I Cherish You

Chapter 3

I cannot keep up with this madness. If they post a selfie I will just die.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“I can’t believe how drunk Tyler is.” Connor laughed, having had a few glasses himself.

“I tried to match him for a while, but I swear he went through twice as many as any of us. I think he misses Korey.”

“Aw, poor Ty. Now I feel bad. We should go hug him, or throw him a surprise party! Korey can be there, we’ll fly him out! It’ll be just like that movie with the blonde girl and the cars.” Connor was a boisterous, happy drunk who usually spent the night giving everyone hugs and telling them to “shoot for the stars”.

“Connahhhhh” Troye laughed and choked a little bit, “you are sooo drunk, or maybe that’s me.” He burped and giggled, managing to trip over the jacket he had half taken off and falling on the bed next to Connor.

Troye looked at the older boy’s laughing face, his eyes crinkled and half-closed.

“Stop staring at me Tro, I know I’m handsome, slaysome? I am slaysome!”

“Con you always look great.” Troye sounded a bit different, less drunk and more serious. He sat up and turned to him

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“It’s so beautiful here.” Connor practically breathed the words out, not wanting to disturb the peaceful balance.

            They were on some sort of hill covered in impossibly green grass dotted with small wildflowers. It had a great view of Bondi, but was seemingly inaccessible. Luckily, Troye had a shown him the path he found a few days ago.

            “It’s a really relaxing place. No fans or anybody recognizing me. I’ve written like four songs here already.”

            “Look at you, a tortured musician finding some peace away from your crowds of adoring fans. You better remember us little people when you go on your world tour.” Connor fake pouted.

            Troye blushed. Connor didn’t know that the hard part was not thinking about him when it came to songwriting. He was starting to sound like Taylor Swift.

            “Aww, you’re blushing! This is going on Twitter, where’s my phone?”

            Troye covered him red face with his arms, peeking through them enough to see Connor taking the picture anyway.

            “Why are you so photogenic? I swear I can look like crap right next to you and you’ll look like a baby angel.”

            “You’ve never looked like crap in your life.”

Connor hesitated for a second after he said that, and Troye internally smacked himself. Why did he keep doing this? Connor wasn’t interested in him. He was older and more confident and just thought of Troye as a friend. Sure, they sometimes stood a little too close or stared into each other’s a little too long, but they’d always done that. It was probably just how normal boys were with friends. He’d never even had guy friends before Youtube and they were all kind of flirty, Troye was the one making it weird. After the unmentioned events of San Francisco, that only he even remembered, Connor didn’t need that from him.

“Shouldn’t we leave soon? We have to get to dinner with your parents in an hour. I’m sure they’re dying to meet me.” Connor joked.

“Yeah, we can leave soon. Are gonna watch trethany slay everything?”

“Of course! I can bond with your family more. Maybe they’ll adopt me. I’ve always wanted to be Australian.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

            They spent the next day or two hanging out with Troye’s family (they all loved him, he even thought Troye’s mom might be shipping them a little), and Bethany. They also visited Troye’s studio, and Connor followed himt o some events. They basically never left each other’s side. The other bed remained untouched.

            Connor was pretty sure he was in heaven. He even canceled his planned flight back, telling Troye he would just leave “whenever he got sick of him”, not knowing that Troye would rather follow Connor to Africa then drop him off at the airport.

            “Aww Con Zalfie is moving in together!”

            “That is sooo cute. Those two are seriously my OTP.”

            “It’s crazy how their whole relationship developed.”

            “You mean with Youtube? Yeah, I think the fans probably knew before they did.” Troye’s mind went immediately to the tronnor shippers. “but they’ll ship anyone even remotely connected to you.” If Connor had looked over that moment, he might have seen Troye Sivan’s face fall down a flight of stairs.

            “Yeah. It’s crazy.”

To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.