Only Hurts The One I Love

Chap 7

"The things that we said, our foot out the door. Don't you know we've done this all before?"

Mini Mansions - Hey Lover

7.

"...you weren't dating him until this Monday?"

Alex rolled his eyes at Jamie's snickers. The guest house they stayed in Birmingham had only bunkbeds, which meant Alex was back at sharing a room with his band mates. His friends wouldn't give a shit about who Alex was with, if it were not for the heartbroken speeches Alex delivered several times in the past year, about love being blind and dead and not worth the effort.

Everyone was happy to see Alex chewing up his own words.

"What were you guys doing in the dressing room all this time then?" Andy teased. "You can't seriously be writing together."

"We are, unfortunately." Alex hit back, smirking. The time they had in the dressing room was probably more innocent than anyone could have guessed. Jamie made a noise that might have indicated jubilation or disgust. Either way, he started whistling when Alex's phone buzzed.

"It's from Matt, you wanker." It's time for sound check, and the van was waiting already. Jamie was singing devastatingly when they went out the door.

"You should go form your own band! Do it, Juliet! Do it, do-"

Alex threw the empty beer can towards him. "Can you piss off, please?"

Jamie dodged the can easily. It bounced a few times on the ground, rolling over to the other van that belonged to their friends. Eva immediately turned it into a football, passing it to Joe. They aimed to shoot the bin standing a few meters away. Miles succeeded on the first try, giving a loud shout of triumph while Joe complaint it's not his turn yet.

"Nah mate, you just have to go and get it." Miles giggled, pointing a look at Alex. One side of his mouth curved up smugly. "That's the way to do it."

Alex cracked a smile himself. He said simply, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Come and join us, Miles."

It did feel like a show-off of sorts, when Miles climbed into the back of their van jubilantly, waiting for Alex to sit beside him.

+

They did go out on the first night back in London.

It got Alex agitated during the whole trip back, fearing that he might somehow find a way to screw things up. He was envious that Miles appeared to be nothing but chilled, while Alex racked his brains trying to be a decent date.

He gave up on dressing up simply because Miles was staying over in his flat. But Alex did spend a good 40 minutes "doing research" . Eventually, he settled on a restaurant that's famous for their fried chicken wings. It also had a nice bar that closed before midnight, meeting Alex's need perfectly since Miles was not a night person at all.

From the very beginning of the night, everything just felt...off. Should they stick to talking about 60s pop music, chords and studio stuff? X-men and Batcave? That would be no different to what their chats used to be. Maybe he just went with the flows? But what if he got overexcited on weird, nerdy stuff that no one cared about-

It came as a shock that before tonight, he had never intentionally wanted Miles to like him.

Drowned in a sudden outbreak of worry half way through the dinner, Alex was busy fighting off this new anxiety when Miles suddenly grabbed his hand.

The touch was firm and confident and sure, yet tender in its own ways.

"You have... soft fingers." The thought escaped him before he knew. Alex flipped his palm over to squeeze Miles' hand into his own, feeling his cheek burning up in embarrassment. He was well familiar with every inch of Miles' body, yet he ended up saying stupid stuff as if they had done nothing but holding hands.