Delicate (mxm)

Chapter Twenty Six.

Song: Afterglow by Taylor Swift

Lyrics:

~i pinned your hands behind your back
thought i had reason to attack,
but no~

__________________________

Caleb wasn't happy about meeting his mother, not really. He was already regretting his choice. He knew nothing good could come out of it, but he couldn't say no to his mother.

After all, it had been a while since he last saw her, and he did miss her.

Or maybe it wasn't because he missed his mother, but because he was self-destructive. He talked about that in the AA meeting he had in the morning, where he happily found Salem.

Now he was getting out of there, and Salem was trailing behind him.

"Caleb!" He said, and Caleb stopped, a blank expression on his face as he looked at him.

"Hey." He said. Salem smiled.

"We didn't talk last time." The pink haired boy said, referring to the last AA meeting Caleb had went, where he had seen Salem. And Salem had seen him, and had said words that were meant to help him.

"We aren't supposed to."

"That's not completly true," Salem said, his light blue eyes sparkly. "We're not going to stop our friendship because of this," He signalled to the AA room. "We can just ignore the fact that it exists when we're not here, and when we're here, leave our relationship aside and focus on ourselves."

Caleb snorted softly. Friendship. He was barely accepting that he needed-- wanted friends, barely processing that Tyler was his friend. And Salem already considered him one.

"Friends do more than just text and see each other in AA meetings, don't they?" He asked.

Salem just smiled.

"Let's do more, then."

Caleb bit the inside of his cheek, thinking about it. He didn't want to force himself to do much.

"Or not." Salem added. "We don't have to."

"I want to." Caleb said. "Just not now. Too much stuff is going on in my life."

"Then, whenever you can, we will hang out."

"Okay."

Just then a car-- probably the prettiest car Caleb had seen, he thought, but didn't say because Eddie would be completly offended if he ever found out that there was a prettier car than his-- horned and Salem looked up.

"That's me." He said, and a smile appeared on his face. Caleb recognized that smile. He probably looked the same way when he smiled at Eddie. It was a smile of someone in love. So the person in the car had to be Will, Salem's boyfriend. Salem's dominant. He tried not to roll his eyes at Salem's irresponsability, reaching up to him after an Alcoholics Anonymus when his boyfriend, someone Caleb (barely) knew, was picking him up. He didn't mind it. He couldn't care less what Will thought of him, but it was a irresponsible move. He said nothing about it, though, because he didn't want to upset Salem.

"Okay. Bye." Caleb said and was about to turn around and go when Salem grabbed his arm, hugged him, and kissed his cheek.

Despite himself, Caleb blushed.

"Bye! Take care!" Salem said, parting away, with a wide smile on his lips.

Caleb stared at him, gaping slightly, his face red as a tomato.