Forward (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Nineteen

As he always was at 4pm on school days, Kalen was laying across James's bed. He was taking up most of the room this time, arms stretched wide, so James was sitting at his futon where Tyler would usually be, thankful his friend had plans with his parents that afternoon so he didn't need to share the space.

James's parents were also absent, though their son honestly had no clue what they were doing. Rescently, they had been going out more, as they had before Ace fell sick. James suspected it was because he was occupied enough with Kalen and Tyler that they didn't worry about him feeling lonely being home alone.

The triplets visit had occurred about two weeks prior, and since then, they had been going out of their way to visit James during the school day. They'd come visit with him and Tyler in the car some mornings— which still put Tyler at unease— and would join them at lunch some days. James liked these days, since it meant he got to sit with Kalen, though the younger Bradford seemed particularly irritable about his older brothers who tended to talk about him like he wasn't there. They had even spent an afternoon at James's house with him and Kalen, which had been surprising, but not completely unpleasant.

And they didn't just speak to him in person. Throughout the day he got various texts from all three of the triplets—though Michael mostly— and Joe had even called him one night to discuss Kalen's wearabouts, though they had ended up discussing the newest action movie in theaters by the end of the conversation.

This was actually a common occurrence, discussing things other than Kalen with the triplets, and when James thought about it he realized he probably only spent about forty percent of this time with the boys discussing their younger brother.

James's phone buzzed on his text book, and he directed his gaze to the device, reading the most recent text from Michael about whether or not Kalen seemed more tightly strung around him as well lately.

As if sensing the context of the message, Kalen asked, "is that my brother?" In a tone that was less than pleased.

Because of this, James opted not to respond and instead joined his boyfriend on his bed, crawling over him rather than trying to find a comfortable position curled up in the small space not already occupied by Kalen's limbs.

"It was, wasn't it?" Kalen blinked up at him, golden eyes slightly narrowed.

"Does that bother you?" James inquired, though he felt he didn't need to. Clearly, it bothered him. "Why?"

"So you're just... all like friends now?" Kalen grumbled, turning his face away. "Are you all just gonna get together and talk about me?"

"We don't always talk about you," James protested, and Kalen shot him a displeased look out of the corner of his eye. With a heavy sigh, James lowered down until his chin was pressed onto Kalen's chest. "You know, I kinda like that they like me so much. You've said it yourself, they don't like anyone, but they happen to get along with me, and as your boyfriend, even if they don't know about it, that makes me happy".

Slowly, Kalen turned his face up towards him again. He didn't exactly look pleased, but it seemed like he understood. James wanted to let him know he understood as well.

"I know they frustrate you".

"They treat me like a child," Kalen added.

"Yeah," James agreed, brushing one of his hands down Kalen's side slowly. "But I don't".

Golden eyes widened a bit, and then Kalen's lips were pulling into a small smile. The second the words, "prove it," were out his lips, James was surging forward to connect their mouths.