Inhale

Chapter 20:

It had been two whole months, the snow was melting, spring was blooming, and Joey had been working hard off of sids advice.

And it was working.

He was slowly building up a relationship with corey, and as each day passed Corey looked more and more comfortable.

And Joey loved it.

The small smiles and laughs made it all worth it.

But Joey could tell for some reason unknownst to him, Corey still didn't trust him fully.

And it hurt to know that.

He didnt understand why, he did everything for corey and the lack if trust corey still had for him...it really did hurt.

He could trust him. He could easily just, but for some reason corey was being stubborn and wouldnt.

Joey placed the breakfast down on the table and kissed corey on the cheek.

Corey touched his cheek slowly lookinf perplexed before sighing.

Joey sat down opposite him knowing it was because he kissed him. He could tell. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I was just in my head." Corey smiled falsely.

Joey nodded slowly not quite convinced. Corey was always like this. Bottled up his emotions way to much until he literally burst.

And Joey hated that.

He hated seeing it and he hated hearing it.

The other day corey had locked himself in the bathroom for a while and despite the shower being on, Joey could hear him crying.

And he didnt even know why.

He poked at this breakfast as he looked up at corey who was also not eating. Corey looked distracted about something.

"What you thinking about?"

"Nothing." Corey said simply

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Corey said

The two sat in silence for a while before Joey sighed.

"So...uh...my moms birthday is coming up.." joey said "and she really wants me to go."

"Oh?" Corey raised an eyebrow

"But god it's so boring corey. So boring. So as you know my boyfriend...will you be my date?" Joey asked cheekily

Corey laughed "of course dork."

Joey smiled "thank god."

"Anything for you." Corey grinned.

Joey frowned "youre gonna hate me..."

"What why?"

"We wont be able to act like a couple...at all."

"Why?" Corey asked

"Shes..well, shes homophobic.." Joey sighed "and I mean I cant be asked to get into an argument about it on her birthday with everyone there...because they will always take her side and ite not worth it...I hope you dont mind...I get if you wanna change your mind. But god itll be boring."

Corey shook his head "I understand. My mom's homophobic too. I'm still happy to come."

"Oh..." joey said "you've never really talked about your family." Joey said

"Neither have you." Corey said looking up

"Oh." Joey said "uh, do you want to go first?"

"You can if you like." Corey offered looking away