I Cherish You

Chapter 6

        “Tyler?” Connor had woken up pretty early, there wasn’t much of a reason to stay in bed without Troye, and had been surprised to find a missed call from Tyler, whom he hadn’t spoken to for a while.

            “You could never be an actor, Con.” For the first time in weeks, Tyler didn’t sound mad at him.

            “What?” Connor was confused.

            “You are the worst at hiding your feelings babe. You wear your heart on your sleeve. It’s not a bad thing, necessarily.”

            “Tyler, what are you talking about?”

            “I mean, Troye is hella oblivious to everything, so I guess it works out?”

            “Tyler. I’m glad we’re finally talking, but it is 6:00 in the morning and I have absolutely no idea what you’re saying.”

            There was a pause.

            “I want us to be friends again Con. I’m tired of fighting with you. I’m sorry.”

            “I’m sorry too Ty.” Connor had been planning on apologizing soon anyway, because their fight had been mostly his fault, but for now he was just glad to be able to talk to the bright-haired boy. “I’ve missed you.”

            “You too, now let’s talk about Troye.”

            “What’s there to talk about?”

            “Girl, don’t play dumb with me. Aren’t you supposed to go to Greece soon?”

            “I’m still doing that. I just wanted to see Perth.”

            “I’ve been to Perth, Greece is better.”

            “Tyler...”

            “Don’t you dare start with me. I don’t want to hear ‘we’re just friends’ or ‘it’s complicated’. People don’t just fly 14 hours to see their platonic friends and meet their families, especially when we all would’ve been together in November anyway.”

            Connor didn’t say anything. He just stared at his phone and tried to think of something to say. Finally, he decided he would just tell him the truth. Tyler was right about him, he sucked at lying to people.

            “I don’t know. You’re right, but I can’t tell what he’s thinking. I don’t want to say something and end up scaring him off.”
            “Connor, you’re an idiot. Troye has had a crush on you from the day he first looked into those Frantastic eyes. Just ask Ricky.”

            “Ricky?”
            “Do you remember when Troye did that collab with him when you weren’t home and said he had a crush on someone? Then said he wanted to marry you? You know I’m changing my mind, you’re both bad liars and you’re both oblivious as fuck.”

            “But that was back in like January.”

            “And he’s had on a crush on you since long before that and long after that. He’s just a nervous little woodland elf who’s bad at expressing his feelings. So you need to.”

            “It’s more complicated than that Ty. There’s stuff you don’t know.”

            There were a few soft knocks on the door.

            “Con? Troye sleepily shuffled in and rubbed his eyes. “Who are you talking to?” he looked like he hadn’t slept much either.

            “It’s just Tyler, but he has to go now.” Connor ignored the protests coming through his cellphone and shut it off. He didn’t feel like explaining to Tyler with Troye just outside the doorway.

            “Oh, are you two friends again?” Troye looked hopeful.

            “Yeah, we’re good now. So what are we doing today?” Connor didn’t want to dwell on the Tyler thing, because he didn’t want to have explain why they were fighting in the first place, but he was incredibly grateful that Tyler had called.

            To most people, it would seem that Connor was well liked in the Youtube community, and that was true. But he wasn’t friends with everybody the same way Tyler or Grace were. People thought he was nice, and that was about it. He wasn’t about to break through in some creative field like Troye or most of the beauty bloggers, and he wasn’t the “King of Youtube”. He’d lost what semblance of an identity he’d had when he left O2l, which was why Connor got so upset when he knew he had to leave. Thankfully, Tyler welcomed him into his circle, and he became close friends with both him and Troye. So when he was fighting with Tyler, it really felt like he only had Troye, and maybe Caspar and Ricky although he rarely saw either anymore. Connor didn’t want to think about what would have happened if their fight got so bad that people started choosing sides. He knew who Troye would have gone with. . . .

            The Aussie’s blue eyes snapped into Connor’s field of vision, interrupting his thoughts. “We’re just going to go to Tyde’s DJ event later, so why don’t I show you around Perth until then?”

            “Sounds great!” for the first time that trip, Connor’s smile was fake.

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

I miss tronler. I really hope Connor and Tyler make up