as to not wake Spencer. 

"Why don't I give you a ride? I don't have a seat for Spencer but you two can sit in the back and I can go really slow. It's a little late for you to be walking home." I said, following him into the entryway to put on our shoes. 

The ride to the Carpenter's place was quiet, Riley sitting in the back cradling Spencer, the radio on low. When we got there, Riley said a quick "Thank you," and went inside. I smiled after him, waiting until he got into the house before pulling away. 

On the way home, I called Levi, or rather a drunk Levi, and had a quick conversation with him on speaker. 

When I fell into bed that night, it was with a huge smile on my face.