Everything

Chapter 25

The twilight sky cast a blue hue into the room as Stefon blinked his eyes open slowly. He glanced at the alarm clock. 5:30am. He rolled over to snuggle up to Seth, then lifted his head. Seth wasn't there. It had only been a few hours. Surely he hadn't already woken up. He listened for any movement throughout the apartment. There were no faint whisperings from the TV in the living room. Not a single creak to insinuate someone trying to move quietly throughout the house.

Stefon sat up and rubbed his eyes. He pulled himself out of bed, grabbed his phone off the nightstand, and trudged into the hallway. The bathroom was empty. The living room had been cleaned up, and there was practically no sign of life in the kitchen. He unlocked his phone, decidedly calling his fiancé. A glance at the date made his jaw drop. He had slept a whole day away. But that still begged the question, where was Seth?

He pulled up the number and held the phone to his ear. It rang a few times before going to voicemail. Maybe he's driving, he hoped. Even on his earliest days, Seth didn't even get out of bed before the sun. He checked the date again to confirm that he had in fact slept away his entire day off. He sighed and decided to start his day.

Stefon turned on a pot of coffee. While that was brewing, he went to take a shower and shave his face. After his shower he tried a second time to call Seth, then a third. He was starting to worry. He combed his hair into its normal emo fringe and got dressed before returning to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. He grabbed his laptop from the bedroom and sat at the table, eager to catch up on his emails so he knew where he needed to be when he got in.

About an hour passed, and Stefon was ready to start walking, when the lock on the door started to slowly turn, which only meant Seth knew he was way too late to get home. The click wasn't as loud as usual. The door slowly creaked open and his head poked in to see Stefon standing between the dining room and the living room with his laptop bag over his shoulder. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips together tightly before stepping in all the way and closing the door. Stefon crossed his arms. The two stood facing off a short distance between each other. His eyebrows raised as he awaited an explanation. 

"It's nice to see you awake..." Seth tried

"Where have you been? I've been calling you all morning."

Seth took a minute to respond, looking anywhere but his partner's face. "I fell asleep," he said finally, "in my dressing room last night."

"And your phone?"

"Died," he said quickly.

"No it didn't," Stefon muttered. "I know it didn't because it's been ringing. If you're gonna lie, you should learn how to do it well."

"Well if you think I'm lying, tell me where else I would've been." Seth crossed his arms defensively.

"I don't know. But I don't have time to care. Can you give me a lift to work?" Seth nodded. They wordlessly strolled out the door and down to his car. Immediately Stefon noticed Seth's phone in the back seat as he looked through the window while opening his door. He reached back to retrieve it and turned on the screen. "Dead, huh?" He dropped it onto the dashboard. Seth grabbed it and put it in his pocket.

"Why are you being so passive-aggressive with me?"

"Well, I woke up thinking I had the day off only to realize I slept through it," he began as Seth buckled himself in and started the car. "You weren't there when you're normally passed out at 5 in the morning. You ignored every phone call. You tried sneaking in and acted guilty when I asked where you were last night, lied about your phone being dead, and now it's in the back seat of your car which makes no sense at all. It's just unnecessary. What's the use in lying when I'll eventually find out anyway and it'll just lead to more fighting? If you were honest with me from the get-go, we'd probably already be in better shape."