Small doses

Chapter Nineteen

Can you hear them?
They talk about us
Telling lies
Well, that's no surprise. 

Gulf had spent half an hour in his bed, trying so hard to get some sleep, without success. Not after Mew's words.

I love you.

He still couldn't believe it. He pretended to sleep, because it was clearly something he wasn't ready to share with him yet. However, he couldn't get the words out of his head. He was smiling like an idiot, to the point he kept buttoning his shirt in the wrong way. Flashes from the night before kept his mind busy on his way to work. He tried to call Mew, to see if he wanted to go in together. Strangely enough, the phone kept ringing and then went to voice mail. He decided not to worry about it, considering they were to see each other at work anyway. Even though he really wanted to give him a kiss before shooting started.

"Gulf..you're here". P'Bester was standing before him, a nervous expression on his face. "Well...yeah. Of course I'm here. Like...every day. Are you ok? You don't seem ok". P'Bester looked around for a moment and took a deep breath. "How long has it been since you've looked at your messages?". He frowned, quickly pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I just used it to call Mew, but I didn't check my messages. Why?". At the mention of Mew, P'Bester's face got stiff. "Maybe it's best if we talk in private...". What the hell was happening? He had never seen him act so strange before.

Just then, Mew made his appearance. He was nervous too and was having a heated argument with P'Bosser. "...I don't care, he shouldn't go through this too. How the hell did that happen?". P'Bester took him by the arm, but at that very moment Gulf finally opened a video file attached to an incoming text. He felt his blood running cold, listening to his and Mew's words. In the broom closet.

And then the whole room fell silent. Even Mew had stopped fighting, realizing he was there too. Gulf had this lump in his throat, and his heart beating too fast. He felt like the room was spinning too. "Gulf...Gulf". P'Bester tried to shake him, but all Gulf could think was that everyone was looking at him. Some of them were whispering, some of them were laughing about something. Maybe at him. Some of them were concerned too.

"I'm sorry but you cheated. I saw Mew coming out of your place. You brought it on yourself".

It was an anonymous text, but Gulf knew very well who had sent it. Gulf wanted to scream and break something at the same time but he felt so powerless. "Gulf, hey. Bosser and I have spent the morning deleting every trace of this video. We also tweeted something about you two shooting a scene there for the upcoming season. So you don't need to worry about that...".

But he did. How could he not? Even with the fans taken out of the picture, there were still a lot of people there, working with them every day, who had just taken a peek at his private life, without his consent. He suddenly felt so violated. "So, are they together together?".

Gulf forgot to breathe for a moment. "Shh, he can hear you". The two girls from the staff giggled, probably fangirling about his secret relationship, without realizing how nosey they were being. Even Mew was keeping his distance, and all this was too much to bear.

Gulf heard many voices screaming his name, but he was already far away. He felt like he had been living two separate lives, which were now merging into one, in the worst possible way. Could he survive this storm?