It's been a year since Clay, otherwise known as Porkchop, planned the graduation event in Newport Beach. The event where a handsome Tyler Hamilton caught Clay off guard by kissing him. Clay, up until that day, had never kissed a boy before.
At 24 ye...
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ALEXANDER: things are winding down, at least. one more stop on the tour before there's a month-long break. then, we pick things back up in october and wind down early december.
It was always a little surreal hearing about Alexander's tour schedule, and how packed it was most of the time. On tour, if he wasn't playing a show, he had some sort of soundcheck, a rehearsal, an interview, or he would have to go into the studio for a couple of hours. He joked, saying he barely got any time to breathe in between, but even if it was a joke, it seemed pretty real to me. He'd been responding to texts less often, something he said was due to his busy schedule, and texting everyone back got a bit difficult.
"Who are you texting?" Cayden asked, coming out from the back of the café right as my thumbs got ready to respond to Alexander.
I was sitting in my usual spot at the counter of Cayden's café (I know it didn't belong to him, but to me, it was his). The café had become the perfect spot for me to get homework done, since I found it kind of hard to stay motivated when my classes were solely online. But it was either deal with online classes and have more time to myself or suffer with in-person classes and fall back into a deep, deep hole of sadness. The latter option wasn't my preferred one. Luckily, I'd found the ambiance in the café calming enough that I could focus on the shit I needed to do, but not calming enough that it like actually put me to sleep.
On the days Cayden worked, I made sure to stop by for a little. He could talk my ear off, but he was also respectful when it came to letting me focus on my work. I guess it was just comfortable being in the café when Cayden was around. When it was crowded, I didn't have to feel overwhelmed by all the people around, all the chatter going on, college and high school students working, businessmen and women stopping by. It felt like I belonged here because Cayden made it that way.
"Your mom," I retorted. Then, I remembered that Cayden didn't talk to his parents anymore. And I was just a complete asshole. "Fuck, sorry. Insensitive."
Cayden waved me off. "It's fine, seriously. I'm way past over it with my parents, anyway." He came over to stand in front of me, leaning against the counter top. Today was one of those not-super-crowded days in the café. "Are you texting ... Alexander?"
The suggestiveness of his tone and his facial expression, eyebrows raised and lips pursed, told me that he wasn't just being nosy. He was skeptical.
"Are you gonna be mad at me if I say yes?" I asked.
"I'm not going to be mad at you. I'm just going to ask a series of questions that will give me some insight into the current situation," Cayden said.
I'd done a good job keeping Alexander to myself. Maybe I'd been hiding the fact that I was texting Alexander kind of normally from Cayden because I knew how he'd react, but I knew that it would be worse if I lied, or refused to answer his questions. I didn't want it getting back to Clay that I was hiding something. Which I wasn't. Not really.
