Devil's Effect

Perfect

There had been a lot of cheese. Mike's slices of Velveeta had melted into lava rivers of goodness, leaving breakfast at a 3 to 1 ratio of cheese to everything else. But it was tasty, and Chester knew his boyfriend was satisfied when he'd sat back in his seat and moaned the words, "Damn, that was good."

That was almost an hour ago, and a second round of coffee was happening as they lazed around Amir's living room. Chester was on the couch, sipping his sugary mixture while he kept a watchful eye on his phone. He needed Ryan to call or text or something. Two hours. It's been two hours almost and he hasn't called me back.

He let out a long sigh as he flipped his phone over on the armrest of the couch. He knew staring at it wouldn't do any good. Instead he focused his attention on Mike, who was still sitting at the table. Chester had picked up their breakfast dishes, cleaned the kitchen, started the dishwasher and made fresh coffee. Mike had found some paper and what started as a small doodle seemed to be turning into a full-on art piece. Chester lifted his chin to try and see more of what his boyfriend was working on. He only got a slight glimpse of what he knew was an eskimo. The same eskimo that Chester had seen Mike draw many times over their years together. He's happy when he draws that little guy. Relaxed. I wish I was more relaxed right now.

The moment the thought hit his mind, his cell phone rang. Chester picked it up instantly. He grinned the moment he saw the name across the screen. "It's Ry," he announced to Mike as he stood up with his coffee. "Thank God."

He headed for the bedroom as he answered the call, his coffee in hand. "Hey," he said, ready to hear Ryan's voice so he would know the other man was really okay. "Mr. M.I.A, you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm okay. Sorry my M.I.A ass made you worry."

Chester sat down on the edge of the bed, his coffee cup resting on his knee. "Talinda was trying to get in touch with you, too. She said you didn't come home last night." He waited. He could hear Ryan's shallow breathing on the other end.

"I texted her back," Ryan said, his voice monotone. "I should have let her know I wasn't going to be home, but I didn't even think about it."

Chester stared at the floor, his eyes engrossed in the gray carpeting. It wasn't like Ryan to not think about other people, especially people he cared about. Talinda was one of those people. She was no longer just Talinda the Tyrant to Ryan. She was his roommate and his friend. "Where did you end up?" Chester asked with a feeling of hesitation he wasn't used to. Normally he and Ryan could talk about anything, but this felt different.

Ryan shut his eyes. He'd left Rob's apartment, but not the parking lot. He wanted privacy to call Chester back, and doing that from Rob's bathroom didn't seem like the best idea. He drank his coffee quickly, and when Rob sat down on the couch and turned the television on, offering little to no conversation, Ryan gathered his jacket, shoes, and phone and left. He stared out the front windshield of his car as he said, "I crashed at Rob's."

Chester knew that was coming, but it was still a shock. The idea that Ryan had spent the night at Rob Bourdon's was off putting. "Soooo what happened?" he asked. "I saw you guys leave, and I wanted to talk to you first, but Petey Sly had me...well, he was keeping me in the kitchen and I missed you."

Ryan sat back, his dull attention that had been concentrated on the full parking lot of Rob's building suddenly going sharp. "Petey Sly? What do you mean he was keeping you in the kitchen? I didn't even see him last night."

Chester rolled his eyes at the memory that he didn't want to get into. "It was nothing. He was just being an asshole. But it doesn't matter. Tell me what happened." He took a sip of his coffee. It was nice to hear the life come back into Ryan's tone, even if he wasn't looking forward to hearing about how things with Rob had gone.