I Cherish You

Chapter 7

“You two are so adorable.” Tyde held a camera in their faces as they waited in line for the trampolines at the Bounce event.

            Troye laughed and waved the camera away. He hoped Tyde wasn’t putting too much of them in his blog. He doubted anyone would be able to miss the expression on his face when his eyes landed on Connor. Troye knew his family realized it. Sage and Tyde kept casually nudging them together, his father had said something along the lines of “I was rooting for Tyler, but this works too”, and his mom had all but started a Tumblr blog dedicated to them. The only one who was, thankfully, in Troye’s eyes, still unaware was Connor, who actually seemed upset about something.

            “Let’s go upstairs, it’s too crowded down here.” Troye grabbed Connor by the wrist and pulled him away.

            Connor frowned, but followed.

            Finally they got to a mostly abandoned couch area behind some boxes. Neither was entirely certain it was even a designated sitting area, but Connor was willing to make do given the abnormally widened baby blues blinking at him.

            “Is everything good with us?” Troye wasn’t exactly sure what he was asking, but was almost completely sure it was a bad idea.

            Connor chose his words carefully, “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t it be?”

            “You seem upset, and ” Troye stumbled over the words, “I don’t know if it has something to do with me, or that call from Ty. You’ve seemed really happy up until now and if I did something to upset you....” he trailed off, looking into the other boy’s eyes pleadingly.

            Connor just wasn’t in the mood to put on fake pleasantries or lie. “Not now, Troye. This is a big night for your brother. I don’t want to ruin it.”

            Troye refrained from mentioning how sweet it was that Connor seemed to genuinely care about all of his family members.

            “Con.” Troye rested his hand on Connor’s shoulder, “Please talk to me. We’ve been having such a great time here together. You’re my best friend.”

            Connor audibly sighed and shrugged Troye’s hand off.

            “No,” he muttered, staring at a crack in the opposite wall, “I’m not.”

            “What?” Troye was taken aback by this, but Connor wouldn’t look at him.

            “How the fuck am I your ‘best friend’ Troye?! You don’t randomly fly to another continent for your ‘best friend’. You don’t sleep in the same bed for a week with your ‘best friend’. You don’t let everyone around you call you and your ‘best friend’ a couple without saying anything. You don’t almost hook up with your ‘best friend’ before freaking out and running out of the room.“ Connor paused. He hadn’t meant to bring that up, but he was too angry to stop.

            “You don’t-“

            “Stop it.” Troye was almost crying. “Just stop! I get it okay! I’m an idiot and you don’t like me that way but I keep pushing it and it’s freaking you out! I’m sorry!” They were both standing and yelling by this point.

            “What are you talking about?!” Connor was sure he’d misheard.

            “It’s my fault! It’s weird between us because I want it to be something it can’t be!”

            Connor took too long to process what Troye was saying.  He couldn’t believe Troye thought he was the one who was doing this. That meant that Troye actually wanted to be with him.

            Connor took a few steps forward and placed his hand on Troye’s shoulder, causing him to stop screaming and just stare at him, a little out of breath from shouting so much. Tyler was right: they were both idiots. Connor took a deep breath and closed his eyes before removing the distance between them.

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

            “So this is your last day.” Troye stood in Connor’s doorway, a sad look on his face.

            “Yeah...” Connor didn’t want to go, but he had work he’d been ignoring. “Hey, did Tyde delete that footage of us?”

            “Don’t worry, I forced him.” Troye sat down next to Connor and leaned on him, grinning when he felt Connor wrap an arm around him. “I just wish we’d had more time to...” Troye trailed off, intertwining their fingers. After last night they both wanted more time to hold hands and do cute couple-y stuff together.

            “What do you want to do then?” Troye frowned as Connor moved to keep packing.

            “I thought you wanted to go to Ikea?”

            “Yeah, but it’s your last day here. We should spend it doing something you like.”
            Connor turned to Troye and kissed him lightly on the lips, “I like spending time with you.”

            So they spent an inexcusable amount of time at Ikea, even meeting a few fans. Then they had dinner and spent a few hours walking around a park until it was too dark to stay.

            Connor got on his plane the next morning, feeling a mixture of sadness that he was leaving but also happiness, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

            Have to turn my phone off now, but I’ll miss you :(

            Me 2 :( but dont worry, im writing songs about u as we speak :)

 

 

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

 

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

So now that Connor’s back in LA, should I continue this?