Devil's Effect

A Quick Start to a Slow Drive

Mike glanced at his phone for what felt like the millionth time Friday afternoon. For once in his life, he wanted time to slow down, but the clock was ticking fast and furious toward four o'clock. There was no getting out of leaving Red Pelican Music in the cargo van he'd picked up during lunch to get Ryan Shuck and start the dreaded seventeen hour drive.

Of all people. Ryan. God, this is going to be the longest weekend of my life. Mike tried to keep his concentration on the student next to him, making hand position corrections and suggesting easier fingerings for a tricky technical passage. That lesson was over with before he knew it, and his last student of the day shuffled in, her face sullen. Mike could absolutely relate with that look. Sadie was sixteen, and had been taking piano lessons for less than a year. It had been slow going with her from the beginning, and Mike dreaded her lesson. It always seemed to last twice as long as students he enjoyed.

But on this day, despite Sadie's lack of preparation and the tedious nature of the lesson, Mike's phone chimed sooner than he expected, signaling the end of his workday. With a sigh he sent his student on her way and started to stuff his things into his backpack. There wasn't much room with his change of clothes, pajamas, and small toiletry bag already in the bottom, but it was a sacrifice he'd been willing to make in order to see Chester before he left for Seattle. There wasn't time to go back to Joe's for an overnight bag and make it over to Amir's, so he'd planned ahead, bringing everything he'd need for the road trip with him to work.

He zipped up the bag and flipped the light off in his practice room, grabbing his phone from the top of the piano as he slung the backpack over his shoulder. As he texted Chester to let him know he was headed over, he passed through reception and said goodbye to Mrs. Hawthorne. Mike desperately hoped that traffic would be kind and he would get to Amir's quickly. He wanted to spend every second with Chester that he could before he picked up Ryan.

Driving the cargo van was a lot different than driving the Civic. Mike could see a little farther ahead of him, but he also had to take care changing lanes and making right turns. He rolled his eyes at himself as he checked over his shoulder again backing out of the parking lot. I'm so paranoid I'm going to hit something. It's going to be a long ass drive of me freaking out about this van and trying to keep things nice with Ryan. He wished again that Chester could go with them, but every inch of space was precious, and his boyfriend really wasn't in any shape to drive thirty-five hours over the course of two and a half days.

Mike flipped through his mental inventory of the things at Jason's house while he drove. He knew there were several paintings that would take up a lot of space in the van, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't come up with the number of boxes he'd packed. It didn't seem like it would be too much, but there was a reason they had decided to send Mike's things to Seattle with Jason's. It was enough that moving it separately would be an inconvenience, just like it was proving to be now. He scowled at himself as he thought about it. Stupid. I was being so stupid. I deserve every uncomfortable second of this trip. And I don't even want to see Jason. It's going to be awful. I never should have said yes to him. It wasn't right. Not for Chester, not for me, and it wasn't fair to Jason, either. And Ryan. How he's even tolerating the idea of this trip is beyond me. I wonder if he will even go inside when we get there, or if he's going to wait in the car. They probably don't even want to see each other. What a mess.

He didn't get to Amir's as quickly as he had hoped, but there was still enough time for Mike to see his boyfriend and not feel completely rushed. He took the familiar route through the lobby and up the elevator, and was knocking on Amir's front door before he pressed send on the text he'd been typing to tell Chester he was there. Mike hoped he'd gotten to the apartment before Amir, and they might actually have a few minutes alone before he left.