Teenage Fever

No Second Guesses

His eyes closed and he exhaled. I looked back at my phone and watched as the call ended. D startles me by standing up.

"Call him back," he says before leaving the room.

Shit.

I eventually call back.
"Hey," Tahj says.
His voice sounded distant.
"Long time since we've spoke or seen each other. What's up?"
"Can we meet up?"
"Kind of bad timing."
"It'll be quick."
I wonder what this could be about.

I guess I had some time to spare even though D and I was planning on heading out there early. We still had time and daylight.
I didn't know what Tahj wanted to talk about that he couldn't just tell me over the phone but I know I had to let him know that he wouldn't be seeing me for a while (this weekend included since he already knew about next week).
Leaving D's to meet up with Tahj was pretty uncomfortable. I didn't know how to handle the situation. I figured, while on my walk, it would be helpful to hear Tahj out and see where to go from there.

We had our own little spot that we met up downtown. It was the same spot we found each other at when we first met up. The thought of this makes this relationship feel so "old times" to me. As if we didn't have technology. We were both pretty limited but still, felt like this relationship was taking place in the early 1900s or something sometimes.

"What's up?" I say when he's a foot away.
"Let's go to my place."
That threw me way off. I was confused as to what was happening but walked besides him anyway. The day hasn't changed it was still hot as fuck.
"Why?" I finally asked.
"Because you've never been to my place and I think it's a good time. We can talk."
"I haven't heard from you in a while."
"I'm sorry about that. I have a tendency to go left I guess when I second guess things."
"What are you second guessing?"
He's hesitant and sighs.
"Let's get there first."
The rest of the way was silent.

We caught the bus together and rode a couple of blocks still in silence.

At our destination was a nice looking family house. This was my first time seeing the neighborhood during the day since the first time I saw it was at night. No matter day or night the neighborhood still looked very upper middle class.

"You don't live alone?" I had got the impression he did for some reason.
"No, my dad lives here too."
"Where's your mom?"
How did I not know this information about him?
"My parents divorced about 2 years ago, Bryson mostly lives with my mom."
Shit.
"I'm sorry about that."
"Don't be."

He unlocked the door and the place looked asleep. The lights were mainly off but it wasn't dark since it was still afternoon.
"Let's head on up."
I followed him up the long set of stairs that wound around at the top to the hall landing. He led me to a hallway then into the room on the left.
"Come in, come in," his voice lowered.

I came in and looked around. Things threw me off because his room wasn't really what I was expecting, actually I was still trying to get over the fact that he didn't have his own place and that he was 18. Just a year ago he was a teenager and his room still kind of gave me that vibe with a touch of maturity.

"It's weird. I placed you for having your own place but you're still young."
"Don't start with that shit again," he chuckled.
I laughed right back.
"Nah, I'll leave you alone."
I go to sit on his bed. He quickly follows and sits down next to me. I look around at how big his room is. His closet and flat screen TV was in front of us, he had a desk with a laptop on it to my left. But I went back to him and grabbed his hand.
"What are you second guessing?"
"You," he quickly lets me know. Before I could even ask he beats me to explaining. "Your friend likes you, doesn't he?"

My grip on his hand loosened a little.

"Why do you think that?"
"I'm not going off of much evidence. I mainly noticed it a while back when we were at the beach."
Damn that was a while ago but I sighed because I can see where he would have thought that.
"We're good friends and we hadn't seen each other in years prior to that."
"You guys also live together..."
I abruptly turn to face him.
"I'll be honest, within the past couple of days I have noticed a shift between us."
He watched me intently his eyes never leaving mine and I couldn't look away either. "Nothing really intense has occurred but something is there and hovering. But I want you Tahj and I've reached out to you cause I haven't heard from you and I need to inform you that it's going to be a while before we see each other again."
His eyebrows immediately went to frowning.
"That sounded dramatic," I laugh. "What I mean is I'm heading back to Section 3 this afternoon to see my folks and then Monday I'll be in California for a week."
He nods his head.
"Damn, I wish I would have reached out to you sooner but my mind was in a dark place."
"It's okay, now you know and I'm hoping you, we, could move past that. Right?"
He stares at me before nodding.
"I really like you Les and would love to spend more time together."
He was drawing himself closer. I didn't hesitate to follow his cue so the next thing we do is lock lips.