The Ties That Bind

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Stacey was scrolling through her phone, like always when the bakery wasn't busy, when Kasden walked through the front door, slightly breathless from running the last two blocks so he wouldn't be late for his shift.

"Hey." The girl waved, giving him a quirky smile as he made his way into the back to get his apron.

"Hey." Kasden waved back, grinning at his lackadaisical coworker as he raced past, grabbed his apron and returned to sign into the system, logging his arrival.

"Guess who's been writing about you again." Stacey stated, handing her phone over to her 'famous' coworker.

"Oh God, what is it this time? Why can't she just move on and leave me alone?" He asked, pushing the phone away, having no desire whatsoever to read another update on 'The Boy Dumped at the Orphanage by the Rich Bitch' (his term for the original column). 

Maxine Deveau had been posting small 'updates' regularly, ever since her exposé on Aletha Barnes VanPelt. These 'updates' were rarely more than a paragraph, but it was her way of keeping the story alive; updates meant more clicks, more clicks meant more viewers and more viewers meant more money in one Ms. Maxine Deveau's pocketbook. 

It was also another way for Maxine to gain some small bit of revenge on the Barnes' for having forced her to retract her story about the 'affair' Aletha was supposedly having with a younger man the previous year. It wasn't her fault she'd misunderstood the snippet of conversation she'd overheard between the two - ironically, she still wasn't aware that the boy from that story was the same boy she'd been writing about for the past several months - and thus she still didn't know the real purpose of that overheard conversation.

"She's struck gold here, and it seems she's going to mine every ounce she can dig with your story." Stacey replied. "This isn't just an update though, it's a 'Human Interest' piece - on you, of course. It's quite lengthy and probably has as little validity as the first piece she wrote."

"Shit. Give me your phone again, this could be bad." He took the phone and read through the latest episode of "Maxine's imagination du jour".

A large portion of this latest hit-job was a rehash of the original piece, with a few new details about Kasden's life thrown in for good measure - most of them wrong (as per usual). She mentioned that he attended Uni, but she put him in the wrong major. She mentioned that he was seen 'palling around' with his two stepbrothers, Lennox and Larsen; taking that as an indication that he was 'integrating into the family'.

Thank God she hadn't mentioned anything about his and Luke's relationship. It wasn't something he wanted to see on the front page; and he definitely didn't want Luke to suffer the constant scrutiny that he was experiencing himself. They were trying to keep that little bit of their lives out of the public square.

The remainder of the article was more of a puff piece, going on and on about Kasden's strength of character and courage in the face of all the adversity he'd faced growing up as an abandoned child in an orphanage. Reading the piece, it would have been easy to walk away with the idea that Kasden had been nominated for Sainthood. The article would have been funny if the whole thing weren't so ridiculous in the first place.

"Can I polish your halo?" Stacey leered at her friend. "We can't have that shine wearing off now, can we?" She quickly ducked out of the way as a cloth towel used to keep the counter clean flew past her shoulder.

"Stacey," Kasden said, his tired face looking like he could almost cry. "How much longer do you think she's going to keep this up?"

Stacey gave him a sad smile and shrugged her shoulders, indicating her own inability to answer that question.

"I don't understand why she's doing this, unless it's just for the money. But her doing all of this, it seems like something more, like she's got some vendetta against me, and I've never even talked to her before; not even once. The first time I ever saw her was that day I lost my cool with Mrs. VanPelt."

He still couldn't bring himself to call her 'mom' or 'mother'; therapy had helped him realize that he would never look at her that way again. Neither word felt appropriate; she was nothing more than a stranger who'd somehow managed to fall back into his life and turn it upside down.

"I don't think it's about you, Kas." Stacey replied, her eyes filled with sympathy for her friend. "I think this has more to do with Mrs. VanPelt than it has to do with you. About a year ago, Maxine wrote a piece claiming that Mrs. VanPelt was having an affair with a much younger man. It turned out that it wasn't true, and the Barnes family used all their money and power to make her retract the article. Maxine was publicly shamed for that, so maybe she's out for revenge."

"The problem is that this time, the story is based on some truth. Mrs. VanPelt did abandon you at an orphanage when you were a kid. That was clear the day she came in and caused that scene. And now, no matter how much money the Barnes' have, they can't make her retract this story and so she's taking it as far as she can."

The girl didn't know it, but she was correct; that was exactly what was happening.

"You're probably right," Kasden said, handing the phone back to his coworker. "I just wish that everything could go back to normal. I hate having to look over my shoulder everywhere I go; it's annoying - and we're not even any kind of celebrities. And it's not like me and Luke ever did much PDA before this, but now, whenever we're outside we're both so paranoid that we barely even look at each other most of the time."

"You may not be a celebrity, Kas, but you are part of one of the wealthiest, most powerful families in the state; even if you don't want to be." Stacey came back. "That's going to cause people to be curious about you. That is how Maxine Deveau makes her living, gossiping about the rich and powerful. And there will always be people who will be interested in that gossip." She did have the grace to blush a little when she said that; she herself being one of those people.

---

Later that evening, Kasden and Luke were snuggled together in bed with Luke's head resting comfortably on his boyfriend's chest.

"We should go on a date night." Kasden said while gently stroking his hand through Luke's hair. "We haven't done anything like that in a long time; I miss hanging out at the burger joint eating their bacon burgers and fries. What do you say, Luke?"

"I'd like to, but what if someone were to see us?" Luke said. He would love to be able to go out in public with Kasden and not have to worry about being seen, but that was something always looming over their heads these days.

"I'm tired of worrying about being seen, besides, it's cold out, we can bundle up and disguise ourselves a little with hats and scarves." Kasden replied. "I really want to do this, Luke. I just need to stop worrying about what other people think."

"Let's do it then." Luke smiled, looking into his boyfriend's eyes before he started kissing his way down his boyfriend's chest, earning a moan of pleasure as he continued his way down towards his prize.