I Cherish You

Chapter 5

        Troye was a bit uncertain about having Connor in his studio. A lot of the songs had ended up accidentally being about him, and he was hoping he either wouldn’t look too closely or just wouldn’t pay that much attention. It was really late, so he thought maybe Connor wouldn’t want to stay long.

            “These look great Tro. Play one for me?” Connor’s eyes looked bluer, if that was possible.

            “They aren’t really done Con.” Troye messed around with a few sheets of overly sappy lyrics, shoving them into a random drawer, “I still have a lot of rewriting to do.”

            “Pleeeaase, it’s past midnight and I need to listen to good music before I sleep.”

            Troye pulled his sweatshirt hood over his head and curled up in the other chair to avoid answering. He wondered if he even had anything subtle enough to sing. There was one short little thing he hadn’t managed to fit into a song yet that he thought might be enough.

            “Okay Con-con, but we have to take a picture for Twitter first. My mom always thinks I’m dead if I don’t post anything for a few hours. C’mon.” he said, leaning over to get Connor in the shot.

            “Nooo.” Connor covered his face. “I look so bad.”

            “So do I. It’s fine.”

            He snapped the photo and uploaded it. Then took a deep breath in as he focused on anything in the room but Connor. It was 20-30 seconds at most, but it was written about his family so at least it was safe.

            Connor, on the other hand, couldn’t have peeled his eyes away from Troye if he had tried. The boy was mesmerizing, even if he seemed a little uncomfortable. His voice had dropped fairly recently, leaving behind what was a cute and bright tenor voice for a lower, more mature baritone range that gave Connor chills. Even in a short, unrehearsed section, Troye still sounded amazing to Connor.

            “So yeah” Troye could feel his face getting hot under Connor’s gaze, “I’m gonna go get something” he mumbled and practically ran off.

            Connor was confused, but decided to leaf through some of the lyric pages Troye was weirdly guarding. The first one seemed cute, talking about “cute guys with blue eyes” and some crush he had, probably another Youtuber, like Caspar or Tyler. The next one was longer and seemed more about unrequited love and “hoping nobody sees the way I stare, because then you just might see my soul so bare”. Then there was one titled Sleeping Alone about how “it’s only been a minute but I have to hear your voice”. This made Connor stop, because about 5 minutes after Troye left LA he had called Connor, saying something about leaving a toothbrush.

            “What are you doing?” Troye seemed upset, even angry at him. “Don’t read those.” He grabbed them and pushed them back into the drawer.

            “Why?” Connor looked confused and Troye realized there was no justifiable reason for him to be angry.

            “It’s just personal. I’m sorry. I don’t know, they aren’t done yet.”

            Connor was too tired to read into Troye’s actions, so he just ignored the weirdness and nodded. Who could ever tell what Troye was thinking?

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            “What do you mean?” Connor almost whispered it, because Troye was close enough to hear him.

            But Troye didn’t say anything. He only looked at him in a way that made Connor stop breathing for a second, and maybe it was because they were drunk or maybe it was something better, but Connor had always been something of a risk-taker, so he leaned in closer, until it could no longer be constituted as a mistake. Troye had a moment of indecision, but being with Connor intoxicated him in a whole different way than he already was. It made him feel like you did at the top of a rollercoaster, right as you’re about to go down, and you’re scared of falling but you also feel bold and elated. When it’s mostly just the anticipation building up, but you can’t tell if it’s dread or excitement or some mixture of the two. So Troye eliminated the distance between them and let himself fall.

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            “My mom says you can sleep in our guest room.” Troye asked it like a question.

            “Oh, that’s fine, yeah. Can you show me where it is?” Connor tried not to sound too disappointed.

            Troye was reluctant as well, but he bit his tongue because what else could he do. He was pretty sure his mom already thought something was going on with them.

            “So they’re actually going out in a bit, and Tyde and Sage are going out with friends, so we can do whatever. Do you want me to show you around Perth?”

            “Actually, I’m pretty tired. Could we just stay in and watch a movie or something?”

            Troye quickly agreed, because if they couldn’t cuddle together at night, at least they could still curl up in the dark.

We die to each other daily.

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I am so excited that Connor is in Perth! Hope you enjoyed this and please comment if you did. They make me smile :)