NSFW (MxM) ✓

• 16

Glasgow: the glittering gem of Scotland. I have never felt more refreshed in my life than I do being here. Calvin and I got here late in the AM, but he insisted we get up bright and early. We're on the terrace of the inn, overlooking the civilian street below, having breakfast. Calvin's been staring at me incessantly, with a beautiful smile cemented on his face.

"What is it?" I ask him. "You happy to be here?"

"With you, yeah," he says back, rubbing my hand across the table. "Was your breakfast good?"

"I think you're avoiding something," I change the subject. "We had four hours to sleep, and Agatha and Sarah both called both of us wondering where we were. I might have to rethink the blind trust I'm putting in you, mister."

He rubs his mouth and chin anxiously. "They can live without you until Tuesday. We have the next three days to ourselves in lovely Scotland, and I want us to enjoy it." I scowl at him, still upset that he didn't tell anyone we were leaving the goddamn country.

"Call Agatha. Now," I demand, lightly but sternly enough to know I'd do it if he didn't.

"Alright, alright." He pulls out his phone and scrolls to find her contact. He shakes his head like he can't believe he's doing what I've asked, and presses the phone to his ear. "Hey, Ag. ...Yeah, I know I didn't tell you. ...I'm sorry, I was too worried about surprising Ben. ...I'm not trying to guilt you with Benjamin! ...Well, he told me to call you and apologize. Ben and I will be returning home after a few days. You can expect him back by Tuesday, but if you need anything, we can take care of it from here, he has his computer. ...O-okay, love you, too, sis. Goodnight." He hangs up and smugly comments, "Happy?"

"Mmhmm. Much happier now." He laughs half-heartedly.

"Sometimes I can't believe you."

"I can never believe you, so at least you feel my pain sometimes." I exclaim, getting him back in my good graces with a laugh.

"I don't deserve you, you know that?" Calvin says to me in a low voice. I rub his hands with my thumbs.

"You literally surprised me with a trip to Scotland. I never asked for more than your love and loyalty, yet you do so much more for me. What else can you do to deserve me?"

"When you put it that way, maybe you don't deserve me," he jokes.

"I-It's true. I don't think I deserve you either. But maybe the universe put us together because we do deserve each other, no matter how worthless we feel."

"I think it's too early for this sort of chat. Wanna walk?" he asks me. I smile, nodding and taking his outstretched hand. We take the stairs down to the lobby and exit the front doors of the inn.

"Sorry I talk like a romance novelist sometimes. I swear, I can't even control what I'm saying most of the time."

"Yeah. Like, you think we maybe aren't real?" he asks me as we head down the street. "We're just characters in someone's story, yet our lives are real to us. So we are real, only because someone wrote us into existence. We live solely because our author made it so."

"Not exactly what I was going for, but that's a very intriguing thought. What if that is what existence really is? Just a series of storybook characters written inside more and more stories. But in that reality, who is the true God? Who wrote the first book?"

"Ow, my head," Calvin says dramatically. "Don't make me think that hard." We walk hand in hand through the cutest shopping district I've ever seen. There's the smell of flowers and fresh baked goods filling the air, and I'd be dying for it all if I weren't stuffed already. I feel so invisible not having people stare as we go by, like our being together is so normal, yet I feel so loud and proud at the same time. Since I've only been openly gay since I started talking to Calvin, I'm in my baby-gay phase. He's allowing me to live the gay baby fantasy I've always wanted.