¤ LONGLISTED IN THE OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2022 ¤
// COMPLETE
- stand-alone sequel to featherlight -
Chase Collins steps onto a late night train, his last in the city before he moves to a new state with a job promotion.
What he doesn't expect, how...
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So here they are, sitting side by side on the train. At some indeterminate point in the last twenty minutes, the teenaged couple has left the train, which means it's just him and Kyle now. A silence stretches out between them, but it's almost comforting. Chase kicks the IKEA bag and looks at the battered ring binders inside it, already tangled up with wires and computer mouse cables.
"Steve's engaged," he says finally. "Did he tell you?"
Kyle laughs. "Yeah, he did. I didn't think he'd be the first of us, to be honest. I couldn't believe it when I heard. I guess it's because I barely feel like an adult. I can't imagine committing myself to anything that serious." He stretches his long legs out in front of him, tapping the tops of his leather shoes together. "I don't even know if I want to get married."
"You don't have to," Chase says simply. Then, "Who did you think would be the first, then?"
"Who did I think-" Kyle looks momentarily confused, as though he has to retrace his steps and rewind his musings. "Oh, that. I don't know, actually. Maybe Ashton, because he was- and is- so fucking in love with Kat. Maybe you."
What he says about Ashton is true. Perhaps it isn't too difficult to find someone like that in high school- someone you love and someone who it works out with. It was like that with Chase's parents, after all, and his mom and dad are still very much together. Ashton has promised to visit him in Ohio. He's always been like that, the sort of guy who would go the extra mile to make you feel a little more wanted. So yes, maybe Kyle is right about that. But as for him-
"Me?" Chase all but scoffs. "As in, Chase Collins?"
"As in Chase Walter Collins, yes. You just... it seemed like you had it all. You had your shit together, all the time. Your whole life seemed to fit together."
Chase shakes his head disbelievingly, eyebrows raised. "You really believed that, huh?"
There's a pause. Kyle turns his feet outwards, then snaps them back together like they're wiper blades. "I wanted to believe it," he says at last, almost apologetically. He looks at the swinging subway straps above his head. "Everyone believed it." He takes a deep breath in, and then exhales forcefully, his cheeks puffing out a little as he does. This close, Chase can see the familiar faint spattering of freckles along Kyle's cheekbone. "Are you moving to Ohio alone?"
"Yeah. I'm not with anyone. Haven't been in a while, actually. I dated someone for a few years in college but he broke up with me. And then I dated someone else for a little bit, but yeah. Ohio alone."
And there it is. The truth. Or half of it, anyways. Half of what he wanted to say to Kyle in that car on their graduation day has now been said. And not even because he planned it. In fact, of all the ways Chase has thought of telling Kyle that he's into guys over the last eight years, this has never been it.
But it's been said now. It's out there, floating in the air and drifting towards Kyle.
Kyle doesn't react the way Chase expects him to. There's no shocked expression, no frown, no are you fucking serious?,no wait, did you say he?, no c'mon, man, you're joking, right?. He merely nods, as though Chase has told him that all he has in the fridge is a microwaveable mac and cheese.
